First Year Mechanics Playlist

About this resource

Description

A series of videos on first year mechanics, with an organisational spreadsheet containing learning outcomes. Topics include Vectors, Motion, Forces, Energy, Collisions and Momentum, Rotation and Torque, Universal Gravitation and Special Relativity.

Length

Multi-week

Pedagogical backing

Rationale

These videos are traditional lecture substitutes, broken up into short segments for ease of digestion. Related videos are organised with an explicit structure, and learning outcomes are provided to guide students or teachers. Mayer’s principles of visual learning were employed in the design of these videos.
These videos were developed as part of an online graduate certificate in physics, intended for aspiring physics high school teachers. They are modular as they are intended to fit within an online course environment, and accompany tutorial questions, quizzes and exams. Many of these videos are also used in the introductory calculus based Physics 1A course at UNSW, some with small modifications.

How is the resource used

These videos may comprise part or all of the content exposition for a first year mechanics course. The author recommends integrating them into an online environment, where students are encouraged to watch them one at a time and answer tutorial questions as appropriate.

Student evaluation

These videos have been used with three cohorts of students completing the graduate certificate, around 30 students in total. In Physics 1A they have been used with a cohort of 700 students. They have been well received.

Authors

Elizabeth Angstmann, University of New South Wales, e.angstmann@unsw.edu.au