http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/ 2020-01-27T06:33:56-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/ http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/lib/images/favicon.ico text/html 2013-11-08T12:00:50-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:cfairhockey?rev=1383940850 Navigate back to the activity. If you are like me and don't have an air table, and don't want to fork over about \$800 to Sargeant-Welch to get one, you can substitute a “hover puck” aka “air puck” aka “hover soccer” for about \$12 at some place like Toys R Us. Runs off rechargeable batteries. If you really have to use a science supplier, Carolina Biological has them for $35. text/html 2016-04-25T15:50:30-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:rfacc?rev=1461624630 Navigate back to the activity. From Liz Gire Spring 2016: I created handouts for the students to draw on instead of having them use whiteboards. I hoped it would encourage them to test more cases, more systematically for the Coriolis acceleration. It worked reasonably well. text/html 2016-05-02T16:30:57-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:rfehockey2?rev=1462231857 (Liz - Spring 2016) The parameters for this activity were very confusing to me. The puck always starts at the equator. Specifying the latitude and the angle instructors the puck to intercept that line of latitude with that angle. The instructors that the latitude parameter is the initial angle of motion is incorrect. text/html 2016-04-25T16:02:30-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:rfnorth?rev=1461625350 Navigate back to the activity. By Liz Gire Spring 2016 Getting the balloons to rotate with a constant angular velocity is very difficult. The inflatable globes are easier, but the pens get snagged on the seams. The big take-home (that the Coriolis force switches direction) was infrequently noticed (which I don't really understand). I noticed that there is still a lot of confusion about the inertial vs the non-inertial frame. One student was really interested in the changing curvature and the … text/html 2016-05-02T16:39:46-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:rfparadox1?rev=1462232386 (Liz Spring 2016) I chose to have all the groups do the pole and the barn paradox, rather than have different groups alternate between that and the space wars paradox. We did this paradox without the benefit of spacetime diagrams. It went reasonably well. Some students struggled with having to do a Lorentz transformation rather than length contraction and time dilation separately. Other students (understandably) struggled to choose an event as the simultaneous origin of coordinate for the two r… text/html 2016-04-25T15:49:55-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:rfthockey?rev=1461624595 Navigate back to the activity. From Liz Gire Spring 2016: The commands are initially hidden and need to be expanded using the far right hand bracket. Students take a long time to figure (if ever) that the FIX or ROT command inside the brackets determines whether or not the initial velocity is with respect to the fixed or rotating frame. text/html 2011-09-05T12:17:26-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:spspin3?rev=1315250246 An updated version of the spins lab breaks down some of the ideas into sub questions. This lab was used Winter 2010: Navigate back to the activity. text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:46-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:spspin4?rev=1310683966 Navigate back to the activity. In 2010, I had them do this as homework, there was no longer time to devote to it during class. They had done enough calculations in class that they did not need help to do this in groups with instructors present. text/html 2011-09-05T11:34:29-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:spspinoperators?rev=1315247669 For this activity, Winter 2010, I derived Sz for the students, then had them do Sx and Sy so the activity didn't take as long. Navigate back to the activity. text/html 2011-07-14T20:57:04-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vchill?rev=1310702224 Navigate back to the activity. Jeff Crabill -- Linn Benton Community College January 2011 I begin this activity with a question to the class. If the top of a hill is in that corner of the room, point in the direction of the gradient vector from where you are sitting. Invariably, most students point up toward the corner of the room, meaning they are pointing uphill. I tell them to keep that in mind as they progress through this activity. text/html 2011-07-14T20:56:58-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vcvalley?rev=1310702218 Navigate back to the activity. Jeff Crabill Linn-Benton CC January 2011 I love this activity because students calculate the value of two line integrals without realizing it. After the activity (usually the next day), I discuss with them what they did and show them how they calculated the value of two line integrals without ever have been told that integration can be done over any path. text/html 2011-07-14T20:56:52-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfampere?rev=1310702212 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: (Lecture 11) Only had about 10 minutes left in class to get this