GSCI 163
Lecture 1
GSCI 163
Matter of Matter
Spring 2011
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Dr. Klebert Feitosa
Office: PhCh – 2128
Phone: 586-5340
Email: feitoskb@jmu.edu
Course material
• Web page
http://csma31.csm.jmu.edu/physics/feitoskb/teaching_material/GSCI163.html
JMU Physics  Feitosa  Teaching  GSCI 163
• Blackboard
Syllabus
Content outline
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States of matter
Periodic table
Atomic states
Shells
Chemical formulas
Reactions
Chemical equations
Solutions
Chemistry of water
Acid base
Carbon and organic chemistry
Learn about what?
• How do we learn?
• How can we become better teachers?
Goal for the class is to learn about the stuff we
are made of.
But also learn about how we learn and thus
become better teachers.
How do we learn?
• Learning with understanding. Facts, relationships, application
contexts, regions of validity, level of importance etc. combine to
produce an understanding.
• Pre-existing knowledge is the basis for all learning. Teachers must
incorporate this into their instructional methods. They need to
know what the student knows.
• Active Learning. Students must take control of learning.
• Metacognitive: strategizing, evaluating, assessing and relating your
knowledge and understanding (by the learner). Takes the form of an
internal dialog rich and multifaceted over process, content, and
success one’s learning.
Competence
What is competence?
• have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,
• understand facts and ideas in the context of a
conceptual framework, and
• organize knowledge in ways that facilitate
retrieval and application.
Implications for teaching
• Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting
understanding, which students bring with them.
• Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth,
providing many examples in which the same concept is at
work and provide a firm foundation of factual knowledge.
• Teachers must have the in-depth understanding. To develop
sound pedagogical tools a teacher must understand the
critical elements, relationships, subtleties… Also the
teacher must be able to grasp the growth of the student at
these levels.
• The teaching of metacognitive skills should be integrated
into the curriculum.
Experts
Novices
• Possess a great deal of content knowledge.
• Knowledge organized to reflect a deep
understanding. (conditionalized knowledge)
• Knowledge reflects context of applicability and
limitations. (conditionalized knowledge)
• Retrieve knowledge flexibly and easily.
• Good thinkers (not smart)
• Guide and controls learning.
• Look for inconsistencies .
• Plan.
• Generates sound arguments.
• Notices patterns, relationships, discrepancies and
features.
• Make explanations.
• Draw analogies
• Identifies critical components
• Recognizes unimportant details
• Hierarchical thinking
• Integrates facts with overall knowledge base
• Not necessarily good teachers.
• May or may not be able to extend to new situations.
• Are not necessarily experts in other areas.
• Fluently access information because they identify
relevance.
• Not overtaxed with complexity.
• Has had dire personal experience with every
mistake in his field (lighthearted view).
• Potential to become an expert.
• Large set of disconnected facts.
• Not necessarily slower in solving straightforward
problems.
• Often miss patterns and features.
• Hindered by complexity.
• Same memory capacity as experts.
• May posses the knowledge to solve a problem but
cannot access it.
• May have preconceptions that are inconsistent with
learned facts.
• Cannot place facts in a context.
• May not organize information based on important
principles.
• Group problems by irrelevant features.
• Do not posses understanding.
Science
• Power of science:
– ability to predict and control outcomes based on
fundamental knowledge and understanding of a
specific phenomena.
• What is the problem with learning science?
Science
• Power of science:
– ability to predict and control outcomes based on
fundamental knowledge and understanding of a
specific phenomena.
• What is the problem with learning science?
– Math: we do not know the rules
– Jargon: we do not know the definitions
– Intuition: we do not know the facts
Common language is critical
Examples
• Why can’t we divide by zero?
• What if we insist in doing so, what would be
the “answer”?
• Another rule:
– multiplying powers of same base
Examples
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Jargon
• In physics precise definitions are paramount
to avoid ambiguities and confusion.
