Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Astr 404: Stellar Astrophysics, Edward Schmidt

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Syllabi

Syllabus for ASTR 404: Stellar Astrophysics for Spring 2011 semester.

Dr. Skateboard’S Action Science: Increasing Science Knowledge And Skills For Middle School Teachers, William Robertson

Selected Works Temporary Series

Dr. Skateboard’s Action Science maps to the physical science Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS) standards that all middle school students need to learn. Dr. Skateboard’s Action Science explores scientific concepts in a curriculum supplement that is designed to address both physical science content and process skills. The video instruction focuses on fundamental concepts found in the areas of motion, forces, Newton’s Laws of Motion, and simple machines. The use of familiar activities, situations and objects, such as skateboarding and bicycle motocross (BMX), around which students can explore and explain scientific concepts can be defined as action science. The main …

Dr. Skateboard’S Action Science: Increasing Science Knowledge And Skills For Middle School Teachers, William Robertson

Departmental Papers (TE)

Dr. Skateboard’s Action Science maps to the physical science Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS) standards that all middle school students need to learn. Dr. Skateboard’s Action Science explores scientific concepts in a curriculum supplement that is designed to address both physical science content and process skills. The video instruction focuses on fundamental concepts found in the areas of motion, forces, Newton’s Laws of Motion, and simple machines. The use of familiar activities, situations and objects, such as skateboarding and bicycle motocross (BMX), around which students can explore and explain scientific concepts can be defined as action science. The main …

An Analysis Of Science Content And Representations In Introductory College Physics Textbooks And Multimodal Learning Resources, Suzanne Mary Donnelly

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study features a comparative descriptive analysis of the physics content and representations surrounding the first law of thermodynamics as presented in four widely used introductory college physics textbooks representing each of four physics textbook categories (calculus-based, algebra/trigonometry-based, conceptual, and technical/applied). Introducing and employing a newly developed theoretical framework, multimodal generative learning theory (MGLT), an analysis of the multimodal characteristics of textbook and multimedia representations of physics principles was conducted. The modal affordances of textbook representations were identified, characterized, and compared across the four physics textbook categories in the context of their support of problem-solving.

African-American College Student Attitudes Toward Physics And Their Effect On Achievement, Carl Timothy Drake

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting the attitudes that African-American college students have towards introductory college physics. The population targeted for this study consisted of African-American males and females enrolled in introductory college physics classes at an urban public historical black college or university (HBCU) located in the southeastern United States. Nine of the Fennema- Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales, modified for physics, were used to analyze the attitudes of the 135 participants enrolled in an introductory college physics class. The nine scales used to measure the students' attitudes were Attitude Toward Success in Physics Scale (AS), …

Assessing High School Gifted Student Progress In Science Through Misconceptions And Mosart, Christopher G. Kolar, Evelyn Ho-Wisniewski

Publications & Research

This paper reports how 188 high school students identified as gifted in science were assessed with the Misconceptions-Oriented Standards-Based Assessment Resource for Teachers (MOSART). Students enrolled in a year-long science-centered curriculum where this instrument appeared to be a means of identifying standards-aligned progress, avoiding ceiling effects and reliance on content mastery. This paper discusses two questions: 1. Is the MOSART a valid measure of conceptual understanding in gifted students? and 2. Can the MOSART be used with this population to measure growth in understanding? We present results from the physics and chemistry tests, and consider results from the earth science …

Synecdoche And Surprise: Transdisciplinary Knowledge Production, Anne Dalke, Elizabeth Mccormack

Literatures in English Faculty Research and Scholarship

Using contemporary insights from feminist critical theory and the literary device of synecdoche, we argue that transdisciplinary knowledge is productive because it maximizes serendipity. We draw on student learning experiences in a course on “Gender and Science” to illustrate how the dichotomous frameworks and part-whole correspondences that are predominant in much disciplinary discourse must be dismantled for innovative intellectual work to take place. In such a process, disciplinary presumptions interrogate and unsettle one another to produce novel questions and answers.

