United States

Given the rising importance of computation in science, it is imperative that science undergraduates develop relevant computational skills. We discuss the design of a first year Computational Science course at an R1 institution in Ireland. This course is aimed as a first step on the path to developing students computational skills within the context of science, and requires an understanding of the computational needs from across the scientific disciplines. We present preliminary results of survey data collected from academics and researchers in the college of science, with the aim of understanding who engages in computational practices, what the nature of those practices is, and how they vary across the disciplines. The taxonomy of computational thinking of Weintrop et al. (2015) is used to contextualize those skills for each of the scientific disciplines. The results will inform the course design and the articulation of graduate attributes in relation to computational skills.

PERC SM 20

Computation for Science: Engaging University Science Students in Computational Thinking

module design

science undergrads

computational thinking/practices

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?

Prior research has shown that physics students often think about experimental procedures and data analysis very differently from experts. One key framework for analyzing student thinking has found that student thinking is more point-like, putting emphasis on the results of a single experimental trial, whereas set-like thinking relies on the results of many trials. Recent work, however, has found that students rarely fall into one of these two extremes, which may be a limitation of how student thinking is evaluated. Measurements of student thinking have focused on probing students procedural knowledge by asking them, for example, what steps they might take next in an experiment. Two common refrains are to collect more data, or to improve the experiment and collect better data. In both of these cases, the underlying reasons behind student responses could be based in point-like or set-like thinking. In this study we use individual student interviews to investigate how advanced physics students believe the collection of more and better data will affect the results of a classical and a quantum mechanical experiment. The results inform future frameworks and assessments for characterizing students thinking between the extremes of point and set reasoning in both classical and quantum regimes.

Student evaluation of more or better experimental data in classical and quantum mechanics - Poster

Identity development is critical to student retention in physics degree programs. Historically, research on physics identity has been conducted at Predominately White Institutions and has largely ignoring the unique identity intersections experienced by Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC) and women who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+). In this study, we adopt the theory of identity as performance to better understand how multiply-marginalized students negotiate their multiple intersectional identities in their environments. We conducted semi-structured interviews with women who identify as racial minorities and/or as LGBTQ+ at two Hispanic Serving Institutions located in Central Texas. Our analysis focuses on the way students fragment or integrate their identities in the physics setting and how this may affect their view of themselves as physicists.

Understanding physics identity development through the identity performances of Black, Indigenous, and women of color and LGBTQ+ women in physics

We investigated how changing the physical classroom impacted graduate teaching assistant (GTA) and student behaviors in the recitation sections of an introductory algebra-based physics sequence. Using a modified version of the Laboratory Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (LOPUS), we conducted 35 observations over two semesters for seven GTAs who taught in different styles of classrooms (i.e., active learning classrooms and traditional classrooms). We found that both GTAs and students changed behaviors in response to a change from an active learning classroom to a traditional classroom. GTAs were found to be less interactive with student groups and to lecture at the whiteboard more frequently. Correspondingly, student engagement appeared to decrease as students asked fewer questions during one-on-one interactions. We suggest administrators and departments consider the impact of changing to a traditional classroom when implementing student-centered instruction and emphasize how to use classroom space in GTA professional development.

Impact of changing physical learning space on GTA and student behaviors

Groupwork is a seminal facet of many active learning science courses, and it can vary drastically from school to school. In this poster we use a narrative inquiry analysis to characterize the changing group work experience during the process of transferring from a two-year college (TYC) to a four-year college (FYC). We focus on one students experiences with groupwork, and draw on many types of datafieldnotes, interviews, and written journalscollected at both institutions. Specifically, the student describes working on a project in a certain research methods course at the TYC very positively. We contrast that setting with group work in the larger lecture classes at the FYC where students may not experience the same level of instructor support and student-teacher relationships. We explore how these interactions impact how the student experiences groupwork.

