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Liberal arts writing and physics lab report writing in the context of kinematics thinking

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Conference

2017 ASEE Mid Atlantic Section Spring Conference

Location

Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland

Publication Date

April 7, 2017

Start Date

April 7, 2017

End Date

April 8, 2017

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--29263

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/29263

Download Count

350

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Paper Authors

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sunil Dehipawala Queensborough Community College

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Sunil Dehipawala received his B.S. degree from University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka and Ph.D from City University of New York. Currently, he is working as a faculty member at Queensborough Community College of CUNY.

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Vazgen Shekoyan

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Dr. Vazgen Shekoyan is a professor of physics and his experiences include pedagogy, CubeSat, etc.

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Rex Taibu Queensborough Community College-CUNY

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Dr. Rex Taibu has taught studio physics classes for several years. His teaching experience has shaped his research focus. Currently, Dr. Taibu is actively engaged in

1) promoting scientific inquiry attitudes in students through designing, implementing, and assessing innovative inquiry based physics labs.

2) conducting research regarding the role of language in conceptual understanding.

3) exploring cosmic rays (detection, data collection, and analysis).

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George Tremberger Jr CUNY-Queensborough Community College

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Tak Cheung CUNY Queensborough Community College

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Tak Cheung, Ph.D., professor of physics, teaches in CUNY Queensborough Community College. He also conducts research and mentors student research projects.

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Abstract

Liberal arts writing by definition is sequential in appearance as adjacent paragraphs, while physics kinematics thinking involving the five variables (time, distance, initial velocity, final velocity, and acceleration) could be illustrated as spatial thinking in a diagram. The non-sequential linkage concept among the variables in a diagram is straightforward while the multiple linkages across the paragraphs in an essay is less obvious, especially to a community college pre- engineering student studying kinematics. A pedagogy has been developed to emphasize the multi-linkages in liberal arts writing with analogy to kinematics thinking so as to improve physics lab report writing. The first -score and post- score upon receiving writing improvement recommendation have been used to assess the pedagogy effectiveness in terms of correlation and relative gain. The assessment result suggests that the modeling of liberal arts writing as diagrammatic kinematics thinking would help students to improve on physics lab report writing.

Dehipawala, S., & Shekoyan, V., & Taibu, R., & Tremberger, G., & Cheung, T. (2017, April), Liberal arts writing and physics lab report writing in the context of kinematics thinking Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Mid Atlantic Section Spring Conference, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--29263

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