Strongly And Weakly Directed Approaches To Teaching Multiple Representation Use In Physics, Patrick B. Kohl, David Rosengrant, Noah D. Finkelstein

Faculty Articles

Good use of multiple representations is considered key to learning physics, and so there is considerable motivation both to learn how students use multiple representations when solving problems and to learn how best to teach problem solving using multiple representations. In this study of two large-lecture algebra-based physics courses at the University of Colorado (CU) and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, we address both issues. Students in each of the two courses solved five common electrostatics problems of varying difficulty, and we examine their solutions to clarify the relationship between multiple representation use and performance on problems involving …

Engaging Physics Students Using Environmental Lab Modules, John M. Pratte

Faculty Articles

Discusses multi-week activity modules that use civic engagement to increase student interest and learning in physics. Components of the modules; Activities included in the modules; Assessment of student learning and interest using the modules.

Engagement Enhance Interest In Physics, Harcharan Pardhan

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

How We Think About And Prepare To Teach Physics, Dewey I. Dykstra

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We have been preparing physics teachers in the same manner for many decades. Yet, physics education research reveals for some observers disturbing evidence of little or no change in understanding the phenomena occurs as a direct result of physics instruction from elementary school through the college years. The apparent compatibility between these learning results and prevailing paradigm enables the construction of a description the paradigm. If it can be demonstrated that there is even just one alternative paradigm from which powerful alternative pedagogical practice is derived, are we not obligated to change how we prepare to teach physics?

A Guide To Motion And Newton's Laws For General Science, Roger F. Hume

All Graduate Projects

This project provides activities in motion and Newton's Laws of motion. Besides instructions on how to perform the activity, a list of student selfassessment questions is provided to encourage further inquiry. The activities are also aligned with the Essential Academic Learning Requirements for the State of Washington. These activities are designed to supplement curriculum already being taught.

Occasional Papers: On Teaching The Sciences, Janice Rowan Poley

Hollybush Series

Volume 2 of The Hollybush Series contains six essays by Glassboro State College faculty on teaching mathematics, computer science, and physics.

The editor is Janice Rowan Poley and the authors of the six essays are Janet Caldwell, Seth Bergmann, Ronald Czochor, A. Michael Berman, Karen Magee-Sauer, and Gary Itzkowitz.

An Introduction To Model Rocketry For The Classroom Teacher, David Reese

All Graduate Projects

The writer of this project was in a fifth grade teaching position beginning Fall, 1974, in Lacey, Washington. The writer taught thirty students in a self-contained classroom situation. The purpose of this individualized study was to develop a general framework and assemble some specific materials which would aid others in starting and developing a program in model rocketry in an orderly and logical manner.

Community And School Involvement In Model Rocketry Instruction Including Suggestions For Efficient Model Rocket Construction, Helen Joyce Frizzell

All Master's Theses

This paper presents the pilot-study of conducting model rocketry classes for parents and youth leaders as well as students and teachers to broaden involvement in aerospace education. Ideas gleaned from questionnaires, surveys, observations, and the review of literature were used to compile A Handbook of Tins for the Efficient Construction and Use of Model Rockets.

A slide presentation illustrating school and community involvement in model rocketry was also developed.

Recommendations included more model rocketry classes involving students and adults be offered and suggested that an appropriate organization publish and distribute the handbook and slide presentation.

A Demonstration Of Various Procedures Used To Interest And Help Pupils To Understand Physics, O. M. Bjeldanes

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Joseph Henry, W. H. Kadesch

Science Bulletin

Have you ever asked your pupils the question, what American has contributed most to the development of electrical science? Very likely a great majority would answer without hesitation, Edison, the inventor of the incandescent light. Some might answer, Bell, the inventor of the telephone. A few, the radio fans, might say De Forest, the inventor of the three electrode tube. An occasional one might even answer Franklin, the first great American scientist, who drew electricity from the clouds, and showed that lightning and the "electric fluid" are the same. Not one, I am sure, would ever mention Joseph Henry.

Magnetism, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

Interstellar space is characterized by the existence of three all pervading fields of force denoted respectively as gravitational, electric, and magnetic. Einstein in his general theory of relativity demonstrates mathematically that these three force fields are but different aspects of one universal field. To the average man, however, these three natural forces will always appear as separate distinct entities.

