An Interactive Physics Review Website has been developed as an
application of the Atlas tutorial dialogue system and is freely accessable
at http://www.pitt.edu/~rosecp/physrev.htm. It is meant to be a study
aid for some basic Newtonian physics concepts that come up early in a
student's study of basic college level physics. Please feel free to
try out this website and distribute this pointer to students in relevant
physics courses. It is best used as review materials before the first
mid-term in a first year physics course.
The Atlas tutorial dialogue system is built around knowledge construction
dialogues (KCDs), which each teach a specific physics rule by engaging
students in an interactive directed line of reasoning. These KCDs have
been designed to lead students through a series of focused short-answer
questions to discover knowledge as actively and independently as
possible. Through this Interactive Physics Review Website, the Atlas KCDs
are made available to reinforce ideas students would have learned if they
were enrolled in a basic college level physics course. As students
select topic areas, they are presented with a small set of multiple choice
questions, adapted from questions found in (Halliday, Resnik, and Walker,
1997) and (Serway, 1998), that were selected to test the student's
conceptual understanding of the chosen topic area. Based on student
answers, one or more KCDs associated with relevant physics rules are
suggested for the student to work through using our Atlas Web interface.
Thank you for your help.
Carolyn Rose, Research Associate
Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Constructive Learning
Environments
D. Halliday, R. Resnik, J. Walker (1997), Fundamentals of Physics Volume
I, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Chapters 1-6.
R. A. Serway, (1998), Principles of Physics, Saunders College Publishing,
Chapters 1-5.