Using WWW Resources in Teaching Physics

Introduction

What follows is a survey of several instruments, some on the market and others are being used by schools for teaching physics. Accompanying each bookmark is a subjective comment made by an average first year physics student, and a rating based on the material's perceived effectiveness for introductory physics students:

* - poor

** - acceptable but needs improvement

*** - very good

• What we have at Brock
• What other people do with the web
• Ingredients of a Great Computer-Augmented Introductory Physics Course
  • Tests and questions
  • Syllabus
  • Course notes on-line
  • Getting students involved
• Et cetera
  • Working with other universities
  • Results of Interactive media
  • Interesting Physics Links
• Conclusions

** Overheads for Physics 1F20/1F25

This provides a visual picture of the concepts being explained. The typed ques tions allow the students to concentrate on the explanation of the answers instead of trying to copy down the questions or lug around a heavy notebook.

*** Weekly Physics 1F20/1F25 Tutorial Problems

Allows students to find the homework for the present and following weeks. Gives students the possibility of looking and working ahead (if they so desire). If the students could only access the homework questions by logging on to the computer, this might create more usage and exploration of the possible physics resources!

** Calyph

The program is a good review and rehearsal of physics skills. It acts as an aided tutorial and gives students practice in answering physics questions.It is an interesting and novel way to review answering questions. The program is good because it doesn't give the student immediate feedback as to why a question may be wrong.

*** Projectile Motion

An 'applet', as it is called, is a moving illustration of a concept or principle. Dr. Sternin recently purchased this program and plans to use it to augment his lectures.

** Brock University Physics Club

An excellent idea to make the study of physics somewhat easier and more enjoyable. It is important, however, that students, especially those taking mandatory introductory courses, find out about these clubs! Trips, meetings and membership drives should be big things, and an outgoing and, preferably, a good-looking member :) of the club should visit classes and promote, promote, promote!

*** Mylo's Home Page

The greater the knowledge of a student about the internet, the more likely he or she will be able to explore and satisfy the desire to know and to understand that is human nature. Many students use their web-page as a means of communication to other students and professors. Questions may be answered and new information can be explored using the internet and testing its capabilities.

** 4. A simple example

The more practice that a student has doing physics computations, the better. However, this program has too many complicated numbers and computer commands for the average neophyte computer user. To improve the program the professor should add more polish and pictures. The student only has time to study physics, not computer programming. A good on-line tutorial can help students to pin-point areas that they need to pay extra attention.

*** Information on Fall 1995 Classes

This information page is detailed, clear and has many links. The options available to the students are numerous, including an up-to-date marks calculation(for those marks-oriented students), practice tests, study guides, test answers, and solutions for homework questions. A word of caution: the Internet is not meant to replace the teacher. The students should continue to seek out help and guidance from professors and tutorial leaders, and the solutions to their errors should not be immediately given.

* content

A lecture list that is too long loses the interest of students. This summary also lacks links to the diagrams and illustrations listed.

*** GIF image 447x345 pixels

This type of picture is similar to the ones used in lecture by Professor E. Sternin at Brock. The difference is that there are more notes written on the page. This would be helpful to students who are better visual learners than audio learners.

* A Solutions to the Excercises

Straight text answers to the exercises do not give any further explanation or deeper insight than ordinary paper.Students may become less likely to talkto the professor or tut- orial leader about difficulties.

* A Tour of the Physics Department Museum

The information contained in this text would be useful if it were read. However, the amount of print is discouraging to a student who accessedthe com- puter to expand his or her understanding of physics past the textbook.

** Physics Lecture Demonstrations

Graphics in the menu and in the individual demonstrations are very ap- pealing and grab the attention of the user. However, the illustrations are not connected to formulas or symbols that would show students how this knowledge of concepts may be used to solve num- erical problems. There are many different options available to the student. For each topic there are 20 different illustrations which expand a different concept. The text that accompanies the illustrations provides further explanations. Students also have the options of watching a video or reading text which ex- plains what would happen in the video. The variety of visuals available covers more styles of learning.

Tests and questions

**Practice Test #2

The multiple choice method of answering this test attracts students. The teacher is not involved in this endeavor at all, because the answers to the questions are already in the computer. The student can answer as many or as few questions as he or she wishes. The students get immediate feedback as to the number of correct and incorrect responses. The questions often refer to the previous lectures, which gives students the incentive to go to lectures. The test is lacking because if an answerwas wrong, the student would not be told what to change or why it was wrong.

***Get your grade

The students can see what their marks to date are. This gives them an idea of the results of their efforts and work.

**Test #1, September 14, 1995.

This is a list of all the applications of the information and formulas learned during a specific time period. The student may use the summary to guide inher method of studying. She can practice questions which cover each of the applications in the summary. This lacks links to take students to websites which would illustrate each application.

