PBL Summer Workshop

6th Annual

Derek Raine Sarah SymonsUniversity of Leicester, UK

Programme

Monday 14th July – “Development”

 1030-1100  Registration/coffee

1100-1230 Session 1 – Making It Work1230-1400  Lunch

1400-1530 Session 2 – What makes a good problem?

1530-1600  Tea

1600-1730 Session 3 – Problem writing1930   Dinner

Programme

Tuesday 15th July – “Implementation”

0930-1030 Session 4 – Delegate presentations1030-1100  Coffee break

1100-1230 Session 5 – Shapes and sizes of PBL1230-1400  Lunch

1400-1530 Session 6 – Delegate presentations1530-1600  Tea

1600-1730 Session 7 – Problem development1930   Dinner

Programme

Wednesday 16th July – “Assessment and Evaluation”

0930-1030 Session 8 – Authentic assessment1030-1100  Coffee break

1100-1230 Session 9 – Assessment Development1230-1400  Lunch

1400-1500 Session 10 – Solutions and feedback1500-1530  Tea and departure

Making It Work

Session 1

Your task today…

Giganticus is a film about a space ship and its crew that are accidentally miniaturised and end up travelling through a human body. In order to gain finance for the making of the film it has been agreed that the DVD extras will contain scientific information that will enable extracts from the film to be used in the classroom for AS-level Chemistry students. The animations are therefore required to be scientifically as realistic as possible and a team of scientists has been hired to advise the production company.

Let’s look at the feedback after the module has finished …..

Your task today…

• This is a PBL activity, please work in your groups to investigate the documents. 

• What is the problem? • What issues are raised with respect to

– Problem Writing– Implementation– Assessment

To: Scientific advisory teamFrom: David HarlanCC: Caro WestSubject: Porthole scene

Hey folks!We could do with some help in Scene 21 – the script is enclosed. The craft has landed in a glass of water, and our two characters are staring outside, admiring the view, and falling in love.What I need you to do for me is to let me know what that view through the porthole would actually be like – what should we expect to see moving about out there? In the making of “Finding Nemo” it was easy for them to reproduce the movement of the fish by just looking at them in the fish tank. I just wish I could do the same with the water molecules .Anyway, that’s all for now! Speak to you later,David

Case Study: Scenario

To: Film advisory teamFrom: Caro West, Royal Society of ChemistrySubject: Scene 21

Looking through the script, we can see an opportunity for highlighting the science behind the images in Scene 21. A one-page information sheet for teachers on this topic would be ideal.

Could you let me have a draft after you have replied to David?

Thanks,

Caro

Case Study: Scenario

The ship (presently a few hundred nanometres in length) has landed in a glass of water. The crew inside have been violently jostled about and the Professor is unconscious. Eugene and Susan both reach him at the same time and look at each other with mistrust that slowly melts some into acceptance. Susan: Look. I don’t know why you did it, but I’m just glad that you thought it out.Eugene: I was willing to die, you know. Even if I took all of you with me.Susan: (her face is annoyed) Why are you telling me this? I’m trying to get over my anger with you, and you tell me this?Eugene: The Marshall wooed me with a giant government contract, Susan, because he wanted to use my research as a weapon. Think about it. You understand the implications of my work. If I were right about those T-cells--Susan: (looking inwardly as is her style, thinking, and then gasping slightly) Oh. Oh! Eugene: You see?Susan: (nodding wide eyed) Yes, NOW I do, but why is it that I miss these kind of things? Why am I always caught by surprise when science gets twisted like this into something, something, horrible!?Eugene: (cautiously walking to her to comfort her) Susan, I saw what I needed to see when we were inside that cell. In a moment, I saw my research dead end right there. Those T-cells don’t do what I thought they do! My work has been based on an incorrect assumption. (he swallows) Humbling and devastating as that may be to me as a scientist, it is the greatest relief to me as a human being.

They are standing by one of the window ports looking out into the material now surrounding the ship. They can feel it moving the ship, but it’s not like being underwater. [Need the sciencey stuff here!] The view is of swirling molecules of water and other bits (city water isn’t pure, right?) Photons bounce off of the molecules as they twirl, and the view is quite astoundingly gorgeous Science help! This does not go unnoticed by Eugene and Susan as they turn to look out of the window in silent reflection.

Case Study: Scenario

Strategy for Problem Solving

1. Locate problemWhat are we being asked? What is the issue here? What are our targets?2. Existing knowledgeWhat do we already know? Does anyone in the group have experience of this? Have we done anything

before which can help us? 3. Identify learning issuesWhat do we need to know? What must we learn in order to understand this? What skills do we need to

complete the task? 4. Course of actionHow can we find out? Who do we need to consult? How shall we divide up the tasks? What sources of

information can we use? Can we test something by experiment? 5. Enquiries and/or experimentsThis is where the work takes place! 6. Share resultsGetting back together as a group and bringing the newly acquired knowledge and skills together.

Summarising fresh information for the group. This should now be written up under Existing Knowledge.7. TheoriseHow can we apply what we know to the problem? Are there useful links between what we have brought

back? Has a new angle emerged? Are all our results consistent? This should be written up under Learning Issues.

8. Evaluate progress against targetHave we achieved what we need? Do we need to do more? What can we learn from the process of

working on this? How much more time do we have? This should now be written up under Course of Action.

9. Repeat, Report, ReflectIf the target has been reached, produce or perform the endpoint of the problem – the ‘product’. If the target

has not yet been achieved, or if the group is ‘stuck’, repeat the scheme to make further progress.

PBL strategy

• Planning Phase– Agree a brief problem statement– List relevant existing knowledge– Identify learning outcomes– Write a plan

• Investigation Phase– Enquiry and experiment

• Analysis Phase– Share and discuss information– Apply new information to the problem– Evaluate progress– Submit work or revisit plan – Reflect

Monday 0930-1030 Facilitation Session B1 Meet with postgraduate facilitator. Receive problem documents, draft GAP.

