Concept Tests and Course Materials from CU Boulder
Below are some course materials used at CU Boulder. For the upper-division materials, we are actively engaged in education research, and these materials are fairly well organized, annotated, and updated. (See www.colorado.edu/sei/departments/physics for more info.) For the lower-division, it's much more informal. At the start, many originally came from Eric Mazur at Harvard (googe his Peer Instruction book), and many more were created at CU by Michael Dubson. We now include contributions from other CU faculty. ( NOTE: Since many originated from Eric Mazur's book on "Peer Instruction", please seek appropriate permission if you want to use those in any public or commercial forum)
You might also want to see our STEMclickers resource page, part of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiatives efforst to provide resources including written guides and short videos to help get in structors starting using Clickers and peer instruction in classrooms.
We are believers in the "open-source" model of educational
materials - use what you need, as you like. We will be delighted if
you can use any of these in your courses. If you modify/improve them
(or find "bugs"), please return the favor by sending us improved
materials, so we can keep these links up-to-date and constantly
improving. Contact Steven.Pollock at colorado.edu
(And, please do reference original sources when it seems
appropriate, especially when publishing!)
COLLECTIONS
Many files below are raw (let us know if you find major issues) If you download and use these in your class we'd love to hear about it, send us a quick email.
Our upper division collections are also kept updated at www.colorado.edu/sei/physics .
The collections below are nearly complete, but we have removed some of the more sensitive materials (largely exams and solutions)
More complete collections (with solutions and exams) are here in our secure section. (For access to these more complete collections, please contact Steven.pollock at Colorado.edu for a password)
Lower Division
- "Directory of many directories" from Michael Dubson's courses These are generally older files, not at all organized. (Mostly MS Word and pdf of Concept tests) Titles are a lit tle cryptic!
- Mechanics materials
Calc based (35 Meg, zipped folder containing subfolders with concept tests,
Tutorial information, syllabus, and more)
Materials come from a number of faculty - originally Michael Dubson
(with considerable borrowing from Eric Mazur at Harvard!), then Steven
Pollock, Bob Wilson at CSU, then smaller updates from Charles Rogers
and Murray Holland (who converted some .doc conceptest collections to
.ppt format)
Update: Powerpoints and pdfs from Daniel Bolton' s courses (E&M and Mechanics) These are not organized yet, but many individual nicely formatted clicker question files - not yet organized by course, but titled by broad topics) Used in the calc-based sequence, but many would be suitable for algebra-based.
Update: Here is a link to Prof. Dubson's lecture notes in pdf (also available as MSWord docs )
Algebra based: Here is a link to Prof. Dubson's lecture notes in pdf (also available as MSWord docs ) - Mechanics concept tests ONLY (3 Meg, zipped folder containing concept tests only, largely in .doc formats, but including a first pass at converting some to .ppt)
- Calc based Electricity and Magnetism materials
(120 Meg, zipped folder containing subfolders with concept tests,
Tutorial information, syllabus, and more)
Materials come from a number of CU faculty - originally Michael Dubson, then
cleaned up by Bob Wilson at CSU, added to by Jamie Nagle and Steven Pollock.
Update: Here is a link to Prof. Dubson's (very complete!) lecture notes in pdf (also available as MSWord docs )
Algebra based: Here is a link to Prof. Dubson's (very complete!) lecture notes in pdf (also available as MSWord docs ) - Electricity and Magnetism concept tests ONLY (22 Meg, zipped folder containing concept tests only, in .ppt and .doc formats) Materials come from a number of CU faculty - originally Michael Dubson, then cleaned up by Bob Wilson at CSU, added to by Jamie Nagle and Steven Pollock.
- Energy and the Environment materials. (1.0 Meg, zipped folder containing sub-folders with concept tests, class activities, pre/post tests, and more) Thanks to Tom Murphy at UC San Diego for coming up with a few of the concept questions, this collection is from Steven Pollock.
- Physics of Sound and Music for nonmajors materials. (36 Meg zipped folder containing sub-folders with concept tests, class activities, pre/post tests, sound files and much more) This collection is from Steven Pollock
- Physics of Sound and Music for nonmajors concept tests ONLY (1.2 MB zipped folder containing powerpoint files) From Steven Pollock
- Physics of Light and Color for nonmajors materials. (230 Meg zipped folder containing sub-folders with concept tests, class activities, homeworks, and more) From Summer 2015 This collection is from Stephanie Chasteen.
Middle Division
- Modern Physics (sophomore level) : These materials were largely developed by Carl Wieman, Kathy Perkins, and Sarah (Sam) McKagan, and further developed by Charles Baily and Noah Finkelstein. A username and password are required, please contact charles.baily at colorado.edu (or, sam.mckagan at gmail.com)
-
Sophomore level combined Mechanics /Math Methods materials.
This is an extensive
website with PER-based resources including concept tests, syllabus, homeworks,
activities, class notes, and much more.
(This material is for the FIRST semester of our sequence only, combining
math methods (Boas) with Mechanics (Taylor), up to but NOT including
Lagrangians)
Solutions and assessment materials are available from within the link above. Contact steven.pollock at colorado.edu for password.
You can also access this same site through the SEI
Upper Division
- Quantum 1 (junior level) materials This page has concept tests, syllabus, homeworks, activies, class notes, and more. (NOTE: New materials are being developed for a "spins-first" Quantum curriculum - stay tuned! (They should be available at Physport soon)
-
Electricity and Magnetism 1 (junior level, electrostatics) materials
This is an extensive website
with PER-based resources including concept tests, syllabus, homeworks,
activities, class notes, and much more.
Solutions and assessment materials are available from within
the link above. Contact steven.pollock at colorado.edu for password.
- Electricity and Magnetism 2 (junior level, electrodynamics) materials This is an extensive website with PER-based resources including concept tests, syllabus, homeworks, activities, class notes, and much more. Solutions and assessment materials are available from within the link above. Contact steven.pollock at colorado.edu for password.
- Upper division
thermodynamics/statistical mechanics This is a fairly small, zipped folder containing concept tests only. Developed by Michael Dubson, followed up by V.
Gurarie and M. Hermele (not as part of any PER project).
A very limited set of solutions are available through our "secure" page . Contact steven.pollock at colorado.edu for password. - Upper division Quantum Mechanics II (Fairly small, zipped folder containing concept tests only. (Developed by John Bohn, not as part of any PER project.)
- Upper division/graduate Teaching and Learning Physics. (200 Meg, zipped folder containing many course materials) Materials developed by Noah Finkelstein, with some supplements from Steven Pollock. The folder contains many references and materials from other authors.
NOTE: For more materials (including exams and solutions) contact Steven Pollock for a password, then click here
Some of this material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1023028 and 0737118. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.