Supporting physics teaching with research-based resources

Starting in Fall 2021, we developed a stand-alone, one-credit lab course that included experiments across introductory mechanics and electricity and magnetism phenomena. The labs used many of the activities from our two-semester series (below), with many improvements. The full manual is below as a PDF and TeX file (sorry - no more Word!). 

We also developed a suite of Jupyter Notebook homework tutorials to introduce data analysis concepts and techniques. Those will be available soon on PICUP.

In Fall 2020, we taught labs fully remotely. For both Mechanics and E&M, we used a combination of materials "around the house", cell phone apps and sensors, PhET simulations (https://phet.colorado.edu/), and Pivot Interactives (https://www.pivotinteractives.com/). The lab instructions we developed are below.

We've also created a new set of lab homeworks that teach students about data analysis skills (through Jupyter notebooks), group work, and ethics. The zip folder contains the following files:

• PDF files with instructions for setting up Jupyter notebooks (two options) and creating CSV files to use in python
• Ten Jupyter notebook files with the following tutorials:
  • Intro to Python
  • Uncertainty
  • Distinguishability
  • Fitting
  • Auto-fitting
  • Analysis practice (including all of the above concepts)
  • Linearization
  • Uncertainty propagation
  • A "utilities" file containing pre-defined functions
• A PDF file with an "ethics" tutorial
• A word file with a "group work" tutorial

Note: Google also has a Jupyter notebook platform called "Colaboratory." This will work fine for most of the tutorials except the "fitting" tutorial (which uses some interactive plot features unavailable in Google Colab).

In the introductory mechanics labs, our theme has been on introducing students to ideas around model testing. Where do models break down? What are their limits? What can we learn? Students typically spend two weeks per lab unit. In a 15-week semester, we have 10-11 weeks of labs. For example:

In each lab session, students answer questions in the lab manual (see the student instructions documents for each unit below), conduct a group check-in with the instructor, submit group lab notes electronically by the end of each session, and submit an individual post-lab assignment at home. The early labs provide more scaffolding for what students are expected to do, and this is faded (almost eliminated) by the final project lab. We have recently increased the amount of structure in the early labs in response to student frustrations about not knowing what is expected of them or what they should be doing. 

In the introductory electricity and magnetism labs, our theme has been on introducing students to ideas around model building. How do we use evidence to develop and refine models?  Students typically spend two weeks per lab. In a 15-week semester, we have 10-11 weeks of lab. For example: