course_planning:projects_edits [Projects & Practices in Physics]

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===== Edits to Course Projects =====

Here, course staff will compile the edits to the course projects after reflections sessions.

==== Course Projects: Generally ====

Some students had already looked at the first project before the first class because it wasn't hidden from view. In the future, we should not release the link for the project until just before class.


==== Project 1: Part A ====

The first part of the riverboat problem went well. Most groups adapted to the idea of solving problems to construct understanding well. In working the problem, many groups attempted to send the remote boat across the river and determine the location of it across the river. This might have been promoted, in part, by the fact that there was no length measurement tool in the problem. So they thought, "hey we can just walk down the shore and measure the distance." We decided in our reflection session that giving them some tool to measure length on their end of the shore would be fine. When students setup the measurement along the shore, we will then give them the time the measure going up and downstream. For some students, it wasn't clear that their proposed experiment gave the velocity with respect to the shore. Another aim in giving this measurement tool is that students would recognize that the velocity is measured with respect to the shore.

=== Proposed change to Project 1: Part A ===

You are a scientist.

You have worked on the Voyager 1 project for a number of years. You receive a satellite phone call while on a team building exercise with your fellow scientists that there is an emergency with Voyager 1. You must escape hostile territory while being pursued by an enemy who wants you for your scientific prowess. You come to a river that is fast flowing, and the only safe landing point on the opposite bank is directly across from an abandoned but functional boat. The width of the river is 1.8 km. The boat has a constant speed of 21 knots. However, the boat’s rudder has been damaged and so the boat cannot be redirected once it has started moving. With you, you have a remote controlled boat which travels at a constant speed, but you do not know what that speed is. <wrap notice>In the abandoned boat, you find a stop watch and a spool of unopened fishing line marked '50 m'.</wrap> You must predict the proper direction to point the boat in order to land on the opposite bank at the landing point.

<WRAP round info> Our assumption here is that students would choose to drive the remote boat upstream and then downstream 50 meters using the fishing line to measure distance. We would then give them the time to go upstream and downstream, which based on our 30 kph and 70 kph speeds are 6.00 seconds and 2.57 seconds respectively.</WRAP>