PBL: Problem-Based Learning

All Problems

Mechanics

Electricity and Magnetism

Waves and Modern Physics

	Crime Scene Investigator: Montreal – Murder You Solve
	Date : Author :	November 2007 Nathaniel Lasry	Students are placed in the shoes of a Crime Scene Investigator looking for a shooter who has killed a man. The crime scene will be deconstructed and all ballistic information available will have to be used to deter...
	Length :	3-4 hours

	First Day on the Job
	Date : Author :	November 2007 Nathaniel Lasry	Students are placed in the shoes of an insurance investigator who, on the first day on the job, is asked to determine whether a collision that occurred was due to the insured driver's negligence. To establish negli...
	Length :	2 hours

	Installation of Microwave Antennas: Rise to the challenge!
	Date : Author :	November 2008 Christian Héon	In this activity, students must find a way to accurately measure the position of an antenna and its distance from a second antenna. The main goal of this activity is to work on a real problem in three dimensions, a...
	Length :	4 hours (2 x 2 hours)

	SUV vs. Compact Car – A Traffic Accident
	Date : Author :	April 2013 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Stéphan Gaumont-Guay	The students play the role of police investigators evaluating the scene of a traffic accident. They have to determine what was at fault: one of the drivers or the road conditions. If one of the drivers was a...
	Length :	4-5 hours (over two weeks)

	Galilei 27 Orbiting Iris 2 (Part 1)
	Date : Author :	May 2008 Camil Cyr, Adaptated by : Caroline Viger	The students are members of a scientific team on a mission to explore extrasolar planets. Their first task is to calculate the acceleration at orbital height and the force exerted on the space ship while it is in o...
	Length :	30 minutes to 1 hour

	Galilei 27 Orbiting Iris 2 (Part 2)
	Date : Author :	May 2008 Camil Cyr, Adaptated by : Caroline Viger	The student is the captain of a flight crew on a space ship whose mission is to explore extrasolar planets. The space ship, Galilei 27, is approaching the planet Iris 2 when the on-board computers malfunction. The ...
	Length :	1 1/2 to 2 hours

	Measuring the Mass of a Car
	Date : Author :	November 2007 Nathaniel Lasry	Students are participating in a challenge: They must measure the mass of the car using only the objects available in the lab: a stopwatch, a bathroom scale, a reference weight, a measuring tape, a Vernier caliper o...
	Length :	4 hours total (2 x 2)

	Secret Agent – Infiltrating an Abandoned Factory
	Date : Author :	January 2015 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Mathieu Riopel	In this activity, the students will try to slip a secret agent into a factory’s air duct. To do this, they have to determine the exact descent time of the platform the secret agent is standing on. The platform is a...
	Length :	2 - 3 hours

	Watch Your Back!
	Date : Author :	July 2016 Mathieu Riopel, Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Alexandre April	This problem asks the students to analyse the musculoskeletal forces in the back of a person lifting a load. More specifically, they are asked to calculate the muscular force and the reaction force exerted on a lum...
	Length :	About 3 hours

	Get Out! Designing a Highway Exit
	Date : Author :	November 2007 Nathaniel Lasry	Students are placed in a summer-job setting where they are asked to design a flat circular highway exit and determine within a set of constraints what the exit speed limit should be. This requires students to bette...
	Length :	3-4 hours

	Bungee Jumping
	Date : Author :	May 2008 Camil Cyr, Adaptated by : Caroline Viger	The students are members of an engineering team that is working for an outdoor recreational centre in the Laurentians. They must determine the elastic constant of the elastic cord used at a bungee jumping site and ...
	Length :	1-2 hours

	The Gyrobus Rides Again
	Date : Author :	July 2016 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Alexandre April and Mathieu Riopel.	In this activity, the students must design a Gyrobus-style electric bus. This is a bus with a flywheel, turning at high speed that stores energy in the form of rotational kinetic energy. After an introduction that ...
	Length :	3 hours

	Collision Investigation (1-D) SPVM File # 990827-32
	Date : Author :	May 2008 Camil Cyr, Adaptated by : Nanouk Paré	There was a collision between two cars on Notre-Dame Street in Montreal. Here, students take on the role of an intern working for Montreal police investigators. The object of the investigation is to determine, as a...
	Length :	1 to 1 1/2 hour

	Collision Investigation (2-D) SPVM File # 990828-67
	Date : Author :	May 2008 Camil Cyr, Adaptated by : Nanouk Paré	This investigation extends the previous case of a one-dimensional collision. In this problem, there is a two-dimensional collision between two vehicles. Students take on the role of an intern working for Montreal p...
	Length :	1 to 1 1/2 hour

	The Case of the Gangster and the Gun
	Date : Author :	May 2008 Camil Cyr, Adaptated by : Caroline Viger	The students are members of a production team for a television series. Their first task is to respond to a question sent in by one of their viewers, who has asked, "Can the impact of a bullet cause a person to be p...
	Length :	1-2 hours

	Was the Driver at Fault?
	Date : Author :	May 2008 Camil Cyr, Adaptated by : Nanouk Paré	The students are interns assisting collision investigators from the local police department gather and analyze information and physical evidence from the collision scene. The students need to determine if the drive...
	Length :	1 hour

