Activity-Based Physics Tutorials are a set of small-group, guided inquiry learning materials designed for use in recitation and discussion sections. Students develop conceptual knowledge of the physics through:

• simple experiments using computer data acquisition tools,
• basic observations enhanced by the use of digitized videotape of real phenomena,
• analysis of computer simulations that aid in visualization of abstract ideas
• conceptually rich problems.

The Activity-Based Physics Tutorials are designed to accompany and enhance lecture instruction. They have been developed using a cycle of physics education research, including investigations into student learning on a given topic, development, and revision of the materials based on evaluation after use in the classroom.

In Activity-Based Tutorials Volume 1: Introductory Physics, tutorials exist for topics in kinematics, dynamics, oscillations, waves, heat and temperature, electrostatics, and circuits.

In Activity-Based Tutorials Volume 2: Modern Physics, tutorials exist for topics including the photoelectric effect, wave-particle duality, probability, Fourier analysis, potential energy diagrams, bound state wave functions, tunneling, and simple models of conductivity.

Activity-Based Physics Tutorials are a component of the Physics Suite. The Physics Suite is a collection of materials created by a group of curriculum developers and educational reformers known as the Activity-Based Physics Group. The Physics Suite contains a broad array of curricular materials that are based on physics education research.

The Physics Suite also includes: Understanding Physics, an introductory textbook based on the best selling Halliday/Resnick/Walker, Workshop Physics Activity Guide and Physics by Inquiry (intended for use in a workshop setting), Interactive Lecture Demonstrations, and RealTime Physics (for use in laboratories), and Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite, which serves as an instructor’s manual for using the Suite materials.

Activity-Based Physics was a multi-university project to sustain and enhance current efforts to render introductory physics courses more effective and exciting at both the secondary and college level. This program represented a multi-university collaborative effort by a team of educational reformers to use the outcomes of physics education research along with flexible computer tools to promote activity-based models of physics instruction. This multifaceted program includes the refinement of existing written materials, apparatus, instructional techniques, and computer software and hardware; the creation of new instructional materials and approaches; and dissemination. The refinement and development of new instructional strategies and materials will be informed by a comprehensive program of classroom testing and educational research.

Three related activity-based introductory physics curricula have been developed with major support from the US Department of Education and the National Science Foundation. These are Workshop Physics, Tools for Scientific Thinking, and RealTime Physics. All three curricula use the findings of physics education research, are activity-based, and have involved the design of computer hardware and software for investigation, data analysis, and dynamic modeling. This three-year collaboration between principal investigators at Dickinson College, University of Maryland, University of Oregon, Tufts University, and Millersville State University extended, enhanced, evaluated, and disseminated activity-based curricular materials, apparatus, and computer tools for teaching introductory physics based on this previous work. The ultimate goals of this program were to continue full scale efforts to improve the scientific literacy of introductory physics students through the mastery of physics concepts, investigative skills, and mathematical modeling techniques and to motivate students to learn more science. Particular attention was given to developing physics activities suitable for courses designed for future technicians at two-year colleges and pre-service teachers.

Introductory calculus-based physics course:

• three weekly 50-minute lectures (50 < N < 200)
• one weekly 50-minute small-group session (N < 28)

This page contains tutorials, pretests, and homework for 15 topics in introductory physics. To preview and download each individual file in pdf format, click on the relevant topic below.

Also known as the New Model Course in Applied Quantum Physics

This page contains tutorials, pretests, and homework for 13 topics in modern physics. The materials for each unit are modular and fit into a variety of classrooms. They are designed to complement regular forms of instruction, and not to stand alone. To preview and download materials for each individual topic, click on the relevant topic below.

Course Philosophy

The New Model Course in Applied Quantum Physics has been designed to help students ranging from introductory non-physics students to advanced physics majors.

Quantum physics is a huge subject. Students first approaching the subject need to focus not only on the new mathematics but also on the conceptual issues that underlie the physics. For many students, the mathematical treatment normally offered to physicists can be discouraging and may keep them from committing to further study in quantum physics. Other students will take only a single quantum physics course. Students in a predominantly mathematical course may need additional activities to come to a better understanding of the new concepts and representations.

Getting to the "good stuff"...

We have designed the course to focus on specific topics that are of interest to our chosen population. We believe that an integrated course of qualitative, mathematical, conceptual, and application-driven instruction can be of value to all students.

Realistic treatments of relevant examples tend to require the full toolbox of quantum mechanics - atomic and molecular wavefunctions, band structures, complex Fermi surfaces, entangled states for quantum computing, etc. To teach these examples at an early stage of learning quantum physics requires a new approach to instruction.

