Arnold Arons

On the abyssal circulation of the world ocean-V. The influence of bottom slope on the broadening of inertial boundary currents

Abstract A potential vorticity conserving model is offered to explain the remarkably great width of western boundary bottom currents, such as that which conveys the Antarctic Bottom Water northward in the western trough of the South Atlantic Ocean. Effects of varying bottom slope, latitude, and transport are explored. The essential element in this explanation is the small slope of the bottom along which the current flows.

A β-plane analysis of free periods of the second class in meridional and zonal oceans

Abstract Quasigeostrophic free oscillations (or barotropic seiches) of meridional and zonal oceans are analysed for plane oceans of uniform depth and nonuniform rotation (the approximation of the β plane). These motions have been denoted “motionsof the second class” by tidal theorists. An attempt is made to clarify the physical nature of such oscillations and to calculate periods and wavelengths which give an idea of the orders of magnitude which are involved.

Generalizations to be Drawn from Results of Research on Teaching and Learning

The last two decades have seen a world-wide burgeoning of systematic investigation of various aspects of the teaching and learning of physics, including connections to basic aspects of cognitive development. The growing volume of literature illuminates our efforts and improves our practices, and the accumulation of insight is readily apparent in presentations being made at this conference.

Overcoming conceptual difficulties in physical science through computer-based Socratic dialogs

Research in physics education continues to develop compelling evidence that many students emerge from introductory physics courses with inadequate mastery of some of the most basic concepts and fundamental modes of reasoning. [McDermott (1984); Trowbridge and McDermott (1980), (1981); Axons (1983), (1984a), (1984b); Clement (1982); Fredette and Clement (1981); Minstrell (1982); Viennot (1979)]. Explanation, exposition, presentation, however lucid, are not sufficient to generate grasp and understanding (except, perhaps, in the upper few percent of the students), and conventional end-of-chapter problems and laboratory exercises do not provide adequate help. They leave too many students in a passive intellectual mode, expecting to learn through inculcation, and they fail to generate the kind of active mental engagement essential for learning. Many students, in fact, fail to break through to mastery of certain concepts and reasoning processes unless they are led to articulate the ideas in their own words in a sequence of Socratic dialog.

Teaching and the Conceptual Structure of Physics

Almost from the beginning of his work with elementary school science education, Robert Karplus thought about how what he was learning in that venue applied to his work as a professor of physics. His work with Herb Thier on the SCIS project in 1963 lead him to offer his first thoughts on how the teaching of physics ought to be based on an understanding of the conceptual structure of physics. (See the reprint Karplus, 1966.)