Enhancing Student Learning with Interactive Curricular Material

 

 

 

Mario Belloni and Wolfgang Christian

Davidson College

Contributors:  Melissa Dancy and Ken Krebs

 

Abstract:

Physlets--- small, scriptable, Java applets---have been written for topics from introductory to advanced physics. At Davidson College, curricular material developed around Physlets has been extensively used in introductory physics classes as in-class demonstrations, Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) WarmUp and Puzzle exercises, Ranking-Task Exercises, lab-preparatory material, and extensions to the traditional homework sets. We are currently developing conceptual, "traditional" and non-traditional problems for junior- and senior-level students. Enhanced visualization and inter-applet communication allow more complicated problems from electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics to be written. Examples of the far-reaching scope of Physlet-based curricular material will be presented.
Additional information can be found at:

http://webphysics.davidson.edu/physletprob