Physics with Calculus by David V. Anderson & Peter Tarsi assisted by students Carolyn McCrosson & Andrew Trott Lecturette 1: Preliminaries Welcome to Asora’s

Physics with Calculusby

David V. Anderson & Peter Tarsi

assisted by students

Carolyn McCrosson & Andrew Trott

Lecturette 1: PreliminariesWelcome to Asora’s Stellar Schools course Physics with Calculus. This is the first of several hundred short lectures that cover the course. We call these short presentations “lecturettes.” My name is David Anderson and I am one of two instructors for this course. Peter Tarsi, here on my right, is the other. Mr. Tarsi will now give you a little background information about this course specifically and about the Stellar Schools instructional format in general.

Double Click in Picture for Video Presentation

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Not Following Hillsdale This Time

Thank you Mr. Anderson. Before we dive into the physics course material, I want to tell you about our methods of instruction- especially for newcomers to Stellar Schools who may not have been in a course structured like this before. As you’re probably aware, most Stellar Schools courses are patterned on the curriculum used by the Hillsdale Academy of Hillsdale, Michigan. This course is an exception to that rule because it uses calculus while the Hillsdale course does not.

The Physics CurriculumOur curriculum for Physics with Calculus is taken mainly from the textbooks by Giancoli:

Physics for Scientists & Engineers, Volume I, Third EditionPhysics for Scientists & Engineers, Volume II, Third Edition

By Douglas C. Giancoli Prentice Hall

A few additional curriculum items were taken from Kaplan Publishing’s AP Physics B & C review book to insure that our course meets the AP curricular requirements as well.

Now since Mr. Anderson developed the instructional formats for the Physics course, we’ll ask him what this is all about.




Curriculum is the Universe of Examination Questions


In this course and others provided by Stellar Schools, we want to have a clear presentation of what is in the curriculum and what is not. We define it operationally and with a great deal of specificity. Accordingly, our definition of the curriculum for this course (as with all Stellar Schools courses) is simply the “universe” of all possible examination questions and answers that pertain to it.

Ideally, students would be questioned on the thousands of facts and concepts that typically define a course’s curriculum. Practical considerations limit any given exam to well less than 100 questions and thus any given test will only measure a student’s mastery of a random subset of the course’s knowledge base.



Mastery is a 95% Score

Yes, as Mr. Anderson alludes, there is a tradeoff between measuring a student’s comprehensive knowledge, which favors more test questions to the time and expense required to administer each examination, which favors fewer test questions. Since Stellar Schools expects students to demonstrate their mastery by getting examination scores of 95% and above we wanted to choose the number of questions in a consistent fashion in such a way that exactly 95% is one of the scores. As your mathematical knowledge or intuition will suggest, this means the number of questions needs to be an integer multiple of 20. We currently use tests of 60 questions. If you get 3 or fewer wrong, your score will be 95% or higher allowing you to be certified as having mastered the course. Let’s now ask Dr. Anderson to tell you about Learning Concept Statements (LCS) and Learning Concept Numbers (LCN).




Learning Concept Statements


I earlier mentioned that the curriculum is the examination database. We organize the examination database by first building a related database of knowledge items. Each such knowledge item is called a “learning concept statement” or LCS. To keep track of each LCS we assign a Learning Concept Number or LCN to facilitate organizing the course’s full set of LCS’s into a database. Additionally, we combine related Learning Concept Statements into a Learning Concept Group or LCG, which would roughly correspond to a section within a textbook chapter. Related to concept of the LCG, is the Lecturette, which is a short lecture format presentation of the content associated with that Learning Concept Group’s set of Learning Concept Statements (LCS). So for example, this lecturette you’re watching here corresponds to LCG = 1. Given that LCG 1 is focused on housekeeping issues you’ll not be surprised to learn that there are only two physics related LCS presented.in this first lecturette.

Examinations you will take to demonstrate your mastery of this course will be based only on the collection of LCS presented in this course and on those from prerequisite mathematics and science courses. The LCS for each course are maintained in a spreadsheet.

Physics Course Learning EnvironmentsAs with other Stellar Schools courses, in this physics course we provide several overlapping on-demand learning environments to help students master the content. There are twelve such components. Mr. Tarsi, would you elaborate on them?



Twelve Instructional Components

Yes, as presently conceived the twelve instructional components are:

1. Lecturettes: For each Learning Concept Group students may, on demand, view/hear short video lectures presented by the instructional team, which in the case of physics has two teachers and two student questioners. By “short” we mean that these lecture segments rarely run longer than 10 minutes.

• Supplemental Lecturettes: For a subset of Learning Concept Groups, which students often find more difficult than others, we present additional short lectures to help students “around” common mistakes and misconceptions.

1. Lecturette Notes Online: Expanded “scripts” of the Lecturettes are presented online in textbook format and is the primary textbook for the course as it contains all of the Learning Concept Statements and explanatory material that the student is expected to master. Material from the Supplemental Lecturettes is included in its appendices.

2. Lecturette Notes Hardcopy: A physical paper bound version of the Lecturette Notes is also provided to each student.

3. Secondary Text Hardcopy: A physical “trade” textbook. In fact, this course uses the aforementioned calculus based textbooks by Giancoli.

