70,180 research outputs found

    High-Tech Tools for Teaching Physics: the Physics Education Technology Project

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    This article appeared in the Journal of Online Teaching and Learning September 15, 2006.This paper introduces a new suite of computer simulations from the Physics Education Technology (PhET) project, identifies features of these educational tools, and demonstrates their utility. We compare the use of PhET simulations to the use of more traditional educational resources in lecture, laboratory, recitation and informal settings of introductory college physics. In each case we demonstrate that simulations are as productive, or more productive, for developing student conceptual understanding as real equipment, reading resources, or chalk-talk lectures. We further identify six key characteristic features of these simulations that begin to delineate why these are productive tools. The simulations: support an interactive approach, employ dynamic feedback, follow a constructivist approach, provide a creative workplace, make explicit otherwise inaccessible models or phenomena, and constrain students productively

    Теоретичні основи електротехніки[

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    The Theory of Electrical Engineering is presented in three parts: the Basic Theories of Steady-State and Transients in Electrical Circuits and the Basic Theory of Electromagnetic Field. For students of electrotechnical specialties of higher educational establishments, as well as for scientific and technical specialists dealing with modern problems in the theory and practice of electric power engineering and electromechanics.Викладено теоретичні основи електротехніки в трьох частинах: теорія стаціонарних процесів в електричних колах, теорія перехідних процесів в електричних колах і теорія електромагнітного поля. Для студентів електротехнічних спеціальностей вищих навчальних закладів, а також для науково-технічних фахівців, що займаються сучасними проблемами в теорії і практиці електроенергетики та електромеханіки

    Teaching Memory Circuit Elements via Experiment-Based Learning

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    The class of memory circuit elements which comprises memristive, memcapacitive, and meminductive systems, is gaining considerable attention in a broad range of disciplines. This is due to the enormous flexibility these elements provide in solving diverse problems in analog/neuromorphic and digital/quantum computation; the possibility to use them in an integrated computing-memory paradigm, massively-parallel solution of different optimization problems, learning, neural networks, etc. The time is therefore ripe to introduce these elements to the next generation of physicists and engineers with appropriate teaching tools that can be easily implemented in undergraduate teaching laboratories. In this paper, we suggest the use of easy-to-build emulators to provide a hands-on experience for the students to learn the fundamental properties and realize several applications of these memelements. We provide explicit examples of problems that could be tackled with these emulators that range in difficulty from the demonstration of the basic properties of memristive, memcapacitive, and meminductive systems to logic/computation and cross-bar memory. The emulators can be built from off-the-shelf components, with a total cost of a few tens of dollars, thus providing a relatively inexpensive platform for the implementation of these exercises in the classroom. We anticipate that this experiment-based learning can be easily adopted and expanded by the instructors with many more case studies.Comment: IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine (in press

    Students' Understanding of Direct Current Resistive Electrical Circuits

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    Research has shown that both high school and university students' reasoning patterns regarding direct current resistive electric circuits often differ from the currently accepted explanations. At present, there are no standard diagnostic examinations in electric circuits. Two versions of a diagnostic instrument called Determining and Interpreting Resistive Electric circuits Concepts Tests (DIRECT) were developed, each consisting of 29 questions. The information provided by the exam provides classroom instructors a means with which to evaluate the progress and conceptual difficulties of their students and their instructional methods. It can be used to evaluate curricular packages and/or other supplemental materials for their effectiveness in overcoming students' conceptual difficulties. The analyses indicate that students, especially females, tend to hold multiple misconceptions, even after instruction. During interviews, the idea that the battery is a constant source of current was used most often in answering the questions. Students tended to focus on current in solving the problems and to confuse terms, often assigning the properties of current to voltage and/or resistance. Results indicated that students do not have a clear understanding of the underlying mechanisms of electric circuit phenomena. On the other hand, students were able to translate easily from a "realistic" representation of a circuit to the corresponding schematic diagram.Comment: This article has been accepted for publication in the American Journal of Physics - Physics Education Research Supplement. No known publication date as ye

    Characterizing lab instructors' self-reported learning goals to inform development of an experimental modeling skills assessment

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    The ability to develop, use, and refine models of experimental systems is a nationally recognized learning outcome for undergraduate physics lab courses. However, no assessments of students' model-based reasoning exist for upper-division labs. This study is the first step toward development of modeling assessments for optics and electronics labs. In order to identify test objectives that are likely relevant across many institutional contexts, we interviewed 35 lab instructors about the ways they incorporate modeling in their course learning goals and activities. The study design was informed by the Modeling Framework for Experimental Physics. This framework conceptualizes modeling as consisting of multiple subtasks: making measurements, constructing system models, comparing data to predictions, proposing causes for discrepancies, and enacting revisions to models or apparatus. We found that each modeling subtask was identified by multiple instructors as an important learning outcome for their course. Based on these results, we argue that test objectives should include probing students' competence with most modeling subtasks, and test items should be designed to elicit students' justifications for choosing particular modeling pathways. In addition to discussing these and other implications for assessment, we also identify future areas of research related to the role of modeling in optics and electronics labs.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, 5 tables; submitted to Phys. Rev. PE

    Electronics and control technology

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    Until recently, there was no requirement to learn electronics and control technology in the New Zealand school curriculum. Apart from isolated pockets of teaching based on the enthusiasm of individual teachers, there is very little direct learning of electronics in New Zealand primary or secondary schools. The learning of electronics is located in tertiary vocational training programmes. Thus, few school students learn about electronics and few school teachers have experience in teaching it. Lack of experience with electronics (other than using its products) has contributed to a commonly held view of electronics as out of the control and intellectual grasp of the average person; the domain of the engineer, programmer and enthusiast with his or her special aptitude. This need not be true, but teachers' and parents' lack of experience with electronics is in danger of denying young learners access to the mainstream of modern technology

    Identification of threshold concepts involved in early electronics: Some new methods and results

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    This manuscript reports the threshold concepts identified over a two-year study in early circuits and electronics courses. Some novel methods have been used to improve confidence in the identification process. We also identify some concepts, potentially threshold, that ought to have been mastered in high-school physics courses but that are often absent from student repertoires. Weak understanding of these underlying concepts may be a confusing factor for researchers in their search for threshold concepts as well as an additional source of trouble for students of electronics

    Microwave method for high-frequency properties of graphene

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    Graphene is a remarkable material, which is yet to make the transition from unique laboratory phenomenon to useful industrial material. One missing element in the development process is a quick method of quality control of the electrical properties of graphene which may be applied in, or close to, the graphene growth process on an industrial scale. In this study, the authors describe a non-contact method using microwave resonance which potentially solves this problem. They describe the technique, consider its limitations and accuracy and suggest how the method may have future take up.UK NMS Programme, the EU EMRP project ‘GraphOhm’ and ‘MetNEMS’. The EMRP (European Metrology Research Programme
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