Dec 28, 2015 - Priscilla Laws. (Dickinson) and Ron Thornton (Tufts) are ..... ford Swartz's "Prelude to Physics" and allow the students to develop their skills at ...
Computers in Physics The Comprehensive Unified Physics Learning Environment: Part I. Background and System Operation Jack M. Wilson and Edward F. Redish Citation: Computers in Physics 6, 202 (1992); doi: 10.1063/1.4823063 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4823063 View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/cip/6/2?ver=pdfcov Published by the AIP Publishing Articles you may be interested in Out Classroom Installations for Learning Physics: Learning Environment AIP Conf. Proc. 1203, 1250 (2010); 10.1063/1.3322349 Selecting an Operating System, Part I: OS/2 2.X Comput. Phys. 8, 152 (1994); 10.1063/1.4823277 The Comprehensive Unified Physics Learning Environment: Part II. The Basis for Integrated Studies Comput. Phys. 6, 282 (1992); 10.1063/1.4823077 A Comprehensive Counting System for Nuclear Physics Research Part IV. Introduction to Pulse Amplitude Analyzers Rev. Sci. Instrum. 22, 551 (1951); 10.1063/1.1746003 A Comprehensive Counting System for Nuclear Physics Research Part I. Basic System and Synthesis of Simple Instruments Rev. Sci. Instrum. 22, 439 (1951); 10.1063/1.1745971
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COMPUTERS IN PHYSICS EDUCATION
The Comprehensive Unified Physics Learning Environment: Part I. Background and System Operation Jack M. Wilson and Edward F. Redish
The CUPLE consortium, which has the support of the IBM Corporation, the AnnenberglCPB project, and the American Association of Physics Teachers, has produced the prototype of a new instructional resource for college and university physics courses. The Comprehensive Unified Physics Learning Environment (CUPLE) combines flexible computer-based tools with inputs from laboratory experiments, video recordings, and other sources. This twopart report discusses motivations for, and implementations of, the CUPLE concepts. In Part I, the authors describe the context for curriculum reform, the choices ofhardware and software platforms, and operation of the system. Part II of this report will appear in the next issue. It describes the modular text materials, student programming, the linkage with laboratory experiments, the use of video tools, and the open system environment.
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he Comprehensive Unified Physics Learning Environment (CUPLE) is a multitasking, windowing, graphic environment for learning physics at college level. It combines hypertext materials, computational physics tools, video from videodisc, videotape, or other sources, and computer data acquisition. It is being designed for lecture, laboratory, recitation, homework, workshop, or independent study. CUPLE is being created by a consortium of individuals and schools. The CUPLE Consortium was born of the conviction that the development of powerful educational software in physics had reached the point where many talented people were building excellent materials in idiosyncratic ways, and that the physics community would benefit from a unified approach to the development and distribution of new materials. The environment will have a flexibility not present in any current course design. It will be usable in either a standard format (teacher with lectures, homework, and labs), or an innovative format (for example, with programming or entirely lab-based), or in a user-controlled individual study environment. Because of its fully modularized structure, new units can be written by a wide variety of users across the country, and these could be included in future distributions. The unified environment can therefore serve both as a bridge to, and a base for, the next generation of post-textbook, computer-based materials. This project is a first step toward the ultimate goal of the Jack M. Wilson is a Professor ofPhysics, and Director of the Center for Innovation in Undergraduate Education, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180. Edward F. Redish is a Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
CUPLE environment-that of acting as a publication system similar to scientific journals, rather than the static approach imposed by textbooks.
