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Re: "A Million to One" Video



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In his Physhare post of 23 Jun 2003 19:26:46 GMT, titled Patrick
<diehl5@juno.com> wrote (slightly edited):

"Does anyone know of the video "A Million to One" is still available?
I think that it is a 5-minute video showing a flea pulling a block of
dry ice. It shows that even a tiny force can make an object
accelerate if there is little friction."

Among Physhare responses were those (slightly edited) by:

1. Michael Horton on 21 Jul 2003 21:55:00-0700:

"I found this tidbit on the internet, 'Marshall Elenstein (retired)
has been . . . updating Paul Hewitt's videotape collection
'Conceptual Physics Alive' for redistribution on DVD format. . . . .
. We saw Paul pull a tablecloth out from under a set of dishes.
Marshall has included . . . a rare PSSC film clips: the flea pulling
a dry ice puck loaded with a CRC handbook, . . . . It doesn't say
where or how to get the DVD, but it is out there.' "

2. Cary Busby on 22 Jul 2003 10:19:22-0400:

"Got it! Marshall [Elenstein] just sent me this URL
<http://www.arborsci.com/Products_Pages/Conceptual_Physics/CPDVD.asp>.
I'm going to track it down and view it today! If I can, I'll bring
it to Madison with me."

According to Hake (1995), the original PSSC film "A Million to One"
was available as a VHS Videocassette, Cat. #31352 for $49, from
Central Scientific Company; 3300 Cenco Parkway, Franklin Park,
Illinois, 6013-1364; telephone 714-451-0150.

My experience has been that if a teacher PRE/POST TESTS students to
measure their conceptual learning gains [even despite the NRC's
McCray et al. (2003) report (see Hake (2003a)] from traditional
passive-student courses featuring demonstrations such as pulling a
tablecloth out from under dishes, or showing videos such as "A
Million to One," then it will become apparent that the students have
gained little conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics.

As far as I know, the pre-to-post test normalized gains (Hake
1998c,d; 2002b,c) of students in courses employing Hewitt's
"Conceptual Physics" texts have yet to be reported in the open
literature.

The generally ignored [Redish & Rigden (1997), McCray et al. (2003)]
Socratic Dialogue Labs [Hake (1987, 1991, 1992, 2002a); Tobias & Hake
(1988)] [all freely available online at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi> and the Harvard Galileo site
<http://galileo.harvard.edu/>] promote students' INTERACTIVE
ENGAGEMENT in physics experiments such the tablecloth slip out [SDI
Lab #3 (1998b), Section IIIB, "Tablecloth Slipout"], and the thought
experiment in which a flea pulls a large [50 lb.] block of dry ice
across a glass surface [SDI Lab #1 (Hake 1995, 1998a), Section VI.
"Forces on massive block of dry ice floating on glass."

AFTER the latter thought experiment involving students':

a. drawing a "Force Motion Vector Diagram" (FMVD) (Hake 2003b) for
the dry ice block, floating on a layer of carbon dioxide, and
harnessed to a flea;

b. puzzling out the physics with peers; and

c. Socratic dialoguing with the instructor;

the teacher has a chance to supplement his/her meager income by
taking bets with the students on whether or not a flea could ACTUALLY
accelerate a 50 lb block of dry ice so that the acceleration is
obvious to the naked eye, and then showing the classic video "A
Million To One."


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>

REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 1987. "Promoting student crossover to the Newtonian
world." Am J. Phys. 55(10): 878-884.

Hake, R.R. 1991. "My Conversion To The Arons-Advocated Method Of
Science Education," Teaching Education" 3(2), 109-111 (1991); online
as ref. 8 at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>.

Hake, R.R. 1992. "Socratic pedagogy in the introductory physics lab."
Phys. Teach. 30: 546-552; updated version (4/27/98) online as ref. 23
at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>.

