United States

Stop Saying “Zero Gravity”?

The term “zero gravity” first appeared in NASA’s technical bulletins in 1968. Since then “zero g” has become extremely common in popular usage. We also often hear talk of astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) being weightless or experiencing zero gravity. I present here preliminary results of a survey conducted on social media of college students in the U.S who have taken a physics course in high school or college. Participants were asked about their familiarity with “zero g” or “zero gravity” and also if they thought that astronauts float because of zero gravity. The results show that a very high percentage of students surveyed are aware of the term. Significant numbers among them think that astronauts float due to the absence of gravity, a belief that does not appear to be based on a conceptual understanding of free fall/circular motion and scientific reasoning.


AAPT SM 21

Stop Saying “Zero Gravity”?

orbiting space station

free fall

misconceptions

weightlessness

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. 

technical paper

Join AAPT and Physics Educators worldwide in developing and strengthening your professional connections by attending the 2021 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting. AAPT meetings are a great way to reflect on your teaching, recommit to best practices and re-energize your career with new research, products, and techniques.

Listen to internationally known plenary speakers, attend sessions, workshops, and special activities. Attending the virtual summer meeting is an excellent opportunity to share your expertise and learn from and network with leaders in the field.

Please log in with your AAPT account or register for the event if you haven't already.

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For large- enrollment introductory physics classes, this situation raises questions of ensuring academic honesty and fairness in assessments. Short, low-stakes quizzes have been suggested as an alternative to traditional exams, in order to minimize opportunity for students to engage in academic dishonesty by way of unauthorized online resources that can be problematic for longer online exams, and to reduce the pressure students feel that may tempt them to cheat on high-stakes exams. However, short quizzes could still be vulnerable to academic dishonesty by way of student sharing of assessment content with each other through various means that may be difficult to detect. Moreover, students may not perceive that short quizzes are meant to be low-stakes. It was found that students learning remotely had a preference for less-frequent, longer assessments, compared to frequent, short quizzes. It was also found that evidence for academic dishonesty was reduced when students perceived the assessments as fair.

Creating Honest, Fair, and Equitable Remote Introductory Physics Exams

In response to student difficulties with staying motivated during online classes, I eliminated exams from Introductory E&M and introduced a standards-based grading approach to the homework. The goals were to relieve stress and highlight that consistent motivation is key to success. This scheme was supported with points for participation and reflection of students' own approach to problems solving. The strategy that the students are asked to take to the class is also more consistent with how professionals address problems. The hope was that this would provide strong incentive to stay continuously engaged throughout the semester. I will talk about my implementation of this, how the students responded, and what I learned about student motivation and success.

Standards-Based Grading Without Exams For Online Instruction

The increase of textbook cost is a contributing factor in achievement gap. With the dissemination of open-source resources and utilizing online simulations it is possible to produce free customized learning tools for the students. Furthermore, online simulations give students perfect opportunity to further their studies, observe real-life application of Physics and check the answers of some model problems presented. At the Middlesex County College, using an OER grant, we completed an open-source workbook for the algebra based General Education Physics-I that has been used in classroom and for homework. Although there is an open-source textbook in College Physics by Open STAX, we have been relying on publisher's lecture slides. For the next step, we would like to compile original lecture slides that incorporates online simulations and workbook problems in parallel with the Open textbook. In this talk, open-source workbook, current work on slides, techniques for integrating the simulations and the challenges are presented.

Combining OER Resources with Online Simulations to Reduce Achievement Gap

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of US colleges and universities chose to continue teaching and rapidly switched to a new mode of instruction that we call Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT). As ERT is different from traditional online learning in scope and intention, it is important to understand student experiences with ERT to better inform ERT instruction (and potentially more traditional instruction as well). Student experiences with ERT cannot be separated from the social and political strife that accompanied it (especially in the US), nor can they be separated from systems of oppression that discriminate based on gender, race, ability, and other factors. In this talk, we explore differential experiences with and impacts of ERT across more than 1700 students enrolled in college and university physics courses in the US in the Fall of 2020.

