Living Physics Portal: Telling the story

Abstract: To develop complex problem solving skills, students need to learn to develop a coherent story about what the situation in the problem is, what the mechanism is, and what physics principles are appropriate to apply. This can be challenging for students who have been successful in science through memorizing answers and simply plugging numbers into equations. This part of the module contains 15 kinematics problems that require "telling the story" of what's happening. One of these (The cat and the antelope) is designed for group work in a recitation. (Mostly traditional physics here - little biology)

Resource Types: Homework, Instructor supplement, Restricted access, In-class activity

Commercially available in:

ExpertTA

Authors:

Edward Redish (he/him)

University of Maryland, College Park

NEXUS Physics

Living Physics Portal Team

TOPICS

Physics Topics:

Classical Mechanics > Motion in One Dimension

Life Sciences Topics:

Biomechanics > Animal Biomechanics

Chemistry Topics:

None

Math Topics:

Algebra; Geometry; Graphical Analysis

FILES Download0

Telling the story - Problems with solution > Telling the story - Kinematics problems

Telling the story - Kinematics problems

A diving gannet - the fall.pdf

A traffic ticket.pdf

Drawing kinematics graphs.pdf

Graph for a cart on a tilted airtrack - with spring.pdf

Graphs for a superball.pdf

How fast do you need to go.pdf

Juggling velocity.pdf

Making up a lap.pdf

Rolling up and down.pdf

Sonic ranger position and velocity graphs.pdf

Straight line graphs of 1D motions.pdf

Tailgating.pdf

The ball and the juggler.pdf

The cat and the antelope.pdf

The tortoise and the hare_ 2 - Symbolic.pdf

A diving gannet - the fall.url

A traffic ticket.url

Drawing kinematics graphs.url

Graph for a cart on a tilted airtrack - with spring.url

Graphs for a superball.url

How fast do you need to go.url

Juggling velocity.url

Making up a lap.url

Rolling up and down.url

Sonic ranger position and velocity graphs.url

Straight line graphs of 1D motions.url

Tailgating.url

The cat and the antelope.url

The ball and the juggler.url

The tortoise and the hare - 2 - Symbolic.url

A diving gannet - the fall.pdf

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INSTRUCTOR GUIDE

IMPLEMENTATION

Equipment required: Computers / software

Specific equipment needed: A computer and web access is required to access the problems on line, but they can be printed and distributed on paper.

Basic implementation tips & tricks: We frequently ask students to explain what's happening, both in in-class discussions and when providing help. Many have learned to hate "word problems" and fight hard to get you to "just give them the answers". Going meta can help - discussing that real life expertise may look automated, but it's built over years of experience and having good stories. This is especially true of medical diagnosis.

How does this resource fit into the flow of your course? Some of these problems are assigned during the study of kinematics. "The cat and the antelope" is used as a group-work recitation activity in the first month of class.

PEDAGOGY

Pedagogical approach: Collaborative problem-solving; Conceptually-oriented activities; Context-rich problems; Mathematically-focused activities

Skills / Competencies: Multiple representations; Estimation; Intuition building; Building models; Evaluating models

What insights or realizations do you hope students gain from this resource? that solving mathematical problems in science, especially complex ones, is greatly facilitated by first thinking about what's happening — telling the story: understanding the physics principles that are relevant, and considering the mechanism of what's going on.

Why is this resource useful to life sciences students? Life science students often have developed the sense that much of science is about memorizing facts and procedures. This limits severely what they take from their later science courses and produces barriers to their developing strong scientific reasoning skills. This is particularly important for pre-health care students who may diagnose patients without considering context or mechanism. Such superficial diagnoses contribute significantly to medical error and unnecessary deaths.

DISCUSSION

SUBMISSION DETAILS

License: CC BY-NC-SA - Attribution, No Commercial uses and Share Alike. Derivative works must have the same license.

Last Edit Date: January 21, 2025