Experientially based physics instruction

- using hands-on laborations and computers

Principal investigator: Jonte Bernhard

This page will pe uppdated during the fall of 2000. Welcome back!

Links to papers and talks are at the bottom of this page.

A full description of this project, funded by the Council for renewal of higher education (the council is a body within National Agency of Higher Education) will appear soon on this page.

The goal of our project is that the students should obtain a good functional understanding of fundamental concepts in physics and especially in mechanics. Other goals is that the students should develop facility with mathematical representations (diagrams, graphs, equations); make connections between concepts, representations, physical principles, and the ideal/real world; achieve some scientific literacy including an understanding of the scientific process; develop problem solving skills; develop experimental skills, think critically about their own work beyond the physics class and experience the excitement of doing physics.

To obtain our goal we will use Microcomputer Based Laboratory (MBL) equipment in the physics laboratory and further develop active engagement labs. Our project will put priority of making changes in our mechanics courses Mechanics I (introductory mechanics, 7.5 ECTS credits) and Mechanics II advanced mechanics, 7.5 ECTS credits). Before the project begun we introduced a first version of MBL-based labs in 1996/97 academic year. In the 1997/98 academic year the project begun, with support from the Council for Renewal of Undergraduate Education, and the lab-course in Mechanics I were further revised. In lectures were MBL-equipment used for demonstrations and some changes towards active engagement were made in the recitation classes. In the Mechanics II course some labs using MBL- and video-equipment have been developed. For the assesment of conceptual understanding in mechanics the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) test developed by Hestenes et al have been used. The achievements obtained in our project have hitherto been promising and some preliminary results are shown in the table below.

 Freshman year  Pretest (average)  Posttest (average)  Gain (G)  Normalized gain (g)
 1995/96    62% *    
 1996/97  52%  64%  12%  0.25
 1997/98**  51%  73%  22%  0.45

Results of pre- and posttesting using Force Concept Inventory on students taking Mechanics I at Högskolan Dalarna. Gain (G) = posttest - pretest. Normalized gain (g) = gain / (maximum possible gain). *Posttest done after the advanced mechanics course (Older curricula. These students had 15 ECTS credits in mechanics). Traditional teaching usually gives a g-value of 0.05 - 0.20. **Matched sample.

More information about the project will come.

Papers related to the project:

Talks related to the project

 

Welcome back!

For more information contact: jonbe43@liu.se

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Linköping University
ITN, Campus Norrköping
S-60174 Norrköping
+46-11-36 30 00

Uppdaterad 990908
Sidansvarig: Jonte Bernhard