Transcript Physics 106P: Lecture 1 Notes

Can Students Learn Concept-Based
Problem Solving on the Web?
Check it out at: http://webug.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/ie.html
Cottrell Scholars Meeting
Mats Selen
July 13, 2001
Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 1
Overview


The Problem:
When given a quantitative physics problem, most students
immediately resort to an “equation manipulation” strategy to solve
the problem.
Too many students see “concepts” and “calculations” as two totally
separate and unrelated activities.
» When given a quantitative question, most students will NOT
think about the CONCEPTS that are involved.
» When given a qualitative question, most students will never
consider writing down an appropriate equation… math is NOT
seen as a TOOL
Our Approach:
Create web-based instructional materials that will promote
“concept-based” problem solving among our introductory students.
» Interactive Examples (work by Gary Gladding) !
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Why we should stress concepts:
Physics 101 Midterm Exam 1, Spring 2000
On this exam, the conceptual problems were worth about 30% of the total.
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Traditional Homework:
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Limited help available…
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Interactive Examples (Socratic Dialogue)
Start by asking a numeric question
(usually multi-step)
when students click in “Help”…
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…”Help” results in a discussion followed by some
multiple-choice questions that lead them toward
the answer…
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This dialogue can take several steps…
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…these steps are designed to
teach students problem solving
approaches as well as physics…
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Eventually they get another (simpler) numeric question whose
answer is needed to solve the primary numeric question.
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Clicking on “Help” again results in a
similar dialogue as the first time,
although one level “deeper”.
- Problems can be 4-5 levels deep
- Eventually they get enough info to
solve the problem.
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Once they get
right the answer
They get a
recap
And some
follow-up
questions
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Structure:


Base question is a quantitative problem (multi-step).
Students can request help which comes in the form of more questions.
Questions for which more help is always available.
Questions that must be answered correctly to get more help.

Students can opt to answer the base question at any time.

Eventually, enough help is given to solve the problem.

Once base question is answered correctly:
Full credit is given.
A Recap is given (Conceptual, Strategic and Quantitative Analyses).
Follow-Up Questions (optional, i.e. no credit) are asked.
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REAL Data: Student Logs

We record all student submissions on IEs:
(the conversation)
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These data are very useful
for education research:


For example, some questions we might ask ourselves are:
How “engaged” are students by the IE’s ?
How, exactly, are they learning?
These can be investigated by analyzing the student logs:
How much time do students spend on the IEs?
How well do the students do on their first response to M/C
questions?
How deep into the IE do students go?
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10
5
A v e r a ge Ti m e S pe nt (m in)
10
lo o p 2
flu x
emf
w a ll
fie ld s
co p p e rw ire
R C III
R C II
RCI
th re e ch a rg e s
ca p a cito r
p e n d u lu m
b o b sle d
in clin e
b e lt
tw o strin g s
ca rp e n d
b a llo o n
a rro w
ca tch b a ll
ca rtra in
ve cto r
trig
P hys ic s 1 0 1 IE #
P hys ic s 1 0 1 IE #
15
15
p a rticle b e a m
0
20
20
Physics 102
30
Physics 101
30
25
25
5
A v e r a ge Ti m e S pe nt (m in)
How Much Time Do Students Spend on IEs?
0
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How Well Do Students Do on their
First Response to M/C Questions?
Physics 102
0 .9 0
A v g G ra d e o n R a d io Q u e s tio n s
A v g G ra d e o n R a d io Q u e s tio n s
Physics 101
0 .8 0
0 .7 0
0 .6 0
0 .5 0
0 .4 0
0 .3 0
0 .2 0
0 .1 0
0 .0 0
0 .8 0
0 .7 0
0 .6 0
0 .5 0
0 .4 0
0 .3 0
0 .2 0
0 .1 0
0 .0 0
lo o p 2
flu x
em f
w a ll
fie ld s
co p p e rw ir e
R C III
R C II
RCI
th re e ch a r g e s
ca p a cito r
p e n d u lu m
p a rticle b e a m
b o b sle d
in clin e
b e lt
tw o strin g s
ca rp e n d
b a llo o n
a rro w
ca tch b a ll
ca rtra in
ve cto r
trig
IE Q u e s tio n #
0 .9 0
IE Q u e s tio n #
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How Deep Do Students Go in IEs?
Physics 102
0 .9 0
0 .9 0
0 .8 0
0 .8 0
0 .7 0
0 .7 0
A v g D e p t h In to IE
A v g D e p t h In to IE
Physics 101
0 .6 0
0 .5 0
0 .4 0
0 .3 0
0 .2 0
0 .6 0
0 .5 0
0 .4 0
0 .3 0
0 .2 0
0 .1 0
0 .1 0
0 .0 0
0 .0 0
lo o p 2
flu x
em f
w a ll
fie ld s
co p p e rw ir e
R C III
R C II
RCI
th re e ch a r g e s
ca p a cito r
p e n d u lu m
p a rticle b e a m
b o b sle d
in clin e
b e lt
tw o strin g s
ca rp e n d
b a llo o n
a rro w
ca tch b a ll
ca rtra in
ve cto r
trig
IE Q u e s tio n #
IE Q u e s tio n #
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Does IE Performance Correlate
with Exam Performance?
25
20
15
10
5
0
0
20
40
60
Ave ra ge Hour Ex a m 1 S core
80
100
80
70
to I E Q u e s ti o n s
A v e ra g e S c o re o n F i rs t R e s p o n s e
A v e ra g e N o o f F o l l o w u p s D o n e
Compare Physics 101 Hour Exam grade with Indicators of IE participation
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
Ave ra ge Hour Ex a m 1 S core
• Observe some correlation between (unclear how to interpret this).
• Will probably advertise this to students to encourage participation.
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Status



Algebra-based Courses at Illinois (Physics 101 and 102).
Approximately 60 IEs were used in these courses in Fall 00.
Very popular!
Used heavily in Physics 100.
Remedial class for at-risk students.
I.E. form most of the homework for this class.
Since Physics 100 has no lecture, IE’s are particularly useful since
they provide some “give & take” type dialogue.
Will implement in calculus based sequence next.
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What Do Students Think About IEs?

Always Very Positive
Independent (OIR) Focus Group Study
» 100% of students preferred IEs to the usual computer problems
» The half that do the optional follow-ups felt they gained confidence
Our End of Term Surveys
» 87% said that the interface was “very intuitive” or “reasonably intuitive”
» How effective were IEs at helping you to develop a problem solving
strategy? “very effective” (31%), “effective” (56%), “not very” (12%)
Direct Comment Facility from IE itself:
» Low response, but 100% positive (very unusual for computer feedback)
» “the drawn out explainations are much like a one on one learning
environment and are very helpful not only in the problem but in the
concepts behind it”
» “if these interactive examples were not there to help me i would have gone
insane trying to figure out these problems....and this makes me understand
the problems much better than if i were to get help from someone in the
class...i believe anyways...because this way i'm figuring it out basically on
my own.…”
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