Computer-assisted Laboratories and Tutorials at the University of Maryland

该项目为购买计算机和实验室设备提供资金，以便能够改变该大学为期三个学期的微积分工程物理课程的结构和目的。这门课程每年为大约700名学生服务，他们中的大多数人主修某种形式的工程。这门课程的学生经常发现这门课程令人困惑，既不能建立强有力的物理概念，也不能很好地理解物理模型与真实世界实验的关系。新课程的重点是概念构建以及实验和建模技能的发展。新设备正被用来创建三个新的具有计算机辅助数据采集的微型计算机实验室。其中一个实验室将是一个定性的小组学习(辅导)环境，类似于华盛顿大学开发的环境，但使用的计算机工具类似于车间物理(Dickinson)或Cuple物理工作室(RPI)。这些课程每周持续1个小时，分三个学期进行。学生四人一组，使用指导性发现工作表。另外两个实验是定量的，在第二学期和第三学期进行。它们每周持续3个小时。学生通过手工和使用计算机获取数据，并使用电子表格模拟他们的观察结果。重点是发展理解。定性实验和定量实验都使用相同的计算机工具。这两个实验都使用苏格拉底对话法促进学习。

This project funds the purchase of computer and laboratory equipment to allow a transformation of the structure and purpose of the calculus-based three-semester engineering physics course at the university. This course serves approximately 700 students per year, most of them majoring in some form of engineering. Students in this course often find the course confusing and fail to build either strong physical concepts or a good understanding of the relation of physical models to real-world experiments. The new course focuses on concept building and the development of experimental and modeling skills. The new equipment is being used to create three new microcomputer laboratories with computer-assisted data acquisition. One lab will be a qualitative group-learning (tutorial) environment similar to those developed at the U. of Washington but with computer tools similar to Workshop Physics (Dickinson) or the CUPLE Physics Studio (RPI). These sessions last 1 hour a week and are given in each of the three semesters. Students work in groups of four using guided-discovery worksheets. The other two labs are quantitative and are taken in the second and third semesters. They last for 3 hours per week. Students take data both by hand and using the computer and use spreadsheets to model their observations. The emphasis is on developing understanding. The same computer tools are used in both the qualitative and quantitative labs. Both labs use facilitated learning with Socratic dialog methods.