Physicist and Data Scientist in Ed Tech

[ClimberT8]

How did you find PF?: Searching for "high school and college physics teachers discussion forums"

I am a "kiddo" in Physics, like Dr. Jill Biden ;-) and following a highly anti-recommended circuitous path have ended up doing data seance. That should tell you everything you need to know about my attitude towards that career. Currently I am at an EdTech start-up, ostensibly as the data Scientist, and have become responsible for the Physics content as well - curating instructional material, problems and resources for students.

If you have a bank of student questions from AP Physics or PHY 101 college classes I would love to hear from you.

Thanks

 

[kuruman]

I am a "kiddo" in Physics, like Dr. Jill Biden ;-) and following a highly anti-recommended circuitous path have ended up doing data seance. That should tell you everything you need to know about my attitude towards that career.

Data seance? The anti-recommended path you are following must be truly circuitous.

 

[berkeman]

Data seance? The anti-recommended path you are following must be truly circuitous.

Yeah, I initially thought that it was an English as a second language issue, but using my Mentor superpowers, I see that he lives about 20 miles from me. So I'm guessing now that it's a weird auto-correct issue on his computer and not enough proofreading. Not a big deal.

@ClimberT8 -- can you give us an example of the best question you've found so far? That might help us try to find other similar question sets to help you out.

 

[ClimberT8]

I welcome your offer of help. I'm not looking for the "best" student questions. I'm interested in all of them, no question is too silly. It has been a while since I taught Physics in a classroom. Students asked lots of questions (after I matured enough to allow them that space) but I didn't record any of them. As an "expert" it is hard for me to imagine what is a sticking point in their understanding when they are exposed to new Physics concepts, say while going through a textbook or listening to a lecture or video. Some questions might be everything they've always wanted to know about Physex but were too afraid to ask, which I consider the instructor's fault. I've looked on Quora and StackExchange but the questions there are not what a first time student would get stuck on.

Here is one question asked by a student: "Can an object at rest have a force acting on it?"
and one I imagine a student might ask: "Why doesn’t or can’t the spring 'know' what mass is attached to it?"
A relatively sophisticated one would be: "Does Newton's Third law apply in a non-inertial frame?".

Thanks,
English as a fourth language person

 

[ClimberT8]

Quite separately,

I see that he live about 20 miles from me.

Must be an "English as an Only Language" issue. So, @berkeman probably has a lot of biases going: race, gender, language, immigration, lack of sense of humor or hyper-sensitivity to criticisms of "Data Science Seance - all the data none of the science". If your biases show through in your classroom I really worry about the students - both the ones who are there and the ones being kept out.

 

[kuruman]

I googled "AP physics sample questions" and a plethora of material (35.8 Megaresults) popped up. Without wishing to sound patronizing, I wonder whether @ClimberT8 took this obvious step. Closer to home, @haruspex's insight
https://www.physicsforums.com/insig...ian-physics-olympiad-questions-and-solutions/
provides links to 10 years' worth of Australian Physics Olympiad questions with errata. On the more challenging side, googling "MIT physics homework questions" yielded 17 Megaresults. One can even find problems from the International Zhautykov Olympiad (2005-2021) in Kazakhstan (Go Borat!).

Clearly, some filtering is needed because the above are but a few molecules on the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Enjoy!

 

[haruspex]

Quite separately,

Must be an "English as an Only Language" issue. So, @berkeman probably has a lot of biases going: race, gender, language, immigration, lack of sense of humor or hyper-sensitivity to criticisms of "Data Science Seance - all the data none of the science". If your biases show through in your classroom I really worry about the students - both the ones who are there and the ones being kept out.

That is a totally unwarranted response. @berkeman (maybe @kuruman too) simply failed to pick up that the misspelling was intended as a dig at the job description.
I see nothing in post #3 that implies any criticism or bias, just curiosity as to the cause.
It can help to know when English is not the first language of the thread originator. If I know that, I try to avoid using obscure words and idioms.

 

[berkeman]

Quite separately,

Must be an "English as an Only Language" issue. So, @berkeman probably has a lot of biases going: race, gender, language, immigration, lack of sense of humor or hyper-sensitivity to criticisms of "Data Science Seance - all the data none of the science". If your biases show through in your classroom I really worry about the students - both the ones who are there and the ones being kept out.

No, if you knew me better you would know that I'm the exact opposite of biased. And if we knew you better, maybe we would have picked up on the humor. When you are brand new to a place, it may be best to establish yourself before trying to offer up obscure humor references. Just sayin'.

 

[kuruman]

... (maybe @kuruman too) ...

Yes, I admit that I was unaware that Data Science is, according to Wikipedia, "an inter-disciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract knowledge and insights from many structural and unstructured data."

In view of this, I ask what exactly is @ClimberT8 expecting us to do for (appropriate personal pronoun)? Perhaps provide assistance with gathering "questions (that) might be everything they've always wanted to know about Physex but were too afraid to ask, which I consider the instructor's fault." Such questions could be mined from the PF subforums, "Introductory Physics Homework" and "Classical Physics" in particular.

I think @ClimberT8 will be well advised to familiarize @ClimberT8self with the problem of preconceptions in student's minds that beget misconceptions in the classroom. The issue is more complex than merely considering it the "instructor's fault." One has to deal with excess baggage that students bring with themselves in the classroom which is difficult to root out. Up to the point when they take a formal physics class, their misconceived picture of how the physical world works has served them well in their everyday lives. A physics course requires them to replace the old ideas with new and that is not always easy. The problem of preconceptions getting in the way of learning has been recognized and addressed. There are numerous articles in Physics Education Research (PER) dealing with this problem. Just do a web search on "student preconceptions in physics." A good introduction is John Clement's early paper (attached for convenience) where the most common preconception "motion implies force" is analyzed and alluded to by @ClimberT8:

Here is one question asked by a student: "Can an object at rest have a force acting on it?"