Context for Curriculum Reform The rapid growth of technology changes both the way physics is done and the way it can be presented to the student. The fact that it changes the way physics is done means that we have to rethink the content of the physics curriculum and what we want our students to learn. The fact that it changes the way we can present the material means that we have to reconsider the environment and the materials with which our students learn physics. It is clear that, at some time in the future, students will have important parts of their learning experiences based on a computerized environment. It is the goal of this project to develop a unified physics-learning environment that can play three roles: • A means of improving our current teaching; • An environment in which innovative approaches can be developed and tested; • A basis from which a new learning environment can evolve. The development of hypermedia and of digital compact disc (CD) storage opens many possibilities for building learning environments that go beyond the traditional structure. Together, they make possible an unprecedented access to material and a flexibility of approach both for student and faculty. This flexibility will allow the system to accommodate a variety of presentations and a diversity of student learning styles. We have brought together nationally-recognized leaders to carry out this project. Peter Signell (Michigan State) is working with us on preparing modularized text materials based on the NSF-sponsored PhysNet project, as we will describe later. Jack Wilson and Edward Redish are leading the team, building the modeling and computational tools, and writing many of the fundamental units; they are also coordinating the program. Priscilla Laws (Dickinson) and Ron Thornton (Tufts) are working with the laboratory group. Wilson and Dean Zollman (Kansas State) are working on the development of video tools and video materials. Chad McDaniel (Maryland) is directing the team responsible for the technical creation of the software through the Maryland Academic Software Development Group (ASDG). An important feature is a powerful generalization of a hypermedia "browser"--course design software. We will develop interactive software tools that will present the
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Scientific Graphics Software
teacher with alternative paths through the database, and will allow him or her to vary the path the students will follow. The teacher will be able to use this software to view the structure of the content, how the individual modules are related to the rest of the course, and the skills enhanced by the unit. The teacher will use this software to develop the student's "town guide"-the guide to the activities associated with each unit: problems, computer work, labs, readings, and student projects. In addition to standard material, CUPLE's text materials include some that are nontraditional. This will permit us to develop courses (paths through the material) that are considerably different from the standard course and take a much more modern outlook. The flexibility of the framework will allow each individual instructor to select his or her own balance of standard and innovative materials. The more cautious members of the teaching community will thus be able to make the transition to a new curriculum in a more incremental fashion than is possible in a textbook-dominated environment. Even if the instructor is being cautious, the individual students will be able to easily explore further content in the curriculum. Materials are being developed so that each topic can be covered at three levels: conceptual, standard, and sophisticated. This approach recognizes the important principle that students are not identical. Training and individual inclinations differ widely. This is often referred to as the diversity ofstudent learning styles. Having a single set of materials available may meet a part of each student's needs, but the places where failures develop due to mismatching develop may produce roadblocks, both of understanding and motivation. With three levels easily available, each student will be able to go from the standard to supporting or extending material as needed. Most of the CUPLE text units will be based on the modularized text developed by the PhysNet project at Michigan State. These materials are mostly at the standard level, but include some materials addressed both to non-calculus and more sophisticated students. Some PhysNet units at the conceptual level have been developed by Fred Reif and his collaborators. These units emphasize the development of appropriate cognitive structures and skills.
The Hardware and Software Plafform Because the development of a comprehensive set of unified materials requires several years of work, we resolved to design the materials to take advantage of the hardware and software tools that will be available and in general use in the next few years. Although compatibility with older hardware and software is a desirable goal for the project, where compatibility restricted our ability to use modern approaches, we sacrificed compatibility with the past in favor of a design for the future. Forecasting the direction of hardware and software tools turns out to be less daunting than it might at first appear, because the timelines for their development exceed the timelines of the CUPLE project. This is especially true for software products. In the hardware area, the most
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COMPUTERS IN PHYSICS EDUCATION
significant development of the past decade has been the move from 8-bit to 32-bit CPU architecture. This change has wrought havoc with the development of operating systems and hence applications. In the realm of software, the most significant development has been the broad acceptance of graphical user interfaces (G UIs) and windowing systems. Pro,ducts now under development for use in the 1990s (both hardware and software) do not depart significantly from the model of a 32-bit CPU running
to support all three platforms (perhaps through the object-oriented environment that Apple and IBM are creating jointly). The application tools for the first implementation of the CUPLE environment were selected because of their general availability and suitability for the purpose, and for the generic nature of their operation. We were fortunate to obtain the support of IBM, Microsoft, Asymetrix, and Borland in working with development versions of many of
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Fig. 1: The CUPLE entry screen.
