Collaborative Project: Teaching and Learning of Thermal Physics

合作项目：热物理教学

• 批准号: 0817335
• 负责人: Michael Loverude
• 金额: $ 16.28万
• 依托单位: CSU Fullerton Auxiliary Services Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0817335&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Project; Teaching; Learning; Thermal

Physics (13)This project is a continuation of an ongoing program of coordinated research and research-based curriculum development in thermal physics, primarily in the advanced-level undergraduate courses. Data are gathered using one-on-one student interviews, written pre- and post-test questions, and multiple-choice surveys. The research is then applied to the development of curricular materials intended to improve student understanding in a manner consistent with active-learning methods previously shown to be effective in physics instruction. Prior support has resulted in the development of several interview protocols, diagnostic questions, and survey questions. Project staff have identified several specific conceptual difficulties in thermal physics, and have developed some preliminary curricular materials that have been pilot tested at the home institutions to address these difficulties. This project is adding to the existing data corpus and extending existing work and products to new topics in thermal physics. Existing materials and materials being developed during this project are being evaluated for their effectiveness at addressing student difficulties identified through research. Ancillary materials that integrate our curricular materials more fully into courses and provide instructors with background information and assessment questions are being developed. A set of supporting materials, including pre- and post-tests, homework exercises, and a brief instructors' guide with background on the content and our research findings as well as suggestions for implementation, are being prepared. Materials are applicable to courses taught from a classical thermodynamics and/or a statistical mechanics perspective. With its sharp focus on upper-division courses, this project is expanding the applicability of standard physics education research methods already widely used in introductory courses. Results from this aspect of the project are of great interest to the physics education research community and to instructors of advanced physics courses. The dissemination of both research results and of curricular materials in publications, in presentations at national and international meetings of physicists, physics educators and education researchers, and via pilot testing at participating institutions is contributing to the improvement of instruction in thermal physics nationally and internationally. There are additional interdisciplinary components to this work. One focus of both the research and the curricular materials is the connections between the physics and associated mathematics. In addition, results of the investigations in physics courses are being compared to the results from analogous courses in chemistry, engineering, and geological sciences. The aim is to compare the prevalence and persistence of specific difficulties or beliefs among these populations and to explore the extent to which the different discipline-specific approaches and instructional strategies affect student learning of thermodynamics.

物理(13)这个项目是正在进行的热物理协调研究和基于研究的课程开发计划的延续，主要是在高级本科课程中。数据是通过一对一的学生访谈、考试前和考试后的书面问题以及多项选择调查来收集的。然后，这项研究被应用于课程材料的开发，旨在以与先前被证明在物理教学中有效的主动学习方法相一致的方式来提高学生的理解能力。先前的支持导致了几个面谈协议、诊断问题和调查问题的制定。项目工作人员已经确定了热物理中的几个具体的概念困难，并开发了一些初步的课程材料，已在国内机构进行了试点测试，以解决这些困难。该项目正在增加现有的数据库，并将现有的工作和产品扩展到热物理的新主题。正在评估现有材料和在本项目期间开发的材料在解决通过研究确定的学生困难方面的有效性。正在编写辅助材料，以便将课程材料更全面地融入课程，并为教师提供背景资料和评估问题。目前正在编写一套辅助材料，包括前后测试、作业练习和一份简要的教师指南，其中介绍了课程内容的背景、我们的研究结果以及实施建议。教材适用于从经典热力学和/或统计力学角度教授的课程。随着对高级课程的强烈关注，这个项目正在扩大已经在入门课程中广泛使用的标准物理教育研究方法的适用性。这方面的研究成果引起了物理教育研究界和高等物理课程教师的极大兴趣。在出版物、在国家和国际物理学家、物理教育工作者和教育研究人员会议上的发言中传播研究成果和课程材料，以及通过在参与机构进行试点试验，都有助于改进国内和国际上的热物理教学。这项工作还有其他跨学科的组成部分。研究和教材的一个焦点是物理和相关数学之间的联系。此外，物理课程的调查结果正在与化学、工程和地质科学的类似课程的结果进行比较。其目的是比较这些人群中特定困难或信念的流行率和持久性，并探索不同学科特定的方法和教学策略对学生学习热力学的影响程度。