Thomas A. Moore

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Six Ideas That Shaped PhysicsAn Overview

• Thomas A. Moore
• Introductory Calculus-Based Physics Conference
• November 1, 2003

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What is Six Ideas That Shaped Physics?

• A textbook, instructors manual, and website
• A new approach to teaching introductory physics
  based on four fundamental principles
• New approaches can provide increased insight
• Active learning solidifies understanding
• Explicit instruction and practice with
  model-building provides flexibility
• Contemporary physics provides excitement

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My goals in this presentation

• To describe the structure and goals of a Six
  Ideas course
• To discuss how the Six Ideas materials express
  the four principles mentioned
• To present evidence that the approach works

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The Introductory University Physics Project (IUPP)

• NSF-funded project (1987-1995) whose purpose was
  to develop and test alternatives to the standard
  course
• Summative report Am. J. Phys. 66, pp. 124-137
  (February, 1998)
• Principles articulated by the IUPP committee
• Less is more
• Include 20th century physics
• Use a storyline

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The structure of Six Ideas

• The text is divided into six volumes, each
  focused on a single formative idea
• Unit C Interactions are Constrained by
  Conservation Laws
• Unit N The Laws of Physics are Universal
• Unit R The Laws of Physics are Frame-Independent
• Unit E Electric and Magnetic Fields are Unified
• Unit Q Matter Behaves Like Waves
• Unit T Some Processes are Irreversible

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How this structure addresses the IUPP goals

• Each idea provides a story line for the unit
• They also motivate necessary cuts
• Some large-scale cuts (geometric optics, fluids)
• Mostly, the pace is cut by streamlining
• The chapter per day format defines the pace
• Contemporary physics
• Units on relativity and quantum physics
• Contemporary perspective throughout

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How new approaches can improve learning an
example

• Common student problems
• Identifying forces linked by Newtons 3rd law
• Identifying fictitious forces
• These problems are related
• Students see forces as isolated entities that are
  not linked to any deeper conceptual structure
• Standard presentations reinforce this

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How new approaches can improve learning an
example

• In Six Ideas, the interaction between two objects
  (not force) is the fundamental concept
• How this addresses the problem
• The forces that are linked by Newtons 3rd law
  are always the two ends of a specific interaction
• Fictitious forces do not reflect an interaction

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How new approaches can improve learning an
example

• Other payoffs for this approach
• Helps make the concept of potential energy
  clearer
• Helps students better understand the similarities
  between force, power, and torque
• Momentum-flow images help students qualitatively
  predict motion without calculus

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Support for Active Learning

• The most robust result of physics educational
  research Students learn by doing
• We all know this, but our courses are not usually
  structured as if this were true
• Six Ideas supports active learning in four ways
• Support for reducing the need for lectures
• Support for activities during class
• Support for active learning outside of class
• Support for intelligent course design

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Support for Reducing Lectures

• Text is written more like a conversation, less
  like an encyclopedia
• Helps for active reading
• Wide margins for student notes
• In-chapter exercises help challenge students to
  think about what they are reading (and answers in
  the back provide instant feedback)
• Overview/summary at the beginning of each chapter
  displays the big picture

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Support for class activities

• Two-minute problems
• Active demonstrations

N2T.9 A car moving at a constant speed travels
past a valley in the road, as shown below. Which
of the arrows shown most closely approximates the
direction of the cars acceleration at the
instant that it is at the position shown? (Hint
draw a motion diagram.)
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Active learning outside of class

• Rich-Context problems support collabo-rative
  work in active recitation sections
• Generally, problems cannot be solved by plugging
  and chugging

C7R.2 You are prospecting for rare metals on a
spherical asteroid composed mostly of iron
(density 7800 kg/m3) and whose radius is 4.5
km. Youve left your spaceship in a circular
parking orbit 400 m above the asteroid's surface
and gone down to the surface. However, one of
your exploratory explosions knocks you against a
rock, ruining your jet pack. (This is why you
have a backup jet pack, which is, unfortunately,
back up in the spaceship.) Is it possible for
you to simply jump high enough to get back to the
spaceship?
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Support for good course design

• To be successful, course design must
• Motivate students to read text before class
• Help them focus on ideas instead of formulas
• Encourage them to learn from difficult problems
  (instead of freaking out)
• Details are important!
• The instructors manual (available online) offers
  ideas about how to do this well

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Instruction in Model-Building
Why is this important?

• Real applications always involve discerning a
  simple model in a complex situation
• Building a model involves self-consciously making
  approximations and assumptions
• Learning to do this well is an art that students
  learn by both instruction and practice

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Instruction in Model-Building

• The text extensively discusses how to build
  models and make appropriate approximations
• It teaches and uses a four-part problem-solving
  outline Translate, Model, Solve, Evaluate
• It explicitly teaches the value of tools such as
  unit analysis, symbolic algebra, the method of
  extremes, estimation
• It extensively uses diagrams as thinking tools
• Computer models help students explore
  consequences of physical models

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Contemporary Physics

• Why teach relativity and quantum physics?
• Well, this is the 21st century
• 32/33 will never take another physics course
• One of the clearest signals from IUPP evaluation
  was the interest in these topics
• Six Ideas uses contemporary ideas throughout
• It addresses how topics fit into current physics
• It explores contemporary applications
• Its problems have a very practical orientation

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Does Six Ideas work?

• The FCI Exam (Physics Teacher, 30, 3, 1992)(a
  difficult but purely conceptual multiple-choice
  exam on Newtonian physics)
• R. Hake, Am. J. Phys. 66(1) (January 1998)
• The normalized gain g (post - pre)/(100 -
  pre) is a robust measure of course performance
• Traditional courses g 0.23 0.04
• Interactive engagment (IE) courses g 0.48
  0.14
• Not correlated with instructor, initial student
  state

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Does Six Ideas Work?

• Results from Pomona College
• 1993 0.46
• 1996 0.48
• 1997 0.45
• 1998 0.55 (estimated)
• 2000 0.63
• 2001 0.58

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Does Six Ideas Work?

• Vic DeCarlo at DePauw University2000
  0.542001 0.55
• Ulrich Heinz at Ohio State (Columbus)2001 0.72
  (!)
• Note that Six Ideas spends less time on mechanics
  than most IE courses
• Good gains seem to happen even if the classes are
  not especially interactive

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Conclusions

• Six Ideas provides (without requiring costly
  staffing, scheduling, or infrastructure changes)
• A contemporary and effective approach to physics
• Support for active learning
• Explicit instruction in model-building skills
• It has been classroom-tested for gt 10 years
• It provides extensive support for instructors
• For more www.physics.pomona.edu/sixideas