1430-1730 Lab Molecular models

Tuesday 1130-1230 Q&A session Have your questions for Dr Lee ready in advance.

TBA Lab Molecular vibration workshop

Wednesday 0930-1030 Facilitation Session B2 As always, have your lab books, research notes, and GAP available.

Thursday 1130-1230 Class Facilitation Session Groups will be asked discussion questions and will use the electronic voting to collate opinion. Led by Dr Lee.

1730 Hand-in deadline for Task B

Friday 0930-1030 Facilitation Session C1 Receive new problem documents.

1030-1230 Mathematics Problem Workshop

1330-1430 Staff-Student Liaison Committee (please nominate 2 attendees for your year)

1430-1730 Lab Skills: Titration

Schedule Week Two

Extract from minutes of the Staff-Student Liaison Committee4. First Year Issues4.1 Timetabling. Students were unhappy that the Q&A with academic staff had been

rescheduled at short notice to 0930 Thursday. They felt that this session being so close to the Class Facilitation Session was not useful, and felt they needed academic support earlier in the week.

Background: Dr Lee’s biochemistry lecture course was rescheduled causing the clash with Science of the Invisible. No earlier time was available.

4.2 Students in some groups had spent a substantial amount of time researching how water moves on a molecular level. They felt disgruntled to find out that this problem is currently unsolved, and felt that they had wasted their time in fruitless research.

4.3 A postgraduate facilitator raised concerns that his two groups had not had their GAPs ready for the facilitated sessions. He worried that when the GAPs were made available for weekly marking, they had been written in retrospect, not as working planning documents. The students acknowledged that the electronic GAP was sometimes replaced by a paper version, depending on who the current group ‘scribe’ was.

4.4 Facilities. The first year found the round computer tables in Computer Lab H were useful in promoting group work as they permitted easy eye contact between group members and preferred this layout to the rows of PCs in Computer Lab G. They requested that maths problem workshops be moved to H.

4.5 Feedback. Students complained that the marking of the laboratory reports had not been completed in time for the subsequent laboratories so they were not able to correct any mistakes.

Assessment Scheme for First Year

Process Prc A: Attendance and Participation in Facilitation Sessions (I)At each facilitation session the postgraduate facilitator should record

for each student a mark based on participation based on the criterion “Has the student engaged fully in the session?” (0 for non-attendance, 1 for poor, 2 for satisfactory, 3 for excellent). Attendance will also provide a scaling factor for portions of the final module mark.

Prc B: Group Action Plans (G)Each group’s GAP should be shared electronically with the

postgraduate facilitator, who should mark it once a week. Each of the four segments will be given a mark, plus a further mark for the criterion “Has the plan been updated appropriately by the group?”. Feedback and the mark should be written in the document.

Key: (I) Mark given per individual (G) Mark given per group

Deliverables & Personal Development

Del 2: E-mail reply to David Harlan (G)A short e-mail (possibly containing images) describing the view from the porthole in Scene 21.Del 3: Teacher’s information sheet (G)A one-page document explaining the science behind the view, to support teachers using the film in classroom (age group 16-17)

PD A: Laboratory notebook (I)Each student should submit their laboratory notebook once per module for marking and feedback.PD B: Job appraisal (I)Each student will participate in an individual ‘job appraisal’ interview at the end of each module in which their work in the context of their problem role will be assessed. Feedback and a mark will be given.

End of year exams (all (I))

Ex 1: Process. One question, writing a GAP for a choice of problems.Ex 2: Core Knowledge. Includes short questions from all topic areas.Ex 3: Maths paper.

Example questions from Core Knowledge paper:5.5 Draw diagrams to represent the three dimensional shape of the following

molecules. In each case indicate the bond angles around the centrally drawn atom.a) PCl5b) ICl5c) The R isomer of CH3CH(OH)COOH. In this case draw the chiral carbon atom at the centre of your diagram.

5.6 Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.a) Describe two biological roles of protein moleculesb) Draw a reaction scheme to show how two amino acid molecules can be joined together by formation of a peptide bond.c) Describe the structure of proteins, defining the meaning of the terms primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure and illustrating your answer with examples.

The Workshop – Issues

• Problem Writing

The Workshop – Issues

• Implementation

The Workshop – Issues

• Assessment

What makes a good problem?

Session 2

What is a PBL problem?

• Poses a stimulating question• Based in a realistic context• Is open-ended and/or multi-pathed• Complex (cannot be “Googled” or guessed)• Encompasses several new areas of knowledge• Gives students a role or point of view• Encourages debate• Requires “professional” working habits• Engages students

Example

(a) A coil of length 10 cm, radius 1.5 cm has 1000 windings. What is its inductance?

(b) Calculate the capacitances for two tuned LC circuits, frequencies 160 kHz and 500 kHz using the inductor in part (a).

(c) A parallel plate capacitor has plate area 10 cm2 . What plate separations are required to obtain the capacitances in part (b)?

(d) What is the Q-value of a circuit with L = 10mH, C = 1 F and R = k.

(e) What resistance placed in series will be required to ensure the two signals are separated in the tuned circuits of part (b)?

Example

The sugar is well mixed into the liquid cocoa using our Melangeur. Both the sugar and cocoa solid particles are ground down smaller and smaller while more and more fat is released from the cocoa.  The sugar/cocoa mixture becomes smoother and remains a thick liquid known as chocolate "paste," now ready for the refining and conching process to follow.      

Melangeur mixing sugar and cocoa into "chocolate paste"  

Your task is therefore to investigate if the granularity of sugar can be checked by determining its dielectric constant.

From the documentation it is clear that the control of the size of sugar particles is important in chocolate manufacture. The Granada Chocolate Company is a small company in the Caribbean which might benefit from semi-automating the grinding process. To do this is it would be necessary to check the granularity of the sugar being introduced to the mix. It has been suggested by your research department that a simple way to check the granule size is to measure the bulk dielectric constant of the granulated sugar.

