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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 currently experimenting with a wiki format so that users will be able to offer detailed feedback. We expect this site to be updated on a nearly daily basis. Check back often!
You may enter this website at four different levels: individual activities, sequences of activities that we have found work well together to achieve particular pedagogical goals, descriptions of our whole courses, and descriptions of things we have learned about how students learn.
Activities
Courses
Learn
In this section, you will find a number of different “mini” papers, covering a variety of things that we have learned about how students in upper-division learn. Most of these are based on action research—i.e. what we have observed in our classrooms and for which we have found some consistent evidence. Most of these topics would benefit from more systematic PER study. Please contact us if you would like to collaborate on a project!
our philosophy
connecting to mathematics that students DO know “I just can't get started” emphasizing geometric reasoning supporting the development of harmonic reasoning
content organization
unifying concepts using drvector to unify all of vector calculus starting quantum mechanics with postulates spins first potentials first
classroom techniques
creating the teachable moment small groups how to effectively run small groups compare and contrast activities room set-up techniques for visualization activities small white boards kinesthetic activities the roles of storytelling in the classroom cementing the Ah Ha! moment with laughter
problems with notation
conventions for spherical coordinates vectors what sort of a “beast” is it? dimensions
problem-solving
breaking a hard problem up into smaller pieces encouraging the use of multiple representations
surprising things that students don't yet know
basis vectors that go with curvilinear coordinates matrices as transformations power series as approximations eigenvectors as the things that are “unchanged” by a transformation a geometric conception of fields that zero is a number how to add two functions pointwise how to read equations as words what is planar about plane waves? geometric interpretations or dot and cross products the meaning of the vertical axis on a graph how to shift a graph left or right, up or down
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under DUE Grant Nos. 9653250, 0088901, 0231032, 0231194, 0618877.
Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF)