Students' Differential Experiences with Emergency Remote Teaching in Fall 2020

In this talk I will present a blueprint for decolonizing the classroom. Rather than adhering to the traditional classroom, we create an anti-hierarchical collective where the
most marginalized voices are prioritized. To achieve this, we implement the following key pillars: Justice education as one of the main ingredients in the curriculum. Community town halls to address and improve the classroom climate. (3) Accountability systems through regular (anonymous) surveys collected and evaluated by an
external paid expert. Community building events to build trust as a cornerstone for accountability and mutual solidarity. Adecolonizing physics and astronomy
symposium at the end of the semester, where the collective has an opportunity to share the lessons learned with the broader community. These methods are inspired by
Zapatismo (Chiapas, Mexico) and implemented at Pomona College, a selective liberal arts college in the United States.

Decolonizing the Physics and Astronomy Classroom

In the Fall 2020 semester, the Learning Assistant and instructor for the online general education astronomy course collaborated on instructional material development.
Through activities that incorporated creativity, the arts, current events, and diverse representation, we were better able to support the course’s learning objectives and
outcomes as well as promote the mission and values of our institution. Activities included students creating and naming constellations and exoplanets of their own,
facilitating discussions from scientists of color in TED talks, influencing feedback from the LA’s poetry about astronomy and life, and reflecting on how science connects to society, culture and people. Just as creativity can serve as a bridge between science, self-reflection and expression, LAs serve as a bridge between instructors and
students and bring complimentary experience and expertise to the learning space. This work highlights how LA-instructor collaboration can benefit classroom effectiveness, student engagement and student success

Creative Astronomy: Broadening the scope of an course in Astronomy

NASA’s Artemis program represents a bold vision that will lead humanity forward to the Moon and prepare us for the next giant leap: human exploration of Mars. Through Artemis, with help from commercial and international partners, NASA will develop core capabilities at the Moon, incrementally working toward a sustained lunar presence and validating capabilities for human missions to Mars. Artemis will leverage Commercial Lunar Payload Services to deliver assets to the Moon, Space Launch System and Orion to launch crews to the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), Human Landing System to transfer the crew between NRHO and the lunar surface, and Gateway to enable sustainable operations. After establishing these capabilities, NASA will continue working with commercial and international partners to establish the Artemis Base Camp near the lunar South Pole. With operational confidence gained from long-term lunar surface missions, humanity will be ready to send humans to the Red Planet.

NASA's Artemis Program

The Artemis missions to the Moon are setting the technical and operational stage for the first human missions to Mars as early as the 2030s. These future missions will require the successful transportation of crew, life support systems, and hardware across millions of miles of planetary distance. Furthermore, the propellant mass that is required to deploy hardware and infrastructure from Earth in support of crewed Mars missions is sensitive to the relative planetary alignments between the two planets. The favorable planetary alignment between Earth and Mars (known as opposition) occurs every 26 months, and the most favorable opposition opportunity occurs every 15 years (known as a synodic period). This presentation will discuss how the orbital mechanics between Earth and Mars strongly influence the many aspects of planning human missions to Mars, including transportation of crew, hardware and surface infrastructure, as well communication between Earth and Mars.

Physical and Technical Challenges for Human Missions to Mars

The NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract is continuation of the agency's strategy to rely on commercial companies to enable space exploration. Following the path already started with Commercial Cargo and Commercial Crew services for the International Space Station, CLPS is working with both small and large American companies to deliver NASA payloads to the surface of the Moon. Since no commercial company has landed on the Moon yet, this approach entails interesting approaches towards contracting for services and managing risk. To date, NASA has tasked 4 companies with delivering 6 sets of NASA payloads to the Moon with the first deliveries scheduled for late 2021.

Using Commercial services to get to the Moon

Teaching the introductory astronomy lecture and lab courses in the hybrid mode presents a challenge when it comes to the students’ projects and experiments. As part of the ALG supported class transformation, the web browser-based tools using Java Script were developed to assist students in projects that they can carry out by themselves or in small groups at home following the provided project description or a simple lab manual. The projects include observation and plotting of the Moon position and phase, and Sun rotation using satellite images and others. 

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Stop Saying “Zero Gravity”?

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