a windowing GUI. We expect to see advances in the areas of performance, peripherals, and parallelism. Materials designed for windowing 32-bit operating systems are likely to be useful for many years. In practice, this means that the system could be designed to run on any MS-DOS computer with an 80386 SX chip or better, any of the newer Macintosh systems with color capability, and any UNIX workstation. This also implies that the system could not have been designed for the PC-XT, PC-AT, Apple II, or Mac Classic. Limitations on funding and development time required us to begin on just one of the platforms. Because MS-DOS computers make up the largest share of the market, with Macintoshes following well behind, and Unix boxes insignificant in comparison, we targeted MS-DOS computers for the first platform. We have demonstrated the ability to move some of the hypermedia materials to the Macintosh platform and have developed prototype student programming materials for the Mac. At Rensselaer, where 500 Unix workstations have been installed for the sole use of the introductory science, mathematics, and engineering courses, we have developed a preliminary extension of CUPLE to the Unix system using the Xwindowing environment. Eventually, we hope to be able
our tools, and in some cases, making suggestions for future developments. We have made an effort to select tools that not only have wide distribution but run in a similar form on a variety of hardware platforms. We selected the Excel spreadsheet and Word word processor because they are widely used in both the Macintosh and MS-DOS world and it is easy to exchange files between them. We use the Window on Physics (WinPhys) object-oriented toolkit in conjunction with TurboP ASCAL for Windows for a student programming environment. WinPhys is derived from the original programming materials developed by the Maryland University Project in Physics and Educational Technology (M.U.P.P.E.T.). We also use the older non-Windows procedural-language M.U.P.P.E.T. toolkit that was originally developed for TurboP ASCAL in the MS-DOS world. Similar Pascal systems exist on the Mac and on Unix systems. Pascal is the language most commonly taught as a first language in universities. We selected ToolBook as our hypertext product because it is the most widely distributed hypertext program in the MSDOS world, and programs can be readily converted from the Macintosh Hypercard system to ToolBook. These application tools will receive wide distribution in the next two years, because many manufacturers have
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been offering educational packages in which these tools come pre-installed on the hard disks of new computers for a price about equal to that of the computer alone. We have created add-ons to these tools to allow us to display video in a standard window and to acquire data from microcomputer-based laboratory interfaces, such as the Universal Laboratory Interface (ULI) and IBM's Personal Science Laboratory (PSL). With this unprecedented availability of computing power and (relative) stability, we felt that we could create a cadre of materials developers who would work together on developing a comprehensive set of computer-based tools that would be a unified system with a common user interface. The result would be a constantly evolving publishing system in which new materials would be created, reviewed, revised, and then incorporated into future releases of the product. Users-students or faculty-would be able to add their own materials to the system for local use and testing, and perhaps later submit
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ground up, and that those standards attempt to embody a vision of the future rather than a reflection of the past.
Description of the Operation of the System It is quite hard for the reader of traditional text-based materials to visualize how a "reader" would interact with a hypertext hypermedia environment. For this reason, the CUPLE consortium has offered workshops at many national meetings and has presented invited lectures at many others. A partial listing for 1991 alone includes both AAPT national meetings, the AAAS annual meeting, the APS/ AlP Computing '91 Conference, EDUCOM, the IBM Academic Computing Conference, the MIT Multimedia in Education Conference, the European Conference on Multimedia in Education, the Japan Association of Physics Teachers Conference, and events at many universities from Harvard to Harvey Mudd. Many think of multimedia as a computer-managed system of text, graphics, pictures, animations, video, and
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them to the publisher, the American Association of Physics Teachers, when they felt they were prepared for the rigorous review process. The CUPLE approach differs significantly from that adopted by other review and publishing systems, such as Physics Academic Software, T ASL, Seraphim (Chemistry), Wisc Ware, Conduit, and others, in that the initial developers are participating in the process of setting standards that will be used in designing materials from the
audio materials. When scientists think of multimedia (which they are only beginning to do!) they demand much more. In addition to all of the above, they want a system that provides powerful problem-solving tools for computation, the ability to acquire real data on real phenomena in real time, sophisticated programs for data visualization, and modeling tools. The CUPLE system provides such tools in a comparatively easy-to-use educational environment. It is no accident that CUPLE provides tools for edu-
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COMPUTERS IN PHYSICS EDUCATION
cational use that closely parallel the needs of the research community. That parallelism was highlighted during a presentation to IBM research scientists at the Yorktown Heights facility, in which one of the attendees let slip the following: "The heck with education. I want these tools in my laboratory." A student who uses the CUPLE system is presented first with an array of choices as shown in Fig. 1. Selecting "physics," the student is brought to a new display in which the traditional areas of physics are displayed for selection. Choosing "mechanics" brings up a new set of selections of topics in mechanics, from which we shall select
"simple harmonic motion" for purposes of this illustration. The resulting display (Fig. 2) is a smorgasbord of activities designed to allow the user to construct his or her own understanding of the concept of simple harmonic motion (see Fig. 2). The hierarchical organization of the browser, as demonstrated above, is complemented by a hypermedia organization of the material, which allows the user to follow hypertext links throughout the system without having to retrace a path through the hierarchy. The display of harmonic motion materials shown in Fig. 2 illustrates the comprehensive nature of CUPLE. There are two laboratory icons (the double pan balance)
The Videodisc Pendulum Lab
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Fig. 3: The Pendulum Video Library.
