SMT598 Section 6: Using Data Acquisition Tools to Enhance Learning in Secondary Physical Science

Connecting real-world events to the physics (such as the motion of an object or the changing temperature of a fluid) is often difficult for students. Decades of research has shown that well-designed instructional materials can help students gain much deeper insight into processes and events that were previously hard to observe or calculate. The software does the tedious work, the students do the thinking. Participants in this workshop will work with data acquisition software (DataStudio from Pasco) to create teaching lessons in which data are shared among students, communal understanding of a situation is developed, and an appreciation for the nature of science is fostered.

Target audience: In-service and pre-service physical science teachers

Taught by: Michael Wittmann, Assistant Professor of Physics and Cooperating Assistant Professor of Education

Initial meetings: Thursday and Friday mornings