started, but they jumped in and made excellent progress. Little guidance was needed, they were much better/faster than in the similar Gauss' law activity. But, they didn't finish - so in the next lecture, I gave them another 20 minutes (30 total), and all groups sketched accurate graphs. What slow… text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:46-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfaring?rev=1310683966 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: For me, this activity got split over two class periods, which worked out well, because I was able to “pull the group together” a little bit in the middle. Had I not done this, I think some all-group triage in the middle would have been helpful: there is a lot of wheel-spinning that goes on in this activity. I think it's very productive, they need to wrestle w… text/html 2011-07-14T20:56:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfbasisvectors?rev=1310702207 Navigate back to the activity. I discovered a new use for small white boards this week. I was explaining to my (small, honors) vector calculus class about adapted bases, and we had reached spherical coordinates. As I now usually do, I had everyone stand up, close their eyes, and put their arms out along r-hat, theta-hat and phi-hat, with theta-hat being the hardest. But for the first time, I put the origin on the ceiling, rather than the floor, so that the students were in the Southern Hemis… text/html 2011-11-28T20:23:56-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfbbound?rev=1322540636 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: We started this activity immediately following the analogous Electrical discontinuity activity. I had ~10 minutes left in class to get this started, and they made much better progress this time than on the previous (E) activity. The continuity stories were nicely explained in the last minute of class by several students, only the discontinuous story needs a litt… text/html 2011-07-14T20:56:37-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfbring?rev=1310702197 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: Did this activity Lecture #7, same day that we had “derived” Biot-Savart from the definition of the vector potential (which in turn was obtained in direct analogy to the integral formula for the scalar electric potential). We had roughly 25 minutes for this activity, and I simply asked them to find the B field at all points. Since we had just worked on the ve… text/html 2011-07-14T20:56:33-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfcurlvis?rev=1310702193 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: I did this activity around lecture 7, and we spent about 10 minutes on it, though I timed my break to happen as it finished, and most of the class just sat around for the 5 minute break continuing to work through it. This one worked very well, just like the divergence visualization - I didn't need to “walk them through” more than the first one (since they kno… text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfcurrentdensity?rev=1310683967 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: Ran this “kinesthetic activity” last ~20 minutes or so of lecture 4. Props: I used a voltmeter as standin for a magnetic field probe, and used a 2meter stick for measurements. text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfdivergence?rev=1310683967 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: I used this activity on day 4 of the Paradigm, just after deriving/motivating the div operator (first, divergance as “outward flux per unit volume”, and then getting to the Cartesian formula). text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfdrawquadrupole?rev=1310683967 Navigate back to the activity. The PhET charges and fields sim is a quick and easy way to show the equipotentials, useful during wrap up and before moving onto the Maple visualization. text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfdrvectorcurvi?rev=1310683967 Navigate back to the activity. Somewhat surprisingly, many of my students had trouble remembering or using the arc length formula. Also, after doing the rectangular case, I wish I had told half of my students to start with spherical coordinates and half to start with cylindrical. This would have made sure we had some completely worked out examples of each for our discussion. text/html 2011-07-14T20:56:28-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfebound?rev=1310702188 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: We started this activity in the last 20 minutes of class (Lect12). My students struggled massively, this activity was just too vague and difficult for them to make progress. I felt this may need more scaffolding. Students couldn't visualize a “general E field” near a sheet of charge (they wanted it to point outwards), and they couldn't bring themselves to sta… text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfering?rev=1310683967 Navigate back to the activity. COMMENTARY From Stephanie Chasteen, University of Colorado - Boulder We used this activity as the basis for an upper-division (junior-level) tutorial in E&M at our university. We found a surprising amount of student difficulty in setting up the integral to find E from a ring of charge, especially in setting up