An experimental teaching project using MI textbook in Phys
303K/L (2009-10)
It was with the encouragement of
members of the undergraduate committee, that I started in fall 2009 this experimental
project: teaching my section of Engineering Physics, Phy303K and 303L using the
Matter & Interactions textbook I and II, by
Chabay and Sherwood, and the auxiliary materials
which come along with the textbook.
In order to be able to give a fair
assessment on the merits of the textbook, in my past two semesters’ teaching I
have followed the MI curriculum, setup by the authors,
as closely as possible. I have found that the main difference between
the MI textbook and the traditional textbooks which I had used in the past, is that the MI authors have invested much more effort
in the “teaching” of physics. They have made a point to explain physics using
minimal mathematics. Many physics nuances are explained in detail in the
textbook. These explanations are further reinforced by dedicated clicker
questions, where the same nuances are repeated and are further worked on from
different perspectives. The homework problems contain the repeats and further
extensions of these nuances. Most of the homework problems are given in a
tutorial style. In a step-by-step fashion homework problems lead students to
work on more complex problems.
Computer modeling is also included
in the text book. Our TA has adopted and modified the MI modeling instructions
to be suitable for our use. We have implemented 5 modeling sessions during each
semester. Our modeling implementation in fall09 was not successful. We learned
from our mistakes. The modeling sessions in our current session is
better. Through the use of reflection questions, computer modeling
enables students to visualize and to pay more attention to the goings on in a
3D-world to complement their textbook learning experience. If you are
interested we can arrange to show you the computer models students have worked
on.
Our recent IM-survey can be found in
the links:
Survey questions: http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~itiq/303LMI/chiu/resources/survey/misurveysp10_questions.htm
Survey results: http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~itiq/303LMI/chiu/resources/survey/misurveysp10.JPEG
Let me walk you through some survey
histograms. We use the matrix notation, the symbol “hij” denotes the histogram in the ith
row and jth column. H11 and h12 give students’
overall responses to the MI curriculum, i.e. the
textbook, the hw and the modeling. The horizontal scale
: 1 stands for strongly disagree, 2 disagree, 3 neutral, 4 agree
and 5 strongly agree. You see that as a whole students
like the curriculum quite well. Many students indicate that they would
recommend MI to other students (See h32).
Let us now look at the second line.
The two histograms here display responses from those students who had taken
Phy303K from other sections where MI was not used. Notice that the majority
indicated that they have no problem with the transition to our current Phy303L
class where MI is in use. (See h21). Having seen both approaches, a significant
number of students of this category prefer the MI approach (see h22).
The survey also shows that we need
to work on modifying our syllabus to better coordinate with the 103M and 103N
materials. (See h31).
So far I have focused on how MI can
benefit students’ learning. I should state here, I like the organization and
the selection of the content of this textbook. If you will be teaching
Phy303K/L in the near future, I encourage you to check out a copy of MI
textbook (either vol I, or vol
II or both) from Pat Morgan. Also ask for the DVD which accompanies the
textbook. You can get either DVD-I or DVD-II, or both. Among other things, the
DVD contains the lecture videos lecture by lecture for essentially the entire
book. Please investigate whether you may be interested in trying out this
textbook.
Professor Bruce Sherwood, the second
MI-author told me that the content of the MI course was first developed at
Carnegie Mellon for Physics majors. If you are interested in the experimental
teaching of Phy301 and 316 using the MI approach, again please check out a copy
of the textbook and the accompanying DVD from Pat Morgan.
I will be glad to answer your
questions on MI-related issues. Also we can show you sample MI-exam
problems generated by our Quest system and the involvement of our TA and the
LAs (undergraduate learning assistants) on the project.
Thank you for your attention,
Charles Chiu
May 10,2010
Words
from students: click
here.
