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Computational thinking (CT) is the third pillar of the scientific method along with theory and experimentation and is a fundamental skill that students should be equipped with. Research on CT has only been active for the last 10 years and the integration of CT aspects in instruction is a widely expanding phenomenon in physics classrooms. While there are some descriptions of expert CT skills in the literature, there is a minimal description of novice CT skills and no accepted framework that describe novice behavior. In this study, we used video data of student group interactions and by using an existing framework of computational modeling processes, we document how novice students engage in tasks that involve CT in an introductory physics lab. We discuss how these results could help instructors and researchers better think about and design instruction that fosters the development of students CT skills.

PERC SM 20

Development of Computational Thinking Skills in an Introductory Physics Lab

classical mechanics laboratory

computational modeling

introductory physics

The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. The program featured plenary speakers, sessions, workshops and many special activities.

For more information please visit the 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting page at: https://www.aapt.org/Conferences/SM2020/index.cfm.


AAPT SM 20

The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. 

poster

Join us in exploring emergent themes in PER as a scholarly endeavor and as a research community!  Since its inception, PER has served as a confluence of discipline, theory, research methodology, practice, and application.  How have these facets and the interplays among them been fruitful for physics education globally, regionally, locally, or otherwise?  And, how have our successes and interactions influenced the very nature of PER itself?
Following the lead of AAPT for the summer meeting, PERC 20/20 was virtual. Enjoy browsing the content.

Since its inception, PER has served as a confluence of discipline, theory, research methodology, practice, and application.  How have these facets and the interplays among them been fruitful for physics education globally, regionally, locally, or otherwise?  And, how have our successes and interactions influenced the very nature of PER itself?

One expected student outcome of physics instruction is a set of quantitative reasoning skills that includes evaluation of problem solutions. As part of a larger project, we developed and administered tasks to physics students that probe their use of these kinds of evaluation strategies. In an interview setting, we asked pairs of students either first-years or juniors, to evaluate expressions for the final velocities of two skaters involved in a one-dimensional elastic collision. The techniques used by both groups show the differences between novice and intermediate versions of certain evaluation strategies. We focus on the role of algebra and mathematical operations in the checking process as well as how the students seem to view equations. For instance, first-years strategies focused on numerical substitution to satisfy conservation of momentum, while juniors checked special cases of mass and/or velocity and used ratios of variables rather than specific numerical values.

A tale of two approaches: Comparison of evaluation strategies in physics problem solving between first- and third-year students.

This investigation is situated within an ongoing project which seeks to understand student thinking in upper-division introductory quantum mechanics courses. Recently, the Quantum Mechanics Concept Assessment (QMCA) was revised to include additional items in spin-basis contexts to reflect the rising prevalence of the "spins-first" instructional paradigm. In this work, we utilize exploratory factor analysis to group items on the QMCA based on common variance. Student responses were collected from several large institutions over the 2018-2019 academic year, with the three largest institutions following a "spins-first" curriculum. In interpreting our factor structure, we focus on the placement of isomorphic questions and the original concept framework of the QMCA, as well as a tentative interpretation of factor groupings. We conclude by discussing how these groupings may be further investigated, as well as implications for subsequent iterations of the QMCA and research on student thinking in these two contexts.

Exploratory factor analysis of the Quantum Mechanics Concept Assessment

The challenges of teaching astronomy concepts at post-primary education have been well documented in the literature. Meaningful teaching of astronomy is conceptually demanding, as some of the scientific explanation for everyday natural events are not obvious and sometimes counter-intuitive. Consequently, students hold various misconceptions and can develop negative attitudes about astronomy learning. In order to support the development of more robust conceptual knowledge in students, it is crucial to understand the alternative conceptions that students bring to the classroom, and how these must be considered and dealt with through instruction. In this presentation, we will report the alternative conceptions elicited from 483 Irish students aged between 12 to 16 years from a quasi-experimental study focused on four astronomical phenomena: seasons, the Earths motion in space, gravity and the origin of our universe. In addition, our results suggest how to construct learning experiences to tackle student misconceptions.

