Workshops and presentations

Contact information for co-PIs

Bradley S. Ambrose

Department of Physics

118 Padnos Hall

Grand Valley State University

Allendale, MI 49401


Tel.:  616-331-2524

FAX:  616-331-3740

Email:  ambroseb@gvsu.edu

Michael C. Wittmann

Department of Physics and Astronomy

5709 Bennett Hall

University of Maine

Orono, ME  04401-5709


Tel.:  207-581-1237

FAX:  207-581-3410

Email:  wittmann@umit.maine.edu

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Sponsored in part by NSF grants DUE-0441426 and DUE-0442388

Intermediate Mechanics Tutorials

We have disseminated our work through workshops and presentations at national conferences as well as in PER publications.  Several examples are provided here.

  1. ❖2011 Physics Education Research Conference.  Targeted poster presentation on methods to assess student learning in intermediate mechanics.

  2. ❖2011 Colloquium, Rochester Institute of Technology.  Department colloquium focusing on student learning of 2D vector kinematics, conservative forces, and SHM in 2D. 

  3. ❖2010 March APS Meeting.  Invited talk highlighting research on student learning of conservative forces and orbital mechanics.

  4. ❖2010 Joint APS-AAPT Winter Meeting.  Invited talk focusing on student learning of conservative forces and orbital mechanics.

  5. ❖2009 Colloquium, DePaul University.  Department colloquium focusing on student learning of conservative forces as well as 1D and 2D simple harmonic motion.

  6. ❖2009 Joint AAPT-AAAS Winter Meeting. Invited talk (co-presented with M.C. Wittmann) on research into how students connect the mathematics to the physics in intermediate mechanics.

  7. ❖2007 Winter AAPT Meeting.  Invited talk (co-presented with M.C. Wittmann) highlighting IMT materials on damped oscillations and conservative forces.

Workshops, invited talks/colloquia, posters: 

  1. ❖B.S. Ambrose, “Investigating student understanding in intermediate mechanics:  Identifying the need for a tutorial approach to instruction,” Am. J. Phys. 72, 453 – 459 (2004).

  2. ❖B.S. Ambrose, “Probing student reasoning and intuitions in intermediate mechanics:  An example with linear oscillations,” Physics Education Research Conference-2006, ed. L. McCullough, L. Hsu, and P. Heron, AIP Conference Proceedings 883, American Institute of Physics, Melville, NY, 2007, pp. 30-33.

  3. ❖B.S. Ambrose, “Learning about student learning in intermediate mechanics:  Using research to improve instruction,” Physics Education Research Conference-2009, ed. C. Henderson, M. Sabella, and C. Singh, AIP Conference Proceedings 1179, American Institute of Physics, Melville, NY, 2009, pp. 3 – 6.

Selected publications: 

 

Intermediate Mechanics Tutorials are modeled after: 


  1. •Tutorials in Introductory Physics, L.C. McDermott P.S. Shaffer, and the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington (Prentice Hall, 2002)


  1. •Activity-Based Tutorials, M.C. Wittmann, R.N. Steinberg, E.F. Redish, and the University of Maryland Physics Education Research Group (Wiley, 2004 and 2005)