1 log Informal Teaching of Special Theory of Relativity Jindřiška Svobodová, Jan Novotný, Jana Jurmanová Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Publikace vznikla v rámci projektu CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0182 "Moduly jako prostředek inovace v integraci výuky moderní fyziky a chemie" řešeného na Pedagogické fakultě MU L a G I would like to present to you a brief report about our actvivities for STR teaching. This research was partially supported by the EU Grant 2 Textbook “Introduction to the Theory of Relativity” Flash animations - multimedia supplement free online Cz https://is.muni.cz/elportal/ At first I should noted that the ideas for our research study were coming from one nice and quite popular textbook completed in 2007. The textbook title is Introduction to Theory of Relativity. It was created as a voluntary work The authors are almost great university teachers in this field. They did the best to explain a relativistic concept for students and for beginners. The text also contains a number of problems examples, some sample pages you can see here in preview. The whole textbook as e-book is still available for downloading. The animations were originally only a part of textbook. They were made for improving content and amusement. 3 Help to understand üMotion Is Relative üSimultaneity üSpacetime üAddition of Velocities üTime Dilatation ü Length Contraction ü Postulates of the STR • Snapshots of portal The Cartoon Guide to Relativity Stand Alone Content Now, the everyone of animation is prepared as an independent supplement which can be use stand alone as learning – teaching tool. All visitors are able to access this flash animations. Here you can look at portal snapshot of the site in Czech and in English. The Animations can help to understand STR terminology and ideas. 4 Animation Overview The main characters Alien and Professor - guides through STR ideas. The story begins meeting an Alien and Professor. Alien traveling at high speed rocket informs Professor of his observations. Step by step they formulate the basic postulates of STR in their communication. Experiments are appearing on background story alien adventures, every animation is narrative, story-telling, combining story-telling and visual cartoon. Čti ….. The main characters Alien and Professor are guides through basic STR ideas. The story begins meeting an Alien and Professor. Alien traveling at high speed rocket informs Professor of his observations. Step by step they formulate the basic postulates of STR in their communication. 5 trailer There are several snapshot for your illustration - the goat represents an ideal clock here. At first sample - trailer- we watch apparently strange consequences of special relativity follow from statements STR. We follow professor's attempt, how to measure length contraction and so on, we can consider the issues of measuring time and distance. At the second trailer we can watch a twin trip adventures, this part illustrates the well-known paradox of twins. It is the story of twins who grow up in different environments (one with a Professor on earth, the second with Allien in spaceship travelling at 0.8C). We observe differences in the kids evolution … and we can find out that their situations - dual view is not so easily interchangeable.. ANd9GcSJk161h_Qs2cspt4n3BY7UQbSeQ0Nm4NRuLVbRQbh9T4XlsART 6 The Case Study method Main aims of the study: Ø to examine how the observation of animations affects student’s approach to perform their solution of requested tasks . Ø to identify incomplete „knowledge“ in areas that may prevent from misunderstandings in STR concepts. Ø to find out if the learning process is enhanced by funny animations. Ø Øto evaluate student’s knowledge and skills for understanding STR I turn attention to our research study. I want to mention what we found when we used the animation in teaching. We selected Case Study method for research. The Case Study allows a rich exploration of student perceptions into common situations. Čti slide Main aims of the study: • to examine how the animation observation affects student’s approach to perform their solution of requested tasks. • to identify an incomplete treatment in areas that may prevent from misunderstandings in STR concepts. • to find out if the learning process is enhanced by corresponding theoretical tasks and funny animations. • to evaluate student’s knowledge and skills for understanding STR 7 Study Design 2013 2 groups: AA students were shown an animation before their work. NA no animation before their work (tasks in advance). Participants - university students (future teachers of physics). They solved a set of 15 tasks – in sufficient time. Interviews for each student about their results were audio recorded. Records were transcribed and coded. After the analysis of full records - the categorization into indicators emerged. The outputs are charts and brief descriptions of detected remarkable answers. Participants were our university students. They solved a set of 15 tasks in sufficient time. Students were divided in 2 groups: (label)AA students were shown an animation before their work. NA no animation - participants didn’t have the opportunity to see it. Interviews for each student about their approach and work results were audio recorded. Records were transcribed and coded. The method of categorization into indicators emerged during the analysis of records. The outputs are charts and brief descriptions of detected remarkable answers. Student explained the process and operating procedure they seleceted 