The Lecture-Tutorial curriculum development project produced a set of 29 learner-centered classroom instructional materials for a large-enrollment introductory astronomy survey course for non-science majors. The Lecture-Tutorials are instructional materials intended for use by collaborative student learning groups, and are designed to be integrated into existing courses with conventional lectures. These instructional materials offer classroom-ready learner-centered activities that do not require any outside equipment or drastic course revision for implementation. Each 15-minute Lecture-Tutorial poses a sequence of conceptually challenging, Socratic dialogue-driven questions, along with graphs and data tables, all designed to encourage students to reason critically about difficult concepts in astronomy. The materials are based on research into student beliefs and reasoning difficulties, and use proven instructional strategies. The Lecture-Tutorials have been field-tested for effectiveness at various institutions, which represent a wide range of student populations and instructional settings. In addition to materials development, a second effort of this project focused on the assessment of changes in students' conceptual understanding and attitudes toward learning astronomy as a result of both lecture and the subsequent use of Lecture-Tutorials. Quantitative and qualitative assessments were completed using a precourse, postlecture, and post-Lecture-Tutorial instrument, along with focus group interviews, respectively. Collectively, the evaluation data illustrate that conventional lectures alone helped students make statistically significant-yet unsatisfactory-gains in understanding (with students scoring at only the 50% level postlecture). Further, the data illustrate that the use of Lecture-Tutorials helped students achieve statistically significant gains beyond those attained after lecture (with students scoring at the 70% level post-Lecture-Tutorial). Quantitative evaluation of student attitudes showed no significant gains over the semester, but students reported that they considered the Lecture-Tutorials to be one of the most valuable components of the course.
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A stationary dew drop assumes a shape that minimizes the sum of its gravitational and surface energies. This shape, however, cannot be described by a mathematical function in closed form because the governing differential equations of the drop do not admit of an analytical solution but must be integrated numerically to yield the drop profile. Hence, this problem provides a good case for using the calculus of variations to obtain the governing differential equations and presents advanced students with an opportunity to gain insight and experience in numerical computations involving a real and interesting physical problem. In this paper we obtain the differential equations governing the shape of the drop in two ways: (i) by considering the balance of forces on the drop in static equilibrium; (ii) by seeking the profile which minimizes the total energy of the drop through the use of the calculus of variations. The resulting differential equations are then integrated numerically to obtain the theoretical profile. Two computational strategies, one for each of the two classes of wetting and nonwetting drops, are discussed. Further, it is shown how one may obtain the values of the surface tension and the contact angle for a liquid drop by matching the computed profile to the experimentally observed shape.
We share a flipped class approach to university calculus-based general physics that shows increased learning and high student satisfaction compared to traditional lecture classes.
The Physics of Music is a general education science class open to all students at Wake Forest University. A broad range of topics are covered: wave physics, hearing and the ear, the voice and singing, musical instrument function and performance (winds, strings, and percussion), room acoustics, and more. An instructor for such a course is not usually a master of all these areas. In this talk, I will describe how we engage some of our local experts (singers, instrumentalists, piano tuners, doctors) to enhance the student experience of learning about physics and music. Activities to incorporate their specialties into the class will also be described.
The Physics of Music is a general education science class open to all students at Wake Forest University. Topics covered include wave physics, hearing, voice/singing, musical instrument function and performance (winds, strings, and percussion), room acoustics, and more. We have found great value in applying the concepts learned in class to practical, real-world problems. In the past offerings of the course, students worked on two projects involving Wake Forest's Department of Theatre (musical instruments) and Financial Aid Office (room acoustics). Students in the course communicated in person with students, faculty, and staff in these areas. They later used what they learned in class and discussions to construct equipment for use by the department in question. In this talk, I will describe how these two projects were incorporated into the laboratory portion of the course as well as how connections can be made to uncover other real-world opportunities.
What is meant by the words used in a subjective judgment of sound? Interpreting these words accurately allows these musical descriptions of sound to be related to scientific descriptions of sound. But do musicians, scientists, instrument makers, and others mean the same things by the same words? When these groups converse about qualities of sound, they often use an expansive lexicon of terms (bright, brassy, dark, pointed, muddy, etc.). It may be inaccurate to assume that the same terms and phrases have the same meaning to these different groups of people or even remain self-consistent for a single individual. To investigate the use of words and phrases in this lexicon, subjects with varying musical and scientific backgrounds were surveyed. The subjects were asked to listen to different pieces of recorded music and asked to use their own colloquial language to describe the musical qualities and differences they perceived in these pieces. In this talk, I describe some qualitative results of this survey and identify some of the more problematic terms used by these various groups to describe sound quality.
In my divisional (general education) course “The Physics of Music,” my students each design and build a simple recorder using PVC pipe. The process is borrowed from “Flute Design” and “Flute Construction” labs by Peter Hoekje at Baldwin-Wallace University, as well as Pete Kosel’s flute hole calculator. The lab has been modified slightly to fit the constraints of our class, and is done over the course of two lab periods. We have tried several variations on the process and made plenty of mistakes. Typically, our students have little to no experience using power tools or shop equipment. Consequently, this tends to be one of the most adventurous labs of the term. In this talk, I describe some of the practical things I’ve learned and mistakes I’ve made while watching and helping my students build recorders. Among these are difficulties in creating fipples and knife edges, adventures in hole-drilling, finding reasonable finger hole positions, and student reaction to the finished product.
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