***Landing on Target...

In this interactive compliment to the lecture, students can interact with the computer without fear of criticism. The pictures and complementary script guides the students through applications, theory, quizes, exploring further info and ends with connecting formulas to the theories. It challenges students to understand the information as opposed to memorizing methods of performing questions.

**Test answers

The answers to a term test are put on-line after the test has been marked and given back to the students. Note the multiple choice format of the test which stresses understanding of concepts. The answers to the test are highlighted in bold. Not all of the questions were answered, and there were no links to connect students to information that would explain why a specific choice was correct or not.

**A Solutions to the Excercises

Although this is not physics work, the concept of having answers to as- signments is applicable to physics. The answers are put on-line after the assignments have been marked and handed back. This gives students the opportunity to correct their mistakes. The answers are not simply given to the students, but there is a brief explanation. The format of this resembles the answers in the backof a physics study guide. However, there is too much text in one space, a problem which could be solved using links to other pages.

Syllabus

***Welcome to Physics 152

An interesting format or web-page attracts the attention of students. The options are easy to read and look inviting and fun rather than intimidating.

*** Principles of Protein Structure Using the Internet

A most interesting and eye-catching info page! Included on this page are boxes which group the information which follows it into simple categories. Some subjects in the cate-gories include assignments, a course syllabus, noticeboard, email discussion lists and student consultants names. The set-up is simple, direct and easy to use.

**Lecture List

This is a brief lecture list that has key words but also has links to fur- ther information. It conveys the information but gives students the options of further exploration. There is too much text information that is unnecessary, which creates a cluttered appearance.

Course notes on-line

2 Procedural Programming

This set of lecture notes, although long and tending to run-on, has merit due to the numerous links. A person who is looking at the lecture summary may find further hints or information by clicking on a link, which takes them to another screen of information.

A Solutions to the Excercises

The solutions to the exercises are only beneficial to those frequent computer users who like to have everything on line.

Getting students involved

*Physics Unit Conversion Page

This is an interesting way to get help with homework. Using a conversion code, any value with given units can be converted to another measurement of the same category of units. Unfortunately, the loading of the tool and waiting period for the computer to perform the calculation take longer than it would to do the conversion by hand.

**PPS '96 Student Groups

Students in this biology course have the option of receiving help in group internet sessions or by sending questions and receiving answers by email. The students are listed in the course with a background biography (unneccessary for large physics courses) along with their email addresses.

**CAEME - The Physics Museum

The Caeme Physics museum is both an extended knowledge resource bank for students and an interesting interactive tutial to further understanding. It has been suggested that com- puter tutorials should not replace real-life tutorials and labs due to the different learning styles of students and the need for group collaboration on questions. However, the computer tutorial may be used as a preparation before the actual lab, by allowing further understanding of the lab procedure.

***The CPU Project - About

The goals of the CPU project at the San Diego University are to bring together teachers and professors from all levels in an effort to test and evaluate new methods of teaching sciences using interactive computer media. The focus of the material being tested is hands onsimulations, computer simulations and allowing teachers the ability to change/modify/input information into an existing model.

***Landing on Target...

This is an excellent way for students to review past lectures. In this interactive program, the students write information in the boxes as the lecture proceeds. This material is never marked and so the student has the opportunity to brainstorm without criticism.

***OOP/C++ Class Students

Each student in the class has the opportunity to put their name, e-mail ad- dress and a short comment on-line. This brings students to together and allows them to share information and problems with each other by talking in person or through e-mail. This makes the task of an- swering questions and understanding physics concepts less frightening.

**The Particle Adventure

Atoms and their properties are explained through this computer-interactive program. Users have input and control over the activities, which illustrate the theories surrounding the atom and its components. It plays like a videogame, which explains its attraction.

**UCSB Astrophysics Web SunSpots Interactive Lab

Sunspots and their properties and explored by students, who are then tested on thier knowledge. The students interact with the simulations and make numerical computations which are marked and given back to the students. This type of activity has potential to augment labs by pre-explaining the theory and the workings of labs.

Working with other universities

Proceedings of First Educator Workshop - CSEP

Results of Interactive media

IUB Physics Education research

Richard Drake at Indiana university uses the Socratic Dialogue Interactive (SDI) tutorial system to increase collaboration between students. Qualitative studies include student's evaluations and the comparison of test results of conceptual understanding and problem-solving ability. The results of the testing show that the SDI method is 1.5 to 2.8 times more effective than normal (passive) teaching methods. Qualitative analysis shows a general improvement of teaching and the methods of surveying were videotaped individual interviews and lab sessions, and the comments of other professors observing the course.

Interesting Physics Links

Magellan Internet Guide

The Magellan Search guide allows internet users to explore physics and other subjects.

"Physics 152 Lab Links"

This is a list of all the possible links (leads to further information) available on the internet for those interested in physics. It is obvious from this why the internet is often termed the "world wide web".