Announcements

Instructional Strategies for Introductory Physics

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EST

Workshop on project-based and simulations for teaching introductory physics for TYC and HS teachers. Computer simulations, for example, can provide an interactive and conceptual mode for student understanding. Simulations alone, however, are not necessarily the answer for increasing student understanding. They must be informed by good pedagogical practices and must be adaptable to a variety of educational environments. Thus, this STIP workshop will allow participants to explore how these simulations can be used most effectively in the classroom. This often means coupling simulations with various teaching strategies. During this workshop, participants will become familiar with the variety of simulations available. Participants will work with Physlets© (physics applets) and Open Source Physics resources (www.opensourcephysics.org). Included in this set of resources are tools for authoring simulations (Easy Java Simulations) and video analysis (Tracker). Participants will also develop the ability and skills to modify, adapt, and construct new materials. One of the goals of this workshop is to provide a flexible suite of resources appropriate to different levels of instruction as well as different levels of technological sophistication (from low to high) so that participants can choose what will be most successful in their home environment.

Integrating OSP Materials into the College Ready Project

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:00:00 EST

Content and Resource Development Workshop June 24-26, 2013 June 27-29, 2013 Building on the success of the Open Source Physics (OSP) workshop sessions held in 2012, Drs. Wolfgang Christian and Mario Belloni from Davidson College will be facilitating two workshops on the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville campus during the week of June 24-29. These workshops will provide physics and physical science teachers from College Ready core partner schools the opportunity to expand their instructional and technical capacity while learning how to incorporate existing OSP and Physlet-based curricular materials into their classroom lesson plans and activities. While a portion of the workshop will be allocated to content knowledge and learning how to utilize existing materials already available on the OSP Collection on ComPADRE, the majority of each three-day workshop will consist of teachers collecting, organizing, and developing curricular materials that they will use in their classrooms and distributed to CR partners. Examples of likely outcomes from the workshop are: lesson plans, teacher tutorials, simulation documentation, student worksheets, and Tracker video analysis exercises. It is not necessary that the workshop participants are familiar with OSP materials, just an interest in customizing interactive exercises for the classroom and laboratory.

Incorporating Computation and Modeling into Physics and Astronomy Teaching

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 EST

Presentation at the Workshop for New Physics and Astronomy Faculty American Center for Physics, College Park, Maryland Over the past dozen years Davidson College has produced some of the most widely used interactive curricular materials for the teaching of introductory and advanced physics courses. These materials are based on Java applets called Physlets and the new Open Source Physics (OSP) programs and applications. Participants are encouraged to bring laptops with a CD drive to the breakout sessions for hands-on explorations of this curricular material. Partial funding was provided by NSF grant DUE-0442581.

Building a National Digital Library for Computational Physics Education At All Levels

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 EST

Over the past dozen years we have produced some of the most widely used interactive computer-based curricular materials for the teaching of introductory and advanced physics courses. These materials are now hosted on and distributed from the Open Source Physics (OSP) Collection of the ComPADRE National Science Digital Library. This talk outlines the tripartite integration of ComPADRE with the Easy Java Simulations modeling and authoring tool and the OSP code library. The pedagogical and technical features of this learning platform and our current efforts to align this material with United States national and state standards for science teaching are described.

Designing Courses with Moodle

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 EST

Leaders: William Junkin, Wolfgang Christian and Mario Belloni In this hands-on workshop participants will create a demo Moodle site that incorporates text, multimedia resources, and OSP simulations. This workshop will benefit high school and college teachers who wish to use Moodle for curriculum distribution and course management. We will discuss the pedagogical and technical issues and have participants add to their demo Moodle site resources and activities such as warm-up (JiTT) pre-class questions, in-class polling (Peer Instruction with IPAL) using mobile devices and/or clickers, Open Source Physics models, and other resources from ComPADRE. Participants will leave with copies of their demo Moodle site, providing resources for use in their Fall courses. Participants may bring their own laptops.

Best Practices in Educational Technology

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:00:00 EST

Invited Speakers: Mario Belloni, Francisco Esquembre, Eric Ayars and Ian Bearden. Session on using technology in teaching featuring EJS, Moodle, iPAds and Ardiunos.

Video Analysis with Tracker

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:00:00 EST

Video analysis is an excellent experimental tool for students who are doing independent projects. In this Global Physics Department presentation, the usefulness of video analysis (with Tracker) for helping students identify and explore independent research projects will be presented. http://globalphysicsdept.org/ 9:30 PM - 10:30 PM Eastern

Hands-on Easy Java Simulations

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 00:00:00 EST

A hands-on workshop that introduces participants to the open-source Easy Java Simulations (EJS) authoring toolkit. It is organized by Spencer Wheaton of the University of Cape Town, Department of Physics. Participants will be taken through the basics of EJS, using models on the ComPADRE website as illustrative examples. Specific emphasis will be placed on simulation design and how best to encourage student engagement with simulations. The ideas will be applied on the second morning, when participants will construct their own EJS authored models.

