A Case Studies Approach to Teaching Introductory Physics

Over the past several years, we have contributed several articles to TPT that focused on a forensics-style reexamination of historical events. In each article, we presented a case study as a pedagogy for teaching topics from introductory-level physics courses. Recently, we assembled our prior work into a series of "MythBusters"-style modules for pre-service teachers (PSTs). The goal of these modules is to widen the pedagogical viewpoint of the PSTs by exposing them to case studies as a means of teaching physics, problem solving, and critical thinking. In this article, we describe the design and rationale of our modules while providing anecdotal commentary from a cohort of PSTs who trial tested them. We identify several unique teaching opportunities that we share with readers of TPT.