Example

Anatomy of a problem

• Trigger, hook, or scenario• Problem-solving strategy• List of resources• Facilitator guide• Assessment activities

Generalised PBL strategy

– Planning Phase• Agree a brief problem statement

• List relevant existing knowledge

• Identify learning outcomes

• Write a plan

– Investigation Phase• Enquiry and experiment

– Analysis Phase• Share and discuss information

• Apply new information to the problem

• Evaluate progress

• Submit work or revisit plan

• Reflect

Supervised Group Work

Unsupervised Individual Work

Group Work

Example

Someone in

Planning a problem

Planning a problem

Planning a problem

Activity

Normally, you would identify a curriculum area that was suited to PBL and then think of a problem scenario to match.

Here, we will give you news articles as “triggers” and ask you to plan a problem around one.

Alternatively, feel free to begin work on your own problems

Effective chemicals may be lost

Science is trying to devise new ways to defeat crops pestsScientists say they are worried about new EU proposals which could drastically restrict the number of pesticides available to farmers. The registration process is changing and many commonly used chemicals are likely to fall out of use. It is claimed the replacement regime could lead to reduced yields and further increases in food costs. But anti-pesticide campaigners say the changes are needed to help protect human health and the environment. Agro-science is in a constant battle against the pests that attack our food crops. Like the Indian plant-hopper, these tiny unwanted animals can strip a field completely, literally sucking the life out of the plants. The plant-hoppers are studied under strict quarantine conditions at centres such as the UK's Rothamsted Research Institute. The insects are resistant to the latest generation of pesticides - and we are beginning to run out of solutions to use against them. "It can take 10 years to develop a new pesticide," says Dr Steve Foster. "Because of the legal, and health and safety, hoops you have to go through, it can also cost hundreds of millions of pounds," he told BBC News. Dr Foster and many other scientists working in this area say they are appalled at new proposals coming from the European Union, and in particular from the EU Parliament, which are likely to result in the removal from use of many of the most effective pesticides. The row centres on a rather obscure sounding directive called 94/414. This directive ceases this year, and a new regime needs to be put in place. Two things are happening. First, the registration process for pesticides has been so slow, many are still not on the approved list under the current directive. As the directive runs out, chemicals may be lost to farmers because, in effect, they run out of time, and fall off the end of the list. Secondly, members of the European Parliament want to get much stricter regulations into the new replacement regime. One agro-chemist told me: "Everybody's jaws fell to the floor once we realised the implications, which appear not to have been based on science at all."

Climate prediction

The response of clouds to warming is one of the biggest "known unknowns“Pier Luigi Vidale smiles fondly as he gazes at the image unfolding on his screen. It is a rare and beautiful view of Planet Earth. Curlicues of cloud formations swirl around the Antarctic at the bottom of the screen as if captured by time-lapse photography. The image resembles a view of the Earth from space, stretched full frame. But a small yellow ball scudding along the bottom of the screen hints at another story. The ball is the Sun, heating the surface as it passes and provoking a daily puff of cloud from the Amazon rainforest in this computer-generated climate model. The animation comes from research led by Dr Vidale at Reading University's Walker Institute. It is designed to provide long-term data to help scientists distinguish between heating trends and natural climatic fluctuations. This week, about 150 of the world's top climate modellers have converged on Reading for a four day meeting to plan a revolution in climate prediction. And they have plenty of work to do. So far modellers have failed to narrow the total bands of uncertainties since the first report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1990.And Julia Slingo from Reading University admitted it would not get much better until they had supercomputers 1,000 times more powerful than at present. "We've reached the end of the road of being able to improve models significantly so we can pvide the sort of information that policymakers and business require," she told BBC News. "In terms of computing power, it's proving totally inadequate. With climate models we know how to make them much better to provide much more information at the local level... we know how to do that, but we don't have the computing power to deliver it." Professor Slingo said several hundred million pounds of investment were needed. "In terms of re-building something like the Thames Barrier, that would cost billions; it's a small fraction of that. "And it would allow us to tell the policymakers that they need to build the barrier in the next 30 years, or maybe that they don't need to."

Small-scale biomass power plants can have a greater environmental impact than other renewables, a study saysUK researchers found that although the facilities offered carbon savings, they produced more pollutants per unit of electricity than larger biomass plants.They suggested the way the feedstock was transported produced proportionally more pollutants than larger sites. The findings challenged the view that such schemes offer an green alternative to grid-based electricity, they added. Supporters of community biomass schemes say the power plants are sustainable because the fuel, such as wood chips, can be sourced from the local area.Study co-author Patricia Thornley, from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research at the University of Manchester, said the results did surprise the team."The fact that the carbon savings were pretty constant across the technologies, yet the emissions varied hugely was a surprise," she told BBC News. The researchers examined 25 different biomass power generation systems, some of which were established technologies, while others were still at the development stage.

Concern over small biomass option

Evolution rolls on for Mars rover

The wheels continue to turn on Europe's billion-euro project to put a robotic rover on the surface of the Red Planet. Engineers working towards the flagship ExoMars mission have unveiled a sophisticated new vehicle prototype. The demonstrator will test a possible suspension and locomotion set-up to be built into the final rover design. ExoMars, which has yet to receive final sign-off from space ministers, is scheduled to leave Earth in 2013 and land on the fourth planet a year later.It will carry a suite of instruments across the Martian landscape, looking for signs of past or present life. The new prototype, developed by the Canadian MDA Corporation, will help engineers understand how the real rover will behave when it moves through the rocky terrain. "This will be the first element that touches the surface of Mars as ExoMars rolls off the lander," explains Nadeem Ghafoor, MDA's manager of planetary exploration. "And when you've decided where you want to go, this is the system that gets you there and gets you over any obstacles on the way," he told BBC News. The MDA prototype can be viewed much like a car without its body. What you see in these pictures from a recent test session is essentially an undercarriage. The boxes on top house the current avionics needed to run the rover systems. On the eventual flight vehicle, such boxes would be joined by other computers, antennas, solar panels, cameras and the all important instrument suite which would run the exobiology experiments. MDA was given a list of requirements to work to. These concerned issues of stability; the type of terrain and soil the vehicle would have to traverse; obstacle heights; mass and power parameters. The company's engineers were then left to come up with what they thought were the most appropriate solutions. They investigated six major suspension configurations before deciding on a rigid bogie, or trolley, system that incorporates six driving and steering wheels. "Each wheel can turn which allows us to do point turns, rotating about the centre of the rover chassis," said MDA's ExoMars project manager, Mike Schmidt. "It can do a regular turn like you would do in your car, going around a sweeping bend. And it also allows us what's called crab mode, in which all six wheels turn in the same direction, allowing the vehicle to shuffle sideways like a crab would. "This provides benefit if you want to get up close to an object to deploy scientific instruments."

