PHY690 Dr MacIsaac Craig Uhrich 3 28 05 Two years ago my school district decided to offer Advanced Placement Physics C Mechanics APC Mechanics a calculus based course in Newtonian mechanics in lieu of its Advanced Placement Physics B course an algebra based survey physics course This left me with the daunting task of choosing a textbook that would suit my students the best The students that would be enrolling in the class were accelerated high school juniors or slightly better than average seniors who had already taken a high school level algebra based survey course in physics Along with physics these students were either concurrently enrolled in pre calculus or calculus so their knowledge of calculus at least at the beginning of the course was minimal Considering the pool of physics students I had I was in the search for a college level physics text that covered all of the objectives of the APC curriculum but was written at a level that advanced juniors could read Ideally this text would contain the calculus needed for the course but didn t rely on it to introduce physics concepts After reading a survey of what textbooks other AP Physics instructors were using I reviewed a few of the most popular These texts reminded me of what my undergraduate physics texts were like i e nearly impossible to read They relied heavily on mathematics to introduce many concepts About the same time I was taking a graduate level physics course for educators that used Randy Knight s Physics A Contemporary Perspective Knight 1996 as the text This was the preliminary edition to what is now entitled Physics For Scientists and Engineers A Strategic Approach Knight 2004 I found that this text approached physics from more of a conceptual viewpoint After examining a sample of the new edition I decided to use this text to develop my curriculum around The text was written using physics education research as a focus so it is designed to teach physics using ideas and techniques that have been shown to improve physics comprehension After inspecting the book it seemed more readable compared to other typical calculus based texts meant for introductory physics courses In addition this textbook was accompanied by a workbook that was intended to bridge the gap between the textbook and homework problems by providing students the opportunity to learn a practice skills prior to using those skills in quantitative end of chapter problems Knight 2004 Since the time I chose this text I have set out to align this textbook with the APC Mechanics course objectives The remainder of this paper will focus on just how well this text suits an AP physics course taught to upperlevel high school students and will include how I use the text in my teaching student s reactions to the text the text s strengths and weaknesses and a table that indicates where each APC Mechanics course objective is found in both Knight s textbook and workbook Using Knight s textbook and workbook Being relatively new to the field of physics teaching I am constantly looking at ways to improve my teaching and the structure of my courses to make learning physics easier and more enjoyable One aspect of my teaching that has always bothered me is the way I incorporate the textbook I have always felt that I have never used a textbook in an effective way In most of my courses the textbook was used for nothing more than a source of problems to assign my students for homework I found comfort in knowing that if my students had an additional resource to go to for physics knowledge if they wanted to see a concept presented in a way that was different from my classroom teaching The few students who did this often told me they had difficulties in understanding their textbook A committee that has reviewed different physics textbooks and their use 1999 points out that I am just like many other physics teachers when it comes to this matter I decided that I was going to use Knight s text and workbook as an integral part of the course Knight suggests that students should read the text before coming to class to learn new material 2004 The goal of this reading is to get a very basic understanding of new vocabulary definitions and notations He then recommends having students reread the text after the material has been presented During this reading students should pay more attention to detail They should focus on the logic behind each example given in the chapter This leads me to explaining how I have been using Knight s resources At the beginning of the year I encouraged students to read the textbook both before and after new material was presented For a while I did not hold the students accountable for these reading assignments and consequently I found that many of them did not read their text I then decided as suggested by Eric Mazur 1997 to give a short reading quiz After a few of these students soon realized that they needed to at least look at the assigned section quickly enough to know what the day s topic was before coming to class As a result I found that I was able to pick up the pace in class I didn t have to spend as much time introducing concepts or terminology as I had to when my students were not reading their texts Another instructional technique I have heard of and plan to use in the future to encourage my students to read their texts is to have them as an assignment write down some notes about the reading assignments possibly defining any new terms or ideas After new material has been presented in class I usually assign the workbook section that correlates to the reading section for homework Often the students begin working on these in groups of two or three if there is time left at the end of class The following day we usually go over these assignments Many times I will have the students put their solutions to particular problems on whiteboards and have them give explanations to their peers After using the workbook assignments to help the students develop a conceptual understanding of the new material we look at quantitative examples which are then followed by typical end of chapter questions assigned for homework Another variation in using the workbook that I have tried as suggested by Roger Freedman I m not sure how to cite this is to have the students go through a think pair share format focus on one or two example problems that are usually more involved Each student first thinks about the problem and attempts to solve it on their own They are able to consult
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