A New Model for Academic Faculty III: Grading for Equity

TL;DR After attending a recent conference on Grading For Growth hosted by The Grading Conference I have read Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman. I am totally on board with this movement, and over the past few years have independently stumbled onto most of the basic findings described in the book. However, I think the […]

A New Model for Academic Faculty II: Further Thoughts

TL;DR Building on the previous post, here are some slightly more concrete thoughts on what may be possible in the future. As a self proclaimed community of problem solvers, we have not done a good job at solving major problems in teaching physics, or teaching in general. Too many of us have ceded authority to […]

The World’s Most Annoying Negative Sign

TL;DR If you want a quick way to gauge whether or not students understand the concept of potential energy, you can ask them to explain the origin of The World’s Most Annoying Negative Sign. It is merely a consequence of the very definition of potential energy, which is almost never explained coherently. In all of […]

Different Test or Assessment Questions

TL;DR In this pandemic year, cheating has been a major concern. One way of mitigating its effect is to ask questions beyond the traditional “Calculate…” type of physics problem. I present a list of possible questions that can’t be easily searched online and even if they’re found the answers are not as likely to be […]

The Hypocrisy of Traditional Tests

TL;DR Traditional tests require students to work a few (hopefully) appropriately chosen, illustrative problems to demonstrate proficiency. What does it matter if they do these few problems early in the semester or later in the semester? What does it matter if they do them with us watching or not? What makes one essentially random problem […]

A New Model for Academic Faculty I: Initial Thoughts

TL;DR It is time for academics, particularly those in a community college environment, to define a brand new model for teaching and learning that has the same status as private practice for medicine, law, art, healthcare, consulting, and numerous other occupations. The community college environment has become so disorganized and complicated due to mission creep […]

Conceptual Understanding in Introductory Physics XXXVI: Geometry and Work

This question is particularly revealing in that it assesses whether or not students understand the coordinate-free nature of work as a dot product. Be prepared to hear such nonsense locutions as “negative force” or “negative displacement” but don’t be shocked when you hear them. I think it’s a product of the relatively poor treatment vectors […]

Conceptual Understanding in Introductory Physics XXXV: Free-body Diagrams

Free-body diagrams are ubiquitous in introductory physics courses. They should be straightforward, but I’ve noticed that student frequently struggle with them at first because they want to include velocity or momentum in addition to forces. For this question, choose an arbitrary (the more arbitrary, the better) physical situation. It could be something from your or […]

Conceptual Understanding in Introductory Physics XXXIV: Parallel and Perpendicular Components of Force

Draw an arrow representing an arbitrary force vector and another arrow representing an arbitrary momentum arrow. Label both arrows. Ask the student to perform the following task: Decompose the force vector into a component parallel to the momentum vector and a component perpendicular to the force vector. Tell whether or not the given force will […]

Conceptual Understanding in Introductory Physics XXXIII: Drawing Systems

The instructor draw a random diagram showing an arbitrary number of interacting (e.g. gravitationally) entities (e.g. stars, asteroids, etc.) represented as numbered dots. The student is asked to perform the following tasks: Draw a system boundary such that the system experiences a net external force. Name each entity that contributes to this net external force. […]