Six Ideas That Shaped Physics: An Overview

1. Six Ideas That Shaped Physics:An Overview • Thomas A. Moore • Introductory Calculus-Based Physics Conference • November 1, 2003

2. What is Six Ideas That Shaped Physics? • A textbook, instructor’s manual, and website • A new approach to teaching introductory physics based on four fundamental principles: • New approaches can provide increased insight • Active learning solidifies understanding • Explicit instruction and practice with model-building provides flexibility • Contemporary physics provides excitement

3. My goals in this presentation • To describe the structure and goals of a Six Ideas course • To discuss how the Six Ideas materials express the four principles mentioned • To present evidence that the approach works

4. The Introductory University Physics Project (IUPP) • NSF-funded project (1987-1995) whose purpose was to develop and test alternatives to the standard course • Summative report: Am. J. Phys. 66, pp. 124-137 (February, 1998) • Principles articulated by the IUPP committee: • Less is more • Include 20th century physics • Use a storyline

5. The structure of Six Ideas • The text is divided into six volumes, each focused on a single formative idea • Unit C: Interactions are Constrained by Conservation Laws • Unit N: The Laws of Physics are Universal • Unit R: The Laws of Physics are Frame-Independent • Unit E: Electric and Magnetic Fields are Unified • Unit Q: Matter Behaves Like Waves • Unit T: Some Processes are Irreversible

6. How this structure addresses the IUPP goals • Each idea provides a “story line” for the unit • They also motivate necessary cuts • Some large-scale cuts (geometric optics, fluids) • Mostly, the pace is cut by streamlining • The “chapter per day” format defines the pace • Contemporary physics • Units on relativity and quantum physics • Contemporary perspective throughout

7. How new approaches can improve learning: an example • Common student problems • Identifying forces linked by Newton’s 3rd law • Identifying fictitious forces • These problems are related • Students see forces as isolated entities that are not linked to any deeper conceptual structure • Standard presentations reinforce this

8. How new approaches can improve learning: an example • In Six Ideas, the interaction between two objects (not force) is the fundamental concept • How this addresses the problem • The forces that are linked by Newton’s 3rd law are always the two ends of a specific interaction • Fictitious forces do not reflect an interaction

9. How new approaches can improve learning: an example • Other payoffs for this approach: • Helps make the concept of potential energy clearer • Helps students better understand the similarities between force, power, and torque • Momentum-flow images help students qualitatively predict motion without calculus

10. Support for Active Learning • The most robust result of physics educational research: Students learn by doing • We all know this, but our courses are not usually structured as if this were true • Six Ideas supports active learning in four ways: • Support for reducing the need for lectures • Support for activities during class • Support for active learning outside of class • Support for intelligent course design

11. Support for Reducing Lectures • Text is written more like a conversation, less like an encyclopedia • Helps for active reading • Wide margins for student notes • In-chapter exercises help challenge students to think about what they are reading (and answers in the back provide instant feedback) • Overview/summary at the beginning of each chapter displays the big picture

12. Support for class activities • “Two-minute” problems • Active demonstrations N2T.9 A car moving at a constant speed travels past a valley in the road, as shown below. Which of the arrows shown most closely approximates the direction of the car’s acceleration at the instant that it is at the position shown? (Hint: draw a motion diagram.)

13. Active learning outside of class • “Rich-Context” problems support collabo-rative work in active recitation sections • Generally, problems cannot be solved by “plugging and chugging” C7R.2 You are prospecting for rare metals on a spherical asteroid composed mostly of iron (density ≈ 7800 kg/m3) and whose radius is 4.5 km. You’ve left your spaceship in a circular parking orbit 400 m above the asteroid's surface and gone down to the surface. However, one of your exploratory explosions knocks you against a rock, ruining your jet pack. (This is why you have a backup jet pack, which is, unfortunately, “back up” in the spaceship.) Is it possible for you to simply jump high enough to get back to the spaceship?

14. Support for good course design • To be successful, course design must • Motivate students to read text before class • Help them focus on ideas instead of formulas • Encourage them to learn from difficult problems (instead of freaking out) • Details are important! • The instructor’s manual (available online) offers ideas about how to do this well

15. Instruction in Model-Building Why is this important? • Real applications always involve discerning a simple model in a complex situation • Building a model involves self-consciously making approximations and assumptions • Learning to do this well is an art that students learn by both instruction and practice

16. Instruction in Model-Building • The text extensively discusses how to build models and make appropriate approximations • It teaches and uses a four-part problem-solving outline: Translate, Model, Solve, Evaluate • It explicitly teaches the value of tools such as unit analysis, symbolic algebra, the method of extremes, estimation • It extensively uses diagrams as thinking tools • Computer models help students explore consequences of physical models

17. Contemporary Physics • Why teach relativity and quantum physics? • Well, this is the 21st century… • 32/33 will never take another physics course • One of the clearest signals from IUPP evaluation was the interest in these topics • Six Ideas uses contemporary ideas throughout • It addresses how topics fit into current physics • It explores contemporary applications • Its problems have a very practical orientation

18. Does Six Ideas work? • The FCI Exam (Physics Teacher, 30, 3, 1992)(a difficult but purely conceptual multiple-choice exam on Newtonian physics) • R. Hake, Am. J. Phys.66(1) (January 1998) • The normalized gain g = (post - pre)/(100% - pre)] is a robust measure of course performance • Traditional courses: g = 0.23 ± 0.04 • “Interactive engagment” (IE) courses: g = 0.48 ± 0.14 • Not correlated with instructor, initial student state

19. Does Six Ideas Work? • Results from Pomona College • 1993: 0.46 • 1996: 0.48 • 1997: 0.45 • 1998: 0.55 (estimated) • 2000: 0.63 • 2001: 0.58

20. Does Six Ideas Work? • Vic DeCarlo at DePauw University2000: 0.542001: 0.55 • Ulrich Heinz at Ohio State (Columbus)2001: 0.72 (!) • Note that Six Ideas spends less time on mechanics than most IE courses • Good gains seem to happen even if the classes are not especially interactive

21. Conclusions • Six Ideas provides (without requiring costly staffing, scheduling, or infrastructure changes) • A contemporary and effective approach to physics • Support for active learning • Explicit instruction in model-building skills • It has been classroom-tested for > 10 years • It provides extensive support for instructors • For more: www.physics.pomona.edu/sixideas