Unfortunately many students have difficulty both solving problems and understanding the fundamental concepts of physics. At the University of Minnesota we have applied the findings of educational research to develop an introductory physics course that emphasizes learning fundamental physics through problem solving. This course structure has been successful enough so that it is now the standard mode of instruction for most of our introductory physics classes. This talk will briefly outline the technique, its rationale, and its results. For several years, we have been developing a University Physics course organized around models and modeling to make the subject matter and procedural knowledge more explicit, systematic and coherent.
Students work in collaborative groups in a technology-rich studio classroom.
With well-documented success in a small classroom environment, we are currently adapting the approach to a large classroom and developing workshops for wide dissemination. Supported by NSF grant DUE-9952706. The Suite consists of an array of curricular materials designed to help departments use active, collaborative teaching methods in introductory calculus-based physics courses. Physics education research has shown that learning environments that engage students and allow them to take an active part in their learning can lead to large conceptual gains compared to traditional instruction. An active learning environment is often difficult to achieve in large lecture sessions.