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This book is an invaluable resource for physics teachers. It contains an updated version of the author's A Guide to Introductory Physics Teaching (1990), Homework and Test Questions (1994), and a previously unpublished monograph "Introduction to Classical Conservation Laws."
A guide to teaching introductory physics, from high school to calculus-based college courses, this instructional tool presents systematic observations based upon research into how physics students come to learn and understand physical concepts, models and lines of reasoning. Includes many examples of test questions and homework problems.
A basic, non-mathematical textbook for non-science students in secondary school or college. The book is based on Robert Karplus' many years of research on how beginners think about physics. In the "modeling approach" students explore and test simple analog, working and mathematical models for physical phenomena. The models provide a clear, understandable transition to the key principles and theories of physics. The book begins with the basic concepts of relative motion, reference frames, interaction, systems, and a descriptive overview of energy transfer. Subsequent chapters develop the details of temperature and heat, thermal (internal) energy, forces and work, electrical energy and electrical circuits, velocity and acceleration, Newton's Laws, motion near the surface of the earth, periodic and circular motion, celestial mechanics and gravity, pressure and kinetic theory, light and sound, waves, and modern physics (Bohr model and the basics of quantum mechanics). The "Modeling Instruction" approach is used in secondary schools throughout the US (see modeling.asu.edu). This book is especially useful in conjunction with (or as preparation for) the study of chemistry.
Introductory physics attracts a wide variety of students, with different backgrounds, levels of preparedness, and academic destinations. To many, the course is one of the most daunting in the science curriclum, full of arcane principles that are difficult to grasp. To others, it is one of the most highly anticipated -the first step on the path to the upper reaches of scientific inquiry. In their years as instructors and as editors of The Physics Teacher, Clifford E. Swartz and the late Thomas Miner developed and encountered many innovative and effective ways of introducing students to the fundamental principles of physics. Teaching Introductory Physics brings these strategies, insights and techniques to you in a unique, convenient volume. This is a reference and a tutorial book for teachers of an introductory physics course at any level. It has review articles on most of the topics of introductory physics, providing background information and suggestions about presentation and relative importance. Whether you are teaching physics for the first time or are an experienced instructor, Teaching Introductory Physics will prove to be an exceptionally helpful classroom companion. The book should be particularly useful for graduate students teaching for the first time and for research physicists who have not taught the introductory course recently. Teaching Introductory Physics gives you access to the cumulative expertise of the world's most dedicated physics instructors-not just Professor Swartz and Miner, but many of the contributors and subscribers to the Physics Teacher. it is sure to enhance your teaching skills, helping you to give your students the basic knowledge
Written by one of the leaders of the Physics Education Research (PER) movement, Teaching Physics is a book for anyone interested in learning how to become a more effective physics teacher. Rather than reviewing specific topics in physics with hints for how to teach them and lists of common student difficulties, Teaching Physics presents a variety of tools for improving both the teaching and learning of physics--from new kinds of homework and exam problems, to surveys for figuring out what has happened in your class, to tools for taking and analyzing data using computers and video. Teaching Physics is a companion guide to using the Physics Suite, an integrated collection of research-based instructional materials for lecture, laboratory, recitation, and workshop/studio environments. But even if you don't use a single element from the Suite, Teaching Physics can help you enhance your students' learning experience.
This widely admired standalone guide is packed with creative tips on how to enhance and expand your physics class instruction techniques. It's an invaluable companion for novice and veteran professors teaching any physics course.
IN THE NEWS Q&A: Kenneth Ford on Textbooks, Popularizations, and Scientific Secrecy Physics Today, June 2017 This reissued version of the classic text Basic Physics will help teachers at both the high-school and college levels gain new insights into, and deeper understanding of, many topics in both classical and modern physics that are commonly taught in introductory physics courses. All of the original book is included with new content added. Short sections of the previous book (174 in number) are labeled "Features." These Features are highlighted in the book, set forth in a separate Table of Contents, and separately indexed. Many teachers will value this book as a personal reference during a teaching year as various topics are addressed. Ford's discussions of the history and meaning of topics from Newton's mechanics to Feynman's diagrams, although written first in 1968, have beautifully withstood the test of time and are fully relevant to 21st-century physics teaching. Request Inspection Copy
Despite efforts to attract a broader student population into physics, introductory physics courses remain a deterrent for many students. The motivation for this book is to make introductory physics more accessible and to increase interest in the subject by incorporating art-based teaching at the undergraduate level. By providing an alternate mental pathway to access physics, students can improve their understanding and deepen their personal connection with this often-impersonal subject. Additionally, by taking a visual approach to the study of physics, we can achieve a more inclusive way of teaching. This book focuses on the subject of waves and optics and is the second in a series of introductory physics topics. It is a collection of student-made artistic representations of physics concepts and accompanying student explanations of how the concept is explained more clearly through their art. Students were life-science majors enrolled in the introductory physics sequence at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Thisbookgrewoutof anongoing e?orttomodernizeColgate University’s three-term,introductory,calculus-level physicscourse. Thebookisforthe ?rst term of this course and is intended to help ?rst-year college students make a good transition from high-school physics to university physics. Thebookconcentrates onthephysicsthatexplainswhywebelievethat atoms exist and have the properties we ascribe to them. This story line, which motivates much of our professional research, has helped us limit the material presented to a more humane and more realistic amount than is presented in many beginning university physics courses. The theme of atoms also supports the presentation of more non-Newtonian topics and ideas than is customary in the ?rst term of calculus-level physics. We think it is important and desirable to introduce students sooner than usual to some of the major ideas that shape contemporary physicists’ views of the nature and behavior of matter. Here in the second decade of the twenty-?rst century such a goal seems particularly appropriate. The quantum nature of atoms and light and the mysteries associated with quantum behavior clearly interest our students. By adding and - phasizing more modern content, we seek not only to present some of the physics that engages contemporary physicists but also to attract students to take more physics. Only a few of our beginning physics students come to us sharply focused on physics or astronomy. Nearly all of them, h- ever, have taken physics in high school and found it interesting.
