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Re: [Phys-L] science education articles


Interesting discussion. In my opinion most physics books are not well
written -- too long, too detailed, too complicated, and a turn-off for
students. The language in physics is difficult (speed vs velocity, energy
vs momentum, temperature vs heat, etc.). Some concepts are
counterintuitive (acceleration can be decreasing while velocity is
increasing, etc.). Physics should be the most interesting subject a
student can take. The books don't seem to portray this. I haven't used a
book in years. I give out my own notes for each topic, which are clear and
concise. Kids really appreciate this.



Phys-L@Phys-L.org writes:
The question below is important. It was my experience over most of my
teaching career that the quality of reading was constantly dropping over
the years. When doing some extra MCAT prep sections some years ago it
became painfully obvious (and these were semi-motivated Bio majors). In
my group of 6 students doing this extra work, only one could read
'scientific' passages well and answer the questions that the MCAT was
then using (read a short section on physics that should be unfamiliar to
the student then answer (simple) questions about the passage.) Even
though I would have them read the passages TWICE before answering, they
really couldn't. Whether truthful or not, in my Gen Ed classes students
having trouble almost always insisted that they were religiously reading
the book or provided materials. So....I wonder if the questions used to
test readings or the care taken in reading logs really can speak to how
well the students UNDERSTAND what they are reading. Of course it is
'probably' better that they have read rather than not, although despite
always having 10-20% of my quizzes for the Gen-Ed class come directly
from the book, at the end of the semester a show of hands proved that
over half the class didn't even have the book. For the last 3 years of
my teaching I gave up entirely on having a book and simply provided
extensive Power Points from the class...but they still either failed to
re-read these outside of class or really didn't understand the material
despite it being written specifically for this level of class. Point
is, there is opening the book and reading the words and there is reading
the book to better understand the material. I fear that many students
today are very, very unskilled at the latter.

rwt

On 9/24/2015 1:57 PM, rjensen@ualberta.ca wrote:
Daniel

Thanks. I work with upwards of 1000 students per term. However, I
believe this reading log could be adapted into something that is
entered and graded electronically.

What guidance do you provide students on 'how to read a textbook'?

Thanks,
Dr. Roy Jensen
(==========)-----------------------------------------¤
Lecturer, Chemistry
W5-19, University of Alberta
780.248.1808




On Thu, 24 Sep 2015 13:39:35 -0400, you wrote:

I have noted similar issues with our freshman (bright,
semi-articulate, super dependent on others and very good at externalizing
accountability for their own learning). One strategy we use to address
this is to require freshman to read the course text and write some
minimally reflective reaction to each chapter via a two-sided, one page
reading log
<http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/danmac/ReflectiveWriting/ReadingLogV7.doc>
and have each log turned in for fast cursory grading weekly, 10-12
logs worth about 10% of the final grade (about 1 letter grade). Then
student grade is visibly and solidly linked to this expectation for
diligent student performance. We do this for our courses where students
are expected to start developing strategies for making sense of technical
writing although the form does not actually require extended
sense-making, which we work on via class time activity.

A suggestion I have for realtime assessment of student understanding
is whiteboard use. I’m long part the point where whiteboards are in
any way invasive or time-absorbing in my class because I use them for so
many other reasons but monitoring and guiding student thinking is
certainly something important to me. There are many many videos, URLs
and blogs detailing whiteboard use extant at least in HS / Intro physics.
I know they are used widely in HS modeling chem, but am unfamiliar with
URLs supporting that.

Dan M

Dan MacIsaac, Associate Professor of Physics, SUNY-Buffalo State
College
462SciBldg BSC, 1300 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo NY 14222 USA 1-716-878-3802
<macisadl@buffalostate.edu> <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.edu>
Physics Graduate Coordinator & NSF Investigator for ISEP (MSP) and
Noyce

On Sep 23, 2015, at 10:09 PM, rjensen@ualberta.ca wrote:


--
Richard Tarara
Professor Emeritus
Saint Mary's College

free Physics educational software
www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
NEW: Energy management simulators now available.

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