Corinne Manogue & the whole Paradigms Team Interactive Engagement in Upper-Level Physics Lessons from the Paradigms Program http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Corinne Manogue & the whole Paradigms Team Paradigms in Physics Revising the Upper-Division Curriculum Paradigms in Physics is a project at Oregon State University to revise the entire upper-division curriculum for physics and engineering physics majors to make our program more modern, integrated, and flexible and to increase students’ success. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Teaching Principle Suggestion Students have little experience with geometric visualization. Suggestion Use kinesthetic activities and tangible metaphors to tap into students’ embodied cognition. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Kinesthetic Activities Stand up. Each of you represents a point charge. Make a linear charge density. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Tangible Metaphors Raising Calculus (Physics) to the Surface 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Tangible Metaphors Partial Derivatives Machine 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Teaching Principle Suggestion It takes effort to bring information into working memory. Suggestion Use small whiteboards to help students activate the relevant information. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Small Whiteboards On your small whiteboard, write something you know about the dot product. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Affordances of Small White Board Questions Allow the instructor to see if everyone is on the same page. “Quiet” members of the class are encouraged to participate. Students vie to have their answers chosen. Keep everyone engaged and awake. Professional development: communication skills. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Using Small Whiteboards Make it safe to be wrong: Insist that students answer, but allow a question mark. Make answers anonymous at first. Different types of questions: Review, comparing multiple representations. Bring out common problems. Model professional problem-solving. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Teaching Principle Suggestion Don’t try to answer a question that students don’t yet have. Suggestion Use active engagement to prime “the teachable moment.” 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Compare and Contrast Activities On your medium whiteboards, construct a square grid of points, approximately two inches apart, at least 7 by 7. I will draw an origin and a vector on your grid. For every point on your grid, imagine drawing the position vector to that point, calculate Connect the points with equal values of 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Affordances of Medium Whiteboards Provide the opportunity: to develop and practice problem-solving strategies, to compare and contrast answers, for mini-presentations, to discuss synthesis, evaluation, decision-making, etc. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Plane Wave Representations 4/27/2012 Seoul National University

Effective Activities Are short, containing approximately 3 questions. Ask different groups to apply the same technique to different examples. Involve periodic lecture/discussion with the instructor. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Teaching Principle Suggestions Students are smarter than you think, but know far less. Suggestions Ask yourself when students would have learned something you expect them to know. Keep a list of “surprising” things that students don’t know and use it to choose activities (PCK). How to interpret the vertical axis. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Quantum Ring 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Rigid Rotor—Spherical Harmonics 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Hydrogen Atom 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Simulations Design experiences based on known student problems. Choose thoughtfully: “black box” (e.g. PhETs, OSP) “open” (e.g. Mathematica/Maple) “student code writing” Avoid “Ooooh-Aaahh!!!” by asking students to answer specific questions. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop

Seoul National University Active Engagement Effective but Slow Precious commodity Use wisely Special Needs of Upper-Division Easily Over-Scheduled Can Get Out-of-Synch Short Activities Mid-Lecture Moving Rooms: awkward but possible Active Engagement. We have found that these active-engagement strategies are effective, but very slow. As such, we consider them a precious commodity that must be used wisely. While the structures of some of our activities parallel those that have been employed successfully at the lower-division level, some are unique to the special needs of the upper-division. We have discovered a number of important facets regarding the implementation of active engagement activities: they are easily overscheduled and can get out-of-synch with the natural alternating rhythm of one hour and two hour classes. Short activities that occur mid-lecture are more flexible in this sense than longer activities. Because our physical facilities are not (yet?!) ideal for our structure, some activities, particularly computer visualization require us to change rooms in the middle of class. We found that this situation is awkward, but possible. 4/27/2012 Seoul National University

How to Establish Norms Picking up someone else’s baby. Restaurants and room constraints. Tell students what you are doing and why. Tell students what you expect and repeat. Looming and rolling your eyes Don’t whine or blame. 11/19/2016 New Faculty Workshop