Matter & Interactions: Models & Modern Concepts in Introductory Physics

事情

• 批准号: 0320608
• 负责人: Bruce Sherwood
• 金额: $ 14.3万
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-06-01 至 2005-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0320608&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Matter; & Interactions; Models; Modern

We are developing educational materials to bring modern content intointroductory physics. With the aid of previous NSF funding we have createda new calculus-based introductory textbook on mechanics and thermal physicsthat addresses the following problems: 1) Many students have alreadystudied mechanics in high school and are bored by repeating nearly the samematerial in college. 2) Students and instructors are unhappy with the lackof contemporary science in the traditional course. 3) Students in thetraditional course are not involved in the modeling of physical systems,including making idealizations, approximations and simplifying assumptions.4) Thermodynamics and mechanics are traditionally treated as completelyseparate topics, rather than as an integrated science based on a smallnumber of fundamental principles. The new curriculum emphasizesatomic-level description and analysis, and physical modeling includingcomputer modeling. The material deliberately looks to the students verydifferent from what they had studied earlier. Thermal physics is integratedwith mechanics throughout the textbook, climaxing with an accessiblestatistical mechanical treatment of the Einstein solid.We believe that the new textbook provides a needed alternative totraditional texts, but it is not yet pedagogically robust andtransportable. It already works well with exceptionally strong students;this is important because such students are at special risk of boredom, andwe do not want to lose them. However, we would like to make thisinteresting subject matter accessible not just to the honors student butalso to the average student who has had a decent high school physicspreparation. It is also important to make the curriculum teachable by otherinstructors; this requires the creation of additional kinds of materials,including an instructor's manual and support packages for introducingcomputer modeling into the course.We propose to continue work on pedagogical aspects of the reform, withfurther revisions of the textbook in response to our teaching experiencesand ongoing formative assessment activities. A key component will be anational beta test in Fall 1999 for which we are currently recruitingparticipants. We believe that we now have something well worth teaching butwe need to address shortcomings in how well we and others can teach it. Wealso propose to revise and extend our earlier E&M textbook to match the newmaterial, thus providing a coherent, modern one-year introductory physicstextbook. We propose to engage in additional evaluation and disseminationactivities.

我们正在开发教育材料，将现代内容引入物理学入门。在以前的 NSF 资助的帮助下，我们创建了一本新的基于微积分的力学和热物理入门教科书，解决了以下问题：1）许多学生已经在高中学习过力学，并且对在大学重复几乎相同的材料感到厌倦。 2）学生和教师对传统课程中缺乏当代科学内容感到不满。 3）传统课程的学生不参与物理系统的建模，包括理想化、近似和简化假设。4）热力学和力学传统上被视为完全独立的主题，而不是基于少数基本原理的综合科学。新课程强调原子级的描述和分析，以及包括计算机建模在内的物理建模。这些材料故意让学生看起来与他们之前学习的内容截然不同。热物理学与力学在整本教科书中融为一体，并以对爱因斯坦固体的易于理解的统计力学处理达到高潮。我们相信，新教科书提供了传统教科书所需的替代方案，但它在教学上还不够稳健和可移植。它已经对特别优秀的学生起到了很好的作用；这一点很重要，因为这些学生特别容易感到无聊，而我们不想失去他们。然而，我们希望不仅让优秀学生也能接触到这个有趣的主题，也让那些有过良好高中物理准备的普通学生也能接触到这个有趣的主题。让其他教师可以教授课程也很重要；这需要创建其他类型的材料，包括教师手册和将计算机建模引入课程的支持包。我们建议继续进行教学方面的改革，根据我们的教学经验和正在进行的形成性评估活动对教科书进行进一步修订。一个关键组成部分是 1999 年秋季的全国 Beta 测试，我们目前正在招募参与者。我们相信，我们现在有一些非常值得教授的东西，但我们需要解决我们和其他人在教授它方面的缺陷。我们还建议修改和扩展我们早期的 E&M 教科书以匹配新材料，从而提供连贯的、现代的一年制入门物理教科书。我们建议开展额外的评估和传播活动。