An investigation of Irish students' alternative conceptions of astronomy

Chili and mistakes: Students reflect on research

We present a preliminary analysis of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on students in the context of a large enrollment introductory physics course. During the spring of 2020, ours was one of thousands of courses forced to change abruptly from face-to-face instruction to online delivery. We report the effects of this change on students through the lenses initially available to us, including our online homework system, an online forum, and the course evaluations. While preliminary, our results suggest that students were generally unhappy with the transition, but this disappointment did not translate into significantly reduced effort or success. Their primary concerns were not technological but stemmed from behavioral considerations either internal to themselves or external, from the instructor. Although the event probed here was the pandemic, our observations and conclusions may be applicable to other situations in which instruction changes suddenly due to natural or human-caused disasters.

Physics students’ reactions to an abrupt shift in instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic

Since the call to action in 2003, many physicists and physics education researchers have dedicated their efforts into the reform of the Introductory Physics Life Science majors (IPLS) course. Life science and Health care experts strongly encourage IPLS instructors to cover some topics in more depth: fluids, diffusion, osmosis, entropy, enthalpy, and electrostatic forces at the microscopic level. Our research team has focused our efforts to improving IPLS students' understanding of fluids. My role has been to use my expertise in Research-Based Conceptual Assessment Instruments (RbCLAI) development, to develop a methodology for the development of the Fluids Conceptual Evaluation (FCE), an evaluation instrument designed to assess IPLS students' understanding of fluids statics and dynamics. In this poster, I will discuss the different considerations that went into this development methodology, specifically the roles of psychometrics and Rasch analysis.

Fluid Conceptual Evaluation (FCE) Development Methodology

The Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving (AAPS) survey was used in both pre-test and post-test settings to quantitatively measure life science majors views of learning problem solving at a regional state university in the southern US. Differences between the three sampled semesters feature potential variables in survey results. First, the sections were divided between two first-semester introductory sections and one second-semester introductory section; this difference appeared to show few overall changes. Second, the populations life science majors consisted of two separate life science major populations at different colleges with different educational goals. Third, one of the first-semester sections was affected by the mid-semester switch to online-only instruction due to restrictions related to Covid-19. The affected section showed a novice-like shift from pre to post, which appeared to particularly affect biology majors, whereas the other sections did not show an overall shift from pre to post.

Attitudes and approaches towards physics problem solving: by life science major, by course sequence, and by shutdown status

Those seeking to change the policies, practices, and cultures of universities to support effective educational practices often find it a challenge. To navigate this work, change efforts are increasingly being focused at the department-level, including two models for departmentally-based change: the Departmental Action Team (DAT) Project and Teaching Quality Framework (TQF) Initiative. In the DAT Project, externally-facilitated working groups, comprised of students, faculty, and staff, pursue collectively-determined projects aimed at improving the undergraduate experience in their department. In the TQF Initiative, externally-facilitated working groups of faculty (modeled on the DAT Project) focus on transforming teaching evaluation practices in their department. To better understand these related models of institutional change, we conducted interviews with individuals from the DAT Project and TQF Initiative, including facilitators and grant PIs. We present results that give insight into outcomes of these models, impacts of differences between the models, and avenues for growth in the models.

Improving education through departmental change: a comparison of approaches

There are many recent calls to transform lab courses to better engage students in authentic scientific practices and develop their views on the nature of science. To address these calls and support local desire for an improved lab curriculum, we have begun to work with Fort Lewis College faculty, staff, and students to transform their introductory mechanics lab to improve student learning of experimental physics. Here, we describe our preliminary work in which we sought community engagement and input on goals and content for the labs. We did this through in-depth interviews with faculty, classroom observations, student reflections, and through the formation of a Student Advisory Council. From these sources, we developed a set of guidelines and consensus learning goals, which will inform the creation of the transformed lab course.

Process of transforming of an introductory mechanics lab course at Fort Lewis College

Many students tend to provide intuitively appealing (but incorrect) responses to some physics questions despite demonstrating (on isomorphic questions) the formal knowledge necessary to reason correctly. These inconsistencies in reasoning are persistent and remain even after evidence-based instruction. This project probed whether a collaborative group exam could serve not only as an innovative assessment tool but also as an instructional intervention that helps addresses persistent reasoning difficulties. Specifically, students were given opportunities to revisit their answers to questions known to elicit intuitively appealing responses in a collaborative group exam component immediately following a traditional individual exam. The efficacy of this approach was compared to that of a more traditional instructor-led exam review session. Both approaches yielded moderate improvements in performance on the final exam. However, additional multi-faceted data analysis provided further insights into student reasoning difficulties that suggested further implication for instruction and research.

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Development of Computational Thinking Skills in an Introductory Physics Lab

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