Experiments in Teaching Physics

Speaker

Joanne, O'Meara, University of Guelph

Abstract

Over the past decade we have made many changes to our undergraduate physics offerings at Guelph, for majors and non-majors alike. Our goal throughout has been to implement best practices from the Physics Education Research community, in such a way that we are mindful of resource implications. I will highlight some of the more significant changes we have made, such as designing and delivering an integrated course in first year that combines physics and calculus in a coordinated way, introducing gaming elements into our online course content for non-majors, employing peer instruction and interactive lecture demonstrations in lecture sections of all sizes, incorporating just-in-time teaching to upper-level courses, and requiring all physics majors to take a course that focuses on communicating science to non-specialist audiences. The seminar will include a brief overview of the variety of methods of research-based active-learning instruction in physics documented in the literature, with relevant resources provided for individual follow-up for those interested.