Astronomy at Davidson College

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 00:00:00 EST

10:30-11:30 am The Pines Davidson, NC Astronomy has been taught since the beginning of Davidson College. Over the years, however, how the subject has been taught has changed dramatically. In this talk we will describe the history of the teaching of astronomy at Davidson College, focusing on the recent educational innovations of video analysis, simulations, and astrophotography.

Laboratory Tools for Introductory Physics

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 00:00:00 EST

Workshop Leaders: Mario Belloni, Davidson College, Davidson, NC Dwain Desbien, Estrella Mountain Community College, Avondale, AZ Tom O’Kuma, Lee College, Baytown, TX In this hands-on workshop, participants will work in areas involving force and motion, energy, waves, electricity and magnetism, and astronomy. They will explore approaches and curriculum materials from Real Time Physics as well as hardware, software, and sensors from Vernier Software (LabPro/LabQuest Interface and Logger Pro software), PASCO Scientific, and the OSP Project (Tracker, EJS, etc.).

20th International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE 2012) Workshop

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:00:00 EST

This 3 hour interactive hands-on workshop aims to cover the basics of the free authoring toolkit called "Easy Java Simulation" organized by Loo Kang Wee and Sze Yee Lye from the Ministry of Education, Educational Technology Division, Singapore. Participants will go through an model building process on a simple spring mass system in the tutorial called Modeling Science Textbook Chapter 2: Introduction to Easy Java Simulations. Lastly, participants will also 'tinker' with the codes and construct their design ideas into the model of their choice together with the workshop facilitators.

Tracker Video Analysis Session

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:00:00 EST

Invited Speakers: Doug Brown and Rhett Allain Contributed talks by Tracker users showing how the Tracker video analysis and modeling tool is used in introductory and advanced physics courses.

Global Physics Department Presentation: Introduction to EJS

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 00:00:00 EST

Leader: Wolfgang Christian This tutorial shows how to use the open-source Easy Java Simulations (EJS) authoring tool to create simulations of physical phenomena for teaching purposes. We will describe the simplified structure and extensive scaffolding provided by the tool to create interactive, dynamical, effective simulations. These simulations can be used for computer demonstrations or virtual laboratories in high-school and undergraduate courses, or serve as programming examples and tasks for Computational Physics and higher-level students. After getting a general overview of the tool’s capabilities and structure, we will create, step-by-step, a few complete simulations. 9:30-10:30 PM Eastern Time (UTC-05:00) http://globalphysicsdept.org/

Creating Interactive Computer Simulations

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 00:00:00 EST

Explore the world of computer simulations through Easy Java Simulations (EJS), a recently developed open source tool that allows users to create interactive computer simulations without any previous programming experience. After completing the course, students can continue to create and run simulations at home without purchasing costly software. The course is targeted toward 9th and 10th graders that have not programmed before, but are interested in programming.

Virtual and Remote Laboratories for Experimental Techniques in Physics

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 00:00:00 EST

In this workshop we show the latest advances in EJS, including the (not yet public) possibility of including EJS simulations in Moodle. This allows collaborative use of the simulations and integration with other Moodle tools. We will also show the existing (and growing) possibility of controlling hardware equipment using EJS model elements. Part of the workshop is devoted to organizing a working group to create remote and virtual laboratories in Physics during the next year. The workshop will take place in Spanish. Contact person: Sebastián Dormido < sdormido@dia.uned.es > ----- En este taller mostramos los últimos advances de EJS, incluyendo la posibilidad (todavía no oficial) de incluir simulations creadas con EJS en Moodle. Esto permite el uso colaborativo de las simulaciones y la integración con otras herramientas de Moodle. También mostramos la posibilidad ya existente (y que va en aumento) de controlar equipamiento hardware usando elementos del modelo de EJS. Parte del taller se dedicará a organizar un grupo de trabajo para crear laboratorios virtuales y remotos en física durante el próximo año. El taller se desarrollará en español. Persona de contacto: Sebastián Dormido - sdormido@dia.uned.es

College Ready Physics Topical Workshops

Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Participants will learn how to incorporate existing Open Source Physics and Physlet-based curricular materials into their classrooms as an extension of their involvement in College Ready topical workshops. The topical workshops that will be running concurrently include waves and optics, modern physics, and kinematics and dynamics. Workshop participants will engage in activities using the Physlets (interactive Java applets written at Davidson College), ready-to-run Java programs, and OSP simulations geared to support the specific content being addressed within each physics topical workshop. Participants will also have the opportunity to create and develop electronic filing cabinets that will help them organize their favorite resources that can be shared with students and other teachers. College Ready is an NSF-funded Mathematics and Science Partnership at the University of Arkansas that provides professional development to physics and physical science teachers, as well as mathematics teachers, in grades 7-12 through the use of intensive cohort-based workshops that emphasize inquiry-based classroom application of physics and mathematics concepts. A shared file folder with workshop material workshop material is available.

