Discovery-Based Labs for Calculus-Based Introductory Physics

基于微积分的物理入门发现实验室

• 批准号: 9750830
• 负责人: Dawn Meredith
• 金额: $ 2.73万
• 依托单位: University of New Hampshire
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-06-01 至 2000-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9750830&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Discovery; Based; Labs; Calculus; Introductory

There is evidence that most students do not greatly increase their understanding of physical concepts through the traditional verification/recipe laboratories found in most introductory physics courses. Thorton, Sokoloff, and Laws have created a series of discovery-based, microcomputer-based laboratories that have shown to increase conceptual understanding of students greatly: Tools for Scientific Thinking (TST), RealTime Physics (RTP), and Workshop Physics (WP). While these materials present a significant improvement over the traditional laboratories, none fits the needs of the university exactly. WP is calculus based, but requires changes that can not be implemented (i.e., abandoning lecture altogether and working with students in a laboratory setting with a high teacher-to-student ratio). TST and RTP allow the laboratory to change independently of the lecture, but are not calculus based, and are written for a wide audience (high school through college). This project modifies the existing curricular materials in TST and RTP to make them more appropriate for this introductory calculus-based course for engineers and scientists. The project adds calculus applications, increases the level of difficulty slightly, adds kinesthetic experiences and computer simulations, adds exercises that help students synthesize information and create logical arguments, and reorganizes the laboratory to provide better coordination with lectures. These changes are made without changing the basic philosophy of the curricular materials: students must construct their own understanding by making predictions, by testing predictions, and by focusing on concepts instead of equations.

有证据表明，大多数学生并没有通过在大多数物理入门课程中发现的传统验证/配方实验来大大提高他们对物理概念的理解。Thorton、Sokoloff和Laws创建了一系列以发现为基础、以微电脑为基础的实验室，这些实验室大大提高了学生对概念的理解：科学思维工具（TST）、实时物理（RTP）和车间物理（WP）。虽然这些材料比传统的实验室有了很大的改进，但没有一种完全符合大学的需要。WP是基于微积分的，但需要一些无法实现的改变（例如，完全放弃课堂教学，在师生比例高的实验室环境中与学生一起工作）。TST和RTP允许实验室独立于讲座进行更改，但不是基于微积分，并且是为广泛的受众（高中到大学）编写的。这个项目修改了现有的TST和RTP的课程材料，使它们更适合这门以工程师和科学家为基础的微积分入门课程。该项目增加了微积分应用，稍微提高了难度，增加了动觉体验和计算机模拟，增加了帮助学生综合信息和创建逻辑论证的练习，并重新组织了实验室，以更好地配合讲课。这些变化没有改变课程材料的基本理念：学生必须通过预测、验证预测、关注概念而不是方程来构建自己的理解。