7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Teaching Students to “Think Like a Physicist” Paradigms in Physics Corinne Manogue

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Support National Science Foundation –DUE , , –DUE , , Oregon State University Oregon Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers Grinnell College Mount Holyoke College Utah State University

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Thank you for the warm welcome to Colombia!

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Paradigms in Physics I will not talk about the Paradigms arrangement of courses here. I will talk about teaching. See our wiki: activities, courses, narratives, pedagogical strategies, textbooks. physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Outline Classroom Norms The Hidden Curriculum Listening: (Surprising Things Students Don’t Know)

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Outline Things you already know. Ways you may never have imagined how to implement them!

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Classroom Norms What are your students expectations for what will happen in the classroom?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Food in mouth: Eat Use hands Use knife and fork Select food Pay Menu on paper Menu on wall In a Restaurant:1

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Classroom Norms Everyone is welcome in my class. –Women & minorities –Foreigners –First generation students –Quiet, shy white men –Engineers –Foot in mouth—apologizing.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Classroom Norms High stakes, low stakes, no stakes. Everyone is expected to participate. –Start from the first day!! –Don’t expect them to do anything you don’t model (looking foolish!)

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Changing the Frame

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Classroom Norms I think part of what was interesting. It was completely different than what you might be implicitly expecting about even regular group work might be like. So preconceptions about what class was going to be like, It was effective at probably shattering a lot of those. You don’t terribly often have your professor standing on the table role playing a fictional character for educational purposes. And I thought that was good as a way to sort of expand our expectations of what we might be doing at any given time. rather than just sort of sit here, take notes, then do something and then sit here some more.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Classroom Norms Everyone makes lots of mistakes. –Small white boards Do you feel welcome? –“Give a formula for the potential due to this point charge.” –Saving face: Allow question marks. Who summarizes?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Point Charge—Potential

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki 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

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Classroom Norms Mathematicians teach students to be precise => pay attention to language (good) => be afraid (bad) Physicists teach students to solve problems they’ve never seen before => must coordinate many strategies => jump in even if you can’t see the end

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki The Hidden Curriculum What is the middle-division? What are your hidden curriculum goals for the middle-division?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki The Hidden Curriculum —Problem-Solving Moving away from templates Using advanced notation Breaking-up complicated problems Harmonic reasoning Novice Expert Problem-solving confidence Using Reflective Judgment

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Novice to Expert How do I use this method to solve problems? How do I get from this step to this step? How will I know if this will work? What else can I do if this won’t work?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Metacognition Matters How do I know that I know something? Why is she doing this to mc? What are the facets of problem-solving? How far have I come? How do I organize the content in my head?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki The Hidden Curriculum Choose your pedagogical strategies to reflect your hidden curriculum goals.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki The Hidden Curriculum —Lecture vs. Activities The Instructor: –Paints big picture. –Inspires. –Covers lots fast. –Models speaking. –Models problem- solving. –Controls questions. –Makes connections. The Students: –Focus on subtleties. –Experience delight. –Slow, but in depth. –Practice speaking. –Practice problem- solving. –Control questions. –Make connections.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Lecture vs. Activities Rule of thumb: –If the can get it from lecture—then lecture!! –If they can’t get it from lecture—then make them fall in the trap when you are there to help them out.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Hidden Curriculum Kinesthetic Activities –students use their own bodies to represent aspects of the physical situation –concrete representation of the geometric situation –concrete representation of idealizations.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Current “This went surprisingly smoothly and quickly. I had been a bit concerned that we'd have chaos, but students very quickly worked out what they were to do. Since all the students are working together, everyone stayed on the same page.”

