Reformation of Physics Lab Manual for Life-Science Students at USM
Bharath Kandula and Hiro Shimoyama
Abstract
As one of the project members, I contributed to it and observed the change in students'
understanding and attitudes after using the new type of physics lab manual. Our result
indicates that students and even teachers learn through the new lab manual. There are
several factors that affect effective understanding in physics lab, such as the lab
manual, the equipment, teacher's scientific pedagogy, students' inquisitive mind,
students' background, etc. Especially for life-science majors, teaching physics requires
a better guide or manual and extra supports which include personal attention and interactive
questioning with instructors. From our observations of last year, we have concluded that the
new lab manual has improved students' understanding in the concepts of Newton's laws, torques,
conservation of momentum, moment of inertia, etc. This scheme also gives us the future work toward
demonstrations using diagrams and providing software.
The Presentation
The Reformation of Introductory Physics at University of Southern Mississippi
Hiro Shimoyama
Abstract
The graduate teaching assistants (TAs) and I have reformed the introductory physics lab
education at the University of Southern Mississippi last 5 years. The main goals were to
provide proper equipment, to create quality of curriculum, and to establish good network
among TAs and lecture instructors. Mississippi State is the worst state in terms of
preparing STEM subjects for college study. Under such condition, we have been seeking
the best way to improve these students' ability. In the first phase, we organized the
facility so TAs can teach well. In the second phase, we grasped actual students' learning
processes and their background. In the third phase, we collected all aspects of feedback
from TAs and students. Then, we eventually integrated the solution as our innovative lab
manual with other external arrangement.
The Presentation
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