Griffiths' “script-r”. We used an amended version of OSU's “Star Trek” activity in order to discuss script-r. Students were not comfortable wit… text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vffluxcalculation?rev=1310683967 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: I started this activity at the end of lecture #1, but only gave them about 6 minutes for it. I specified E and the cone (simplified it to a 45 degree cone of height 1) and asked for the outward flux on the “cone-surface” (not the top). text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vffluxconcept?rev=1310683967 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: I used this activity on day 1. It was quick, simple, and worked very well. I used a small hula-hoop for the “area”, and passed out rulers to just one small cluster of 4 students. I gave them half a dozen rulers (4 of one size, 2 of another), and said “make a uniform field”. Happily, 2 picked small rulers, 2 picked big ones, and they held them up all parall… text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vffluxem?rev=1310683967 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: I have never used Maple before (and our campus doesn't have a license), so this activity will not help me when I go back to CU. But with a terminal at every desk (as we have here at OSU) this activity worked extremely well. I spent ~20 minutes on it, leading the students step by step through the Maple spreadsheet. It's written clearly enough that the students wer… text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfgauss?rev=1310683967 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields), Nov 2009: This activity can take a lot more time than one would expect, depending on how much “setup” is provided ahead of time. text/html 2011-07-14T20:56:20-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfhillnav?rev=1310702180 Navigate back to the activity. In finding the hill's highest point, students need to set the gradient of h equal to zero. Several of my students had trouble figuring out what to do with this (a vector set equal to zero), and did not realize that the vector equation gave us a separate equation for each component. It seemed to help when I wrote zero as $0= 0 \hat{i} + 0 \hat{j} $. text/html 2011-11-22T17:43:57-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfmurdermm?rev=1322012637 Navigate back to the activity. Comment from S. Pollock (CU Boulder, visiting OSU and teaching Paradigm “Vector Fields"), Nov 2009: Did this activity near end of the Paradigm course. I took about 10 minutes of class to “set it up”. First I pointed out the puzzle that V is a scalar field, E a vector field, yet despite the appearance that vectors carry “3 times the information”, we know that E and V share the same physical information content. How can this be? A student pointed out… text/html 2013-09-23T15:08:40-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfpowerapprox?rev=1379974120 Navigate back to the activity. Comments by Mary Bridget Kustusch (2013) Due to resource constraints, I wasn't able to do this as an activity, so I combined it with the Finding Coefficients activity and used it as a demo/interactive lecture to wrap-up that activity. I had them turn in a reflection which asked the following: text/html 2011-07-14T20:56:08-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfpowerseriescoeff?rev=1310702168 Navigate back to the activity. I started the “potential due to two charges” activity before doing the power series activity. My goal was to provide a little more physical motivation for power series, and to break up the math (we just did “distance between two points”) with some physics. I just had students write down a general expression for the potential due to $+Q$ charges $\pm D$ from the origin on the $x$-axis. text/html 2011-07-14T20:56:03-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vftotalcharge?rev=1310702163 Navigate back to the activity. In spherical coordinates, some students started with an integral of “onion layers”, $\int 4 \pi r^{2} dr$, while others integrated over phi and theta. This made for an interesting discussion as we saw that both approaches give the same result, and discussed the ideas of solid angle and spherical symmetry. text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfvpoints?rev=1310683967 Navigate back to the activity. I started this activity before doing the power series activity. My goal was to provide a little more physical motivation for power series, and to break up the math (we just did “distance between two points”) with some physics. I just had students write down a general expression for the potential due to +Q charges +/- D from the origin on the x-axis. After power series, we will come back and do the main part of this activity - using series expansions to approxi… text/html 2011-07-14T15:52:47-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/activities:reflections:adopters:vfvring?rev=1310683967 Navigate back to the activity. It's nice to have small hoops or rings (even rings from a ring stand will do) for each student or group to work with. My students had a tough time getting started, but this activity was a very rewarding as the students realized that the different strands we'd been developing all came together in this calculation.