Using Effective Pedagogical Strategies from First Year Physics in Other

Courses

Checkpoint Model

Using Effective Pedagogical Strategies from First Year Physics in Other

Courses

Checkpoint Model

Jason Donev, Edwin Cey, Yuen-ying Carpenter, Nancy Chibry, Rob Thompson, Preshanth Jagannathan, Mahin Afshari and Matthew Bumstead, University of Calgary; Mandana Sobhanzadeh and Mehdi Dehghani, Mount Royal University

Jason Donev, Edwin Cey, Yuen-ying Carpenter, Nancy Chibry, Rob Thompson, Preshanth Jagannathan, Mahin Afshari and Matthew Bumstead, University of Calgary; Mandana Sobhanzadeh and Mehdi Dehghani, Mount Royal University

Obstacles

• How do we increase student engagement in all sized classes?

• How do we help students to make connections and allow for a deeper understanding of the material?

• How to we foster discovery through trial and error?

Obstacles

• How do we increase retention of material that has been learned?

• How do we increase communication amongst students and between students and staff?

Checkpoint Model

• Each checkpoint consists of a series of questions

• 2-3 checkpoints per session (lab or class)

• Group work is highly recommended

• Consultation with TA/Instructor prior to moving to next checkpoint

• Full marks for completion (% of grade varies per class)

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Checkpoint Spreadsheet

Checkpoint Model

At the University of Calgary we have used the checkpoint model in the following courses:

• High School Physics upgrade• Nuclear Power• Introductory Physics• Introductory Statistics (in progress)

McDermott, Heron and Shaffer Knight

Chapter 1 from Jeff Bryan's book"It was quite the most incredible event that ever happened to me in my life. It was almost as incredible as if you had fired a 15-inch

shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you." --Ernest Rutherford

1. Open the Phet: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/build-an-atom and play around with it.1. Discuss when something is an ion and when it isn’t.2. Discuss what is needed for the protons and neutrons to be ‘stable’. What does stable mean?3. What determines chemical name? What is necessary for alchemy (changing elements)?4. Play the game for a bit.

Open the phet: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/rutherford-scattering and play around with it1. What happens to the alpha particles when thye come near the nucleus?2. Explain the difference between 'impact parameter' and rmin. 3. Discuss what happens to the scattering angle as the impact parameter changes.4. Under what conditions can you get scattering at angles greater than 90 degrees?5. In this simulation where are the electrons? Explain.6. Discuss the plum pudding model and the solar system type model. How does scattering alpha particle explain the difference? Why

was Rutherford so surprised?7. What happens to the impact parameter for a given angle as the number of protons goes up? The number of neutrons? Explain.8. What happens to the scattering angle for a given impact parameter of the kinetic energy of your alpha particle goes up?

Call the prof over to check your work.

Nuclear Power

Entering data Enter the GPA values into the first column, C1, starting at row 1 of the worksheet in the DATA window, genders identifiers in the second column, C2, and rating in the third column, C3. Enter “GPA” in the shaded blank cell under the C1, ”Gender” in C2 and “rating” in C3. This assigns a name for the variable in that column.Before proceeding, be sure that the highlighted cell is not one of your data values – click anywhere else on the worksheet.

Creating a pie chartMinitab instructions: Graph>Pie Chart enter “Gender” in the “categorical variable box”. You have to click inside the “categorical variable” box in order for the different qualitative (categorical) variables to appear.

Question 3. (a) Create a pie chart for gender. Comment on it. (b) Create a pie chart for rating. Comment on it.

(c) Create a pie chart for GPA. Comment on it. (d) Why is it important to know the difference between qualitative and quantitative data?

Producing a bar chartMinitab Instructions: Graph>Bar Chart four pictures appear. Since we are just dealing with one data set, click on SIMPLE then click “OK”. You have to click inside the “categorical variable” box in order for the different qualitative variables to appear.Double click the mouse on “C2 Gender” in the left box or click once and then press SELECT. This enters the name of your variable as one to be graphed. {Or type C2 or “Gender” in the GRAPH VARIABLES cell.}Click “OK”.

Question 4. (a) Create a simple bar chart for males and females in this data set. What does this tell you?(b) Create a bar chart for rating in this data set. What does this tell you?

Producing a Histogram Minitab instructions: From the MENU BAR select GRAPH > HISTOGRAM... four pictures appear. Since we are just dealing with one data set, click on SIMPLE then click OK. Click the mouse on “C1 GPA” the left of the box: then press SELECT or double click on “C1 GPA”. This enters the name of your variable as one to be graphed. {Or type C1 in the GRAPH VARIABLES cell.}Click “OK”. Minitab will automatically assign class boundaries for the data. This may not always be best.

Question 5. Produce the histogram for GPA and comment on the graph.

Now, double click anywhere inside the histogram. A dialogue box appears. Click on “Binning”. You will see another dialogue box. Choose “Cutpoint” for Interval Type. Note from the data set that the minimum data value is -2.7 and the maximum data value is 3.5. Thus, the class width should be the same and the class boundaries should be designed to include all the values or a warning will appear. In the “Midpoint/Cutpoint positions” box type - 3 -2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

Question 6. (a) Vary the class boundaries (e.g. -3 -2.75 -2.5 -2.25 ...) and produce the histogram for GPA. Try a smaller class width. Try a wider class width(b) Which class boundaries should you use and why?

Checkpoint 1: Call your TA over to discuss your answers before proceeding.

Introductory Stats

Results for High School physics upgrade

• Number of students attending office hours increased dramatically

• Overall marks improved

Results for Nuclear Power

• 1st midterm went up 15 percentage points

• 2nd & 3rd midterms were more challenging than previous years, yet grades increased

• Number of students attending office hours increased dramatically

• Overall marks improved

Office hours without checkpoint model

Office hours with checkpoint model

Results for Intro Physics

• Number of students attending office hours increased dramatically

• Attendance increased from 10-15% to 100% in TA lead sessions

• Overall marks improved

Results for Introductory Stats

• Number of students attending office hours increased dramatically

• Almost 100% attendance in labs

• Students seem more enthusiastic about statistics and the applications

• Deeper understanding of course material

• Marks still pending

Stats lab without checkpoint model

Stats lab with checkpoint model

Requirements

• TAs must be well prepared. This requires extra training on equipment, computer packages and material

• Initial implementation requires many hours of preparation for checkpoint creation

Thank you