Physics Commons^™

Sustainability Research Through The Lens Of Environmental Ethics, Daniel Clifford Fouke, Sukh Sidhu, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

Two core courses in the curriculum of the University of Dayton’s Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment minor, Sustainability Research I and II, were developed out of the frustration one author, Daniel Fouke, experienced while teaching a traditional course on environmental ethics for the Department of Philosophy. The often-overwhelming nature of environmental problems tended to demoralize both the instructor and the students. Seeking a way to integrate ethical analysis of complex problems with the search for solutions, two courses were proposed that would be team-taught by a philosopher and a scientist or an engineer.

Development of the courses was initially funded …

Team Analysis And Review: Using Group Assessment For Learning, Kayt E. Frisch

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Team work is widely reported to be a highly desired skill by prospective employers and professional schools. To help my students develop teamwork skills I have been using group quizzes called “Team Analysis And Review” (TAARs) in my introductory algebra-based physics course. A TAAR takes the full 50-minute class period and the students will review the material on the quiz three times during the period: individually, in an assigned group, and finally as a whole class. The individual TAAR allows the student to identify personal gaps in their understanding of the material. The group TAAR encourages peer instruction and offers …

Weaving Experimental Skills Throughout The Introductory Laboratory, John Zwart

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The laboratory portion of an introductory course sequence can be used to meet a wide variety of goals ranging from illustrating phenomena studied in class, to building intuition about how the physical world works, to confronting the unexpected. Helping students develop experimental skills is a crucial goal that needs to be addressed in lab, especially in light of the fact that most introductory textbooks do not specifically address this topic. Important skills that students should learn in lab include how to analyze data, how to communicate results and the art of designing an experiment. This presentation will discuss how we …

Promoting And Assessing Student Metacognition In Physics, Alistair Mcinerny, Andrew Boudreaux, Mila Kryjevskaia, Sara Julin

Physics & Astronomy

A scaffolded metacognition activity was incorporated into the laboratory component of the introductory physics course at Western Washington University (WWU) and Whatcom Community College (WCC). Each week, students wrote reflectively to contrast their initial and current understanding of a specific physics topic, and described the "trigger" events that led them to change their thinking. Goals were to enhance conceptual understanding as well as the depth and quality of student reflection. A coding scheme was developed to evaluate student reflections. We present the scaffolded activity and coding scheme, as well as preliminary findings about changes in student reflection over time and …