The Reformation of Introductory Physics at University of Southern Mississippi
Hiro Shimoyama, Physics and Astronomy Department, University of Southern Mississippi
Hirophysics.com
118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001
Phase 1 Transformation
Abstract
The graduate teaching assistants (TAs) and I have reformed
the laboratory education (especially for life-science students) of
introductory physics at the University of Southern Mississippi
last 5 years. The main goals have been to provide proper
experimentation, to create quality of curriculum, and to
establish good network among TAs and lecture curricula.
Mississippi State is the worst state in terms of preparing
STEM subjects for college study. Under such condition, we
have sought the best way to improve these students’ abilities.
In the first phase, we organized the lab facility so TAs can
teach well. In the second phase, we identified actual
students’ learning processes and their background. In the
third phase, we collected all aspects of feedback from TAs
and students; and then, we eventually integrated the solution
as an innovative lab manual with other external arrangement.
(Reconstruction of Laboratory Management System)
The major improvements for the lab management are:
• Display all of the equipment in the room, not to hide it
in drawers or shelves.
This has improved the accessibility and shortened the
time to set up experimentation.
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•
Introduction
It is often neglected to reform physics laboratory education in
most of the schools because lab activities are recognized as
merely subordinated under the lecture class. However, lab
itself can teach better than lecture class with a better control.
To accomplish this, we need proper maintenance for better
teaching and learning environment. On the other hand, the
system management plays a significant role to maintain
quality of education. If it is rigorously based on rules,
students tend to make rote learning. If the entire
management is inflexible and indifferent to the problems, TAs
tend to be disengaged in teaching.
The other problem is that students’ background and abilities
to understand tend to be ignored in the curriculum. However,
it is not straightforward to create well-challenging curriculum
since grasping their process of understanding is difficult and
students usually do not describe their own ability in an
objective manner. Testing can not necessarily measure their
genuine ability. Furthermore, failing to know their background
often leads to disengagement of students’ real understanding
toward the subject.
Even though the management and maintenance go well,
students’ inaccurate experimental results makes students fail
to understand the concepts to write up an appropriate lab
report.
The reformation of laboratory education has been conducted
by three steps: We systematically facilitate lab rooms so TAs
can manage the class in a flexible manner; we collect
students’ and TAs’ feedback to identify students background;
and we eventually compile all of the solutions as a special
format of lab textbooks.
TEMPLATE DESIGN © 2008
www.PosterPresentations.com
•
Separate the currently used from the backup
apparatuses.
It has improved the inventory and also saved the budget
usage. TAs can access backups anytime when a device
is in trouble.
Results
• Students can recall or learn mathematical
manipulation when teachers show the steps.
• Students’ math skills can be improved through the
semester.
According to our survey, this would be possible when
the curriculum emphasizes solving problems with math
or some intensive practice of math.
Phase 3 Transformation
(Emphasis of Understanding and Publication of a New
Textbook)
Conduct discussion-based management, not topdown-based.
The lab manager inquires all of the TAs about their
working situation and troubles happened. Any change of
policy must be discussed to reach agreement though the
manager has to be responsible for the process and result.
There are a couple of benefits from the previous phases of
transformation:
1. Improving organization and management has solved
quite a few equipment-related problems.
Share the problems, solutions, and ideas of the lab
system among TAs.
We promote all of us to have ideas to improve the lab.
The knowledge helps us maintain the system. This has
also cultivated variety of TAs’ teaching.
However, these have NOT facilitated students’ obtaining
proper experimental results and understanding the physics
concepts.
Phase 2 Transformation
(Identification of Students’ Abilities)
It has been also hard to know that K-12 schools in
Mississippi State do not teach STEM subjects adequately for
college study. It kept us from finding students’ science and
mathematical abilities for a long time.
We also find that without targeting proper students’ level,
students tend to make rote learning or cheating or copying
others’ solutions.
What we have discovered:
• Students do not recognize their own ability.
Students are not education researchers plus they tend
to protect their competency. They also tend to give up
improving their skills since physics is not their interests.
• A low math background significantly hinders
students from improving problem-solving skills in
physics.
2. Identifying students’ background has prevented from their
academic dishonesty and improved their confidence.
What we have discovered are:
• Most of the students spend tremendous time to
figure out the experimental procedure.
• Procedures written in the traditional manual are
ambiguous for most students to obtain accurate
and meaningful results.
• There are few opportunities for students to
understand the conceptual ideas of the lab.
What we have done are:
• We have discussed and collected the effective
procedures and tips for obtaining accurate
experimental results. [Quite a few pictures are
included for the explanation.]
• We have created proper questions to confirm
students’ understanding.
• We are able to flexibly revise the textbook with the
feedback from students and TAs.
The lab textbooks are posted at:
http://www.hirophysics.com/usmlabtextproject/usmphy111.html
http://www.hirophysics.com/usmlabtextproject/usmphy112.html
After conducting new management:
The time to set up the experiment has been reduced by
half.
Some students actively utilize displayed apparatuses to
explore their experiment.
After using the new textbooks:
Students’ questions about experimental procedures has
been significantly reduced.
Most of the students are able to obtain smaller
experimental errors such as around 5% or less.
The new lab manuals are instructive enough but still
leave room for students to discover things on their own.
Discussion and Conclusions
Our way of management has been effective to solve most of
the problems underlying educational issues. Knowing
students background has significantly helped us create the
new textbooks.
However, we also realize that what we have done are not
incentivized in most of the colleges, such as organizing the
system, investigating students’ background, and establishing
the quality of education.
References
[1] “How we teach students who don’t have math background”
American Association of Physics Teachers, Portland OR, 2010.
[2] “Educational Pitfalls of ‘Plug-In’ Physics” American Association
of Physics Teachers, Omaha NE, 2011.
[3] “Reformation of Physics Lab Manual for Life-Science Students
at USM” American Association of Physics Teachers, Pittsburg, PA,
2012.
Contact information
Hiro Shimoyama
Physics and Astronomy Department, University of Southern Mississippi
118 College Dr. #5046
Hattiesburg, MS 39406
Email:
hironori.shimoyama@usm.edu
H_shimo@hotmail.com