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Newsletter Volume 2 |
Fall 1997 |
Teaching Physical Science in an Integrated Learning Environment
Mangala JoshuaPhysical Science Department
Mesa Community College
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Newsletter Volume 2 |
Fall 1997 |
Fundamentals of Physical Science, PHS 110, is one of the science courses that is taken by the K-8 pre-service teachers. In the past, this course as been taught in two parts: lecture and laboratory. Starting in the Fall of 1997 this course is being taught at Mesa Community College as an integrated lecture/laboratory class in a laboratory setting. Throughout the course basic concepts are introduced through inquiry based activities and experiments, keeping the lecture part to a minimum. This method of active learning encourages students to discover most of the simple laws of science by themselves, and has been observed to enhance their learning process.
Mangala gathers data for an ACEPT summer workshop experiment.
In a traditional classroom, a phenomenon, a concept, or a law is first discussed and then an experiment is done to confirm what has been discussed. In this new approach the students encounter phenomena through a series of inquiry based activities and experiments done in small groups. The experimental results obtained by each group are then shared with the whole class. Simple laws of science are established following a discussion of the phenomena, led by the instructor. Calculator Based Laboratories(CBLs) and TI-83 graphing calculators are used for collection and analysis of data. The graphical display of data provides an immediate picture of how a physical quantity such as an object's position or temperature changes with time. Analysis is also simplified by using these new tools. Computer simulations are also used in this classroom to study phenomena under some physical conditions that cannot be recreated in the classroom.
Eugene Judson, Brimhall Jr. High, and Jeff Turley, ACEPT Teacher Liason, compare data collected on their CBLs during the summer workshop.
Some of the activities in this course were designed to be done by students at home using commonly available materials in their homes. Some others were designed to be done out of class using science kits from the school. The idea of using science kits was introduced to us by Susan Wyckoff at ASU. These and other activities and experiments done in the class were designed to encourage the students to observe, question, and use critical thinking to construct explanations for what they observe.
My colleague, Grace Ferreira and I planned and developed material for this course over the past summer and have begun teaching it this Fall. Several workshops have provided us with the latest results in physics education research, innovative methods in teaching and experience in some of these areas. Both of us attended the physics/math ACEPT workshop this past summer (1997) where we worked with CBLs and graphing calculators. I have also attended four TYC (Two Year College) physics workshops organized by Curtis Hieggelke and Tom O'Kuma and sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
Mangala Joshua collaborates with J.D. Mildrew (SMCC), Sue Wyckoff (ASU), and Carlon Ami (DC) about the articulation of physical science reforms in four ACEPT institutions.
We plan to test the effectiveness of this reformed course through the use of the following assessment tools: a) Views About Science Survey; b) Force Concept Inventory; c) classroom test of scientific reasoning. The tools (a) and (b) were developed by Ibrahim Halloun and David Hestenes (Department of Physics, ASU) and (c) Anton E. Lawson (Department of Biology, ASU).
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