How%20to%20promote%20students%20ability%20to%20solve%20physics%20problems%20-%20Electronic%20collection%20of%20solved%20problems%20in%20physics - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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How%20to%20promote%20students%20ability%20to%20solve%20physics%20problems%20-%20Electronic%20collection%20of%20solved%20problems%20in%20physics

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How to promote students ability to solve physics problems - Electronic collection of solved problems in physics DANA MANDIKOVA Department of Physics Education, – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: How%20to%20promote%20students%20ability%20to%20solve%20physics%20problems%20-%20Electronic%20collection%20of%20solved%20problems%20in%20physics


1
How to promote students ability to solve physics
problems - Electronic collection of solved
problems in physics
  • DANA MANDIKOVA
  • Department of Physics Education,
  • Charles University in Prague,
  • Faculty of Mathematics and Physics

2
Como apoyar la habilidad de los estudiantes en
solución de los problemas de física La
colección electrónica de las tareas de física por
resolver
  • DANA MANDIKOVA
  • Department of Physics Education,
  • Charles University in Prague,
  • Faculty of Mathematics and Physics

3
Czech Republic
4
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The main activities of our department
  • Training of future physics teachers
  • Support of in-service teachers
  • Popularization of physics
  • Research in physics education and in physics

7
Topics of my interest
  • Students misconceptions in physics
  • International researches TIMSS and PISA
  • Experiments in primary school physics
  • Creation of electronic collection of solved
    problems in physics

8
Content of my lecture
  • Why we prepare this collection
  • Who are the users
  • How does the collection look like
  • Current content and future plans
  • Experience with usage of collection
  • Examples of solved problems

9
Why we prepare this collection
  • To solve physics problems is a key ability which
    students should reach during their physics
    education
  • Lack of time to solve enough problems especially
    for students with poorer previous education
  • Lack of suitable study materials for these
    students

10
Our intention
  • To help the users of the collection to learn how
    to solve physics problems independently
  • To lead them to active thinking about presented
    physics problems

11
How we try to reach it
  • The structure of problems solutions is specially
    designed to substitute tutors help and encourage
    students to solve at least some parts of a
    problem independently
  • There are various hints, notes with laws and
    formulas, figures and other means supporting
    students aspiration before detailed solution
  • We have developed our own web interface for these
    problems which does not show entire solution at
    the first time

12
Who are the users
  • The collection is suitable for independent
    repeating and improvement of high school
    curriculum
  • It can help students in introductory university
    physics courses and reduce their initial
    difficulties with solving physics problems
  • It could be useful and effective tool for
    students, who cant attend the seminars regularly

13
Who are the users
  • High school students interested in physics can
    use this collection as well, e.g. for their
    independent study and for preparation for school
    leaving exams or entrance exams to universities
  • We started to assign to the collection also
    easier high and secondary school problems
  • Availability on public web pages enables usage of
    the collection by both students and teachers not
    only at our faculty but also at other
    universities and high schools

14
Who are the authors
  • The author of the technical design and user
    interface is Zdenka Koupilova
  • The solved problems are prepared mostly as a part
    of bachelor or diploma theses by students at our
    faculty, whose study branch is aimed at education
  • We collaborate also with high school teachers and
    use their experience for reviewing the content
    structure of particular parts of the collection
    and also for designing new problems

15
User interface of the collection
16
User interface of the collection
  • Difficulty
  • L1 - problems on the lower secondary school level
  • L2 - problems on the upper secondary school level
  • L3 - problems on the high school level, more
    difficult problems without using differential and
    integral calculus
  • L4 - university level problems

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User interface of the collection
  • Special categories
  • Problem solved graphically
  • Problem solved by reasoning
  • Complex problem
  • Problem solved by an unusual trick
  • Problem containing theory

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Sections of individual problem Title and
assignment
  • We are trying to set the entry physical
    values to be similar to real life experience
  • The important part of the problem is a picture
    related to the problem and motivating to solve
    the problem

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Sections of individual problem - solution
  • Hints are written in a way that helps and
    motivates users to solve the problem. By
    including the hints were trying to involve users
    in solving the problem actively

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Sections of individual problem - hint
21
Sections of individual problem - solution
  • The analysis contains the whole strategy of the
    solution
  • By the analysis were trying to introduce the
    physical principle of the problem to the students
  • The analysis doesnt contain mathematical
    formulas

22
Sections of individual poblem - solution
  • Commented solution describes the solution step by
    step to the details
  • Includes every logical operation
  • Includes all mathematical steps
  • Includes brief resume of known data, conversions
    to appropriate units and numerical calculations

23
Sections of individual problem
  • Answer - allows the users to check results
    quickly
  • Comment
  • Describes possible alternative solution
  • Contains e. g. variations of the problem leading
    to an easier or to more difficult solution
  • Comments if the assignment is realistic
  • Highlights things that users may be interested in
  • Links - similar problems are linked together by
    hyperlinks

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Example of problem
http//physicstasks.eu
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Sections of individual problem
  • The order of sections in the problem is not
    fixely given and depends on the author
  • There can be more than one section of same type
    in a problem
  • Using this variety in problem design, the author
    leads a reader through the problem in a way
    optimized to the type of the particular problem
  • The author can also arrange the problems
    sections to move readers to active thinking about
    the problem

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Example of problem
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Current content - czech version
  • There are more than 750 problems
  • Mechanics 200
  • Electricity and magnetism 215
  • Thermodynamics and molecular physics 140
  • Physics of microworld 60
  • Theoretical mechanics 30
  • Mathematical methods 18
  • Mathematical analysis 110

28
Current content other versions
  • English version - 55 problems
  • Mechanics - 31
  • Electricity and magnetism - 24
  • Polish version 90 problems
  • Administration interface is in english - no
    problem to add other versions

29
Future plans
  • Our aim is to cover all parts of physics included
    into the basic university courses
  • Continuously adding problems into already
    existing parts
  • Administration interface of the collection is
    still being developed and improved
  • Tasks are translated to english
  • Monitoring usability of the collection

30
Experience with usage of collection
  • The collection is used during seminars aimed to
    problem solving, which support compulsory physics
    lectures
  • Especially students, which can not attend
    seminars regularly appreciate this material very
    much
  • Also high school teachers and students like the
    project and see it as very helpful and useful

31
Users opinion
  • Monitoring use of the collection
  • Feedback questionnaire (158 filled before
    10.4.2013)
  • 49 using regularly
  • Users appreciate the structure of tasks -
    especially hints and analysis and database
    interface.
  • Users are also students of other universities and
    high school students and their teachers

32
How is the collection used
33
How is the collection used
34
Number of visits
  • Number of visits 1.3. 30.4.2013

Total number of visits 43 810 Number of unique
visitors 30 760 Average time of one visit 2
min 51 s
35
Where are the users from?
  • Mexico 22 visits

36
Examples of problems
  • A block struck by a bullet
  • Cyclotron

37
Web address of english version
http//physicstasks.eu
38
If you want to join, please contact
us sbirka_at_kdf.mff.cuni.cz
39
Thank you for attention Dana.Mandikova_at_mff.cuni
.cz
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