Helping Under-prepared Students Learn Calculus-Based University Physics (Mats Selen, UIUC Department of Physics, July 25, AAPT-2001)

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Helping Under-prepared Students Learn
Calculus-Based University Physics (Mats Selen,
UIUC Department of Physics, July 25, AAPT-2001)

• Building a foundation Physics 100
• What motivates us
• Brief overview of our intro physics sequence.
• Why we need a preparatory course like Physics
  100.
• Identifying students at risk
• Self evaluation test.
• Class structure
• Pre-flight, Discussion, Homework and Quizzes.
• Preliminary Results.
• Is it helping?
• Follow-up
• Physics 199M.
• The Future
• Web based lectures with audio.
• NSF sponsored minority scholarship program.

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Overview of the UICU calc-basedintroductory
physics sequence

• Taken by all physics engineering undergrads
• Physics 111 (4 hrs, mechanics)
• Physics 112 (4 hrs, EM)
• Physics 113 (2 hrs, thermo/stat-mech)
• Physics 114 (2 hrs, waves/quantum)
• Taken by about 4000 students per year

Most freshmen start here
In Phase
Out of Phase
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Why a preparatory course?

• Despite the University of Illinois C of E high
  admission standards, nearly 20 of accepted
  students are inadequately prepared to pass our
  introductory mechanics course (i.e. they earn a D
  or F).
• The failure rate is even higher for minority
  groups.
• As high as 68 for African Americans.
• Many students do not realize that they are poorly
  prepared.
• We need to identify inadequately prepared
  students and help them gear up for Physics 111
  and beyond.

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Student Selection

• Self evaluation quiz is offered in the Fall
  semester to all freshman in the College of
  Engineering as well as all students enrolled in
  physics 111.
• Students receiving a score below a certain cutoff
  are invited to take Physics 100 (1 credit-hour).
• Much less than half of identified students choose
  to participate initially.
• This should really be a placement exam!
• Physics 100 does not officially start until about
  3 weeks into the fall semester.
• Gives students time to evaluate their situation
• Many decide to take Physics 100 after doing
  poorly on the first Physics 111 mid-term exam.
• Typical Physics 100 enrollment 100

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The Self Evaluation

• Tests basic math and physics background.
• Students take this (individually) on the web.
• No time pressure while taking test.
• They can try the test as many times as they want
  to (before deadline), although they are not given
  feedback until after the deadline.
• Consists of 16 multiple choice questions.
• 8 of these (found the most predictive) are used
  to arrive at their score.
• Students that get less than half right are
  invited to take Physics 100.

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Example Self Evaluation Questions

• Did you take high school physics?
• (a) Yes
• (b) No
• (c) Yes but it was lousy

(Background)
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Example Self Evaluation Questions

• Here we have two vectors V and W. The angle
  between these vectors is A.
• 1) What is the component of V parallel to W in
  terms of A and the magnitudes of V and W?
• (a) V
• (b) W
• (c) V sin(A)
• (d) V cos(A)
• (e) W sin(A)
• (f) W cos(A)

(Basic trig)
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Example Self Evaluation Questions

• An oarsman can row his boat 3 mph is still water.
  He sets out on the Illinois River, which flows at
  5 mph. We are interested in what an observer on
  shore measures.
• 1) When the man heads the boat directly
  downstream and rows as fast as he can, how fast
  does the observer on shore see the boat going?
• (a) 2 mph (b) 3 mph (c) 5 mph (d) 7 mph (e) 8
  mph
• 2) When the man heads the boat directly
  downstream and rows as fast as he can, which
  direction does the observer on shore see the boat
  going?
• (a) upstream (b) downstream

(reasoning)
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Example Self Evaluation Questions

• The force on an object in uniform circular motion
  is given by F mv2/r.
• 1) Consider two equal mass objects moving around
  the same circle, one with speed V1 and one with
  speed V2, where V1 2V2. What is the ratio of
  the forces on these objects?
• (a) F1/F2 1
• (b) F1/F2 2
• (c) F1/F2 4
• (d) F1/F2 1/2
• (e) F1/F2 1/4

(scaling)
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Self evaluation Physics 111 correlation
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Class Structure

• Weekly cycle
• Textbook reading assignment
• Web Based Homework (based on reading)
• Traditional problems.
• Interactive Examples (IEs).
• Unlimited tries before deadline, immediate
  feedback.
• Web Based Preflight (JITT)
• Provides information to instructor prior to
  discussion section.
• Graded on participation only
• Discussion (2-hour capstone)
• Group problem solving facilitated by instructor
• Graded on participation
• Also
• Three web-based quizzes
• Written (M/C) final exam

No Lecture
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Traditional Homework
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Limited help available
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Interactive Examples (Socratic Dialogue)
Start by asking a numeric question(usually
multi-step)
when students click in Help
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Help results in a discussion followed by some
multiple-choice questions that lead them toward
the answer
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This dialogue can take several steps
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these steps are designed toteach students
problem solvingapproaches as well as physics
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Eventually they get another (simpler) numeric
question whoseanswer is needed to solve the
primary numeric question.
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Clicking on Help again results in asimilar
dialogue as the first time,although one level
deeper. - Problems can be 4-5 levels deep -
Eventually they get enough info to solve the
problem.
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Once they get right the answer
They get arecap
And somefollow-upquestions
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Interactive Example Features

• Created to develop concept based problem solving
  skill.
• Quantitative Problems
• Socratic help
• Conceptual Analysis
• Strategic Analysis
• Quantitative Analysis
• Recap
• Follow up questions

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Student Logs

• We record all student submissions on IEs (the
  conversation)

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This is Research data!

• How much time do students spend on the IEs?
• How well do the students do on their first
  response to questions?
• How deep into the IE do students go?

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Pre-Flights

• Due before discussion (6am Monday)
• Used by instructor to guide discussion work
• Graded on participation only

(This was Mondays talk)
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Discussion Section

• Students work in groups on problems designed
  after examining homework preflight answers.
• Purpose is to tie up loose ends.
• Students should leave understanding everything
  done during the previous week.
• i.e. reading, homework, preflights are capped off
  by discussion.
• Graded on attendance participation

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Are we helping students ?
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Are we helping students
Can we reduce the failure rate of under-prepared
students in Physics 111/112/113/114 ? Probably
YES (research by Gladding Shoaf)
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DISTRIBUTION OF FINAL GRADES Physics 100 alumni
All Physics 111 taking Physics 111
students
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Soare we helping ??

• It seems like we might be, however there is a is
  a big caveat Physics 100 students are self
  selected !
• Are we getting only those students that were
  going to do well anyway ?
• We need more data to study this.
• A real placement test would be very helpful !

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Follow Up

• Alumni of Physics 100 test to need/want more help
  with physics as they work through the Physics
  111/112 sequence.
• We now offer 1-hour courses for Physics 100
  graduates that parallel the regular Physics 111
  (spring) and 112 (fall) courses.
• Weekly 2-hour tutorial sections.
• Graded on participation only.
• Although we know the students are very happy with
  these, we are presently attempting to quantify
  the effect.
• Small statistics so far.

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The Future

• So far, results are encouraging however, we
  would like to verify the validity of the Self
  Evaluation test.
• Placement test.
• Quantify the effects of the course.
• Increase Minority Participation.
• NSF Grant to fund minority participation program.
• Working together with office of Minority
  Engineering Program ( M.E.P.) at U. of I.
• Web-based interactive lectures with audio.
• Students want to have a formal lecture.
• Cant do this formally and keep low time impact.
• Next best thing may be web-based lecture notes.
• Sound will provide extra dimension.