Transfer Student’s Narrative of Groupwork Characterized by Research Methods Course

"It is well known that plane waves in electricity and magnetism (E&M) are misunderstood. Particularly, the traditional visual representation of these plane waves is misleading, and students are confused by the waves' three-dimensional nature, which may contribute to difficulties in both polarization and diffraction. A wealth of possible improvements to the representation have been designed by various educators, programmers, and illustrators. A series of three qualitative studies was performed to separate out the visuals that aid in student understanding and to develop guidelines for designing visualizations. Large traveling planes of electric and magnetic field vectors improved student understanding without causing visual difficulties. Therefore, the visualization provided by the URL below is recommended for use as a replacement of the traditional representation in introductory physics course materials. The readers of this work are encouraged to use the visualization and share it with their departments and institutions. 
https://www.glowscript.org/#/user/mbwilson/folder/EMPlaneWaves/program/ElectromagneticPlaneWave"

E&M Plane Wave Visualization Designed for Improved Student Understanding

As education researchers gain a broader understanding of how students learn quantum mechanics, new pedagogical and technical resources are being developed to facilitate student learning. To further research-based knowledge of student learning of quantum mechanics, we present a study on the use of Quantum Composer, a flexible, flow-based tool for the exploration and simulation of quantum mechanical systems in one dimension. To explore Composer's impact on students' knowledge of quantum mechanics, we carried out think-aloud interviews where students worked through an exercise exploring the statics and time-dynamics of quantum states in single and double harmonic well potentials. Student \emph{Outcomes} are then cross-coded with their observed \emph{Interactions} with Composer. We find that defined \emph{Outcomes} of \emph{Recollection}, \emph{Reinforcement} and \emph{Discovery} happen most often when students are using the Composer tools that allow them to visualize quantum states, simulate their time dynamics, and change parameters repeatedly.

Investigating student use of a flexible tool for simulating and visualizing quantum mechanics

This paper reports on a study of long-term effects of the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) on physics high school students. Students learning physics through the ISLE approach engage in collaborative activities that mirror the practice of physics to construct concepts and apply them to solving practical problems. Previous studies of learning in the ISLE-based classrooms showed that the students develop abilities to design experiments, collect and represent data, communicate and many others. However, there were no follow up studies that would demonstrate that the students remember and use those abilities in their future education and professional careers. We administered a survey to alumni who learned physics in an ISLE-based classroom to find out what they remember many years after taking the course as well as if they find their physics learning useful for future education and careers. We report on the findings from this study.

The Long-Term Effects of Learning in an ISLE Approach Classroom

As part of an effort to examine student understanding and use of mathematical representations in quantum mechanics, clinical interviews were conducted and online surveys were administered to students in an upper-division quantum mechanics course. In one interview task, developed to investigate student understanding of representations for probability concepts, students generated expressions in Dirac notation consistent with quantum mechanical formalism, with a number describing their expressions using geometric, vector-like ideas and concepts. Student responses to a survey intended to probe student understanding of Dirac notation inner products are also discussed, as similar vector-like reasoning was found here as well. The beginnings of a symbolic forms analysis of both data sources is discussed, and some preliminary symbol templates used for Dirac notation are proposed.

Student Use of Dirac Notation to Express Probability Concepts in Quantum Mechanics

Students who take lab courses engage in active, collaborative learning that has the potential to teach scientific thinking skills while also stimulating students' interest in science and developing their self-efficacy. We describe different types of collaboration in terms of the mutuality of engagement they represent, and investigate how these different types of collaboration impacted student interest and self-efficacy in introductory physics labs. We surveyed college physics students about their beliefs and experiences regarding working with a lab partner. We find that when asked explicitly about what they valued in a lab partner, a majority of students noted that they wanted a ``fair split'' of the work. However, we find that students experienced improved physics interest and self-efficacy when they participated equally in all aspects of the lab, such as operating the apparatus and recording the data, which is a different form of mutuality of engagement. This form of participation disproportionately benefited women, a traditionally disadvantaged group in physics labs. Our findings suggest that students' physics interest and self-efficacy might be positively impacted in lab courses that are designed to ensure that students participate equally in all aspects of the lab work, as opposed to lab courses in which students split up their work inequitably.

What Makes a Good Physics Lab Partner?

Computational thinking has been emphasized as a main science and engineering practice in the Next Generation Science Standards. However, learning objectives outlined by the standards are written in vague terms that complicate the implementation and assessment of this topic in the classroom. This is especially problematic for high school teachers who have limited experience with computation and are looking to integrate computational modeling in their physics or physical science classrooms. In this study, we explore the variation in computational thinking practices that physics students demonstrate when working through in-class coding activities. Video data of multiple student groups were collected in one high school teachers physics and physical science classrooms. The data were analyzed to create a codebook that describes the different ways students engage in computational thinking practices. Ultimately, this work will help practitioners better understand how to identify these practices in a high school physics setting.

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Computation for Science: Engaging University Science Students in Computational Thinking

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