Inventing Concepts and Solving Problems in Labs

在过去的7年里，物理系在其实验室计划中进行了两次重大改革，以介绍基于微积分的物理课程。 1989年的第一次努力是在课程的第一季度将基于微型计算机的实验室（MBL）工具引入教学。 第二项工作是在第一项工作的基础上进行的，并将市场预算工具的使用延长到第二和第三季度。 此外，还开发了一系列新的活动，学生首先使用引导探究方法获得重要的物理概念。 学生们在后来的实验室中定量地使用这些概念来解决更复杂的实验问题。 本项目支持的创新允许将交互式模拟和多媒体集成到这个实验室学习系统中。 这些模拟活动补充了实验，并允许更有效地利用有限的时间来实现学习目标。 伴随着真实的实验的模拟建立了学生对模拟世界真实性的信心。 通过观察过程的多种表征，学生有更好的机会发展物理学中使用的抽象符号表征的形象和直觉。 通过慢动作观察复杂的过程，他们变得更善于将其分解，解决部分问题，并重新组合以回答大问题。 通过预测参数的变化如何影响过程，他们变得更善于推理物理过程。 总之，补充模拟帮助学生了解计算机如何成为现实世界过程的有用建模工具。

During the past 7 years, the Department of Physics has made two major reforms in its laboratory program for the introductory calculus-based physics course. The first effort in 1989 involved the introduction of the microcomputer-based laboratory (MBL) tools into instruction in the first quarter of the course. The second effort built on the first and extended the use of the MBL tools into the second and third quarters. In addition, a series of new activities were developed in which students first acquired important concepts of physics using a guided-inquiry approach. Students then in later laboratories used these concepts quantitatively to solve more complex experiment problems. The innovations supported by the present project permit integration of interactive simulations and multimedia into this laboratory learning system. These simulation activities supplement the experiments and allow more efficient use of the limited time that is available to achieve learning objectives. The simulations that accompany real experiments build student confidence in the authenticity of the simulated world. By observing multiple representations of processes, students have a better chance of developing imagery and intuition for the abstract symbolic representations used in physics. By observing a complex process in slow motion, they become better at breaking it in parts, solving the parts, and reassembling them to answer the big questions. By predicting how the change in a parameter affects a process, they become better at reasoning about physical processes. In summary, the supplementary simulations help students see how the computer can be a useful modeling tool for real-world processes.