• As a result our common understanding of
words sometimes take a new meaning in
physics.
• Example: Velocity and speed do not mean the
same thing in physics.
Units
• Only rarely a numerical answer in physics does
not carry units.
• Units give you a description of the numerical
quantity.
• Give examples of units that you know (let us
make a big table)
International System
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LENGTH - the standard length is 1 meter (1 m).
TIME - the standard time is 1 second (1 s).
MASS - the standard mass is 1 kilogram (1 kg).
TEMPERATURE - the standard temperature is 1
Kelvin (1 K)
• AMOUNT - the standard amount is 1 mole (1 mol)
• ELECTRICAL CURRENT - the standard current is 1
ampere (1 A)
• LUMINOUS INTENSITY - the standard intensity is 1
candela (1 cd)
CNN web site September 30, 1999
CNN NASA lost a 125 million Mars orbiter because a Lockheed
Martin engineering team used English units of
measurement while the agency’s team used the more
conventional metric system for a key spacecraft operation,
according to a review finding released Thursday.
The units mismatch prevented navigation information from
transferring between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft
team in at Lockheed Martin in Denver and the flight team
at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Lockheed Martin helped build, develop and operate the
spacecraft for NASA. Its engineers provided navigation
commands for Climate Orbiters thrusters in English units
although NASA has been using the metric system
predominantly since at least 1990…
The problem?
“ The navigation mishap killed the mission on a day when engineers
had expected to celebrate the crafts entry into Mars orbit.
After a 286day journey, the probe fired its engine on September 23 to
push itself into orbit.
The engine fired but the spacecraft came within 60 km 36 miles of the
planet about 100 km closer than planned and about 25 km 15 miles
beneath the level at which the it could function properly, mission
members said.
The latest findings show that the spacecrafts propulsion system
overheated and was disabled as Climate Orbiter dipped deeply into
the atmosphere, JPL spokesman Frank ODonnell said.
That probably stopped the engine from completing its burn, so Climate
Orbiter likely plowed through the atmosphere, continued out
beyond Mars and now could be orbiting the sun, he said.”
How do we convert units?
• Math rules + a deep understanding of the
definitions.
• Problems: convert 70 mi/h in
a) Meters per second
b) Kilometers per hour
How many
• Seconds are in one day?
• How many seconds have you lived?
• What is the distance from the earth to the sun
in m? (speed of light 300,000,000 m/s, takes
approx 8 sec to travel this distance)
Too big and too small
• Very large and very small numbers are a
nuisance. How can we deal with them?
1. Use scientific notation (powers of 10)
2. Use prefixes in our units
3. Switch units
Use of prefixes
Facts: states of mater
• States of mater are typically divided in
Gas, liquid and solid
• List the characteristics of each one of these
states
A complete table
Compressibility
• What do we mean by compressibility?
• What is force?
• What is its relation to pressure, stress, strain?
Law of gases
• Boyle’s law
if I increase the pressure what happens with the
volume? Think of a tire pump.
Law of gases
• Boyle’s law
if I increase the pressure what happens with the
volume? Think of a tire pump.
PV = const.
Law of gases
• Charles’ law
What happens to the volume when the
temperature increase or decrease? Think of a
balloon in the freezer
(show video)
Law of gases
• Charles’ law
What happens to the volume when the
temperature increase or decrease? Think of a
balloon in the freezer
V
 const.
T
Law of gases
• Law of Gay-Lussac
What happens with the pressure when the
temperature increases? Think of a pressure
cooker…
Law of gases
• Law of Gay-Lussac
What happens with the pressure when the
temperature increases? Think of a pressure
cooker…
P
 const .
T
Ideal gas law
PV  nRT
How much gas (number of moles)
Ideal gas constant
8.314 Pa-m3/mol-K
Next class
The periodic table
Assignments
• Read Handout day 2
• Quiz on these topics (first 10-15 min of class)
• Chose the topic of your teaching assignment