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Portland
Monday afternoon
PST1C11: 8:30-9:15 p.m. Successful Implementation of
Active Methodologies in a University in Chile
Poster – Hugo Alarcon, Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, Av.
Espana 1680, Valparaiso, Valparaiso 2340000, Chile;
Valeria del Campo, Pedro Del Canto, Ricardo Henriquez, Rodrigo Vergara,
Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria
With the implementation of SCALE-UP rooms at Universidad Tecnica
Federico Santa Maria the introductory mechanics course has been rede-
signed in order to incorporate active methodologies based on Physics Edu-
cation Research. The exposure time of the instructor has been drastically
reduced to allow time for students to work in different types of activities.
They have worked with tutorials of the University of Washington, model-
ing based activities and Context Rich Problems. All of these activities
were performed by the students in collaborative groups. The SCALE-UP
environment, in particular the inclusion of whiteboards, leads naturally to
collaboration. There was a significant conceptual learning, as measured by
the FCI and a pass rate well above traditional control groups.
PST1C12: 9:15-10 p.m. Teaching to Learn: Using iPads to
Transform Physics Students’ Roles
Poster – Susan M. Nicholson-Dykstra,* Streamline to Mastery Program,
University of Colorado-Boulder, 249 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0249; susie.
Ben Van Dusen, Valerie Otero, University of Colorado-Boulder
With the explosion of tablet technology and e-Resources available to stu-
dents who are digital natives, it is vital that teachers develop strategies for
purposefully incorporating these resources into the learning experience.
In this study, iPads were utilized as tools for students to teach, create, syn-
thesize and apply ideas in a physics classroom. This research investigated
the impact of a 1:1 iPad environment on student achievement, engage-
ment, agency, and attitude toward science in an urban science classroom.
Students who utilized iPads to create teaching tools, such as screencasts,
animations and other digital models, report an increased sense of pride in
their product and confidence in their understanding of the content mate-
rial. Ongoing investigations are being conducted to determine whether stu-
dent achievement is consistent with student perception of content mastery.
Project was partially funded by NSF grant #DUE 934921 and Northglenn
High School, Adams 12 Five Star Schools.
*Sponsored by Valerie Otero
PST1C13: 8:30-9:15 p.m. Tactile Kinesthetic Methods in the
Pedagogy of Physics
Poster – Christine M. Carmichael, Woodbury University, 7500 Glenoaks
Blvd., Burbank, CA 91510;
There are many ways to enhance the way students learn beyond the con-
ventional classroom techniques. New research sheds light on some of these
methods. It is well known in pedagogy that different students have different
learning styles, and give priority to different sensory modalities. Recent re-
search results indicate that there is a role for tactile-kinesthetic methods in
the teaching of abstract concepts in physics. For example, “a person’s ability
to solve a problem can be influenced by how he or she moves.” Reasons are
considered for augmenting the visual and auditory techniques normally
used in the university-level physics classroom.
PST1C14: 9:15-10 p.m. Development of an Estimation Skills
Diagnostic
Poster – Andrew J. Macdonald,* University of British Columbia, Department
of Physics and Astronomy, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4,
Canada;
Sarah A. Burke, Cynthia E. Heiner, University of British Columbia
The ability to accurately estimate physical quantities is an invaluable skill
for scientists and engineers. The development of estimation skills has
become an explicit learning goal in the first-year physics course for engi-
neering students at UBC. In order to establish a baseline and look for pos-
sible gains in skill level, we have developed a 10-question multiple-choice
assessment designed to probe student ability and confidence in estimating
physical quantities such as mass, size, and time. Student interviews were
used to establish question validity and open-ended written versions were
used to seed multiple-choice responses. The diagnostic was administered
as a pretest and post-test and given to a set of experts to establish its dis-
criminatory power. The results showed a statistically significant difference
between students and experts, but no overall student gains. This poster
will give an analysis of the results and share some observations based on
student interviews.
*Sponsored by Cynthia Heiner
PST1C15: 8:30-9:15 p.m. Does Higher Education Increase
Student Scientific Reasoning Skills?
Poster – Lin Ding, The Ohio State University, Department of Teaching and
Learning, 1945 N. High St. Columbus, OH 43210;
A goal of science and engineering education at the tertiary level is to
promote students’ scientific reasoning skills. Patterns of such skills are
conceptualized as mental plans, strategies, or tools used for making infer-
ences and drawing conclusions that are beyond direct observations. Several
key sub-patterns are subsumed within this broad definition of scientific
reasoning skills; they are: hypothetical-deductive reasoning, proportional
reasoning, correlation reasoning, probabilistic reasoning, and control-
of-variables. These sub-skills are frequently investigated among students
at various grade levels through the Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific
Reasoning (CTSR). Prior studies have consistently shown that results
of CTSR are a good predictor of gains in student conceptual learning of
domain knowledge. However, little is known regarding what may influence
the development of student scientific reasoning skills. We investigate the
effect of two factors, student major and grade level, on the progression of
university students’ reasoning skills measured by the CTSR.
PST1C16: 9:15-10 p.m. Exploring Attributes of College
Courses that Develop Scientific Reasoning Abilities*
Poster– Kathleen M. Koenig, University of Cincinnati, 3758 Hubble Road,
Cincinnati, OH 45247;
Lei Bao, The Ohio State University
Carol Fabby, Zach Huard, University of Cincinnati
Scientific reasoning is a naturally developing ability impacted by many
factors. Our prior work has demonstrated that although this develop-
ment follows a general trend, students enter our college courses with wide
variations in scientific reasoning abilities, and the typical course does not
significantly impact these important skills. Rather, it is through explicit
and targeted instruction in scientific reasoning that students have been
observed to make significant shifts. We are in the early exploration stages
of assessing these abilities in different environments to get a sense of what
factors impact scientific reasoning development in the college classroom.
Gains in student development of these abilities for diverse classroom
settings across multiple campuses will be shared, in addition to details of
the differences in these classroom settings that might be influential factors
here.
*Partially supported by the National Institutes of Health 1RC1RR028402-01
PST1C17: 8:30-9:15 p.m. Resource-based Analysis of
Variable Expertise
Poster – Darrick C. Jones, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway,
NJ 08854-8019;
AJ Richards, Eugenia Etkina, Rutgers University
Using a fine-grained, resource-based model of cognition, we analyze video
recordings of individuals with varying physics expertise and different back-
grounds solving novel physics problems on the subject of solar cells. These
problems incorporate advanced topics such as semiconductor physics and
complex circuitry. Through this analysis, we determine what cognitive
resources individuals use to reason within the domain. We compare the
resources used by individuals from different backgrounds and examine
how this affected their reasoning processes. This poster presents the results
of the analysis and their importance to the design of instructional tasks.
