Electrical Interactions and the Structure of Matter: Qualitative Reasoning in an Electricity and Magnetism Course

电相互作用和物质结构：电学和磁学课程中的定性推理

• 批准号: 9156105
• 负责人: Bruce Sherwood
• 金额: $ 21.57万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1992
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1992-02-01 至 1996-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9156105&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Electrical; Interactions; Structure; Matter; Qualitative

A fundamentally new course on electricity and magnetism is being developed. The goal of the course is to teach students a unified approach to reasoning qualitatively about a wide variety of electrical and magnetic interactions. The students then use this approach in the process of solving both qualitative and quantitative problems. The qualitative work is based on the physics of the basic Coulomb interaction and of the atomic structure of matter. This is done initially without the use of secondary concepts such as electric field, electric potential, and Kirchhoff's rules. There is a heavy emphasis on teaching students how to construct rigorous, qualitative explanations of physical phenomena, including how to construct and use good diagrams as tools for both reasoning and explaining. Experimental work is central to the course, but does not require special laboratory sessions. Students work collaboratively in the lecture hall on desktop experiments in electrostatics and DC circuits, and on the unified analysis of these experiments, including circuits, in terms of the basic Coulomb interaction and of the atomic structure of matter. The fundamental physical understanding that results from this qualitative work is the foundation for the more traditional and more quantitative material that forms the remainder of the course. Instructional materials are being created and refined, and are being used evaluate in detail the effect of instruction on the reasoning and problem-solving processes of students.

一门全新的电学和磁学课程正在开发中。本课程的目标是教给学生一种统一的方法来定性地推理各种各样的电和磁相互作用。然后，学生们在解决定性和定量问题的过程中使用这种方法。定性工作是基于基本的库仑相互作用和物质的原子结构的物理学。这是在不使用二次概念的情况下完成的，如电场、电势和基尔霍夫规则。课程非常强调教学生如何对物理现象进行严格的定性解释，包括如何构建和使用好的图表作为推理和解释的工具。实验工作是本课程的核心，但不需要特别的实验课程。学生们在课堂上合作进行静电和直流电路的桌面实验，并根据基本的库仑相互作用和物质的原子结构对这些实验（包括电路）进行统一分析。从这些定性的工作中得到的基本的物理理解，是构成本课程其余部分的更传统、更定量的材料的基础。教学材料正在被创造和完善，并被用来详细评价教学对学生推理和解决问题过程的影响。