Newton's Laws Of Motion, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

In the study of Newton's Laws of Motion, it is more important to understand the concepts they embody than to be able to repeat them verbatim. Too frequently, in the teaching of high school physics, memory work is allowed to take the place of concrete information. This is particularly true with reference to these basic mechanical concepts of the physical universe known as Newton's Laws of Motion.

Motion, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

Motion is a general property of matter. There is no rest in the absolute sense. An object at rest with reference to the earth 's surface is in rapid motion with reference to the earth's axis of rotation just as a person may be at rest in a Pullman car and at the same time be in rapid motion with reference to the ground. All divisions of matter, - masses, molecules, atoms, protons, and electrons are moving relatively all of the time.

The Simple Machines, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

With reference to a pulley system, the work equation is clearly discerned in its practical operation. In presenting the pulley, the writer uses a rectangular frame about two feet high and three feet wide. A number of hooks are screwed into the top cross piece of the frame. With such a device a number of different pulley combinations can be shown at one time.

The Simple Machines, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

In the discussion of simple machines it is best to begin with the lever and the wheel and axle. Both of these simple machines give us a practical illustration of the principle of moments. The lever is the simpler and clearer illustration and usually presents little difficulty to a student body. The wheel and axle is a device which can be considered to be a continuously acting lever in which the radius of the wheel is the force or effort arm and the radius of the axle is the resistance arm.

Mechanics Of Solids, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

According to the traditional arrangement of subject matter in textbooks on high school physics, it is customary to introduce the treatment of mechanics of so-lids by beginning with the subject of motion, force, and Newton's laws of motion. This at once leads the immature student into a labyrinth of abstract conceptions that is generally disheartening. It would show better judgment on the part of the teacher to begin the subject of mechanics with material that is more concrete to the student and which is continually before him in his environment.

Molecular Forces, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

The three states of matter denoted as solids, liquids and gases are different phenomena of matter arising from a change in the intensity of molecular attractions.

Crystallization, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

One of the most interesting molecular phenomena in nature is known as crystallization. It is brought about in the arts of man and in nature by three methods. When a chemical salt, such as table salt, is dissolved in water and allowed to stand in a shallow dish until it dries, it will be observed that the solid residue appears as crystals. Those from common table salt will be cubical in form. However, every different salt will yield its own distinctly shaped crystal.

Capillarity, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

One of the best practical illustrations of the effect of surface tension is found in capillarity. For this topic the instructor will do well to base his teaching upon surface tension. It is this force that raises the water in a clean glass capillary tube and that depresses the mercury in such a tube.

Molecular Forces, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

One of the characteristic properties of molecules assembled in masses is their attraction for one another. While it is customary to classify these attractions under two heads, cohesion and adhesion, it is well understood that there is in reality only one form of attraction.

The Structure Of Matter, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

At the present time, physical science recognizes the following divisions of matter: masses, molecules, atoms, electrons and protons. Matter appeals to us directly in the form of masses. We can readily sense a mass of water, a mass of air or a mass of iron; but it is quite different with the other divisions of matter. Molecules are so small that it takes about seventy billion billion of them laid side by side to extend through the length of one inch.

The Molecular Kinetic Theory, L. Begeman

Science Bulletin

Every teacher of elementary physics should have a thorough understanding of the molecular kinetic theory of matter since it is so indispensable in the explanation of various phenomena in physical science. One might even divide contemporary elementary physics into three divisions, viz: mass physics, molecular physics and electronic physics.

Measuring The Stars, W. H. Kadesch

Science Bulletin

Walking out on any clear and moonless night, one is thrilled at the sight of the seeming myriad of twinkling stars. To the artistically inclined, there is beauty and majesty, to the philosophically minded, food for speculation. ·where a r e these stars, what are they, whence come they, and ·whither do they go? Are they unchangeable through the aeons or do they progress through youth, maturity, old age, and finally into stellar death and oblivion? We ca n follow briefly only one or two of these speculations in these few short paragraphs.