Early development of a set of interactive tools for undergraduate acoustics education

Using interactive learning materials has been found to increase the efficiency of teaching math and physics concepts fundamental to acoustic phenomena; this presentation will discuss work done to explore their use in undergraduate acoustics courses. During the Spring 2024 semester at Penn State, three undergraduate courses in acoustics were offered, each aimed at different types of students at differing levels of mathematical rigor. These were: a general education elective for freshmen from non-STEM majors, a sophomore/junior level course required for communication science disorders majors, and a junior/senior elective for STEM majors. Observation of each class during the semester identified a variety of topics for which a web-based interactive tool could improve student understanding and engagement. This talk will discuss some of the topics identified as potentially benefiting from an online interactive tool, with a specific focus on one interactive webpage which may serve as an example template for the style and delivery of future developments. This specific interactive webpage explains basic trigonometric functions in a manner approachable by students at any level of mathematical confidence, by illustrating geometric implications with interactive graphs, explaining with a conversational tone, and addressing the etymology of some of the mathematical terms.