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Compare & Contrast Each small group solves a slightly different example of the same calculation. The focus of the activity, then, is often on the full-class wrap-up discussion that happens after the activity.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Eigenvectors & Eigenvalues Each group has a different matrix. The examples are all “tricky” (degeneracy) Find eigenvalues & eigenvectors. See Narratives on the wiki,physics.oregonstate.edu

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Large Whiteboards Provide the opportunity: –to compare and contrast answers, –for mini-presentations, –to discuss problem-solving strategies, synthesis, evaluation, decision-making, etc.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Chunking & Compiling When we are learning new things, they each appear in our memory as separate facts. This makes the load on working memory extremely high. What happens when the buffer gets full? Chunking/compiling.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Breaking Complex Problems into Smaller Pieces Potential Due to Pair of Charges Potential Due to Ring Electric Field Due to Ring Vector Potential Due to Spinning Ring Magnetic Field Due to Spinning Ring

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Epistemological strategies Reinventing College Physics for Biologists: Explicating an Epistemological Curriculum, E. F. Redish and D. Hammer, Am. J. Phys., 77, (2009). recognizing patterns fleshing out formulas applying learned mathematics applying a principle to a specific case sense making 10: Group begins. 2: Middle of group work. 8: Wrap-up

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Structure Open-ended, short prompts. Break into pieces for different content goals. Scaffolded by high-quality roving instructors. Wrap-up discussions provide chance for reflection.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Listening Surprising things students don’t know. basis vectors that go with curvilinear coordinates matrices as transformations power series as approximations eigenvectors as the things that are “unchanged” by a transformation a geometric conception of fields that zero is a number how to add two functions pointwise how to read equations as words what is planar about plane waves? geometric interpretations of dot and cross products the meaning of the vertical axis on a graph how to shift a graph left or right, up or down

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Relating Multiple Representations

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Socratic vs. Groups How does it feel to teach in these ways? vs. Everyone knows everything vs. No one knows anything

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Conclusions Linear vs. Holistic Thinking –Lecturing, textbooks are linear –Learning is holistic. Meet the diverse needs of your students by thinking about your curriculum on multiple levels.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Plane Wave Activity Students connect points with equal value of What is

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Plane Wave Representations

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Using Color to Visualize Spherical Harmonics

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Visualization—Table

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Visualization—Level Curves

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Visualization—Graph

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Visualization—Gradient

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Relating Multiple Representations

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki What is the electrostatic potential due to this point charge?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki What is the electrostatic potential due to this pair of point charges?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Shifting/Superposition Superposition for solutions of linear differential equations:

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki What is the electrostatic potential due to this ring of charge?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Idealization Make the students think about the source:

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki What is the electrostatic field due to this ring of charge?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Potentials or Fields Should students study the electric field first (conventional) or electrostatic potentials (Paradigms)?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki The Spinning Ring Consider a very thin ring of charge with constant charge density, and total charge Q. The ring has radius R and is rotating about its axis with period T. For all groups: Create an integral expression for the vector potential caused by this ring everywhere in space. The expression should be complete enough to put into Maple or a similar mathematics package.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki The Spinning Ring - Limits Approximate this vector potential near the center of the ring, in the plane of the ring. Approximate this vector potential near the center of the ring, along the z-axis. Approximate this vector potential far from the ring, in the plane of the ring. Approximate this vector potential far from the ring, along the z-axis.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Motto My Agenda Is Irrelevant If I Can’t Take The Students With Me

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki An Example Typical of EARLY upper-division work for physics majors and many engineers. Solution requires: –many mathematical strategies, –many geometrical and visualization strategies, –only one physics concept. Demonstrates different use of language.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Potential Due to Charged Disk What is the electrostatic potential at a point, on axis, above a uniformly charged disk?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki One Physics Concept Coulomb’s Law:

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Superposition Superposition for solutions of linear differential equations:

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Chopping and Adding Integrals involve chopping up a part of space and adding up a physical quantity on each piece.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Computational Skill Can the students set-up and do the integral?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Constants vs. Variables Which of these symbols are constants and which are variables?

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Limits (Far Away)

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki The Spinning Ring Consider a very thin ring of charge with constant charge density, and total charge Q. The ring has radius R and is rotating about its axis with period T. For all groups: Create an integral expression for the vector potential caused by this ring everywhere in space. The expression should be complete enough to put into Maple or a similar mathematics package.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki The Spinning Ring - Limits Approximate this vector potential near the center of the ring, in the plane of the ring. Approximate this vector potential near the center of the ring, along the z-axis. Approximate this vector potential far from the ring, in the plane of the ring. Approximate this vector potential far from the ring, along the z-axis.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Multiple Representations Write on your small white board something about dot products.

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki Steady Current

7/19/2010http://physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki 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