A common homework problem in many introductory physics courses is similar to the following. "A car drives at constant speed over a hill on a road in the shape of a vertical circular arc. What is the maximum speed the car can have and not lose contact with the road at the crest of the hill?" Unfortunately this problem is flawed, because…

Although the advent and popularization of the "flipped classroom" tends to center around at-home video lectures, teachers are increasingly turning to at-home labs for enhanced student engagement. This paper describes two simple at-home experiments that can be accomplished in the kitchen. The first experiment analyzes the density of four…

Over the last several years online homework solutions have become ever more accessible to students. This is due in part to programs like Yahoo Answers, Chegg, publisher solution manuals, and other web resources that are readily available online. The student can easily search any physics homework problem posted on the web in a matter of seconds and…

Pencasts are videos of problem solving with narration by the problem solver. Pedagogically, students can create pencasts to illustrate their own problem solving to the instructor or to their peers. Pencasts have implications for teaching at multiple levels from elementary grades through university courses. In this article, we describe the use of…

This paper describes a new approach for learning from homework called Peer-Assisted Reflection (PAR). PAR involves students using peer feedback to improve their work on open-ended homework problems. Collaborating with peers and revising one's work based on the feedback of others are important aspects of doing and learning physics. While notable…

How do you motivate students to do their homework? Some instructors make students' homework scores a significant percentage of the final course grade. In that case, how much course credit is required? Some instructors do not grade homework at all, instead relying on students' intrinsic motivation to learn the course material. Will this actually…

In a recent "TPT" article, I wrote about a website called "Cramster" (www.cramster.com), which provides students with solutions to homework problems from many textbooks in math and science. I proposed the following question: Could giving students the answers to their assigned homework problems be an effective way of teaching them physics? This…

Recently when teaching a first-semester calculus-based physics course for engineers, I was perplexed by a particular group of students. These individuals were able to solve nearly every homework problem assigned from the end-of-chapter exercises in our textbook, and in some cases were able to do so using methods that we had not covered in class.…

This article describes a grading approach that encourages students to employ particular problem-solving skills. Some strengths of this method, called "process-based grading," are that it is easy to implement, requires minimal time to grade, and can be used in conjunction with either an online homework delivery system or paper-based homework.

It is almost universally agreed that more frequent formative assessment (homework, clicker questions, practice tests, etc.) leads to better student performance and generally better course evaluations. There is, however, only anecdotal evidence that the same would be true for more frequent summative assessment (exams). There maybe many arguments…

This paper outlines the use of "how to" videos, in the form of a screencast using a tablet computer, and posting the videos online. These videos are useful for when students miss a class, for those students who need to review a lesson or examples used in class when doing homework or reviewing for a test, for instructors of online classes, and also…

Physics teachers are most effective when their students are active learners who think and participate in every class. This extends beyond the classroom too: ideally, students would tackle challenging questions and exercises after every class--not just before the exam or the night before the weekly homework is due. Just-in-Time-Teaching was…

A traditional physical science course was transformed into an environmental physical science course to teach physics to non-science majors. The objective of the new course was to improve the learning of basic physics principles by applying them to current issues of interest. A new curriculum was developed with new labs, homework assignments,…

Recent years have seen widespread adoption of automatic grading of physics homework problems. Although first-generation homework management systems provide feedback and assign scores based only on the answers, problem-solving performance on exams seems to be no worse for students using these systems than for those who receive detailed comments…

Describes a certain procedure, devised by the instructor, to speed up his grading of homework assignments for a general physics course. (GA)