• Creating an Active Science Learning Environment Over the Internet

• WebILD: Web-Delivered Lecture Demonstrations

• Student-Oriented Science: Enabling Teachers to Meet the National Science Standard

• LivePhoto - Digital Videos for Lectures and Assignments

• Foundations for Computer Based Physics Instruction
   
• Activity-Based Physics: Curricula, Computer Tools and Apparatus
   
• Summer Content Enhancement Institute - PALMS
   
  

      Because of the recent exponential growth in interest in internet-based distance learning and thanks to funding from the U.S. Department of Education, and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), we are adapting the pedagogically successful ILD procedures for internet delivery as a proof of concept. To do this requires the development of 1) video sequences to replace the actual presentation of demonstrations in a classroom; 2) methods to present results as graphs and data synchronously with video sequences; and 3) mechanisms to facilitate real-time internet discussions of predictions and results by small groups composed of students in different physical locations. We will be able to directly compare student learning in actual educational contexts using internet-delivery and lecture-delivery.

     To prove the generality of the method we will extend this strategy to additional physics content areas and to another science discipline. We will use the interactivity of internet delivery as an opportunity to increase further ILDs efficacy with under-prepared learners. Finally, as part of a national dissemination effort, we will develop and refine teacher materials.

WebILD

"Web-Delivered Interactive Lecture Demonstrations: Creating an Active Science Learning Environment over the Internet" is a National Science Foundation award under the direction of Ronald Thornton (Tufts University) and David Sokoloff (Univeristy of Oregon).

This project builds on work undertaken with previous NSF grants and suggests a new way for students to successfully learn fundamental concepts. All of this work has been based on actual student conceptual learning data. Many teachers have looked at the data and have begun to alter their teaching methods by using more effective pedagogies, but institutional factors have kept others from doing so. Fundamentally changing the way we teach is difficult, time consuming, leads to uncertain success, and can be particularly difficult in traditional environments. This project intends to further develop methods and tools that can facilitate effective teaching even in traditional environments. We are planning a web delivery system for a proven interactive pedagogy, Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILDs) which we developed earlier. WebILDs have already been prototyped, used with students, and shown to lead to very significant changes in conceptual understanding.

STUDENT-ORIENTED SCIENCE: ENABLING TEACHERS TO MEET THE NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS

     The FIPSE-funded Student Oriented Science Project at the Center for Science and Mathematics Teaching at Tufts University will assist physics and physical science teachers at all grade levels to address the goals set forth in the National Science Standards and in state standards. The need for such a program is critical because currently most teachers of physics and physical science are unable to help their students acheive the admirably high goals set by the standards. They lack either sufficient mastery of the basic science concepts or pedagogical resources. Unhappily, in many cases, they lack both.

     The project addresses this problem by providing educators of science teachers at universities and in school systems with ready access to a National Science Standards Teacher Education Module. The Module will contain information and materials needed to implement two effective teacher education programs. The first concentrates on improving teachers' knowledge of basic physics concepts while the second enhances their pedagogical repertoires to include the effective use of guided inquiry, peer collaboration and modern technology in teaching physics concepts. Both programs will include a component that will assist teacher-participants to be effective change-agents in their schools.

     The programs described in the Module have grown out of the Center's long-term efforts to improve science education. Both programs call upon participants to engage in active, inquiry-driven learning experiences to explore the physical world by using Microcomputer-Based Laboratory probes and software to collect data and display it graphically and digitally in real-time. After collection they can easily analyze and transform the data. They study the physical world using the methods of scientists.

     The five-day, hands-on Institute with follow-up helps under-prepared teachers master science content while experiencing new pedagogical approaches. The hands-on, two-day Workshop with folow-up helps high school teachers of physics and physical sciences learn new and powerful ways of teaching basic science concepts. A survey indicates that as a result of their participation in the two-day Workshop program, 90% of teachers changed the way they taught physics. While both programs address active learning, they also require participants to reflect upon what they are learning and how they are learning what they learn. The Module will include supporting documents, videotapes of workshop activities and classroom teaching, curriculum, evaluative materials, and the software set-up files required to present both kinds of workshops.

     The Modulewill also contain Strategies for Effective Change, which will provide workshop leaders and participants with tested strategies and techniques, including case studies, for implementing and institutionalizing improvements in the teaching of science in schools. The suggestons will be based upon a careful analysis of the results of a survey of teachers who have participated in science education activities carried on at the Center during the last ten years.

     The long overdue adoption of higher standards at the national and state levels is an exciting challenge and an opportunity for science educators at all grade levels. Now, as never before, master teachers and university faculty involved in the pre- and in-service education of science teachers have a clear mandate to improve the teaching of science so that diverse students may meet higher standards. Ready access to the National Science Standards Teacher Education Module will provide a powerful resource with which to meet the challenge.

LIVEPHOTO PHYSICS: DIGITAL VIDEOS FOR LECTURES AND ASSIGNMENTS

The LivePhoto Physics project, under the direction of PI Professor Robert Teese of Rochester Institute of Technology and co-PI Ronald Thornton of Tufts University, is funded by the National Science Foundation. The project will develop a collection of digital video analysis materials for introductory physics courses, using research-based development methods that were refined through projects such as Tools for Scientific Thinking and Workshop Physics. These materials will include videos, lecture demonstration sequences, homework assignments, instructor notes and software. In digital video analysis, students use computers as laboratory instruments to make measurements on video images of real events. These techniques are being used increasingly in physics courses, and there is evidence that they are effective in teaching physics concepts. In spite of the wealth of mass-media and educational videos available that can be used in laboratories or student projects, very few existing videos are ideal for analysis in lectures or homework assignments. The LivePhoto Physics project is meeting this need by producing a collection of digital videos that span many of the optics covered in a one-year physics course, including videos made with high-speed/slow-motion equipment that is not available at most teaching facilities. An innovative aspect of the project is that the topic selection is being guided by the results of physics education research. Written curricular materials using the videos in Interactive Lecture Demonstrations, distance-learning exercises and extended homework problem sets will be produced and classroom tested in a three-year research-based development cycle. Field testing will take place at two-year colleges and four-year colleges/universities with diverse student audiences. Computer software that extends the display and visualization capabilities of digital video analysis will be development during the project. The final set of videos, curricular materials and software will be published in the form of a CD. The LivePhoto Physics project will address the need for faculty development and the integration of technology in education by sponsoring six workshops on the use of digital video analysis in physics teaching.