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Psychologists have long known that an expert in a field not only knows significantly more individual facts/skills than a novice but also has these facts/skills organized into a mental hierarchy that links the individual facts (at the bottom of the hierarchy) together with larger more-encompassing ideas (at the top of the hierarchy). In the Spring quarter of 2012, UC Davis offered 4 sections (about 180 students each) of the first quarter of introductory physics, Physics 9A, covering Newtonian mechanics. One of these sections is a treatment group and had the entire 10-week quarters set of ideas introduced, largely qualitatively, in the first 6 weeks followed by the 4 weeks where students learn to use those ideas to solve the algebraically complicated problems that physicists prize. The other three sections were organized as usual. The treatment group and one of the other sections were taught by the author and were identical (same homework, discussion, lecture, and lab) except for the organization of the content. After controlling for GPA as well as Force Concept Inventory pretest scores, the treatment group was found, with better than 99% confidence, to score higher on the final exam. Some curricular details of the treatment class are discussed in this paper.
Four sections of introductory physics for physical scientists and engineers (about 180 students each) are compared. One section, treatment group, was organized so that students worked to learn the classical ideas connecting forces and motion over the
The classic brachistrochrone problem is standard material in intermediate mechanics. Many variations exist including some accessible to introductory students. While a quantitative solution isnt feasible in introductory classes, qualitative discussion
We present the results of an experience of teaching updating dispensed to Italian high-school physics teachers to promote the application of the Cooperative Problem Solving method as an useful strategy to improve physics learning at high-school level
We describe a study of period changes in 59 RR Lyrae stars, using times of maximum brightness from the GEOS database. The work was carried out by outstanding senior high school students in the University of Toronto Mentorship Program. This paper is w
Developing critical thinking skills is a common goal of an undergraduate physics curriculum. How do students make sense of evidence and what do they do with it? In this study, we evaluated students critical thinking behaviors through their written no