TOPICS
Classical Mechanics > Linear Momentum
Classical Mechanics > Work and Energy > Conservation of Energy
Electricity & Magnetism > Electrostatics > General, Coulomb's Law
None
Intermolecular Forces
Macromolecules > Proteins
INSTRUCTOR GUIDE
IMPLEMENTATION
Equipment required: Computers / software
Specific equipment needed: Web access is needed for the homework problems for students.
Basic implementation tips & tricks:
These materials represent a thread rather than a unit. It contains materials (readings, lecture slides clicker questions, and group activities) that can provide a unit at the beginning of a class, but for this to work as intended, functional dependence needs to be woven into class activities throughout, both whenever new concepts are introduced, as part of the
standard analysis of new complex equations, and calling it out explicitly when it is used in a derivation or explanation in class. In addition they need to be assigned problem solving that uses functional dependence so that they are not only shown but have to do themselves.
How does this resource fit into the flow of your course? See the "Basic implementation tips & tricks"
PEDAGOGY
Pedagogical approach: Collaborative problem-solving; Conceptually-oriented activities; Context-rich problems; Mathematically-focused activities
Skills / Competencies: Dimensional analysis; Functional dependence; Multiple representations; Intuition building
What insights or realizations do you hope students gain from this resource? (1) That equations represent not just calculational tools for finding numbers, but express relationships among physical quantities. (2) That even if they don't know specific values, an equation can tell how a quantity will change when something else in the equation changes. (3) That different functional dependences (surface vs volume, for example) has powerful implications for biology.
Why is this resource useful to life sciences students? IPLS students tend to see equations as calculational tools rather than as a way to express relationships among parameters and variables. This leads them to miss two important ideas: (1) that some changes are more important than others and functional dependence is the key to seeing that difference: (2) that functional dependence implies scaling — for example surface vs volume effects — an idea that has considerable power and implications in biology.
DISCUSSION
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SUBMISSION DETAILS
Copyright: 2023 Edward Redish
Last Edit Date: August 22, 2023
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