Microwaves 'cook ballast aliens'

US researchers say they have developed an effective way to kill unwanted plants and animals that hitch a ride in the ballast waters of cargo vessels. Tests showed that a continuous microwave system was able to remove all marine life within the water tanks. The UN lists "invasive species" dispersed by ballast water discharges as one of the four main threats to the world's marine ecosystems. The findings will appear in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Shipping moves more than 80% of the world's commodities and transfers up to five billion tonnes of ballast water internationally each year, data from the UN shows. Vessels, especially large container ships, need ballast tanks to provide stability in the water and correct any shift in the ships’ mass. When a ship's cargo is unloaded, it fills with ballast water; when it is later reloaded, often on the other side of the world, the water is discharged. Co-author Dorin Boldor, from Louisiana State University’s Agricultural Center, said the team envisaged the microwave device being fitted to the exit valve of a ballast tank.

It is extremely fast and very efficient at transferring the energy from the microwaves into heat The basic idea is that you take the ballast water and pump it through a microwave cavity." He added that the system would follow the same principle as a household microwave oven. "The power level is much higher and a different frequency, but it creates a very high intensity electric field in the centre of the cavity that oscillates rapidly. "The water molecules are going to start spinning around very fast and they are going to create a lot of friction that generates heat," Dr Boldor explained. "But it generates heat in the whole volume at the same time, unlike if you try to use another heating mechanism where you have to take the heat from somewhere else and conduct it through the liquid." This means that the researchers have a high degree of confidence that the system is treating all of the water to remove the unwanted organisms. "It is extremely fast and very efficient at transferring the energy from the microwaves into heat," he told BBC News.

Carbon-free diet attracts support

A project based on a "carbon-neutral" diet has attracted hundreds of supporters, the man behind it has said. It is six months since the start of the Fife Diet, which aims to reduce the food coming into the country by air. It is low in meat, to reduce the amount of harmful gases produced by cattle, and involves eating only locally grown fruit and vegetables. Mike Small said the 200 people who were following the plan were contributing to reducing climate change. He told the BBC Scotland news website: "The problem's not been finding food in Fife all year round, that's relatively easy, but the time you spend preparing a meal from scratch every day. "It gives us a bit of an insight into why we eat convenience food because we're all running around like dafties working too hard and don't have any time to cook a decent meal." Changing habits The project has relied heavily on people going back to eating food only when it is in season. That has also meant many foods, like bananas and oranges, are completely off the menu to cut down on the carbon emissions produced by the aeroplanes which transport them to the UK. People instead are directed towards farm shops and farmers markets. Jacqui Alexander, of Bellfield Organics in Newburgh, said: "To go back to having their root vegetables in the winter and to make their soups and stews, people tend to come away from those areas. "It is difficult but then a lot of people are interested in it, you can see that at farmers markets that people are interested in the different things we grow at different times of year." After six months, the Fife Diet is moving into a new phase with land having been secured for a community garden in Falkland. Mike Small is hoping volunteers will help maintain the patch as a vegetable garden which, he hopes, will encourage more people to exchange foods. The eating project has attracted the support of Friends of the Earth Scotland. Chief executive Duncan McLaren said: "Food accounts for about a quarter of household gas emissions. Most of that comes from the methane of animal production. So, a diet like this which is quite low in meat is definitely good for the environment."

Heading skyward to beat gridlock

The solution to gridlock on our overcrowded roads is to take to the air in a plane-car hybrid that will revolutionise the way society works. Could flying become a daily means of transportation?This vision of the future twenty years hence was revealed at the 2008 Electric Aircraft Symposium held a stone's throw from San Francisco airport in California. Plotting the next frontier in green technology was Richard Jones, a technical fellow at Boeing Phantom Works. He said: "Today I am talking about making aviation available to everyone as a daily means of transportation. Transportation changes society." "When they dumped the horse and cart people took over two continents. 150 years ago steam turned America into a nation. Today 50 per cent of the world lives in urban areas thanks to the car. And in the last 50 years, the aviation industry has made one world thanks to the airplane." Richard JonesBoeing's research group is designing a hybrid aimed at travelling up to 300 miles at a time. It will use precision navigation systems that would allow the average 'driver cum pilot' to fly without special training thanks to a computerised 'flight instructor' built into the cockpit. This, Mr Jones believes, could make the compact plane easier to drive than a car. "People will probably be reading a newspaper rather than flying the vehicles." He said that they will be powered using electricity and /or batteries making them the "cleanest transportation of the future." This sneak peak at the world twenty years from now was eagerly welcomed by the assembled group of engineers, scientists, venture capitalists and chief executives who were brought together by the CAFE Foundation, a non profit organisation that promotes personal air travel. The organisation's President Brien Seeley said that there were good sound reasons for believing that such a hybrid will be an everyday part of life. And with an estimated 1.2 billion cars expected to be clogging up the roads by 2030 he said that it is a no brainer. Personal aviation An electric glider will soon be available commercially The symposium was told that the environmental need to find an alternative to the combustion engine is long overdue and growing ever more urgent as fuel prices top $120 a barrel and passengers get hit with crippling surcharges for taking to the air. Dr Ben Santer who is a physicist with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory told BBC News: "We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are changing the chemistry of the earth's atmosphere by burning fossil fuels in cars and airplanes." "If we don't want to have really serious changes to our climate then we have to figure out other ways of doing business." The CAFE Foundation believes the solution is obvious. Mr Seeley told the BBC: "The electric aircraft promises to solve these problems and produce a real enlightenment of aviation with new technology and a rebirth of popular general aviation and personal aviation travel."

