Classroom response systems (CRSs) can be potent tools for teaching physics. Their efficacy, however, depends strongly on the quality of the questions used. Creating effective questions is difficult, and differs from creating exam and homework problems. Every CRS question should have an explicit pedagogic purpose consisting of a content goal, a process goal, and a metacognitive goal. Questions can be engineered to fulfil their purpose through four complementary mechanisms: directing students' attention, stimulating specific cognitive processes, communicating information to instructor and students via CRS-tabulated answer counts, and facilitating the articulation and confrontation of ideas. We identify several tactics that help in the design of potent questions, and present four "makeovers" showing how these tactics can be used to convert traditional physics questions into more powerful CRS questions.
We report on the use of qualitative problem-solving strategies in teaching an introductory, calculus-based physics course as a means of highlighting the role played by conceptual knowledge in solving problems. We found that presenting strategies during lectures and in homework solutions provides an excellent opportunity to model for students the type of concept-based, qualitative reasoning that is valued in our profession, and that student-generated strategies serve a diagnostic function by providing instructors with insights on students’ conceptual understanding and reasoning. Finally, we found strategies to be effective pedagogical tools for helping students both to identify principles that could be applied to solve specific problems, as well as to recall the major principles covered in the course months after it was over.
We present a teaching strategy to encourage flexible, non algorithmic problem solving. Students create several problem representations to answer questions about a single problem situation. Through reflection students learn the value of non algebraic representations for analyzing and solving physics problems.
A detailed example is used to illustrate the difficulties making sense of students’ answers to multiple-choice questions. We explore how correct answers can be false indicators of student knowledge and understanding. We caution against excessive reliance on multiple-choice questions for instructional decisions.
A scalar-isoscalar quark-meson Interaction is used to mix fundamental pseudoscalar mesons directly into the wave functions of baryons. The parameters of the model are constrained using properties of the ground-state baryon spectrum, such as charge radii, strong decay widths, and the pion-nucleon coupling constant. Physical wave functions of the ground-state baryons are presented. With the physical wave functions, we calculate nucleon electric form factors and spin-+ baryon quadrupole moments. The addition of mesons produces effects on baryon properties comparable to effects due to spatial excitations of quarks. Although missing from most calculations, kaons and 7's are found to be as important as pions in the baryon spectrum. Including mesons in the physical wave functions of baryons leads to the existence of low-energy resonances consisting primarily of three quarks in the ground state surrounded by a meson field. Most of these resonances decouple from the common production channels, but seven are expected to be observable. An additional N( ++ ) resonance state is calculated to have a mass close to that of the Roper resonance but a a N width much smaller. A A ( + + ) candidate state is calculated to have a mass and n-N width close to the experimental values for the A(1600).In a multitude of basic forms, nonrelativistic quark models (NRQM's) have been very successful in predicting the overall pattern of ground-state baryon masses' and magnetic moments.* By including spatial excitations of the quarks, NRQM's have also been able to make reasonable predictions of resonance spectra and strong decayThe most successful of these models is that of Isgur, Karl (IK), and collaborator^^*^ with refinements by Forsyth and ~u t k o s k~.~ In all of these calculations, agreement with the data has been achieved without including pionic degrees of freedom. Relativistic calculations, on the other hand, would imply that the role of the pion is important and good agreement on many baryon properties can be obtained only by including pionic effects. Unfortunately, other properties such as electric form factors and decay rates are not easily calculated in relativistic models. NRQM's, in which it is possible to define analytic wave functions, are often preferred since a wider variety of observables can be calculated within them.However, calculations of pionic effects within NRQM's have been few and limited.6-9 The standard approach has been to include a one-pion-exchange potential (OPEP) between quarks, although the actual form of the interaction varies slightly among the calculations. Physical wave functions and observables are then calculated using the full set of quark-quark (qq) interactions to mix the states in the model space. While effects are found to be large, agreement with the data is not always improved. In fact, some qq potentials are found to be bettkr than others for fitting some subset of data, but none of the potentials is best for all the data. As long as there are ambiguities in the qq interactions that should be used...
The physics of jumping is explored for a simple spring-loaded toy. The toy is easy to make and easy to analyze using an elementary Hooke’s law model. Possible uses in introductory physics are described. Conceptual and pedagogical issues are discussed
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