Our capstone project is going to consist of creating four educational videos in STEM areas. The four concepts we want to create videos for right now are: hyperbolic trigonometry, related rates, general problem solving for Physics problems, and projectile motion. Our videos are going to be supplements for students who are learning about these topics or are just interested in them. Abstract math tends to be very difficult for students when they come to college. They are used to focusing on more concrete math questions. It can be hard to visualize and understand what is happening when working with abstract math concepts. Our goal is to break these down and give some concrete examples to help students with abstract math and physics topics.
Math and physics are both difficult topics to learn, but many STEM students have to take many of these courses and learn a lot of abstract topics. According to Wiggins (2018), “Results in one field can suggest concepts and ideas to be explored in a related field. Occasionally, methods and techniques developed in one field can be directly applied to another field to create similar results”. It’s important that students in STEM majors understand these abstract math and physics topics so that they can apply them to their own area of study.
There are many benefits of educational videos. According to Bevan (2017), educational videos increase student engagement, offer flexibility, and increase knowledge retention. Students are used to watching videos all the time, so why shouldn’t they be able to learn that way as well? The goal of our project is to make learning difficult math and physics problems easier and more enjoyable for students.
References
Bevan, M. (2017, January 31). Why Videos are Important in Education. Retrieved October 24, 2019, from https://www.nextthoughtstudios.com/video-production-blog/2017/1/31/why-videos-are-important-in-education.
Wiggins, H. Z. (2018, February 28). Real-life maths or abstract maths? Why abstraction is so amazing. Retrieved October 23, 2019, from https://www.parent24.com/Learn/Primary-school/helping-our-kids-understand-maths-through- abstraction-and-application-20180228.