Mouse Jacket Grown, Euthanized In Museum Lab

In one of the odder stories we've spotted in some time, an installation called "Victimless Leather" was on display at NY's MoMA. The piece was actually a living jacket crafted from mouse embryonic stem cells, fed nutrients through tubes. But after five weeks, it grew too large for its containment flask and had to be killed.The exhibit's curator cut the coat off from nutrition and it died thereafter. But the decision haunted her.“I've always been pro-choice and all of a sudden I'm here not sleeping at night about killing a coat...That thing was never alive before it was grown.”Personally, it's the image of a pulsating living rat coat that's going to keep me from sleeping. Did anyone see the exhibit?

Shapes and Sizes of PBL

Session 5

Shapes and Sizes of PBL

A problem a day

Multiple bounce

Short fat

Long thin

Closed end-point, multi-path

Closed end-point, guided path

Open-ended constrained

Open-ended unconstrained

Case Study 1

Professor Alwyn is director of learning and teaching at a new University with centralised control over pedagogy. The University wishes to differentiate itself from its competitors but without moving too far beyond the comfort zone of traditional directions of student learning. Professor Alwyn has therefore decided on a highly structured approach to PBL. Students are given a ‘problem a day’. Facilitators meet their groups together once at the start of the day to present the problem, and twice later on to check on progress. The day ends with groups presenting their solutions.

Example: The shape of water

Alliance pictures are making a documentary Giganticus, A Tiny Adventure in which a shrunken submarine travels though a human body. At this point the animators want to know the shape of a water molecule.

Alliance International PicturesI have more questions for you! I know that the formula of water is H2O but I have realized that the atoms could be arranged in many ways. Unfortunately, I don’t know the scientifically correct one. And since this film is going to include loads of chemistry, I would really appreciate it if you can send me instructions on how to sketch molecules that contain more than two atoms with the science behind it.

Hook:

Trigger:

Facilitator notes

There are two issues to worry about. First, which atoms are connected to which? Second, how are the atoms arranged in space? The sketches of the animator indicate the problem for water. The aim of today’s session is to find out about the shapes of molecules. This involves the use of a theory known as VSEPR – Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion. This topic is well handled in the textbooks – see the textbook reference sheet for up-to-date references. ……….

Analysis

• Suitable for: – central control of learning environment– control of learning outcomes – full time facilitators – group space– parallel presentations

Case Study 2

Dr Towbar has volunteered to take the first year mechanics course for the past 10 years. He likes the clear-cut problems and their mathematically precise solutions. The fact that students find the material dry and unengaging he puts down to their lack of preparation for university physics and a lack of respect for scientific tradition. He is convinced they need to know this material and there is only one way of teaching it. He is decidedly unhappy that the new head of teaching has introduced teaching teams for the introductory courses; unhappier that his colleges Professor Sideliner and Dr Rubytin want to introduce PBL and cannot see the dangers of departing from traditional methods. The only concern of his HoD is that nothing should impact on research time. But how, Dr Towbar wants to know, will students learn mechanics if they are allowed to develop their own ideas?

Here’s how his colleagues convinced him…

Example

Chypsis Toys LtdOur marketing department see a niche for a roller-coaster toy of some sort: nothing too complicated – just a straight track  for example. In order to convince potential investors we need some good laboratory data and calculations as to what can be done.

What are the sources of friction? What heights do you think we can use for successive humps? How many humps  should we have? I’ll need a formal report from you with your results.

Hook

Trigger

Facilitator notes

There are at least 4 methods

1. Measure acceleration

2. Use constant acceleration with distance sgv eff22

3. Use constant acceleration with time

cossin mgmgxm )cot1(sin ggeff

4. Use work done

so

Which will you choose?

Analysis

• Suitable for – Core learning objectives – Simple experiments

Case Study 3

Professor Kay in is an enlightened head of chemistry. His great outreach team has succeeded in keeping up student numbers in a difficult environment with a number of innovative programmes. But many of the new students are ill-prepared for university chemistry delivered in the traditional way, and by the end of the first semester may of them are disillusioned. Professor Kay wants to see the ingenuity and innovation currently applied to outreach carried through to the year one courses. As a start he has secured funding to develop a PBL module to run alongside the lecture programme.

Example

Hook

Trigger

Given recent climatic irregularities DfERA have decided that it is the right time to pilot a new system which will monitor variations in tide height at a fixed location over long periods of time. The system operates by monitoring the amount of light which reaches the sensor (at the sea bed) as it is known that the greater the depth of the tide the lower the intensity of light which reaches the sea bed.

We would like you to help us iron out a few of the technical issues with this system. As mentioned above the intensity of the light which reaches the sensor will decrease as the tide depth increases, we would like you to help us calibrate the instrument.

Facilitator notes

• The deliverable for this problem takes the form of a written report to the government agency which will include some basic calculations of the intensity of light reaching the sensor using the Beer-Lambert law.

• While investigating the problem the students should see the difficulty in estimating an extinction coefficient for sea water. In order to simplify the problem we give them this data as part of the resources but for the second part of their report (in reply to the follow-up letter) they should comment on some of the factors that affect the extinction coefficient and why this would complicate matters.

Analysis

• Suitable for – using alongside traditional methods– adding variety and skills while supporting core

learning

Case Study 4

Professor Dreamer is appalled that in his tutorials, which he carefully prepares to be interesting and thought-provoking, final year students find it difficult to apply basic physics to new situations. The students are an able group, some of whom could go on to research, but he worries that their lack of creativity and inquisitiveness will hold them back. How can he get them thinking, formulating their own questions, and exploring and expanding their own understanding?

