The Paradigms in Physics team is embarking on a new project to put detailed information about the various activities that we have developed on the web to encourage adoption by faculty at other institutions. We have already described our program as a whole in two papers (AJP 00, Physics Today 03) and a general website. But this is not enough information for people to be able to do what we do. We are inspired by current best practice as envisioned by the course portfolios at the Carnegie Foundation Keep Toolkit stuff (link here). We will be experimenting with format in the spring and summer of 2007. We expect this site to be updated on a nearly daily basis. Check back often!
We envision a site that has complete instructions for each activity, starting with an advertising-style splash page that will give a short description of the activity and a short description of the motivation and reflections on our experience. This spring, we will be focussing on making templates for ourselves about how this site will develop. Each activity will have links to Instructor's Guide type materials: pdf of the activity itself (both a blank version suitable for student use and a version with annotated solutions), information based on our experience about typical student difficulties in the classroom, guidelines about what resources (including time) are needed, recommended prerequisites and follow-up activities, etc. Our first sample activities can be found here:
In many cases, we use several activities in a carefully controlled sequences, to help students see how information ties together. This is a major task for beginning upper-division learners. Once we have the individual activities documented, we can use the webbiness of the web to show how activities can be linked together effectively.
We will also include general information which may be common to many activities such as:
Site map will go here.
Last Updated 7/19/07