Using TIPERs in the High School Classroom

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Using TIPERs in the High School Classroom

• Martha Lietz
• Niles West High School, Skokie, IL
• Monday, January 10, 2005
• AAPT Winter Meeting, Albuquerque, NM

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Introduction

• Niles West High School large, public suburban
  school outside of Chicago
• Honors Physics (Giancoli)
• AP Physics C (Serway and Beichner)
• Regular Physics (Holt)
• Conceptual Physics (Hewitt)
• 55 minutes per day, every day
• 23 sections, 6 physics teachers

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Kinds of TIPERs Used

• Ranking Tasks (RT)
• Many from the Ranking Tasks book
• Write my own
• Have the students write them
• Working Backwards Tasks (WBT)
• Linked Multiple Choice Tasks (LMCT)

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How They Are Used

• Opening Problems
• 5-10 minutes, single problem
• Sometimes graded, sometimes not
• Discussion
• Homework Problems
• With a Demonstration
• After a Tutorial

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Opening Problem - WBT

• Draw and describe a physical situation to which
  the following equation could apply
• Reverses the thought process
• Use of units in analysis
• Allows the students to be creative
• Written explanations allow insight into student
  thinking

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Ranking Tasks

• Importance of Explanation
• Right Ranking for the Wrong Reason
• Electric Field
• Electric Potential
• Tendency to Perform Calculations
• Projectile Motion
• Horizontal Range
• Maximum Height
• Getting Inspiration for Your Own
• Electric Field Hollow Conductor
• Electric Field Gausss Law

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More Uses of Ranking Tasks

• With a Demonstration
• Rolling Ranking Tasks
• Disk vs. Hoop
• Comparing Hoops
• Comparing Disks
• Great Chicken Soup Race
• After a Tutorial
• Tutorial on Electric Potential Energy
• Ranking Task

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More TIPERs on Electric Potential

• Linked Multiple Choice Task
• Two charges separated by distance D
• Various changes are made to the charges and to
  their separation
• Working Backwards Tasks
• Calculation of the potential energy of two
  charges
• Calculation of the speed of a charge released
  from rest near another charge

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Working Backwards Task as a Lab

• Ordinary Household Bath Bars
• 3 bulbs and 4 bulbs
• Home Depot, Menards, etc
• 15-20
• Rewire to various series and parallel
  configurations
• Students remove one or more of the bulbs and
  watch changes to the light bulbs
• Draw the circuit diagram and cite their evidence
  for why the circuit must be as they have drawn it

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Photos of Light Bulb Demos
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Student Reactions

• Do you like ranking tasks?
• Yes 20 No5 Sometimes 5
• Yes because it actually makes you think about
  concepts and not only numbers
• Yes, because most of the time I get them
  completely wrong, so it shows me what is wrong
  with my thinking.
• No, because they're hard, but they do help a
  lot, so it's okay.
• I do like solve ranking tasks, because it's
  different from other problems, more like a game
• Yes and no. Yes because I know that they're
  helpful but no because they usually give me a
  headache.
• I don't like solving ranking tasks. Having to
  rank several items can be difficult because
  mistakenly ranking one item can cause your entire
  answer to be wrong. Also, most ranking tasks do
  not contain enough numbers to get a numerical
  answer and working with variables can become
  tricky at times.

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More Student Reactions

• How do ranking tasks compare to WebAssign or book
  problems?
• Webassign and book problems are just all
  calculations and relatively easier than ranking
  tasks. Ranking tasks are much more challenging
  and they really test whether you know the
  material or not.
• Ranking tasks aren't as good as the book
  problems or Webassign. The book problems and
  webassign require the student to figure out how
  he/she should solve the problem, and that's half
  of what we're supposed to do. But ranking tasks
  do require you to understand the concept of
  whatever it is you're ranking. And concept is
  sometimes more important than the actual solving.
  Also, understanding the concept will definitely
  help the student to figure out how to solve a
  problem.
• I like Webassign problems because I find them
  easier to do.
• Ranking tasks are more difficult than most
  problems on a Webassign.
• Ranking tasks are A LOT easier than book
  problems or WebAssign. A ranking task is really
  one problem repeated a bunch of times.

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More Student Reactions

• Does the use of ranking tasks help you understand
  physics better?
• Most ranking tasks help me understand physics
  better. It is the abstract thinking that forces
  you to understand it or learn physics.
• Definitely! Because on most multiple choice
  problems from tests last year and AP problems,
  there are no numbers at all, so you can only rely
  on your knowledge of concepts. Ranking tasks
  helped me a lot with the multiple choice problems
  last year.
• Yes, using ranking tasks does help me understand
  physics better. Like I mentioned earlier, they
  force me to think about the problem and defend my
  ranking. However, they only help me understand
  that single concept by itself, whereas webassign
  and other homework forces me to use many concepts
  to solve the problem.
• No, not really. Like I said, a ranking task is
  just one problem done six or seven times. It
  would be better to do 3 different problems in the
  same time.