Example: Internet Journal

Journal of Special Topics

Volume 7Part 1

10/11/07

Example: Internet Journal

H-R diagram for a young stellar association

V. Fictitious

We present the H-R diagram for observations of a young cluster of stars. It is of interest that the best fit line is somewhat steeper than the usual H-R diagram. It may be relevant that these stars show no sign of convective envelopes even down to well below a solar mass.

Letters to the Editor JST Vol.4, 26th October 2002

Trigger

Facilitator notes

Example student paper

JST Vol.6, d m 2005

Viability of Solar Gravity Power

M J Anfield & M A G Earle

A U Thor (J Spec Tops., 1) postulates that gravitational energy is a viable source of power for the Sun. His simple model, in which he takes the core of the Sun to contain a growing black hole radiating at its Eddington limit, proves sufficient to power the Sun.

Consider a black hole at the centre of the Sun to be radiating at its Eddington limit. At the Eddington limit the pressure of the emitted photons exerts a force equal and opposite to that of gravity upon the accreting matter. From this we derive an equation relating the luminosity L of the hole to its mass Mbh

where T is the Thompson scattering cross-section. We calculate the mass of the black hole required to provide the solar luminosity to be 6.51025 kg. This is small in comparison to the mass of the Sun. If the matter of the black hole were at a density of 1015 kg m3 it would have a diameter of only about 5 km. These findings support the `Thor postulate' that gravitational energy from the collapse of a cloud of gas releases sufficient energy to power the Sun.

LGm

Mp

Tbh

4

Facilitator notes

Example referees reportB Smith, G Jones, E EvansSignificance of the workAdams et al write in response to a letter by M Davies published in JST1.1. (A1_3_Giants). They have demonstrated that it may not be possible for an accurate measure to be made of the distance to the cluster LS101 using comparison of red giant luminosity because it would not be possible to resolve the individual stars.Method UsedThe authors use results from their paper A1_2_Supernovae (JST1.2) and find the number of red giants within the cluster of 100 000 stars to be 17 620. They then assume a cluster radius of 3 pc, for which absolutely no justification is given. This allows them to find that the angular separation of the red dwarfs is 0.694’’. This is the limit of Earth based observation suggesting that Davies’s results may be flawed.ConclusionsThe method used by the authors is correct and accepting their assumption of the radius of a galactic cluster, produces an accurate result.A resolution of 0.694’’ is at the limit of observation and considering the possible error in the assumptions, this result may not be accurate. However, the result does fit well with what Davies says in his letter. A second method would be of use to confirm the result.We believe that this paper is significant as it will prevent the inaccurate results given in Davies’s letter being used. we therefore recommend the paper be accepted for publication.

Analysis

• Suitable for – multiple inputs, multiple outputs – student centred leaning– loosely defined objectives– minimal supervision

Case Study 5

Dr Jackson needs to design a week-long activity for a new first-year group with diverse A-levels. He wants to introduce the PBL process in a science environment, build good study habits, and introduce critical thinking skills.

He chooses astronomy as a subject area, as none of the students have studied it before.

Example: Pyramid Shafts

Department of Egyptology

Dear Dr Jackson,

I’ve read both Bauval & Gilbert and Trimble’s accounts of the relationships between the four ‘airshafts’ in the Great Pyramid and certain bright stars. The Trimble paper strikes me as closely reasoned – I’d trust it if it weren’t for the fact that B&G use it as a basis for increasingly weird theories. So what should I do? Assume that both are unfounded? Or neither? Can you and your students help me out? I’d really like this as background to a paper I’m writing so need to know where the solid ground is.I thing I’d really like to know is whether these alignments could be coincidental. How likely is it that a N-S shaft would point at a bright star?Thanks for your help,

Daniel JonesPA1001

Prophets and PowersArchaeoastronomyc

HookTrigger

Facilitator notes

• This is a contentious area in the field of Egyptology. Many web resources will be very biased. Can the students recognize inappropriate web use?

• Students have two laboratory sessions using planetarium software. They should design and carry out an experiment to ascertain whether the shafts might align with bright stars by chance.

• Support sessions will be scheduled to introduce basic astronomy concepts including co-ordinate systems, time, and magnitudes.

Analysis

• Suitable for – a discrete time period– no parallel activities– introduction to group work– “summer school” outreach

Case Study 6

Dr Brown from Physics and Dr Green from Geography had what they thought was the brilliant idea of collaborating on an interdisciplinary module on climate change. The subject matter was topical, core, and, by joining forces, would halve the workload. So they each put together half a lecture course and looked forward to a successful collaboration. It was not to be. The student evaluations were disappointing; the examination results even worse. Drs Brown and Green decided to meet on neutral territory in the coffee bar to iron out the problems. They quickly got to the core of the matter. The physics students could do the physics but couldn’t master the geography; the geography students had no idea how to apply the physics. A joint lecture course was not an appropriate vehicle for an interdisciplinary module for students with different backgrounds. Dr Green thought it time he revealed his hand:

"Have you ever come across PBL ....."

Example

Royal Society for The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Dear Sir/Madam, The RSPCA considers it important that people are made aware of the potentially fatal consequences of leaving pets in a car. We would like to commission from you a flyer to distribute as part of a campaign to persuade people that it is just not acceptable to leave an animal in a car, even for a short while.The flyer should be eye-catching and memorable, but must describe the situation, in such a way that a general member of the public will understand it. Something that we consider important, for instance, is the amount of time it would take for conditions in the car to become life-threatening.We would also like you to separately present us with the scientific data to support any claims you make on the flyer, so we can make it available on our website for any interested parties.