Physlets, OSP and ComPADRE

Wed, 02 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Participants will learn how to use and adapt existing Open Source Physics and Physlet-based curricular material in this hands-on workshop. We will distribute Physlets (interactive Java applets written at Davidson College) and ready-to-run Java programs and present examples of how they are used to actively engage students in the classroom. This workshop is based on existing material available at no-cost from the ComPADRE National Digital Library which can easily be adapted for introductory physics. Participants will have the opportunity to develop create electronic resource folders to share with students and other teachers. In addition to these resources is the new filing cabinet with teacher customizable simulations at: http://www.compadre.org/OSP/filingcabinet/share.cfm?UID=10133&FID=30996 and the Astronomy 105 filing cabinet at: http://www.compadre.org/OSP/filingcabinet/share.cfm?UID=10133&FID=17533

Symposium on the effect of connected computational technology

Wed, 02 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

A plenary symposium on the effect of connected computational technology on learning physics organized by Francisco Esquembre and Wolfgang Christian. Speakers include: Wolfgang Christian, Dormido Sebastian, Fu-Kwun Hwang and Ewa Kedzierska. A Tracker video analysis workshop will be given by Anne Cox in a separate session.

Incorporating Computation and Modeling into Physics and Astronomy Teaching

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

From Ptolemy to Einstein: Using Computer Simulations in Astronomy

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Leaders: Mario Belloni, Wolfgang Christian, and Todd Timberlake One of the most popular courses in physics is astronomy. However, the topics taught require visualizations that are not familiar to the typical students in these courses. To address this issue, we have created a set of flexible resources for the teaching of introductory astronomy based on two- and three-dimensional simulations. These simulations are created with Easy Java Simulations (EJS) which is a free and open source tool for creating Java simulations. Because EJS allows teachers to easily change simulations, existing simulations can be customized to the type of astronomy course one is teaching. In this workshop, we will describe how to use and modify astronomy simulations such as the celestial sphere, Ptolemaic and Copernican models, Keplerian orbits including eclipses, galactic collisions, and orbits about black holes. All of these materials will be distributed on the OSP Collection on the ComPADRE digital library. For users logged into ComPADRE, the workshop materials can be found at: http://www.compadre.org/OSP/filingcabinet/share.cfm?UID=4856&FID=30679 and for users that have not logged into the Open Source Physics collection on ComPADRE: http://www.compadre.org/OSP/filingcabinet/share.cfm?UID=4856&FID=30679&code=873A9F5BC1

AAAS Recognizes OSP with SPORE Prize

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

Wolfgang Christian, Francisco Esquembre and Lyle Barbato have been selected to win a Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) by the AAAS for their development of online tools that bring interactive computer-based modeling to students at many levels.

Using the ComPADRE OSP Collection to Support Upper-Level Physics Teaching

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

An overview of how we use OSP tools and ready-to-run simulations to teach what undergraduate physics majors should know about computational physics. Examples from classical mechanics, E&M, statistical physics, and quantum mechanics will be presented.

Using Tracker to Measure the Length of the Sidereal Day

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

At Davidson College we are currently re-vamping our introductory astronomy course to include a laboratory for the fall of 2012. As part of this endeavor, we are upgrading our observing and astrophotography equipment and techniques. One laboratory in the “naked-eye astronomy” portion of the course is focused on measuring the sidereal day. Instead of measuring the angular displacement of stars from canned star trail images, we propose to use a group of still 30-second images taken 9 ½ minutes apart. To analyze these images we use the free and open-source Tracker video analysis program to measure the sidereal day. We use the feature in Tracker which automatically creates a “movie” of still images and then allows the user to define the time interval between images. In this talk we show our preliminary results and propose possible future improvements.

Confined Two Piston System

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:00:00 EST

The Confined Hard Disk Two Piston System was published as a supplemental simulation for the article "The two-piston problem revisited: Generalization from reversible to irreversible expansion by Joaquim Anacleto, Joaquim Alberto C. Anacleto, and J. M. Ferreira in the American Journal of Physics 79(10), 1009-1014 (2011). The model shows a constant-energy two-dimensional system of unit mass particles confined by two frictionless pistons of equal mass M. This model complements theoretical work describing the adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas using the quasi-static approximation. Users can set the number of particles N, their diameter and their initial particle kinetic energy. Slow-moving particles are color-coded as blue and fast particles are color-coded as yellow. The time evolution of temperature, pressure, and piston speed are shown in a second window.

Video Analysis with Tracker

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:00 EST

Tracker is free, open-source video analysis software that is well-suited for both introductory and advanced physics. Participants will be given a step-by-step, introductory physics experiment that can be adapted to a college or high school physics class. Participants will analyze a video with Tracker and will perform the same measurements and calculations expected of students. Additional complete experiments for topics ranging from mechanics to E&M to optics will be provided.