Title: How%20to%20promote%20students%20ability%20to%20solve%20physics%20problems%20-%20Electronic%20collection%20of%20solved%20problems%20in%20physics
1How to promote students ability to solve physics
problems - Electronic collection of solved
problems in physics
- DANA MANDIKOVA
- Department of Physics Education,
- Charles University in Prague,
- Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
2Como apoyar la habilidad de los estudiantes en
solución de los problemas de física La
colección electrónica de las tareas de física por
resolver
- DANA MANDIKOVA
- Department of Physics Education,
- Charles University in Prague,
- Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
3Czech Republic
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6The main activities of our department
- Training of future physics teachers
- Support of in-service teachers
- Popularization of physics
- Research in physics education and in physics
7Topics of my interest
- Students misconceptions in physics
- International researches TIMSS and PISA
- Experiments in primary school physics
- Creation of electronic collection of solved
problems in physics
8Content of my lecture
- Why we prepare this collection
- Who are the users
- How does the collection look like
- Current content and future plans
- Experience with usage of collection
- Examples of solved problems
9Why we prepare this collection
- To solve physics problems is a key ability which
students should reach during their physics
education - Lack of time to solve enough problems especially
for students with poorer previous education - Lack of suitable study materials for these
students
10Our intention
- To help the users of the collection to learn how
to solve physics problems independently - To lead them to active thinking about presented
physics problems
11How we try to reach it
- The structure of problems solutions is specially
designed to substitute tutors help and encourage
students to solve at least some parts of a
problem independently - There are various hints, notes with laws and
formulas, figures and other means supporting
students aspiration before detailed solution - We have developed our own web interface for these
problems which does not show entire solution at
the first time
12Who are the users
- The collection is suitable for independent
repeating and improvement of high school
curriculum - It can help students in introductory university
physics courses and reduce their initial
difficulties with solving physics problems - It could be useful and effective tool for
students, who cant attend the seminars regularly
13Who are the users
- High school students interested in physics can
use this collection as well, e.g. for their
independent study and for preparation for school
leaving exams or entrance exams to universities - We started to assign to the collection also
easier high and secondary school problems - Availability on public web pages enables usage of
the collection by both students and teachers not
only at our faculty but also at other
universities and high schools
14Who are the authors
- The author of the technical design and user
interface is Zdenka Koupilova - The solved problems are prepared mostly as a part
of bachelor or diploma theses by students at our
faculty, whose study branch is aimed at education
- We collaborate also with high school teachers and
use their experience for reviewing the content
structure of particular parts of the collection
and also for designing new problems
15User interface of the collection
16User interface of the collection
- Difficulty
- L1 - problems on the lower secondary school level
- L2 - problems on the upper secondary school level
- L3 - problems on the high school level, more
difficult problems without using differential and
integral calculus - L4 - university level problems
17User interface of the collection
- Special categories
- Problem solved graphically
- Problem solved by reasoning
- Complex problem
- Problem solved by an unusual trick
- Problem containing theory
18Sections of individual problem Title and
assignment
- We are trying to set the entry physical
values to be similar to real life experience - The important part of the problem is a picture
related to the problem and motivating to solve
the problem
19Sections of individual problem - solution
- Hints are written in a way that helps and
motivates users to solve the problem. By
including the hints were trying to involve users
in solving the problem actively
20Sections of individual problem - hint
21Sections of individual problem - solution
- The analysis contains the whole strategy of the
solution - By the analysis were trying to introduce the
physical principle of the problem to the students
- The analysis doesnt contain mathematical
formulas
22Sections of individual poblem - solution
- Commented solution describes the solution step by
step to the details - Includes every logical operation
- Includes all mathematical steps
- Includes brief resume of known data, conversions
to appropriate units and numerical calculations
23Sections of individual problem
- Answer - allows the users to check results
quickly - Comment
- Describes possible alternative solution
- Contains e. g. variations of the problem leading
to an easier or to more difficult solution - Comments if the assignment is realistic
- Highlights things that users may be interested in
- Links - similar problems are linked together by
hyperlinks
24Example of problem
http//physicstasks.eu
25Sections of individual problem
- The order of sections in the problem is not
fixely given and depends on the author - There can be more than one section of same type
in a problem - Using this variety in problem design, the author
leads a reader through the problem in a way
optimized to the type of the particular problem - The author can also arrange the problems
sections to move readers to active thinking about
the problem
26Example of problem
27Current content - czech version
- There are more than 750 problems
- Mechanics 200
- Electricity and magnetism 215
- Thermodynamics and molecular physics 140
- Physics of microworld 60
- Theoretical mechanics 30
- Mathematical methods 18
- Mathematical analysis 110
28Current content other versions
- English version - 55 problems
- Mechanics - 31
- Electricity and magnetism - 24
- Polish version 90 problems
- Administration interface is in english - no
problem to add other versions
29Future plans
- Our aim is to cover all parts of physics included
into the basic university courses - Continuously adding problems into already
existing parts - Administration interface of the collection is
still being developed and improved - Tasks are translated to english
- Monitoring usability of the collection
30Experience with usage of collection
- The collection is used during seminars aimed to
problem solving, which support compulsory physics
lectures - Especially students, which can not attend
seminars regularly appreciate this material very
much - Also high school teachers and students like the
project and see it as very helpful and useful
31Users opinion
- Monitoring use of the collection
- Feedback questionnaire (158 filled before
10.4.2013) - 49 using regularly
- Users appreciate the structure of tasks -
especially hints and analysis and database
interface. - Users are also students of other universities and
high school students and their teachers
32How is the collection used
33How is the collection used
34Number of visits
- Number of visits 1.3. 30.4.2013
Total number of visits 43 810 Number of unique
visitors 30 760 Average time of one visit 2
min 51 s
35Where are the users from?
36Examples of problems
- A block struck by a bullet
- Cyclotron
37Web address of english version
http//physicstasks.eu
38If you want to join, please contact
us sbirka_at_kdf.mff.cuni.cz
39 Thank you for attention Dana.Mandikova_at_mff.cuni
.cz