Teaching audience analysis to the technical student

Teaching audience analysis, as practiced in a technical writing course for engineering students, is discussed. Audience analysis is described as the task of defining the audience for a particular piece of writing and determining those characteristics of the audience which constrain the writer and effect reception of the message. A mature technical writing style that shows the tension produced when a text is written to be read and understood is considered in terms of audience analysis. Techniques include: (1) conveying to students the concept that a reader with certain expectations exist, (2) team teaching to preserve the context of a given technical discipline, and (3) assigning a technical report that addresses a variety of readers, thus establishing the complexity of audience oriented writing

The power of virtual reality for physics (and STEM) education

While there has been much hype around VR in education, there has been limited research around what is truly novel about the technology. This workshop will share best practice around the how and why Virtual Reality can be used to enhance student learning in Physics education. Inspired by the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), we developed a novel app at ANU that asks students what forces act on a basketball, and then presents them with the physical world based on their answer. This allows student to experience unphysical worlds that manifest their misconceptions around forces. Guided by a narrator, students reflect on their answers to correct their misconception. Participants of this workshop will hear about the positives and challenges of using highly immersive VR in education, including recent research that demonstrates its effectiveness with over 150 students. They will also experience the learning journey of students, including taking the FCI, watching a live demo of the VR experience, then a chance to retake the FCI. The workshop will conclude with a facilitated discussion around other ways VR might be useful in Physics education, including a second demo of our EM-field VR simulator. Intended Audience: Undergraduate and Secondary-School Physics Educator

Henri Temianka Correspondence; (debs)

This collection contains material pertaining to the life, career, and activities of Henri Temianka, violin virtuoso, conductor, music teacher, and author. Materials include correspondence, concert programs and flyers, music scores, photographs, and books.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/temianka_correspondence/3482/thumbnail.jp

SCALABLE AND EFFECTIVE USE OF VIRTUAL REALITY FOR PHYSICS EDUCATION

At ACSME2019, we presented early work on Virtual Reality (VR) software for correcting student misconceptions related to Newton’s laws. This software now runs on the next generation headsets, which has enabled us to scale the experience to entire classes. Since 2019, we have collected data from 109 students who have used VR as part of their physics coursework at ANU. Inspired by questions from Force Concept Inventory (FCI; Hestenes, Wells, & Swackhamer, 1992), our VR experience asks students to play with a basketball and decide which forces act on the ball. They are presented with the world that represents their choices, and therefore manifests their misconceptions. A narrator guides them with feedback to reconsider and reflect on their choices until they choose the correct answer. When compared with 350 students who did not use VR but have undertaken the same course at ANU over several years, there is a statistically significant improvement in FCI metrics. Both overall score and questions relating to relevant misconceptions show improvements. The non-VR and VR groups both have equivalent baselines in their pre-course FCI test. We also present recent work on a multiplayer, electromagnetism sandbox to allow for VR-based tutorials targeting EM visualisation and concepts. REFERENCE Hestenes, D., Wells, M., & Swackhamer, G., (1992) Force Concept Inventory, The Physics Teacher, 30, 141-151