As universities attempt to integrate active learning into their lectures, a range of strategies is emerging. Amongst the strategies is pre-prepared worksheets which students work through, facilitated by the lecturer. Despite the fact that worksheets have not yet been the subject of much research activity, there are instances of their use. Once such instance is by a pair of physics lecturers at Mahidol University, Thailand. The worksheets, called guided worksheets as they provide structure for students to take notes as the content in the lectures progresses, are prepared by the lecturers and have been in use since 2004. Evaluations showed that the guided worksheets met their intent but there were issues around certain topics which students found challenging. Concerted effort lead to the development of research based specialized guided worksheets for those topics that had issues. These specialized guided worksheets requiring substantially more interactions and student problem solving in line with active learning strategies, have been in use since 2012. This paper aims to describe the design of the specialized guided worksheets for the topic of electric field, and its evaluation. Pre- and post-tests were implemented over 2 years. The first was with guided worksheets with 260 students in 2011, and the second included specialized guided worksheets with 163 students in 2012. Gains on student understanding were higher in 2012 and students who were interviewed indicated that they found the specialized guided worksheets helpful for learning. The results indicate that the specialized guided worksheets made a difference in topics that students find challenging.
As the development of technology, smartphones today come with various sensors to mediate a nicer customer use. This paves the way for new perspectives on using smartphones as the laboratory tools. Accordingly, this paper presents how smartphone determining of the magnitude of gravitational acceleration (g) may be made, describes a classroom demonstration, cites a reported experiment designed to obtain the necessary data, and suggests a student experiment to calculate the magnitude of g. The depth of the mathematical analysis of the data can easily be adjusted to the level of the class such as arithmetic mean, slope of graph plotted by hand, and slope of graph plotted by excel. After conducting the experiment with 33 students, major in program of general science, faculty of education, Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University (BSRU), the students report the magnitude of gravitational acceleration nearly the theoretical value (g = 9.78 m/s2 at Bangkok; provided by the National Institute of Metrology (Thailand)) with a percentage difference less than 2%. We highlight the advantage of this experiment with the use of low-cost means and everyday devices in the classroom as a way of gathering empirical data about moving objects.
Over several decades, many physics teachers have taken a crucial responsibility for improving conceptual understanding of students. To enhance students’ understanding, generally they have adopted an alternative teaching approach to classes. However, such that approach does not always yield positive learning outcomes. Many researchers reported that a teaching and learning sequence was one of the essential factors needed to take into account. In this study, the teaching and learning sequence was proceeded by 5E inquiry-based learning which was grouped as active learning. Therefore, the goal of this study was to analyze the teaching and learning sequence for Newton’s third law designed by a pre-service teacher together with the physicists’ comments on that sequence. This was viewed as the initial phase of research in finding a suitable framework for future training pre-service teachers about how to design a teaching-learning sequence. The teaching and learning sequence was implemented to the two classes of grade 9 students. From the analysis, we found that the teaching and learning sequence were complicated and some physics situations were not clear. To help support the students’ conceptual understanding, all unclear physics situations were refined and corrected in line with physicists’ comments to be used in the classes but remained the primary structure of such that designed sequence. The standardized test about force was administered to the students after completing the lesson. The results were found that the designed sequence yielded low learning outcomes even were taught with the interactive engagement. This was the evidence shown that the teaching and learning sequence affected students’ leaning and there was a need about seeking a framework to help pre-service teachers in a process of designing a teaching and learning sequence.
A set-up comprising a magnetic disc, a solenoid and a mechanical balance was used to teach first-year physics students Newton's third law with the help of a free body diagram. The image of a floating magnet immobilized by the solenoid's repulsive force should help dispel a common misconception of students as regards the first law: that stationary objects are not being acted on by any force at all. Dropping the magnet onto the electrified solenoid, which can change polarity, can lead to more sophisticated elaboration of the second law.
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