6. Secondary Text Online: When available, an e-book version of the secondary textbooks will be provided as well. Giancoli’s book is not available in this format.




Twelve Instructional Components Cont.

7. Confidence Based Assessment System: We use the assessment system of KnowledgeFactor, which we describe in more detail in a following section. By knowing the confidence with which a student may hold a misconception, it enables the instructional systems to better remediate the misunderstanding. Practice tests and official tests are drawn, in each instance, from a random sampling of the examination data base- the only difference being that official tests are proctored.

8. CyberTutor: After each test administration, the CyberTutor compiles a remediation document that includes textual and video presentations of the issues and concepts surrounding each question answered incorrectly. This means that you’ll encounter your video instructors again in this mode.

9. CyberGames: Various computer games will be organized around the concepts of this course. Each will be designed such that students who have mastered the physics course will tend to win more often.

10. Schoolroom Teacher: Within each Stellar Schools schoolroom there will be at least one teacher- operating in tutoring mode- who can help you learn the material.

11. Student Tutors: Many schoolrooms will also use advanced students as student tutors. To be accorded the status of student tutor, the student must have mastered the relevant courses at a higher level.

12. Hub Help Desk: Finally, at the Stellar Schools Central Service Center or Hub- from which we operate the Stellar Schools network- additional teachers will be available to answer questions when the resources at the schoolroom level prove inadequate.




Bob Asks If This Long List is Superflous?


Thanks, Mr. Tarsi. I see we have a hand raised. Yes, Bob, go ahead.

Bob asks, “Gee, I’m a little confused about all these different methods of learning the course materials. Are all of these twelve things really necessary? Won’t it take a lot of time to study if we have so many different ways to study the course?”

Mr. Anderson responds: That’s a good question, Bob. It leads into the next comment I was going to make anyway.



Many Options Provide Flexibility


While this list of services may seem overwhelming, we don’t require students to use any of them except # 7- the assessment service. It’s for the student and his or her tutors to decide how best to use these services in their efforts to master the course content. Rather than being ominous, the wide variety of services give you choices from which you can choose what approaches are most comfortable or suitable for your learning styles. And if you enjoy games, you’ll learn that way too.

As to the time you’ll devote to studying the concepts in this course, we find that certain difficult concepts, which can differ from student to student, are what often “stump” a pupil. That often leads to much time being spent in an effort to resolve the confusion. With the many different approaches used in this course, we think students will be able to use more than one of them or even several to finally understand a concept that had previously bedeviled them. That can actually be a time saver when confusion is more quickly overcome. And I should add, we provide convenient cross-indexing so you can quickly find the pertinent areas within each component.

So I’d say that I think this variety provides you with a rich learning environment in which to pursue this fascinating body of knowledge.

About The Physics Curriculum DatabaseAs we have said, all of the Learning Concept Statements (LCS) are maintained in a database, which serves to operationally define the course curriculum. An associated database containing the actual universe of examination questions more precisely defines the course curriculum.



Learning Concept Statement Example

For an example of how this database is organized, we show the LCS corresponding to the course’s Learning Concept Number (LCN) 579 in the figure shown below.


The graphic shown here displays one of the Learning Concept Statements (LCS), that for Learning Concept Number (LCN) 579 as it appears in the spreadsheet that is used to define the course curriculum. The lecture notes also display these same graphic representations for all of the course’s LCS’s. It also provides the relevant textbook chapter number together with the LCN. They enable you to find relevant information in the various course materials- both hardcopy and online. The remaining four columns show the concept name, its description, an idealized question, and the answer to that question.



How Examinations Derive From Learning Concept Statements


In the preceding display a possible question and its correct answer were shown in the last two columns. In practice there will be many different “sub-species” questions and answers pertaining to each LCS (Learning Concept Statement). The course is designed so you will be able to answer any of these questions if you understand the LCS (and all previous LCS because in most cases a concept builds on items learned earlier). Thus the banks of examination questions will contain far more questions than the number of LCS on which they are based because as we have just indicated there will often be several questions for each LCS.

It is for convenience in record keeping- both the school’s and the student’s- that each learning concept (knowledge item) has been assigned a Learning Concept Number (LCN).

I see Ann has her hand up. Go ahead Ann.



Can a Question Cover More Than One LCS?

Yes, that’s right. In fact, many questions will be of that form because it will allow a 60 question test to cover many more than 60 LCS (Learning Concept Statements).

“Should I then get a question wrong, how will I find the various portions of text and other materials relevant to the LCS’s that were tested?”

Well, each question will be tagged with a primary LCN number and possibly one or more secondary LCN numbers. That will allow you to rapidly find the content areas tested by the question. An example of this linking will be shown shortly.


Ann asks, “Does this mean that there would be questions that test more than one Learning Concept Statement?”



