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Wednesday afternoon
PST2G03: 1-1:45 p.m. Music Science Collaboration: Libraries,
Community Band, and Music Education Students
Poster – Patricia Sievert, Northern Illinois University, NIU STEM Outreach,
De Kalb, IL 60115;
Engagement and collaboration produce rich physics outreach experiences.
This year we collaborate with three area libraries, the School of Music, ad-
ditional NIU faculty and students, and the oldest, continuously performing
community band in the United States to bring the physics of music to fami-
lies across our county. A simulcast performance and music-physics demon-
stration with musicians at three libraries and on campus kicks off this
spring’s series. A local artist and environmental studies education students
will team up with us to help families recycle materials into instruments for
Earth Day. An art educator and a sound technician from our e-learning lab
will team up with us to work with families in a circuit-bending activity to
produce electronic instruments from old toys in May. The finale will be a
family music-science fair immediately preceding the first summer concert
of the DeKalb Community Band as it kicks off its 160th season.
edu/stem
PST2G04: 1:45-2:30 p.m. Stimulating Research-driven Reforms
– The Role of Concept Inventories
Poster – Vijay Singh,* HBCSE, TIFR Mumbai, IN 400088; mashoodkk123@
gmail.com Mashood KK
Science education research is a nascent area of academics in India. Howev-
er the country has a vast and aspiring student population. Quality science
education is thus extremely vital for the economic and societal progress of
the country. We have been involved with the task of promoting research in
science education, particularly at the introductory level. We chose concept
inventories as a means to facilitate as it enables large-scale application. It
may be noted that CIs played a crucial role in stimulating reforms in the
U.S. inspired us. In this paper we present some of the work we carried out
in this regard. We developed inventories on friction on rolling bodies and
rotational kinematics of a rigid body. We administered popular invento-
ries such as the Force Concept Inventory and the Conceptual Survey of
Electricity and Magnetism to Indian students. We compare our results with
those of the U.S. and China. The Kuder Richardson reliability index for
FCI for a sample of over 900 students was 0.95. On the other hand CSEM
registered a value of 0.96 for a sample of nearly 500 students. We are also
involved in training motivated practicing teachers to develop their own
inventories on introductory level topics.
*Sponsored by: Dr. Ravi K Menon
PST2G05: 1-1:45 p.m. The Formality of Physical and Social
Sciences Learning.
Poster – Mario Humberto Ramirez Diaz, IPN Legaria 694, Mexico, MEX
11500 Mexico;
Eduardo Chávez Lima, ESCOM-IPN
When considering physics as a nomothetic and generalizing science, which
is isolated from the ideographic sciences or individualized sciences, can
not display the opportunity to take formal models that serve to give a
widening in this construct. Currently interdisciplinarity and multidiscipli-
narity allows us to cooperate between different branches of science, even
create new sciences like Sociophysical and Econophysics, which occupy the
same models. This requires us to share in a classroom, the construction of
these branches of knowledge with a mixture of teaching physics, grounded
in models that support a political, economic and cultural baggage.
PST2G06: 1:45-2:30 p.m. Data Collection on Cirrus Coverage
Using an Allsky Camera
Poster – Sylke Boyd, University of Minnesota-Morris, Morris, MN 56267;
Shelby Richards, Jieying Jin, University of Minnesota-Morris
Systematic observations of atmospheric optical phenomena can reveal
much about the physical properties of normally inaccessible layers of the
troposphere, for example at cirrus altitude. Optical displays are influenced
by the ice crystal shapes, sizes, orientations, and particle densities. This
research aims to utilize these optical phenomena for remote probing of
atmospheric conditions that affect the color, angular intensity distribution,
brightness, and type of optical displays, including halos, parhelia, and pil-
lars. An allsky camera serves for long-term observation and data collec-
tion on frequency, seasonal distribution, and type of optical displays at the
University of Minnesota-Morris. We present our work on image analysis
software for the automatic detection of the presence of common halo-relat-
ed optical phenomena. In addition, we present our work on the develop-
ment of a simulation aiming to correlate the observed angular intensity
distribution with the types, sizes and orientations of ice crystals present in
the generating layer.
PST2G07: 1-1:45 p.m. Re-Thinking the Teaching of
Intermediate Electrodynamics
Poster – James D. Dull, The College of Idaho, Caldwell, ID 83605; jdull@
collegeofidaho.edu
The “flipped” classroom teaching model makes lecture-like informa-
tion available outside the classroom, and then builds on this instruction
through learning activities such as group problem solving, discussion, and
short projects. This differs from the traditional lecture/homework model
by requiring students to enter the classroom prepared to learn. I have
adopted a more modest version of the flipped classroom. Reading the text
is used in a way similar to lecture videos, and students are rewarded for and
challenged to complete reading and short assignments in preparation for
group problem-solving sessions during each class period. This no-lecture
classroom, emphasizing a more dynamic form of communicating concep-
tual and detailed understanding through written and oral assignments,
was eagerly adopted by my students. In addition, preliminary comparisons
with the results from more traditional versions of this course show a slight
improvement in average test scores. More significantly, this method has
given opportunities for the less confident student to demonstrate her/his
understanding in multiple formats.
PST2G08: 1:45-2:30 p.m. Twitter as a Professional Development
Tool for Physicists
Poster – Eric C. Martell, Millikin University, Decatur, IL 62522;emartell@mil-
likin.edu
Social media is ubiquitous in popular culture and is used by individuals
and businesses to build a brand and interact with customers, but it is much
more than a repository for advertising and banal statements about the
state of an individual’s lunch choices. Twitter, in particular, can be used to
develop professional connections, share news regarding research and teach-
ing, and collaborate with colleagues around the world in real time. This can
be especially important for faculty teaching in smaller departments, where
the opportunities for professional interactions with diverse colleagues are
limited, although physicists from departments of all sizes can benefit from
effective use of Twitter.
PST2G09: 1-1:45 p.m. Using IOLab to Correct Student Misunder-
standings of Newton’s Third Law
Poster – Eric C. Martell, Millikin University, Decatur, IL 62522;emartell@mil-
likin.edu
Nicole Tipsword, Millikin University; Mats Selen, University of Illinois, Urbana-
Champaign
The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) is used at schools across the country as
a tool to measure student conceptual understanding of Newtonian physics.
One of the weaknesses commonly identified is in applications of Newton’s
Third Law. In this project, we utilized a recently-developed wireless data
acquisition system, the IOLab, to attempt to rectify student misunderstand-
ings regarding the Third Law. The subjects for this research came from
calculus and algebra-based introductory physics courses. An assessment of
the effectiveness of this teaching tool as well as a comparison between the
two courses will be included.
PST2G10: 1:45-2:30 p.m. Fermat’s Principle in Refraction of
Light
Poster – Vernessa M. Edwards, Alabama A&M University, Normal, AL 35762-
1357;