8 Observed symptoms and indicators: •careful reading •initial acceptance of the task (without any intervention) •clarity in explanation •ability to reformulate task by own words •adequacy of graphic representation •use knowledge of STR •transfer of knowledge and skills from other disciplines •value judgment - a solution based on reasoning •limitation of own approach (feedback) •creativity •success in task solution •ability to maintain attention Observed symptoms and indicators Drawings are an diagnostic tool as they can explicitly represent students’ conceptions 9 Is the nonsimultaneity of hearing thunder after seeing lightning similar to relativistic nonsimultaneity? Example of Tasks: Petard A is 300 m from you, petard B is 600m from you in the same direction, You see both explode at the same time. Define event A to be „petard A explodes“ and event B to be „petard B explodes“. Does event A occur before, after or at the same time as event B? Event A occurs at spacetime coordinates (300m, 2us). Event B occurs at spacetime coordinates (1200m, 6us). Could A possibly be the cause of B? Event C occurs at spacetime coordinates (2400m, 8us). Could A possibly be the cause of C? Two lines meet at a point O (angle vertex) is beyond the drawing surface. Thus O is the inaccessible point. Bisects the angle between lines. Here are several examples of specified tasks. Test questions were intentionally assigned more generally. Test assignment was designed so that it examined the prerequisites of math, geometry and graphics. B. No, it is a completely different phenomenon. It depends upon how loud the thunder is. It depends upon how far the thunder is. Explanation: The duration between hearing thunder and seeing lightning has nothing to do with moving observers or relativity. Relativistic simultaneity is a genuine discrepancy between observations made by observers in relative motion, and not simply a disparity between different travel times for different signals. ANd9GcTYgZYpXXvzLqw5RecpY9rX4YQhHn0osjkViehlTXzzDXBuXXAXsw Research Questions: §What indicators are changed after students observation of cartoon animation? § §Is there a relationship between graphical and geometrical competence and ability to solve the set of tasks? § §Does the student's ability to clearly formulate their own approach affect the result of test? • Our case study was focused on the following research questions. What indicators are changed after student’s observation of cartoon animation? Is there a relationship between graphical and geometrical competence and ability to solve the set of tasks? Does the student's ability to clearly formulate their own approach affect the result of test? 11 Results Results show that students who watched the animations … The graph shows the different distribution of "performance" indicators for the first and the second groups. The length of red arrows correspond to increase of the indicator. We can see that the most differences are in the categories of knowledge use STR (although most of tasks require nothing of STR), transfer of knowledge from different disciplines and creativity. The first group shows greater courage to accept tasks and have a better ability to reformulate task in own words. They were more successful in solution tasks. The comparison on both groups indicates that the influence of fun animations is significant in the majority of items. The most pronounced influence is in indicator transfer of knowledge… 12 Conclusion Many students seem to face difficulties in dealing with relativity of motion, in using frames of reference and in using postulate about light speed. The students who were undertaken Cartoon Animations have obtained several benefits in their learning approach. We can conclude that viewing animation is certainly not a wasting time in the classroom. Many students seem to face difficulties in dealing with relativity of motion, in using frames of reference and in using postulate about light speed. The students who were undertaken Cartoon Animations have obtained several benefits in their learning approach. We can conclude that viewing animation is certainly not a wasting time in the classroom. Animations were presented in the Technical Museum, the projection accompanied by instructed commentary was very popular attraction for all visitors. Čelí problémům The results can be interpreted that the funny animations influence the state of students minds. 13 Thank you for your time … 14 No, probably not, this phenomenon is known for a long time and the theory of relativity has come much earlier in that case... No, it's as when a message from the same place will bring two different speeds messengers Yes, relativity is everywhere around us Sample Answers Does the observer have a right position? Am I in the middle? No, I am shifted observer. I plotted every points to the graph, placed between the lines. So next I do not know what to do. Something like we did in STR I cannot do that. I never do that. B. No, it is a completely different phenomenon. Yes, it is exactly the same phenomenon. No, it is a completely different phenomenon. It depends upon how loud the thunder is. It depends upon how far the thunder is. Explanation: The duration between hearing thunder and seeing lightning has nothing to do with moving observers or relativity. Relativistic simultaneity is a genuine discrepancy between observations made by observers in relative motion, and not simply a disparity between different travel times for different signals 15 NA Group Without Cartoon Animation 16 AA group After effect Cartoon Animation