... by designing courses to match the population

In this project, we propose that one-semester quantum physics courses can be designed to match specific populations. Instead of demanding a realistic treatment of the relevant phenomena, the course is designed to focus on conceptual development (with appropriate mathematics) leading to simplified models. These models can

• be conceptually realistic,
• rely on the fundamentals of quantum physics for their description, and
• be mathematically appropriate for their audience.

In addition, these models allow early analysis of devices that are of interest to the population in our classrooms.

Example: electrical engineers

Many of these materials have been developed in the context of a one-semester quantum physics course for junior and senior electrical engineers. By picking and choosing an appropriate and coherent subset of quantum topics, it remains an "honest" quantum course while "impedance matching" to the mathematical strengths of the population.

The focus is on one-dimensional Schrödinger quantum mechanics and relies heavily on the mathematics of ordinary differential equations and Fourier expansions, topics in which the electrical engineers tend to be strong. It suppresses the matrix and state methods, eliminating linear algebra and partial differential equations, topics in which the electrical engineers are often weaker.

By eliminating most three-dimensional quantum problems (particularly, angular momentum and related issues) and relativity, time remains for a serious treatment of tunneling, conductivity, and semiconductors, with a basic introduction to the quantum mechanics underlying such devices as the STM, diode, and transistor.

Example: physics majors

These materials match well to physics majors taking either their first modern physics course or taking more advanced quantum mechanics courses. While covering more mathematical topics in lecture, the students have the opportunity to discuss conceptual topics in interesting and novel settings.

Other populations

For other populations, one might well want to choose differently. For example, for computer science students interested in quantum computing, one might want to focus on spin, matrix methods, and entangled state issues. For biologists and chemists, one might want to assume that the students have had a rather extensive introduction to the qualitative quantum mechanics of atoms and molecules in a chemistry course. Even for instructors of these populations, these materials may of value in helping design courses better matched to specific populations.

Understanding Students

To teach our students more effectively, we must listen to how they think and how they approach the physics. These interactions occur informally in the classroom, but also more formally using a variety of methods.

Pretests

To emphasize the importance of conceptual understanding, we use specially designed quizzes to probe student reasoning. Pretests contain qualitative questions and are given to students before tutorial (but typically after traditional instruction).

Online Essay Assignments

To listen to students and gain regular feedback on lecture concepts, we have instituted daily (or weekly) essay assignments that address difficult concepts from the classroom. Essays can, for example, contain qualitative questions, ask about connections to real world situations, or focus on interpretations of material covered in class.

Engaging Students

To bring students into a culture of discussion and reasoning about the physics, we promote a group learning environment where students work on materials developed based on investigations into student learning and effective curriculum design and instruction.

Tutorial Materials

Tutorials are in-class worksheets guided by the findings of physics education research. Students discuss the physics in groups during class.

Classroom Interaction

Students are actively doing and discussing physics during class. Interactions occur both between students with no facilitator present, and with the facilitator who probes student thinking among the whole group.

Applied Assignments

To extend ideas covered in tutorial, students answer homework questions that make connections between concepts stressed in tutorial and quantitative skills stressed in traditional textbook problems.

Tutorial Homework

Students participating in tutorials leave class with a homework assignment designed to help them develop their conceptual understanding of the material they discussed in class.

Applied Homework

To make connections between classroom concepts and everyday life, we have developed homeworks that focus on quantum devices used in research and technology.

Evaluating Students

To emphasize the importance of conceptual understanding, one question on every examination comes directly from material emphasized in tutorial. Other questions focus on skills developed in the essay questions (e.g. relating phenomena to real-world examples). By testing those elements that we use in class, we emphasize their importance to students.

This course for engineers and physicists would appropriately be taught 4 hours per week - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of tutorial. Some of the topics and examples could be covered exclusively in tutorial or as part of a homework assignment.

Introduction to QM: The Experimental Base

• The photoelectric effect
• Electron diffraction
• Atomic spectra

Building the Quantum Model

• The Thomson and Rutherford models
• The Bohr model
• deBroglie waves

Wave Mechanics

• Electron dispersion relation
• The 1D Schrödinger equation
• Group and phase velocities
• Fourier transforms
• The uncertainty principle

Bound States

• Potential energy diagrams
• Infinite square well (1, 2, and 3D)
• Finite square well
• Harmonic oscillator
• Delta function

Scattering State

• Scattering at a step
• Delta function
• Barrier penetration and tunneling

Spin and Statistics

• Introduction to spin (no math)
• Fermi and Bose statistics

Quantum Models of Matter

• Double well - molecular bonding
• Multiple wells - band structures

Conductivity

• Conductors, semiconductors, insulators
• Quantum polarization (applying an external electric field)

Devices

• pn-junctions / diodes
• transistors
• MOSFETs
• SQUIDs