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Newsletter Volume 3 |
Spring 1999 |
ACEPT Curriculum Development for NAU Preservice Science Teachers
Dan MacIsaac
Department of Physics
Northern Arizona Univerity
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Newsletter Volume 3 |
Spring 1999 |
For the past year ACEPT has been supporting curriculum reforms for preservice science teachers at Northern Arizona University (NAU). As part of the NAU middle school and secondary science teaching programs, preservice teachers take both Materials Preparation for Science Teaching (SCI420) and the introductory general physics courses (PHY111/112). The reforms introduced greatly improve student engagement during regular PHY 111/112 lecture sessions. NAU is also establishing a physical science course for elementary teachers (PHS101), which will be similar to the ACEPT-reformed ASU course, PHS 110. The first offering of PHS 110 at NAU is currently projected for Fall semester 1999.
ACEPT NAU curriculum development for these physics courses has centered upon the use of Seat Experiments and Whiteboarding using modified versions of activities created as take-home and as laboratory experiments for the ACEPT ASU PHS110 course. Seat experiments are short, concrete phenomenological activities carried out in the seats of a large lecture theater at pedagogically appropriate moments in regular physics lectures. These activities are between ten and twenty minutes in duration and all involve cooperative work in groups of 2-6 students together with written qualitative and quantitative questions which are discussed and answered by the group and turned in on a single sheet of paper. Experiments are chosen to introduce phenomena and to anchor cooperative group discussion in students' real experiences, which is particularly lacking in introductory courses. Examples of Seat Experiments from the introductory electricity and magnetism course
http://purcell.phy.nau.edu/seatexpts
Students react very supportively to Seat Experiments, and claim that the activities are insightful, motivational and memorable. The time to complete, report and debrief these weekly Seat Experiments is taken from time normally used to present textbook material (lecture time). To make up time "lost" "covering" material, students submit either a weekly written summary of text material, or take an electronically-offered web test addressing all chapter materials. Freed from the need to address every course topic in lecture, fewer topics can be treated in much more depth.
Another weekly event is the use of Whiteboarding in the lecture theater. Groups of three students are given whiteboards and marker pens and asked to answer conceptual problems presented on the overhead projector in about 15 minutes. Whiteboards are collected and again coarsely graded. Both Seat Experiment and Whiteboard problems as well as related material are found on the course examinations. Whiteboard problems are typically modified from curricular materials written by Arons (1997), Laws et al (1997), Knight (1996) and Mazur (1996). Student discourse is anchored in the collaborative construction of solutions on their whiteboards.
The new physical science course being developed at NAU will target preservice elementary teachers. PHS101 at NAU will incorporate hands-on science directly from ASU's ACEPT-reformed PHS110: Fundamentals in Physical Science and PHS208: Patterns in Nature offerings, together with the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) developed Powerful Ideas in Physical Science curriculum. PHS101 will feature hands-on science activities using low cost materials that our student teachers can eventually use in their own classrooms. We at NAU are excited by the future prospects for these teaching innovations and grateful for NSF ACEPT support and encouragement.
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