	The Shark’s Sense of Electroreception
	Date : Author :	January 2015 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Mathieu Riopel	The students have to learn how a shark’s sense of electroreception allows it to find prey. To do so, they will use measurements of electrical potential taken on a trout whose heart can be considered to be an electr...
	Length :	2 hours

	The Strange Behaviour of Water
	Date : Author :	January 2015 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Mathieu Riopel	The students have to develop an understanding of Lord Kelvin’s electrostatic generator. To do this, they must answer questions that will help guide them toward an understanding of the generator. The first se...
	Length :	2 hours

	Photographic Flash
	Date : Author :	January 2015 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Mathieu Riopel	The students have to understand the role of capacitors in a photographic flash. To do this, they have to design an electronic flash using basic components, that is, capacitors, a voltage source and an electric bulb...
	Length :	2 hours

	Shedding Light on the Electrification of Montreal: A Human History of the Technological Revolution
	Date : Author :	July 2016 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Alexandre April and Mathieu Riopel	To allow the students to grasp certain abstract parts of the problem, a few experiments requiring few materials are suggested. The teacher can choose to do a single demonstration in class or have the students carry...
	Length :	2 to 3 hours in class

	The Driving Range of Electric Cars
	Date : Author :	February 2011 Sébastien Marcotte	Students take on the role of a chief engineer in an automobile company. They must determine the driving range of an electric car currently under design, both on a level surface and an inclined road.
	Length :	1 to 1 1/2 hours

	Magnetic Field and High-Voltage Power Lines
	Date : Author :	July 2016 Alexandre April, Olivier Tardif-Paradis and Mathieu Riopel.	In this activity, the students have to calculate the magnetic field produced by a set of three straight, parallel wires, using the principle of superposition. The introduction also explains the basics concerning th...
	Length :	1 to 2 hours

	Maple Syrup
	Date : Author :	January 2015 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Mathieu Riopel	In this activity, the students will have to analyse a maple syrup sample using mass spectrometry to determine whether or not the sample has been diluted with sugar syrup. To do this, they will have to determine the...
	Length :	1 1/2 hours

	The Electric Car: When the technology of the future draws on ideas of the past
	Date : Author :	July 2016 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Alexandre April and Mathieu Riopel.	With the world taking interest in the electric car as viable alternative to the gas-powered car, students are asked to study the prototype of a small electric car. Simplified for analysis, the engine uses a rotor w...
	Length :	3 hours

	“Masters in Our Own Home”: A Foray into Hydro-Québec
	Date : Author :	July 2016 Alexandre April, Mathieu Riopel and Olivier Tardif-Paradis	In this activity, the students will discover how electricity is generated and transmitted. After an introduction that illustrates the social and technological importance of hydroelectricity in Québec, the students ...
	Length :	3 hrs

	Concerto for Pan Flute
	Date : Author :	January 2015 Mathieu Riopel, Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Alexandre April	In this problem, the students are asked to build a Pan flute from a PVC pipe (cut into several sections of different lengths) and a few coins (to plug the tubes). To do this, they have to precisely calculate the le...
	Length :	2 or 3 hours

	Port-au-Prince Earthquake (Part 1)
	Date : Author :	January 2015 Mathieu Riopel, Olivier Tardif-Paradis	The students have to determine the factors that help a building withstand an earthquake. To do so, they are given a situation drawn from the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. To determine the factors sought, the student...
	Length :	2 hours

	Port-au-Prince Earthquake (Part 2)
	Date : Author :	January 2015 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Mathieu Riopel	The students are asked to find the characteristics that influence the vibration of a building during an earthquake. The situation is the catastrophe following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. This problem can be done ...
	Length :	3 to 4 hours

	Exploring the Microcosm
	Date : Author :	January 2015 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Mathieu Riopel	In this activity, the students will explore the characteristics of the microscope used by Robert Hooke in the 17^th century. First they have to determine which of a selection of lenses would achieve the o...
	Length :	3 hours

	Prism Spectroscope
	Date : Author :	July 2016 Alexandre April, Mathieu Riopel and Olivier Tardif-Paradis	In this activity, the students will design a prism spectroscope. To do this, they will first analyse the instrument as an imaging system (the spectral lines spread by the spectroscope correspond to images from the ...
	Length :	3 hrs

	Choosing a Camera
	Date : Author :	January 2015 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Mathieu Riopel	In this activity, the students are asked to compare the characteristics of a reflex camera with the camera in a cell phone. They are asked to decide whether it is worth it to spend money on a good camera or whether...
	Length :	3 to 4 hours

	The Structure of DNA
	Date : Author :	July 2016 Mathieu Riopel, Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Alexandre April	The discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule was one of the major scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century. The story of this discovery reveals the laboratory life, competition and sometimes-...
	Length :	About 3 hours

	Gentilly-2 Pro and Con
	Date : Author :	January 2015 Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Mathieu Riopel	The students are asked to state an opinion on the closure of the Gentilly-2 nuclear power station and to justify that opinion. To this end, they are asked to examine the following aspects of the issue: - His...
	Length :	4 1/2 to 5 hours

	Identifying a Forgery
	Date : Author :	July 2016 Mathieu Riopel, Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Alexandre April	In this problem, the students have to use the data presented in a spectroscopic analysis produced using the X-ray induced photoelectron spectrometry technique (XPS for X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy) to authentic...
	Length :	About 1 hour