GSCI 163

Lecture 1

GSCI 163Matter of Matter

Spring 2011

• Dr. Klebert Feitosa• Office: PhCh – 2128• Phone: 586-5340• Email: feitoskb@jmu.edu

Course material

• Web pagehttp://csma31.csm.jmu.edu/physics/feitoskb/teaching_material/GSCI163.html

JMU Physics Feitosa Teaching GSCI 163

• Blackboard

SyllabusContent outline

• States of matter• Periodic table• Atomic states• Shells• Chemical formulas• Reactions• Chemical equations• Solutions• Chemistry of water• Acid base• Carbon and organic chemistry

Learn about what?

• How do we learn?• How can we become better teachers?

Goal for the class is to learn about the stuff we are made of.

But also learn about how we learn and thus become better teachers.

How do we learn?• Learning with understanding. Facts, relationships, application contexts,

regions of validity, level of importance etc. combine to produce an understanding.

• Pre-existing knowledge is the basis for all learning. Teachers must incorporate

this into their instructional methods. They need to know what the student knows.

• Active Learning. Students must take control of learning.

• Metacognitive: strategizing, evaluating, assessing and relating your knowledge and understanding (by the learner). Takes the form of an internal dialog rich and multifaceted over process, content, and success one’s learning.

Competence

What is competence? • have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,• understand facts and ideas in the context of a

conceptual framework, and• organize knowledge in ways that facilitate

retrieval and application.

Implications for teaching• Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting

understanding, which students bring with them.• Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth, providing

many examples in which the same concept is at work and provide a firm foundation of factual knowledge.

• Teachers must have the in-depth understanding. To develop sound pedagogical tools a teacher must understand the critical elements, relationships, subtleties… Also the teacher must be able to grasp the growth of the student at these levels.

• The teaching of metacognitive skills should be integrated into the curriculum.

Experts Novices

• Possess a great deal of content knowledge.• Knowledge organized to reflect a deep understanding. (conditionalized knowledge)• Knowledge reflects context of applicability and limitations. (conditionalized knowledge)• Retrieve knowledge flexibly and easily.• Good thinkers (not smart)• Guide and controls learning.• Look for inconsistencies .• Plan.• Generates sound arguments.• Notices patterns, relationships, discrepancies and features.• Make explanations.• Draw analogies• Identifies critical components• Recognizes unimportant details• Hierarchical thinking• Integrates facts with overall knowledge base• Not necessarily good teachers.• May or may not be able to extend to new situations.• Are not necessarily experts in other areas.• Fluently access information because they identify relevance.• Not overtaxed with complexity.• Has had dire personal experience with every mistake in his field (lighthearted view). 

• Potential to become an expert.• Large set of disconnected facts.• Not necessarily slower in solving straightforward problems.• Often miss patterns and features.• Hindered by complexity.• Same memory capacity as experts.• May posses the knowledge to solve a problem but cannot access it.• May have preconceptions that are inconsistent with learned facts.• Cannot place facts in a context.• May not organize information based on important principles.• Group problems by irrelevant features.• Do not posses understanding. 

Science

• Power of science: – ability to predict and control outcomes based on

fundamental knowledge and understanding of a specific phenomena.

• What is the problem with learning science?

Science

• Power of science: – ability to predict and control outcomes based on

fundamental knowledge and understanding of a specific phenomena.

• What is the problem with learning science?– Math: we do not know the rules– Jargon: we do not know the definitions– Intuition: we do not know the factsCommon language is critical

Examples

• Why can’t we divide by zero?

• What if we insist in doing so, what would be the “answer”?

• Another rule: – multiplying powers of same base

Examples

=

Jargon

• In physics precise definitions are paramount to avoid ambiguities and confusion.

• As a result our common understanding of words sometimes take a new meaning in physics.

• Example: Velocity and speed do not mean the same thing in physics.

Units

• Only rarely a numerical answer in physics does not carry units.

• Units give you a description of the numerical quantity.

• Give examples of units that you know (let us make a big table)

International System

• LENGTH - the standard length is 1 meter (1 m).• TIME - the standard time is 1 second (1 s).• MASS - the standard mass is 1 kilogram (1 kg).• TEMPERATURE - the standard temperature is 1 Kelvin (1

K)• AMOUNT - the standard amount is 1 mole (1 mol)• ELECTRICAL CURRENT - the standard current is 1 ampere

(1 A)• LUMINOUS INTENSITY - the standard intensity is 1

candela (1 cd)

CNN web site September 30, 1999CNN NASA lost a 125 million Mars orbiter because a Lockheed Martin

engineering team used English units of measurement while the agency’s team used the more conventional metric system for a key spacecraft operation, according to a review finding released Thursday.

The units mismatch prevented navigation information from transferring between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team in at Lockheed Martin in Denver and the flight team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Lockheed Martin helped build, develop and operate the spacecraft for NASA. Its engineers provided navigation commands for Climate Orbiters thrusters in English units although NASA has been using the metric system predominantly since at least 1990…

The problem?“ The navigation mishap killed the mission on a day when engineers had

expected to celebrate the crafts entry into Mars orbit.After a 286day journey, the probe fired its engine on September 23 to push

itself into orbit.The engine fired but the spacecraft came within 60 km 36 miles of the planet

about 100 km closer than planned and about 25 km 15 miles beneath the level at which the it could function properly, mission members said.

The latest findings show that the spacecrafts propulsion system overheated and was disabled as Climate Orbiter dipped deeply into the atmosphere, JPL spokesman Frank ODonnell said.

That probably stopped the engine from completing its burn, so Climate Orbiter likely plowed through the atmosphere, continued out beyond Mars and now could be orbiting the sun, he said.”

How do we convert units?

• Math rules + a deep understanding of the definitions.

• Problems: convert 70 mi/h in a) Meters per secondb) Kilometers per hour

How many

• Seconds are in one day?• How many seconds have you lived?

• What is the distance from the earth to the sun in m? (speed of light 300,000,000 m/s, takes approx 8 sec to travel this distance)

Too big and too small

• Very large and very small numbers are a nuisance. How can we deal with them?

1. Use scientific notation (powers of 10)2. Use prefixes in our units3. Switch units

Use of prefixes

Facts: states of mater

• States of mater are typically divided in

Gas, liquid and solid

• List the characteristics of each one of these states

A complete table

Compressibility

• What do we mean by compressibility?

• What is force?

• What is its relation to pressure, stress, strain?

Law of gases

• Boyle’s lawif I increase the pressure what happens with the

volume? Think of a tire pump.

Law of gases

• Boyle’s lawif I increase the pressure what happens with the

volume? Think of a tire pump.

PV = const.

Law of gases

• Charles’ lawWhat happens to the volume when the temperature increase or decrease? Think of a balloon in the freezer

(show video)

Law of gases

• Charles’ lawWhat happens to the volume when the temperature increase or decrease? Think of a balloon in the freezer

.constTV

Law of gases

• Law of Gay-LussacWhat happens with the pressure when the temperature increases? Think of a pressure cooker…

Law of gases

• Law of Gay-LussacWhat happens with the pressure when the temperature increases? Think of a pressure cooker…

.constTP

Ideal gas law

nRTPV How much gas (number of moles) Ideal gas constant

8.314 Pa-m3/mol-K

Next class

The periodic table

Assignments• Read Handout day 2• Quiz on these topics (first 10-15 min of class)• Chose the topic of your teaching assignment