Probing Students's Understanding of Resonance
Sytil Murphy, Dyan McBride, Josh Gross and Dean Zollman
Resonant phenomena play a crucial role in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a widely used medical tool in today's society. The basic features of the resonance in MRI can be taught by looking at the resonance of a compass driven by an electromagnetic field. However, resonance in a oscillating magnetic field is not a phenomenon that is familiar to most students. Thus, as a precursor to creating instructional materials, we investigated how students applied their learning about resonance as traditionally taught to this novel system.
Showing posts with label McBride. Show all posts
Showing posts with label McBride. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
McBride, Zollman, Wiesner and Rachel: AAPT Summer 2009
Simulations for Teaching Wavefront Aberrometry
Dyan L. McBride and Dean A. Zollman, Kansas State University
Helmut Wiesner and Alexander Rachel, Ludwig Maximilians University
Based on research in the transfer of student learning, we have developed two interactive visualizations that help students understand the optics of the human eye and recent advances in the use of wavefront aberrometry for vision defect diagnosis. The first visualization enables students to explore the optics related to accommodation of the eye lens, vision defects, and corrective lenses. The second visualization focusing on helping students learn about wavefront aberrometry, a relatively new method of diagnosing vision defects. Along with the visualizations, we will present our initial assessment of the effectiveness of the visualizations.
*Supported in part by NSF Grant DUE 04-27645
Dyan L. McBride and Dean A. Zollman, Kansas State University
Helmut Wiesner and Alexander Rachel, Ludwig Maximilians University
Based on research in the transfer of student learning, we have developed two interactive visualizations that help students understand the optics of the human eye and recent advances in the use of wavefront aberrometry for vision defect diagnosis. The first visualization enables students to explore the optics related to accommodation of the eye lens, vision defects, and corrective lenses. The second visualization focusing on helping students learn about wavefront aberrometry, a relatively new method of diagnosing vision defects. Along with the visualizations, we will present our initial assessment of the effectiveness of the visualizations.
*Supported in part by NSF Grant DUE 04-27645
McBride, PhD Dissertation, 2009
Transfer of Learning from Traditional Optics to Wavefront Aberrometry
Dyan L. McBride, Ph.D. Dissertation, 2009
This research presents an investigation of how students dynamically construct knowledge in a new situation. In particular, this work focuses on the contexts of light and optics, and examines the dynamic construction of an understanding of wavefront aberrometry. The study began with clinical interviews designed to elicit students’ prior knowledge about light, basic optics, and vision; the data were analyzed phenomenographically to obtain student models of understanding and examine the possible model variations. The results indicate that students have a significant number of resources in this subject area, though some are incomplete or less useful than others. In subsequent phases, many learning and teaching interviews were conducted to design and test scaffolding procedures that could be of use to students as they constructed their understanding of the given phenomenon. Throughout this work, student responses were analyzed in terms of the resources that were being used through the knowledge construction process. Finally, a modified analysis method is presented and utilized for quantifying what types of concepts students use while constructing their understanding, and how they are able to link varying types of concepts together. Significant implications extend beyond the single context of wavefront aberrometry. Each distinct analysis technique provides further insight to the ways in which students learn across contexts and the ways in which we can scaffold their learning to improve curriculum and instruction.
Supported by the National Science Foundation under grant DUE 0427645
Dyan L. McBride, Ph.D. Dissertation, 2009
This research presents an investigation of how students dynamically construct knowledge in a new situation. In particular, this work focuses on the contexts of light and optics, and examines the dynamic construction of an understanding of wavefront aberrometry. The study began with clinical interviews designed to elicit students’ prior knowledge about light, basic optics, and vision; the data were analyzed phenomenographically to obtain student models of understanding and examine the possible model variations. The results indicate that students have a significant number of resources in this subject area, though some are incomplete or less useful than others. In subsequent phases, many learning and teaching interviews were conducted to design and test scaffolding procedures that could be of use to students as they constructed their understanding of the given phenomenon. Throughout this work, student responses were analyzed in terms of the resources that were being used through the knowledge construction process. Finally, a modified analysis method is presented and utilized for quantifying what types of concepts students use while constructing their understanding, and how they are able to link varying types of concepts together. Significant implications extend beyond the single context of wavefront aberrometry. Each distinct analysis technique provides further insight to the ways in which students learn across contexts and the ways in which we can scaffold their learning to improve curriculum and instruction.
Supported by the National Science Foundation under grant DUE 0427645
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