What you'll learn and use in our full-immersion workshops

The Instructional Strategies in Introductory Physics...

....presents ways that instructors can approach teaching physics. Participants will learn selected strategies and practice applying them to physical situations. Essential to creating a useful strategy is to have quality-modeling tools. As physicists we have been exposed to numerous modeling tools (equations, free-body diagrams, motion diagrams, etc.). This workshop will introduce new modeling tools and demonstrate how to use existing tools in more robust ways. Another essential component of these strategies is classroom management. Participants will experience a classroom management technique called modeling discourse management. While this classroom management style was created for a modeling curriculum, it can also be used with most PER based activities or curriculum. Modeling discourse management is an attempt to improve student-student interactions, student-instructor interactions, and classroom discussions.

Inquiry-based Labs using Inclusive Teaching Practices...

...support the development of students' scientific reasoning and decision-making abilities. This tested lab curriculum is aligned with AAPT Lab Guidelines and comprised of guided inquiry-based labs focused on designing and conducting controlled experiments, making appropriate decisions, conducting data analysis, and interpreting and synthesizing results to construct meaningful evidence-based claims. Participants will work through multiple lab activities that model the facilitation of inquiry-based labs and learn how assessments can be used to measure skills-based outcomes. In addition, participants will explore flipped learning, collaborative work groups, and how to incorporate inclusive teaching practices.

Curricular Approaches with Technology...

...tools coupled with an activity-based physics approach provides a better method of teaching physics by enabling the teaching/learning process to build on students’ direct experiences in the physics classroom/laboratory or studio. As recent PER data indicates these technological tools give students immediate feedback by presenting data graphically and in a manner that can be easily and quickly understood. The ease of data collection and representation afforded by these tools invites students to ask, discuss, and answer their own questions. Thus, students acquire an increased competence in the use and interpretation of graphs as well as a better understanding of the physical relationships, principles, and concepts that underlie their experiences. In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore computation, Studio Physics, and use of MBL in areas involving force, one-dimensional linear motion, rotation, sound, heat, electricity, magnetism, nuclear radiation, and light.