Narumon Emarat

The effect of guided note taking during lectures on Thai university students’ understanding of electromagnetism

This paper reports on the implementation of a guided note taking strategy to promote Thai students’ understanding of electromagnetism during a lecture course. The aim of the study was to enhance student learning of electromagnetism concepts. The developed guided notes contain quotations, diagrams, pictures, problems, and blank spaces to encourage student interactive engagement with the lectures. The guided note templates were critiqued by a group of experienced university physics lecturers and piloted with graduate physics education students to check the content validity. Over 300 first year university students (aged about 18–19 years) attended lectures that did not involve guided note taking. Six hundred students participated in the guided note taking approach. Students’ understanding of electromagnetism was investigated using a conceptual test. Comparison of the pre‐ and post‐test results of the two groups of students indicated that students who were involved in the guided note taking approach performed better on the conceptual test than students who were not involved in this approach. From interviews, it was found that students viewed the guided note taking approach as a supportive tool that helped them concentrate on the lecture. Promoting student involvement in the lecture class through the process of guided note taking was shown to be a meaningful learning strategy for first year university physics classes.

The effectiveness of peer instruction and structured inquiry on conceptual understanding of force and motion: a case study from Thailand

This study proposed to investigate the effectiveness of learning activities based on a conceptual change theoretical framework by embedding a peer instruction method with structured inquiry (PISI) on tenth grade students’ understanding of force and motion concepts. This teaching method was compared to the existing traditional instruction (TI). Alternative conceptions of force and motion were determined through related literature and a preliminary study, carried out prior to instruction, was used for designing the teaching plans. A standardized test, Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE), was used to probe students’ conceptual understanding of the subject. The data were obtained from 156 students in the treatment group taught with the PISI and 119 students in the control group taught with the TI. Hake’s normalized gain indicated that the effectiveness of the TI was low (0.14) while the effectiveness of the PISI was medium (0.45). The Repeated Measures ANOVA comparing the pre‐ and post‐test change in each and overall scales of the FMCE between the two groups was significant (p<0.01). The results suggested that teachers with a similar school setting could adopt the PISI into their classroom in order to promote the learning of physics with conceptual understanding of the subject.

Developing specialized guided worksheets for active learning in physics lectures

As universities attempt to integrate active learning into their lectures, a range of strategies is emerging. Amongst the strategies is pre-prepared worksheets which students work through, facilitated by the lecturer. Despite the fact that worksheets have not yet been the subject of much research activity, there are instances of their use. Once such instance is by a pair of physics lecturers at Mahidol University, Thailand. The worksheets, called guided worksheets as they provide structure for students to take notes as the content in the lectures progresses, are prepared by the lecturers and have been in use since 2004. Evaluations showed that the guided worksheets met their intent but there were issues around certain topics which students found challenging. Concerted effort lead to the development of research based specialized guided worksheets for those topics that had issues. These specialized guided worksheets requiring substantially more interactions and student problem solving in line with active learning strategies, have been in use since 2012. This paper aims to describe the design of the specialized guided worksheets for the topic of electric field, and its evaluation. Pre- and post-tests were implemented over 2 years. The first was with guided worksheets with 260 students in 2011, and the second included specialized guided worksheets with 163 students in 2012. Gains on student understanding were higher in 2012 and students who were interviewed indicated that they found the specialized guided worksheets helpful for learning. The results indicate that the specialized guided worksheets made a difference in topics that students find challenging.

Can We Trace Arbitrary Rays To Locate an Image Formed by a Thin Lens

After learning how to trace the principal rays [Fig. 1(i)] through a thin lens in order to form the image in the conventional way, students sometimes ask whether it is possible to use other rays emanating from the object to form exactly the same image—for example, the two arbitrary rays shown in Fig. 1(ii). The answer is a definite yes, and this paper presents a method of doing so.

Finding resultant vectors using a rubber band

Most students have difficulty finding a resultant vector of graphical vector addition and subtraction. We offer here an alternative and simple way of finding a result of vector addition; using a rubber band, the magnitude and direction of a resultant vector can be shown immediately.

Effective of diode laser on teeth enamel in the teeth whitening treatment

This research purpose is to investigate the changing of teeth color and to study the surface of teeth after treatment by laser diode at different power densities for tooth whitening treatment. In the experiment, human-extracted teeth samples were divided into 7 groups of 6 teeth each. After that laser diode was irradiated to teeth, which were coated by 38% concentration of hydrogen peroxide, during for 20, 30 and 60 seconds at power densities of 10.9 and 52.1 W/cm2. The results of teeth color change were described by the CIEL*a*b* systems and the damage of teeth surface were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the power density of the laser diode could affect the whiteness of teeth. The high power density caused more luminous teeth than the low power density did, but on the other hand the high power density also caused damage to the teeth surface. Therefore, the laser diode at the low power densities has high efficiency for tooth whitening treatment and it has a potential for other clinical applications.

A Simple Apparatus for Demonstrating How Light Rays Emanate From a Point Source

A point source of light sends out light rays in all directions and in straight lines. This is an important concept for all students who study elementary optics at the high school level. Most physics textbooks discuss this topic only briefly.1–6 They usually explain the concept by using two-dimensional diagrams even though a three-dimensional discussion may be more instructive. Much of the commercial demonstration equipment that can be used to explain this concept is very expensive (e.g., the optics kit from Suksapan Panit Company7 in Thailand costs approximately

Are Students’ Responses and Behaviors Consistent?

70 U.S.). This and similar optics kits show that light propagates in straight lines but do not represent where the light beams come from. Because it is an abstract idea, most students still have considerable misunderstanding about this concept.8–14 This paper describes an effective but inexpensive (approximately

Thai high-school students' misconceptions about and models of light refraction through a planar surface

20 U.S.) apparatus to illustrate the behavior of light rays emitted isotropically from a point source of light. The apparatus is simple...

A Study of Plunging Breaker Mechanics by PIV Measurements and a Navier-Stokes Solver

In our project we attempted to determine if students whose beliefs about physics are more expert‐like and less expert‐like, as judged by the CLASS survey, are different in terms of their approaches to learning physics and whether their behaviors in the classroom are consistent with their responses to the surveys. All students enrolled in the second semester of an introductory physics course took the CLASS survey. We used survey results to identify expert‐like and non‐expert like students to participate in the study. We selected four highest scoring and four lowest scoring students. We then observed those students in laboratories and problem‐solving recitations during one semester and interviewed them at the end. We found some inconsistencies between students’ responses to the survey and their actual behaviors as well as several significant differences in behaviors of more expert‐like and less expert‐like students. This work was supported by The institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technolog...