Minds.On Physics: Redefining Physics Instruction The Minds.On
Physics (MOP) project started in 1989 with a proposal to the
National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop activities for high
school physics instruction. The activities would be rooted in
educational and cognitive research results, especially those
from studies of expert-novice differences, formative vs.
summative assessment, metacommunication, alternative
conceptions, and cognitive overload. After 2 NSF grants and 15
years of development, the program is a full, one-year curriculum
with more than 180 activities covering traditional topics such
as motion, interactions, and conservation laws, and not so
traditional topics such as entropy and relative motion. The
activities are published in 6 volumes by Kendall/Hunt, each of
which has an accompanying Teacher's Guide. Most of our time on
the project is now spent doing implementation workshops. The
target audience for Minds.On Physics are juniors and seniors in
high school taking college prep physics. T