Yours sincerely,

Hook

Trigger

Example

Dear Team,

I read the article in Tomorrowday the other day, the one about these new plants that are going to solve all our global warming problems by sucking the carbon out of the air. I reckon it’s time to run another “What is Global Warming?” piece.I’d like you to put together an article on the science - not all the GM business, I don’t want to poke that hornet’s nest again for a bit, we’ve only just shifted the last of the mail after that article about the pig with the two heads…No, what I’d like you to do is produce a feature on the natural state of play - what’s the environment like at the moment, what are these plants going to do, why are they different to ‘normal’ plants etc. Then what global warming is - Not too long, and keep it nice and simple, yeah? But for God’s sake, get the science right – I don’t want another “Daily Bugle dumbs things down” fiasco again…Cheers,

Daily Bugle 256 Fleet Street Hook

Trigger

Example

From: The Office of the President

Dear Sir/MadamAn advisory panel is to be commissioned to assess the current state of the global climate and to discuss the possibility of its anthropogenic alteration from Earth’s natural state. This panel is intended to provide the president with sufficient information to address the delegates at the forthcoming Earth Summit. The panel should comprise representatives from all parties with detailed knowledge of or interest in areas relevant to this issue and that position papers from each group should be submitted prior to the panel meeting.

As it is imperative that the United States be seen to be both aware of and sensitive to issues relating to the environment, your input would be strongly welcomed. Accordingly, prompt submission of papers and your attendance at the panel would be appreciated.

Yours trulyL StaffAssistant Panel Administrator (Environmental Issues)

Facilitator notes

Facilitators notes:

Guide the students to research:

What is heat? What is temperature? Transfer of heat.

Refs.

Breithaupt Chapter 6 (6.1, 6.2, 6.4)

Keller Chapter 16 (16.2, 16.6)

Tipler Chapter 18 (18.1) Chapter 19 (19.1) Chapter 21 (21.4)

Guide the students to these references and ensure they come up with a research plan for the day.

Analysis

• Suitable for – small classes– large option component– experienced group members – complex topics

Case Study 7

Drs Sane and Rymans have been approached by the TDA to provide online learning materials for part time PGCE students making a career change to teaching physics. They have to cover a lot of material in a short time but above all they have to show how to make it interesting and not just list of what needs to be known. In a face-to-face teaching environment PBL would be an obvious choice but for various reasons it would be difficult to implement on line. Dr Sane suggested a “problem a day” solution: relativity short problems that would be given a strong steer. Dr Rymans thought this would lack coherence and instead proposed an overall problem for each chapter but with the students guided through the PBL process along a particular pathway. The assessments showed that at least some of the students got the point and used PBL to inform their approach to teaching.

Example: ePBL

Motion in 1D Problem: The lead shot used in shotgun cartridges consists of small spherical pellets 2-3mm in diameter made by pouring molten lead through a frame suspended in a high tower, a method used since its invention by William Watts in 1782. In order to produce spherical shot the lead must solidify before the pellet has reached terminal velocity. How high should the tower be?

Dimensional analysisKinematicsDynamicsConservation laws

Hook

Trigger

Example: ePBL

Motion in the plane Problem A design for a spaceship that would also function as an orbital space station might look like the dumbell form of Spaceship USS Discovery 1 from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The picture shows an artist’s impression with the spaceship moving round the Earth oriented like a plane flying through the air. Is there anything wrong with this?

Circular OrbitsEquilibrium and StabilityDynamics of rotational motionSimple Harmonic Motion

Facilitator notes

Lecture material (Powerpoint and audio) leading the student though the problemQuestions for forum discussion:

1. The following is an extract from a report in the Guardian newspaper“To get around a bend, athletes have to tilt their body to fight the centrifugal force that pulls them in a straight line.” Is this a wrong explanation? A useful one? 2. How you would explain why a more massive satellite doesn’t orbit more slowly? 3. What are the practical considerations in deploying a tether to boost a spaceship orbit? 4. Make a list of as many examples of (approximate) SHM as you can

Analysis

• Suitable for– limited facilitation– limited group opportunities– varied prior learning– somewhat asynchronous learning

Case Study 8: Getting it wrong

Dr Keane had just returned from a summer school on PBL full of enthusiasm to improve his laboratory session as he had always intended. He’d worked out a great scenario abandoning his groups on a desert island with parts from a crashed aircraft and challenging them to make a rescue beacon, which he thought would be a great hook. To input a design element into the labs, Dr Keane decided to make the experiment as open-ended as possible; but he was sure he had covered all the learning objectives. This was the root of his problem. See if you can spot what went wrong from the problem statement.

Example: Desert Island Disaster

• You are the crew of cargo plane which has been forced to make a crash landing on a small isolated island. Most of the equipment on the plane has been damaged by the landing and only a few rudimentary components remain useable. These include a rescue beacon but no power source. Air traffic control knows you are missing but does not know where you are.

• You begin to explore the island. There is plenty of fruit to eat and the climate seems balmy with a pleasant sea breeze. How can you attract attention? If only you could find a way to power those rescue beacons …

Facilitator notes

• Students should be allowed to explore their ideas for powering the beacon and provided with the necessary equipment. Following the text you should be able to lead them to use wind power.

So what went wrong?

Here’s a clue……

Case Study 8: Getting it right

Dr Keane decided to review the situation. On reflection it was quite clear. The students had taken all too literally the opportunities for multiple strategies in the environment they had been given. One doesn’t do physics experiments on a desert island, at least not with careful notes and estimates of errors. What you do is Blue Peter science and see if it works, and this is what he had got.

But it could be fixed. The same learning objectives could be embedded in a different scenario….

Example: Crosswinds

Another incident this week serves as a reminder for pilots to consider crosswinds on approach to land. Bob C's Puffin Aerosport suffered minor damage after a gust of wind affected the aircraft on landing. The airport emergency team arrived at the scene quickly, but Bob was unharmed and able to exit the aircraft unassisted. Pilots are advised to monitor the wind information given by air traffic control and keep an eye on the windsock to assess gusting.Asked if anything was being done about this state of affairs a spokesperson for Otherton Airport management said that they would be pleased to receive ideas for a safety beacon, but that this would have to get CAA approval.

HQ wants us to look at the following circuit:

A capacitor will smooth the output if the wind is gusting

HookTrigger

Facilitator notes

This is a real problem. The data in the newspaper report gives some indication of the wind speeds involved. The laboratory models will not have speeds this large so it is necessary to understand at least some the theory in order to scale them up. It is not sufficient to simply get the device working in the lab.

