An Overview of Teaching Physics for Undergraduates in Engineering Environments

Abstract

This paper is an overview of approaches to teaching physics courses delivered to students of engineering disciplines. It addresses, first, the history of teaching physics to engineering students starting in the early 20th century, then reviews the main issues presented and discussed over the last decade in a series of conferences on Physics Teaching in Engineering Education (PTEE). Finally, this paper discusses more contemporary views on the subject, including the latest technologies and new methodologies. It is not a critical review of teaching physics to engineering students, but rather a summary of various views and approaches over the span of the entire century. The common denominator of the study is the relevance to the competency-based approach: how the papers focus on teaching engineers the principles of physics in a manner that contributes to success in their professional careers.

Towards Active Evidence-Based Learning in Engineering Education: A Systematic Literature Review of PBL, PjBL, and CBL

“…In the design stage, teachers make decisions about what problems might be tackled in the course and how it might be supported. Contrary to the initial expectations, teachers rarely enhance their courses with educational technology other that specific software that needs to be mastered in order to be prepared for professional life (e.g., Matlab, Mathematica, Maxima, and Maple in [98]). When additional tools are used, they are mostly employed for supporting communication and teamwork (e.g., Google Hangouts in [95]; Google Drive in Bisballe [66]; piazza.com in [37]; Slack in [65]).…”

“…The teacher needs to make decisions regarding the implementation process, the use of technology, the composition of the teams, or how to involve institutions in the project [48,96]. In the context where the teams of students will develop the project and the tools they may need to implement the plan, the products also need to be taken into account [98]. The process may involve various approaches, combining activities in a university setting as well as online collaboration [51,99]; industrial partners are active participants in formulating problems for PjBl tasks [99,100]; technologies involved and manipulated provide the opportunity for students to make authentic decisions in various contexts [22,93].…”

Estratégias de aprendizagem ativa na disciplina física 1 no curso de engenharia do instituto mauá de tecnologia e o desenvolvimento de competências em um curso mediado por tecnologia / Active learning strategies in physics discipline of engineering course of maua institute of technology and competence development in a course mediated by technology

“…A fim de fortalecer a compreensão conceitual quantitativa e/ou qualitativa do aluno sobre diferentes conceitos físicos (VREELAND, 2012;MASON & SINGH, 2016;ZHANG & PROBST, 2016;CONLIN & CHIN, 2016) e o desenvolvimento de modelos físicos (ETKINA, 2006), fundamental para o avanço da Engenharia em qualquer área, é essencial o desenvolvimento do pensar fisicamente antes de sair meramente calculando (ZALEWSKI et. al., 2019).…”

Micro Atividades Avaliativas Como Estratégia De Engajar Alunos Ingressantes Na Disciplina Física 1 Em Engenharia

“…A fim de fortalecer a compreensão conceitual quantitativa e/ou qualitativa do aluno sobre diferentes conceitos físicos (VREELAND, 2012;MASON & SINGH, 2016;ZHANG & PROBST, 2016;CONLIN & CHIN, 2016) e o desenvolvimento de modelos físicos (ETKINA, 2006), fundamental para o avanço da Engenharia em qualquer área, é essencial o desenvolvimento do pensar fisicamente antes de sair meramente calculando (ZALEWSKI et. al., 2019).…”