Date of Award
12-2024
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Physics
First Advisor
Charles Henderson, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Zbigniew Chajecki, Ph.D.
Third Advisor
Diana Sachmpazidi, Ph.D.
Keywords
Classical mechanics, computational thinking, education, labratory instruction, physics, qualitative research
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
In the past few decades, computational modeling skills have become essential for students who want to pursue careers in physics or engineering. This issue of how to incorporate these skills into students' learning has become an important one because students in these degrees are already required to take several cognates outside of their chosen major. In 2018, Western Michigan University’s physics department decided to take on this issue by reformatting their introductory calculus-based physics labs to include computational modeling within the labs. The labs were first run in the Fall of 2018 and then were improved in spring 2019. When the labs were first run, videos were taken to follow several individual groups throughout the semester in both Fall 2018 and Spring 2019. In this project, we decided to use this data to follow student group engagement with the instructional material and lab activities to assess the efficacy of the lab redesign. While we found that overall, the lab seems to improve students' skills related to computational modeling, we also identified several issues that if addressed would potentially improve student learning. We end this thesis by discussing each problem in detail and suggesting solutions that could improve these issues.
Recommended Citation
Flowers, Abigail Sophia, "Computational Modeling in a Calculus-Based Physics Lab: Students’ Problems and Successes in Physics 2060" (2024). Masters Theses. 5437.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/5437