Analysis

• Suitable for– design of lab experiments– relating theory to practical– incorporating simple computation– mixing different areas of physics

Summary: Shapes and Sizes of PBL

A problem a day

Multiple bounce

Short fat

Long thin

Closed end-point, multi-path

Closed end-point, guided path

Open-ended constrained

Open-ended unconstrained

Authentic Assessment

Session 8

Types of Assessment

Process assessment

Content assessment

GroupsIndividual rolesIndividual

Real timeTest conditions

Group deliverablesIndividual deliverablesExamination

Restricted access (selection/winner takes all)

Competence or mastery of content

Competence or mastery of process

Potential (The Apprentice)

Group process

Group process

What is assessment for?

Example: process assessment

Process Attendance (0, 1) Also provides a scaling factor for the final module mark.

Participation in Facilitation Sessions (I) (0,1,2,3)For each student at each facilitation session “Has the student engaged fully in the session?”

Group Action Plans (G)For each group once a week (0,1,2,3) for each of Locate the problem, Existing knowledge, Issues, Cause of actionA further mark for the criterion “Has the plan been updated appropriately by the

group?”.

Portfolio For each student once per week(0,1,2,3)Have appropriate notes been kept?

Example: deliverables

• Deliverables• Group/Individual presentation, video, podcast, poster• Group/Individual report, letter, e-mail

• Personal Development• Laboratory notebook • Each student once per laboratory• Job appraisal (I)• Each student at the end of each module (work in the context of their

role is assessed).

Assessment for Competence

Submit work

Is it above threshold?

Yes: record markNo: attend sessions

Resubmit

It it above threshold?

Yes: record markNo: attend session

Submit work

Record mark

The Big Idea plc has been commissioned to study ways of searching for leaking water pipelines in the desert. The pipes are either on or near to the surface, so any leaks would result in wet sand in the vicinity. However, it has proved difficult to detect this reliably by photographic means, since dark shadows can also be caused by dunes, vegetation, clouds etc. as well as by wet sand. The research department has decided to investigate the possible use of drones carrying equipment to measure the dielectric constant of sand under the assumption that this will change with the moisture content. A number of ways have been considered to measure the dielectric constant, specifically the (i) Brewster angle and (ii) the reflectivity of the surface in the microwave, infrared and optical bands.

Case study: water pipes in the desert

Learning objectives

• Maxwell’s equations in a vacuum and in a medium• Reflection of e. m. waves at boundaries (two states of polarization)• Brewster angle• Skin depth• Frequency dependence of refractive index• Relationship between dielectric constant and refractive index• Description of plane waves• Microwaves• Applicability of mathematical models• Laser safety• Computational input and output • Implementing a simple computational algorithm; verification• Elements of experimental design; experimental errors

The set-up

• Prior experience• Problem given at the start of the course• Lecture and problem-solving component (4 units

over 8 weeks)• PBL experiment • Test rig provided

Process assessment

Content assessment

What should happen:

What did happen (first time round)?

Focus on real or perceived learning objectives

Group roles & behaviourProject management, etcPeer review

Reports Presentations

Why?

Context!

Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Conclusion Assessment drives actions

Solution Context sensitive assessments(I’ll explain in a moment!)

Evaluation/Reflection

PBL as culture not method

Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Telescope project

Water pipes in the desert

There is too much data or too many experiments for each group to carry out the whole project alone.

Presentations and reports are required to exchange information.

Authentic Assessment

Authentic Assessment

Project tracking formPatent application

Insurance claim report

Refraction is the bending of the path of a light wave as it passes from one material to another material. The refraction occurs at the boundary and is caused by a change in the speed of the light wave upon crossing the boundary. The tendency of a ray of light to bend one direction or another is dependent upon whether the light wave speeds up or slows down upon crossing the boundary. Like any wave, the speed of a light wave is dependent upon the properties of the medium. In the case of an electromagnetic wave, the speed of the wave depends upon the optical density of that material. The more optically dense a material is, the slower that a wave will move through the material. One indicator of the optical density of a material is the index of refraction value of the material. Index of refraction values are numerical index values, which are expressed relative to the speed of light in a vacuum. The index of refraction value of a material is a number which indicates the number of times slower that a light wave would be in that material than it is in a vacuum. A vacuum is given an n value of 1.0000. 

Patent Application Template 

The Leicester Physics Patent Office can accept applications in the following format only.

 Names of companies: __________________________ Date: __________________________ What is the purpose of the proposed device? (50 words max)    What is the basic principle behind the device? (100 words max) 

Section 1: Project Details 

Company: Scrumptious Confectioners

Project: Temperature AlarmStart date: 8 March 2004Finish date: 15 March 2004

Induction – a group activity (setting the culture)

Physics Challenge – teams compete (presentations)

Internet Journal– students run a ‘research’ journal (peer review)

Group project – launch a rocket, – monitor NO2 levels– solar flares (project management)

More examples:

Pedagogies of engagement: Classroom-Based PracticesSmith et al J Eng Educ Jan 2005

Problems of group assessment

Pitfalls: – over-assessment– staff time– free-loaders– identifying contributions

Solution:– group work as culture (co-operative learning) not

method

subject knowledge and skills + prior knowledge and goals + assessment + community

Academic physicists

Structured and focussed

End-point

Them and us

Professional student

Fractured and unformed

Starting point

Them and us

The (traditional) learning environment

Real-world problem-solving in groups to motivate and structure the acquisition of new knowledge

subject knowledge and skills +prior knowledge and goals +assessment + community

Professional physicist

Student oriented

Relevant

Coherent

The PBL environment

Summary

Which is the right PBL for you

?

What is PBL?

Real-world problem-solving in groups to motivate and structure the acquisition of new knowledge

subject knowledge and skills +prior knowledge and goals +assessment + community

Professional physicist

Student oriented

Relevant

Coherent

alignment