Buffalo State PHY 690 - Much research on teaching physics

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Secondary School Students Learn Newton’s Third Law Debora Shafer, Department of Physics, State University of New York at Buffalo: Buffalo State College, 1300 Elmwood Ave. Buffalo NY 14222 [email protected]:This is a description of seven middle school Special Needs Students reforming their thinking about Newtonian force concepts over ten forty minute classes. The students were tested via the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) (Hestenes, Wells & Swackhamer, 1992), and then interviewed individually to confirm their reasoning. Students were grouped, and through inquiry and hands-on discovery the students’ preconceptions were developed into a deeper understanding of Newtonian force concepts, specifically Newton’s Third Law. Acknowledgements:This manuscript was prepared as part of requirements for PHY690: Master's Project at SUNY Buffalo State College, under the direction of Dr. Dan MacIsaac. Thanks for comments from Dr. Joe Zawicki, Dr. David Abbott, my peers in Physics Workshops, colleagues and Yianna Fantrazzo.1IntroductionMuch research on teaching physics using inquiry based methods (Arons, 1997; Garner, 1991); developing explanations of natural phenomena in a continuing, creative process (Department of Education, 1996), and students’ working in cooperative learning groups (Gijlers & de Jong, 2005; Hake, 1998; MacIsaac D., 2002; Trowbridge, Bybee, & Powell, 2000) makes a case for two elements: first arrange the environment to facilitate student-centered instruction; and second, include sufficient guidance to ensure direction and success in discovering the concepts being taught (Trowbridge, Bybee, & Powell, 2000; Rochelle, 1992; Halloun, 1985). Strategies of inquiry teaching are emphasized in the National Science Education Standards as primary methods of conducting science classes to acquaint students with the scientific method of problem solving techniques that are used in the field by scientists (Trowbridge, Bybee, & Powell, 2000). Students are asked to develop through research explanations for what they have observed. After an explanation is heard by classmates and discussed students can reformulate their ideas into a hypothesis which is clarified through co-operative learning activities in the classroom. When students carry out their own research plan through hands on activities and keep track of their findings, either with diagrams or the written word, concepts are seen with a deeper insight into the phenomena (Department of Education, 1996).Teaching physics utilizing The Learning Cycle (Musheno & Lawson, 1999) and Traditional Text (Guzzeetti, Williams, Skeels, & Wu, 1997). have been at the basis of several studies. The Learning CycleMethod is taught in three consecutive phases known as exploration, term introduction, and concept application, which is the way people spontaneously learn about life and the world around them (Musheno & Lawson, 1999). Traditional texts are usually written with term introduction and vocabulary at the 2beginning of a chapter, followed by examples and exploration of the concepts (Garner, 1991). Textbooks are often written in such a way that they confuse the student, particularly students with low reading scores (Musheno & Lawson, 1999). This study uses curriculum techniques modeled in modeling physics based physics teacher workshops at Buffalo State College (MacIsaac D., Zawicki, J., Henry, D., Beery, D. & Falconer, K.A., 2004) using activities taken from the Constructing Physics Understanding (CPU) (http://cpucips.sdsu.edu/) materials first, and then reinforcing the activities with refutational text, text that points out where the misconceptions are (Zitzewitz, P. W., 1999) developing the idea of the concepts before devulging the vocabulary (Arons, 1997). Once this is carried out and the students understand the word usage and the classroom texts are then introduced for reinforcment because The U.S. Department of Education (1991) states that 90% of instruction time is devoted to textbook use (McCarthy, 2004). Physics content vocabulary is specific in nature and literacy is critical for many physics concepts and students with special needs often have difficulty with language and reading (Cawley, 1990). Moreover, studies that compared students who received instruction in discovery and activity-oriented instruction showed that inquiry instruction performed better than direct instruction or traditional approaches using lecture and memorization of vocabulary terms (McCarthy, 2004). Seven special needs students in the BOCES 1 program, in a suburban school of Buffalo, NY, weregiven a condensed version (ten items associated with Newton’s third law) of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) (Hestenes, Wells & Swackhamer, 1992) as a pre-test to evaluate their conceptual knowledge base ofNewtonian Force Concepts. Testing using this tool because Hestenes and Halloun (1995) claim the FCI is “designed to assess student understanding of the most basic concepts in Newtonian physics”. Afterwards, on the same day as the pre-test, all seven students were interviewed individually in a casual classroom 3setting. From the interview, students’ basic reasoning and social levels were evaluated and later used to form two student groups. Students were grouped based on understanding, reasoning level and social abilities to maximize ability variation in each group. The seven students were then instructed during ten 40-minute classroom periods, over a six month time frame. There were ten sessions with the students, not including test taking and initial interviews. Assigned aides accompanied some individual students to all lessons, and there were usually between two and three aides in each class as well as the instructor. Lesson DesignClass discourseThe students used whiteboards to convey their answers and when working in small cooperative learning groups. The students were informed that there would be a lot of discussion techniques just like scientists use. We talked about how scientists explore and we decided a good way to explain what they dois to say they solve a problem or problem solve. First teacher question posed: “What is a force?” Example answers: push, pull, off-balance feeling.Next teacher question posed: “What makes a force?” There was a long silence (15 to 20 seconds). The students were then asked: “What is capable of creating a force on something?” Example Answers: wind, person, carAs follow up the students


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Buffalo State PHY 690 - Much research on teaching physics

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