Conceptual Background Oscillatory motion occurs whenever an object experiences a force that is always directed toward a particular point. called the equilibrium position. This force results in the object always having an acceleration directed toward that point. Sometimes the force is referred to as a restorstive force since it acts to return (restore) the object to its equilibrium position . If a spring is pulled out to a longer shape. it will exert a force on the hand that will try to pull the hand back to its original position and restore the spring to its original length. If there is no other force on the hand, the hand will accelerate toward the equilibrium position.
Use the mouse to drag the hand left and right to observe the direction of the force.
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Fig. 4: The restoring force.
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Fig. 5: The student toolbox.
that lead to two different kinds of laboratory activities. A video icon (movie camera) will lead the viewer directly to video from the Cal Tech-produced Mechanical Universe videodisc on resonance. The video would be displayed in an independent resizable window with the appropriate video controls attached. Operation of the video window does not interfere with any other programs that the user might want to run simultaneously in the multitasking system. The text icon (open book) will take the viewer to text material produced by various physicists from the Michigan State University PhysNet project. CUPLE converted these text materials to electronic form and revised and updated them to work with other programs. The MBL (microcomputer-based laboratory) icon (an oscilloscope) will bring the student into a data-acquisition environment that was created by CUPLE, and modeled on the Tufts/Dickinson data-acquisition system developed for the projects "Tools for Scientific Thinking" and "Workshop Physics." The program icon (text and graph) will bring up the WinPhys computational-physics environment and run the indicated program. Users are presented with a control panel to adjust the parameters of the simulation or program, but advanced users may even wish to go directly into the WinPhys source code and modify the program itself-a simple matter. The demonstration icon (leaning tower) will open a database of physics classroom demonstrations based on Freier and Anderson's "Demonstration Handbook." Many of these demonstrations have been linked to video and simulations. The "String and Sticky Tape" icon (tape dispenser) brings the user into a database of simple experiments based on Ron Edge's book of the same name. We shall select the laboratory icon labeled "PendulumVid," which will take us into a laboratory activity, as shown in Fig. 3, that will allow us to analyze a video from
the Encyclopedia of Physics Demonstrations videodisc. The pendulum shown on the screen is an animation that is actually swinging back and forth as you view it. On the left of the figure is the standard CUPLE control bar for each text- and graphic-based activity. The arrows on the lower right allow the user to navigate through the materials in a traditional fashion, page forward, page back, or returning to the last page visited. The continue button allows the faculty member to define a preferred path through the material which the student may follow. Directly above the navigation keys is a map icon, which will take the user directly to a "map" of the current activity. This might be a traditional table of contents or a graphical outline of the unit. In any case, the student can
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COMPUTERS IN PHYSICS EDUCATION
Jupiter 51 units
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use this icon to go directly to a desired portion of the unit, by simply clicking on the entry in the table of contents or outline. In Fig. 4, the student has entered the introductory portion of the unit where he or she can use the mouse to pull the hand left and right so as to observe the direction of the restoring force. Several pages later the student encounters the activity shown in Fig. 5. Clicking on the video icon brings up a video clip of a pendulum swinging with amplitudes that range from 5° to 90°. As the text notes: "It is not enough to watch only computer experiments," and the student is led via the String and Sticky Tape icon to a series of simple experiments that can be done at home or at the student's desk. At this point, let us introduce the remainder of the tools on the control bar. The top button is a "post-it note" button. Pressing this button and indicating where to put
the note on the page results in a post-it note appearing on the page, in which the user can record observations or reminders for later use. Notes can be minimized, recalled, moved, or even discarded by dropping them into the black hole shown on the second button. Future versions of the system will also allow the note to be posted to other students or faculty. The third button accesses a glossary. Pressing this brings up a dictionary of physics terms. If a word is highlighted, the dictionary display will go directly to that term; otherwise it may be searched manually. The next item on the control bar is critical to the CUPLE concept. Pressing the "toolbox" icon brings up the complete selection of tools for users to deploy in the solution of problems posed by the system, the teacher, or their own curiosity. The toolbox is shown in Fig 5. As we noted earlier, the tools include a word processor, spreadsheet, programming environment, calculator, note-
Problem Check a situation below and then point to the appropriate point on the pendulum.
