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Monday afternoon
Are your students tap-happy for Flappy Bird? Fear not! A new generation
of educational physics games is engaging students like never before. I am
a physics teacher and a game designer determined to disseminate a new
breed of educational physics games. Because the majority of the games
currently available on the market suffer from a lack of sound pedagogy and
creativity, I decided to make my own to combat these mundane, glorified
quiz type games, and make them available to the physics education com-
munity for free. My games have received an overwhelmingly positive re-
sponse by thousands of teachers across the United States and 40 countries.
Join me as I demonstrate how my games can be a versatile and effective
teaching resource, proven to get your students to stop tapping and to start
thinking. You’ll learn how the games can be used for student collaboration,
to flip your classroom and beyond!
CJ04:
4:30-4:40 p.m. Card Games to Teach Scientific Thinking
Contributed – Donald Andrew Smith, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC
27410;
Leon Lederman, in his book
The God Particle
, uses a game as a meta-
phor for science: imagine aliens trying to deduce the rules for soccer, but
through a quirk of alternate evolution, they cannot see the ball. Through
observation and deduction, they work out what is going on. In this talk, I
will describe two card games, known as Mao and Eleusis, that can be used
to bring this metaphor to life in the classroom and make the process of sci-
entific deduction tangible, in a controlled environment, to the students. In
both games the goal of the game is to figure out the rules. Many aspects of
scientific inquiry and discovery map directly to the process of playing these
games. I have used a multi-step procedure to introduce the students to a
game, deepen their engagement with it, and then debrief and show how
in playing the game, they naturally fell into scientific thinking patterns --
patterns that can be extended to the laboratory and reinforced throughout
the semester.
Session CK: Interactive Lecture
Demonstrations – Whats New? ILDs
Using Clickers and Video Analysis
Location: STSS 114
Sponsor: Committee on Educational Technologies
Co-Sponsor: Committee on Research in Physics Education
Date: Monday, July 28
Time: 4:50–6 p.m.
Presider: Priscilla Laws
CK01:
4:50-5:20 p.m. Interactive Lecture Demonstrations:
Active Learning in Lecture Including Clickers and Video
Analysis
Invited – David Sokoloff, University of Oregon, Department of Physics, Eu-
gene, OR 97403-1274;
Ronald K. Thornton, Tufts University
The results of physics education research and the availability of microcom-
puter-based tools have led to the development of the Activity Based Physics
Suite.
1
Most of the Suite materials are designed for hands-on learning, for
example student-oriented laboratory curricula such as RealTime Phys-
ics. One reason for the success of these materials is that they encourage
students to take an active part in their learning. This interactive session
will demonstrate “through active audience participation” Suite materials
designed to promote active learning in lecture?—Interactive Lecture Dem-
onstrations (ILDs),
2
including those using clickers and video analysis.
1. E.F. Redish,
Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite
(Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, 2004). 2.
David R. Sokoloff and Ronald K. Thornton,
Interactive Lecture Demonstrations
(Wiley,
Hoboken, NJ, 2004).
CK02:
5:20-5:50 p.m. Interactive Lecture Demonstrations:
Effectiveness in Teaching Concepts
Invited – Ronald Thornton, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155-5555;
The effectiveness of Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILDs) in teaching
physics concepts has been studied using physics education research based,
multiple-choice conceptual evaluations.
1
Results of such studies will be
presented, including studies with clicker ILDs. These results should be
encouraging to those who wish to improve conceptual learning in their
introductory physics course.
1. David R. Sokoloff and Ronald K. Thornton, “Using Interactive Lecture Demonstra-
tions to Create an Active Learning Environment,”
Phys. Teach.
35
, 340 (1997).
CK03:
5:50-6 p.m. ILDs Using “Energy Skate Park” and “My
Solar System” PhETs
Contributed – Rebecca Forrest, University of Houston, 617 Science & Re-
search Bldg. 1, Houston, TX 77204-5005;
Interactive Lecture Demonstration (ILD) worksheets were created based
on the “Energy Skate Park” and “My Solar System” PhET Interactive
Simulations available at
. The worksheets are
implemented following the Eight-Step ILD procedure, with PhET simula-
tions used in place of physical demonstrations. This allows use of the ILD
method in situations that cannot easily be tested with classroom demon-
strations, such as with the universal law of gravity.
Session TOP06: Graduate Student
Topical Discussion
Location: Tate Lab 166
Sponsor: Committee on Research in Physics Education
Co-Sponsor: Committee on Graduate Education in Physics
Date: Monday, July 28
Time: 6–7 p.m.
Presider: Ben van Dusen
This session is the primary opportunity for members of the PER graduate
students community to meet and discuss common issues.