Nothing Else is Tested Except the Learning Concept Statements


What this all means is that examinations you will take to demonstrate your mastery of this course will be based only on the collection of “learning concept statements” (LCS) presented in this course and on those from prerequisite mathematics and science courses. There are well over two thousand LCS in Physics with Calculus but any examination, for practical reasons discussed earlier, will only employ a small subset of questions addressing the subject matter. That subset will be determined by applying a random number generator to each subtopic in this course. Thus, if and when you retake the course’s examination, the questions will almost always be different than those encountered before- though they will be covering similar or related “ground.”



Example of LCN 579’s Two Questions

Corresponding to LCN 579, just shown, a number of different examination questions could be posed. Two such possible questions, as they would appear in the examination instructions, are shown in the next section.

Our examinations apply the most advanced assessment methodologies of which we are aware. We have been working with KnowledgeFactor, Inc to develop a confidence based examination system in which students are assessed according to the two parameters of competence and confidence. We want to know how students arrive at wrong answers. Do they simply guess? Or do they “confidently” know something that “just ain’t so”- quoting here from Mark Twain who had some thoughts in this area. As you will see from the choices presented to the students, the examinations will gauge both of these important parameters. In turn, subsequent remedial efforts will be more effective if we have a better understanding about a student’s confident knowledge.




Example Question #1Double Click in Picture for Video Presentation

Some examples will help. Let me show you two of the examination questions that pertain to LCN 579. As the nearby display shows, a nominal four-prong multiple choice question opens up to provide the student many other choices (14 in all) to demonstrate partial mastery of the concept.

As is evident the top four choices are simply those of a standard multiple-choice format. The remaining choices allow you to indicate various “states” of lower confidence.

Another question pertaining to LCN 579 is shown next.



Example Question #2Double Click in Picture for Video Presentation

This example question depends on two LCN: 579 and 576. If each question, say, depended on two LCS’s then a 60 question examination, could, in principle, test on 120 concepts.



On Partial Knowledge

When students do not confidently know one of the first four answers, they should

choose one of the other combination answers.

Accordingly, students who choose items with “dual uncertainty” (e. through j.) are in what might be called a “sort of know” status.

Others who choose among the “triplet” items (k. through m.) have what we’ll call a “whiff” of knowledge because they can identify only one alternative as being false.

Finally, those with no knowledge of the answer would choose item n.




Perspective on the Confidence Based Assessment System


One way to look at the confidence based assessment system is that it gives the teaching staff and the student a better indication of where they are ignorant, where they have misconceptions, and where they are truly knowledgeable.

With this better information, these parties can then better apply remedial measures. In the case of ignorance, the solution is, if you will, education. But in the case of misconceptions, a more intensive process of re-education is advised.



What is Physics?Before concluding Lecturette 1, we wanted to provide as extremely brief introduction to the subject of physics.

What is it?

It is simply (or complicatedly if you like) the study of the four fundamental forces found in nature. Sometimes physicists talk about the four fundamental interactions instead of forces, but their names remain the same: gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear. Our first Learning Concept Statement (LCS) for LCN = 1 recites this list.


Giancoli Chapter

Learning Concept Number

Concept Name Description Question Correct Answer

1 1 What is Physics

Physics is the study of the fundamental forces: Gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear.

What are the four fundamental forces studied in physics?

Gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear, weak nuclear



Physics Relationship to other Sciences


These four interactions or forces underlie the mechanisms of all other sciences. Chemistry, for example, is built on a foundation of physics. The two of them together, in turn, form the basis of several other sciences including, biology, geology, astronomy, and a host of other disciplines dependent on combinations of these. Sometimes it is said that mathematics is even more basic than physics and as a subject that is true. However, mathematics is not a science in the sense that science studies phenomena of the real world and universe. Rather, mathematics is a logical structure and quantitative language upon which physics and other sciences are described and evaluated. Given this relationship of physics to the other sciences, brings us to LCN 2 which states that physics is the most basic science.



Lecturette Summary:

Physics With Calculus Course Preliminaries

As in other courses in the Stellar Schools core curricula, Physics with Calculus is taught through a variety of approaches, with twelve different modes of learning applied. The curriculum is essentially defined by the examination database and its many Learning Concept Statements (LCS). You are expected to achieve a mastery level of competence in the examinations by attaining scores of 95% or higher. Our assessment system measures both the content mastery of each student and his or her confidence level in that mastery. It is unlikely that you will master the course in your first attempt at taking the examination, but after further review you will find your scores increasing until you surpass the 95% level at which point you’ll receive certification that you mastered Physics with Calculus.




Preview of Lecturette 2: The Scientific Method & the Nature of Science


Science is more than a field of study. It is also a method of study. Physics is both a field of study and it depends on a method of study, which we call the “Scientific Method.” Thus physics is a science.

The conjectures, ideas, and theories of physics are explanations of physical phenomena. Only those that can be proven through repeated observation and experiment become the accepted scientific theories of physics.

The description of physical phenomena is often quantified by means of mathematics. The mathematical discipline of calculus was originally developed for physics applications.



Physics with Calculus: Credits

• David Anderson Instructor• Peter Tarsi Instructor• Carolyn McCrossen Student• Andrew Trott Student

Documents

Physics with Calculus by David V. Anderson & Peter Tarsi assisted by students Carolyn McCrosson & Andrew Trott Lecturette 1: Preliminaries Welcome to Asora’s