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pad, video tools, data-visualization tools (equation, datasets, and three-dimensional data visualization), data acquisition, and a reference shelf. This toolbox provides a ready reference for the student or faculty member who is presented with an interesting problem. We intend to add another icon to the toolbox to bring up a symbolic file
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x. The student is then encouraged to set up a real pendulum next to the computer and to use the MBL tools to record and display results similar to the video case. Eventually,the student reaches the page shown in Fig. 8, in which the student is encouraged to test his or her conceptual understanding. Note that the two icons allow the student to review either a video or WinPhys computer model of pendulum motion (see Fig. 9). There are a host of optional activities for the student, including the study of the damped driven pendulum, resonance, damping, the onset of chaos, or even developing the computer model in Fig. 9 through the use of the WinPhys system. All of these have been used in the authors' classes at one time or another. •
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1. S. C. Ehrmann, "Technologies for Access and Quality: An Agenda for Three Conversations," Academic Computing (in press). 2. R. G . Fuller, "LVs, CDs, and New Possibilities," in Proc. Coni Computers in Phys. lnstr., E. Redish and J. Risley, eds. (Addison Wesley, Reading, MA 1989 ). 3. l. A. Halloun and D. Hestenes, Am J. Phys. 53, 1043 ( 1985). 4. P. Laws, "Workshop Physics: Replacing Lectures with Real Experience," in Proc. Coni Computers in Phys. lnstr. , E. F. Redish and J. Risley, eds. (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA 1989). 5. J. Layman and M. Dejong, Phys. Teach. 22, 291 (1984). 6. W. M. MacDonald, E. F. Redish, and J. M. Wilson, Computers in Physics 1, 23 (1988). 7. J. Mestre, Physics Today 44, 56 (1991). 8. C. W. Misner, Computers in Physics 2, 37 (1988). 9. E. F. Redish, "From Here to the Future: The Impact of the Computer on College Physics Teaching," Academic Computing 3, 18 (1988). 10. F. Reif, Phys. Teach. 19, 310 (1981); Physics Today 39, 48 (1986) . II. B. Shneiderman, Designing the User liller/ace (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA 1987). 12. P. S. Signell, "Computers and the Broad Spectrum of Educational Goals," in Proc. Coni Computers in Phys. lnstr., E. F. Redish and 1. Risley, eds. (Addison Wesley, Reading, MA 1989). 13. E. F. Taylor, Am. 1. Phys. 56, 975 (1988). 14. R. Thornton, "Tools for Scientific Thinking: Learning Physical Concepts with Real-Time Laboratory Measurement Tools," in Proc. Coni Computers in Phys. [nstr., E. F. Redish and J. Risley, eds. (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA 1989). IS. R. Tinker, "Computer Based Tools: Rhyme and Reason," in Proc. Coni Computers ill Phys. lnstr., E. F. Redish and J. Risley, eds. (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA 1989 ). 16. J. M. Wilson and E. F. Redish, Physics Today 42, 34 (1989) ; "Changing the Introductory Physics Sequence to Prepare the Physics Student of the 1990's," in Proc. Coni Computers in Phys. lllstr., E. F. Redish and J. Risley, eds. (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA 1989). 17. D. Zollman, "Beyond TV-Interactive And Digital Video in Physics Teaching," in Proc. Coni Computers in Phys. Illslr., E. F. Redish and J. Risley, eds. (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA 1989). o
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mathematics package. Maple'M is used at Rensselaer, but Mathematica"" or MathCad"" could also be used. The students will learn to use these general-purpose tools in guided activity at the beginning of the course. As they master the use of a tool, they will be encouraged to begin using it on their own. Selecting the reference shelf brings up the window shown in Fig. 6. We have already described the Demonstration and the String and Sticky Tape databases. The periodic table icon provides a built-in link to the electronic periodic table built by the Catalyst chemistry project. This periodic table also includes links to a video of reactions of the elements. This must be acquired separately from Catalyst, but CUPLE contains the hypermedia hooks to use it as an integral part of the CUPLE system. This is a common approach that we have taken to the use of proprietary materials that complement CUPLE. The Space/Time Estimation materials were inspired by Clifford Swartz's "Prelude to Physics" and allow the students to develop their skills at measuring and estimating time and distance. The Planet Database (see Fig. 7) contains information on the properties of the planets (see Fig. 7) and is linked to video (taken from the Voyager probe) of the planets and their moons. Returning to the unit on the pendulum, the student follows an activity where the measurements of position versus time are taken from the video by advancing the video frame by frame and using the mouse-controlled measuring tools to record position. The resulting table of x,y, t data is then exported to a spreadsheet which the student uses to analyze and graph the results, creating graphs of v versus t, a versus t, and a phase-plane plot of v versus
Editor's Note: The article "CIP Announces Winners of the Second Annual Software Contest" (Nov/Dec 1991), contained an error. The list of honorable mention awards should have included Peter Jakesch with R. U. Sexl, Lorenlz, MS-DOS. The description on p. 641 of Reltools is actually of the program Lorentz by Jakesch and SexJ.
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