Hake, R.R. 1995. "Teacher's Guide: SDI Lab #1, Newton's First and
Third Laws." Soon to be on the web at the Harvard Galileo site
<http://galileo.harvard.edu/> / "Socratic Dialogue Inducing Labs"
/"Resources for SDI" / "Teacher's Guides", where "/" means "click
on." A less scenic direct route is via
<http://galileo.harvard.edu/galileo/hom/sdi/docs.html>. Teacher's
Guides for SDI Lab #0.2 "Introduction to Kinematics," and SDI Lab #3
"Circular Motion and Frictional Forces," are already at that site.

Hake, R.R. 1998a. SDI Lab #1, "Newton's First and Third Laws"; online
at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>.

Hake, R.R. 1998b. SDI Lab #3, "Circular Motion and Frictional
Forces"; online at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>. A Teacher's
Guide is at the Harvard Galileo site <http://galileo.harvard.edu/> /
"Socratic Dialogue Inducing Labs" /"Resources for SDI" / "Teacher's
Guides", where "/" means "click on." A less scenic direct route is via
<http://galileo.harvard.edu/galileo/hom/sdi/docs.html>.

Hake, R.R. 1998c. "Interactive-engagement vs traditional methods: A
six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory
physics courses," Am. J. Phys. 66, 64-74 (1998); online as ref. 24 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>.

Hake, R.R. 1998d. "Interactive-engagement methods in introductory
mechanics courses," online as ref. 25 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>. SUBMITTED on 6/19/98 to the
"Physics Education Research Supplement to AJP"(PERS). In this sadly
unpublished (Physics Education Research has NO archival journal!)
crucial companion paper to Hake (1998c): average pre/post test
scores, standard deviations, instructional methods, materials used,
institutions, and instructors for each of the survey courses of Hake
(1998a) are tabulated and referenced. In addition the paper
includes: (a) case histories for the seven IE courses of Hake (1998a)
whose effectiveness as gauged by pre-to-post test gains was close to
those of T courses, (b) advice for implementing IE methods, and (c)
suggestions for further research.

Hake, R.R. 2002a. "Socratic Dialogue Inducing Laboratory Workshop,"
Proceedings of the UNESCO-ASPEN Workshop on Active Learning in
Physics, Univ. of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, 2-4 Dec. 2002; also online
as ref. 28 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>.

Hake, R.R. 2002b. "Assessment of Physics Teaching Methods,"
Proceedings of the UNESCO-ASPEN Workshop on Active Learning in
Physics, Univ. of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, 2-4 Dec. 2002; also online
as ref. 29 at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>.

Hake, R.R. 2002c. "Lessons from the physics education reform effort."
Conservation Ecology 5(2): 28; online at
<http://www.consecol.org/vol5/iss2/art28>. "Conservation Ecology," is
a FREE "peer-reviewed journal of integrative science and fundamental
policy research" with about 11,000 subscribers in about 108 countries.

Hake, R.R. 2003a. "NRC's CUSE: Oblivious of the Advantage of Pre/Post
Testing With High Quality Standardized Tests?" post of 25 Jul 2003
13:07:23-0700 to ASSESS, Biopi-L, Chemed-L, EvalTalk, PhysLrnR, and
POD; online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0307&L=pod&O=D&P=17145>.
Later posted at AERA-D and STLHE-L.

Hake, R.R. 2003b. "Re: PER - FREE BODY DIAGRAMS" post of
28 Jul 2003 16:53:02-0700 to AP-Physics, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, and
Physhare; online at
<http://lists.nau.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0307&L=phys-l&O=D&P=27317>.

McCray, R.A., R.L. DeHaan, J.A. Schuck, eds. 2003. "Improving
Undergraduate Instruction in Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics: Report of a Workshop" Committee on Undergraduate STEM
Instruction," National Research Council, National Academy Press;
online at <http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10711.html>. Physicists
attending the workshop were Paula Herron, Priscilla Laws, John
Lehman, Ramon Lopez, Richard McCray, Lillian McDermott, Carl Wieman,
and Jack Wilson.

Redish, E.F. & J.S. Rigden, eds. 1997. "The Changing Role of Physics
Departments in Modern Universities: Proceedings of the ICUPE." AIP.

Tobias, S. & R.R. Hake. 1988. "Professors as physics students: what
can they teach us? Am. J. Phys. 56(9): 786-794.