United States

Utah FORGE is an international field laboratory that is managed by the Energy &amp; Geoscience Institute, University of Utah, and sponsored by the Department of Energy, with the aim of establishing rigorous, reproducible solutions that make geothermal energy production possible anywhere beneath the surface of earth. In collaboration with the College of Education, I have been working with Utah FORGE to create NGSS aligned lessons that are relevant to this mission. In this presentation I will share a lesson on Engineering Energy Transformations that will include explorations in energy transformations in order to engage students in developing sustainable energy solutions.

AAPT SM 21

Energy Transformations with Utah FORGE: Keys to Sustainable Energy Solutions

ngss standards

engineering

energy

lesson

**Making Physics More Inclusive and Eliminating Exclusionary Practices in Physics**

As a gateway discipline to STEM majors and careers, physics plays a central role in deciding who does, and who doesn't, get to discover and pursue scientific careers. Technical and scientific professionals are rewarded with economic privilege and status which affords them both social and cultural power. Therefore, social justice will be realized only when the opportunity, and the choice, to excel in physics is open to all students. The culture and practices of the physics classroom reflect the culture of physics at large, which raises the question of how our professional physics communities can embrace, rather than inadvertently repel, a diverse group of academics that can help improve physics culture.  To this end, the 2021 Physics Education Research Conference will focus on defining inclusive spaces and practices. Additionally, we will explore strategies for eliminating exclusionary practices in our classrooms, research spaces, and professional organizations. We call on the community to propose sessions that will drive conversations related to these initiatives throughout PERC 2021.

Please download the full program [here. ](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TRMC_SYJ3PUqXyP7sskA7LRSA8ow0eRE/view?usp=sharing)

PERC SM 21

August 4, 2021 - August 5, 2021 in a Virtual Conference Format

Making Physics More Inclusive and Eliminating Exclusionary Practices in Physics

Utah FORGE is an international field laboratory that is managed by the Energy & Geoscience Institute, University of Utah, and sponsored by the Department of Energy, with the aim of establishing rigorous, reproducible solutions that make geothermal energy production possible anywhere beneath the surface of earth. In collaboration with the College of Education, I have been working with Utah FORGE to create NGSS aligned lessons that are relevant to this mission. In this presentation I will share a lesson on Engineering Energy Transformations that will include explorations in energy transformations in order to engage students in developing sustainable energy solutions.

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.

If you are registered please note that you need to be logged in with your AAPT email / credentials in order to get access.

Large amplitude pendulums are often ignored by introductory physics classes even though students notice deviations from the small angle approximation during physics labs. Using Blockly coding built into PASCO software, students can create models of the motion of a large amplitude pendulum from basic physics principles. The new PASCO scientific Meter Stick Torque Set coupled with rotary sensors and photogates allows for accurate measurement of angular position, angular velocity, and period. This enables students to compare their models to direct measurements to test and refine them. Methods to predict and measure the period of a meter stick oscillating about its end will be demonstrated. Code to predict the motion of the pendulum as a function of time will be shown and the results compared to measurements. A procedure for the experimental derivation of the parallel axis theorem using this equipment also will be shared.


Modeling and Measuring Characteristics of a Large Amplitude Physical Pendulum

STEPP (Scaffolded Training Environment for Physics Programming) is a no-cost interactive instructional tool designed to support the teaching of kinematics and Newton’s Laws of Motion in high school physics. Developed through NSF’s STEM+C program, STEPP focuses on the overlap between physics and computational thinking. STEPP allows users to model and visualize the motion described in physics problems already in their curriculum without any formal programming experience expected or required. Carefully designed with scaffolded levels and dynamic display of motion and graphing, STEPP will be available for use in classrooms this fall at stepp.utdallas.edu. Join us to learn about STEPP and how to access resources including a video workshop introduction.

Introducing STEPP: A Resource for Physics Classrooms Utilizing Computational Thinking

Scaffolded Training Environment for Physics Programming (STEPP) project team has developed a synergistic learning environment for high school physics students to acquire physics concepts and computational thinking (CT) through formative experiences modeling and simulating kinematics using modeling tools based on state diagrams called Finite State Machines (FSMs). Scaffolding and dynamic modeling with FSMs allow students to focus on the aspects of CT that support physics learning, e.g., problem decomposition, abstraction, and algorithms, instead of the aspects that are mainly about programming. Three STEPP learning modules have been developed on 1D/2D kinematics and the Newton’s Laws of Motion using Unity game engine that is free for academic use and widely used in K-16 education and educational research. Each level of each module is designed for students to model a kinematic problem as an FSM and see the simulation result as an animation, graphs, numbers and equations which are all synchronically displayed.

Introducing Finite State Machine based modeling into high school physics

High school physics classrooms across the United States are making efforts to integrate computation into their approach to teaching physics. There is wide agreement on the importance of teaching computational thinking (CT) practices in these types of settings, but little research has focused on the dispositions that students can develop that support the development of CT practices. This presentation examines the case of one high school physics class where students do computation-integrated physics in a group work format. Drawing from a newly theorized framework on CT dispositions and the well-established theory of mindset, we investigate how students take up dispositions and mindset during class, and we examine connections between these theories and how they manifest in our data. We intend to help researchers and practitioners identify students' dispositions so that they can provide opportunities for their students to better develop dispositions and more productively engage with computationally integrated physics.

Dispositions and Mindset in Computation-integrated Physics

Integration of computation and modeling into the physics curriculum has been a defining trend at college level, and increasingly so at high school level. Computation not only enhances active learning and student engagement, it also prepares students with valuable computational thinking and skill sets to be successful in the STEM workforce. Unlike introductory physics where there is broad consensus in the subject matter and level of preparation, there is little such consensus on computation and modeling. In this presentation we will discuss integration of computation into the physics curriculum at UMass Dartmouth (see some examples at https://jwang.sites.umassd.edu/). We hope to stimulate conversations on shared experiences and common ground in computation including goals and preparations between high school and college levels.


Vertical integration of computation into the physics curriculum

(Please upload this from my earlier submission)

The STEMcoding Object Tracker

Computational Thinking (CT) has recently become an important practice to study due to its inclusion in the NGSS framework. In response to calls for further investigation into CT, we developed a framework of CT practices specific to the context of computationally integrated introductory physics classrooms. The development of the framework was guided by a comprehensive literature review of existing research around CT and an emergent coding of in-class data. This blending of literature and observations resulted in a robust six-category, fourteen-practice framework of CT practices. The application of previous literature to our specific context highlighted the substantial influence that context can have on how CT practices manifest. The framework was applied to two different classrooms to examine differences between the CT practices that occurred between groups and activities within a classroom. We also demonstrate the ability for this framework to answer multiple questions around curriculum design that involves computational integration. This work was support by the National Science Foundation (DRL-1741575).

Developing and Applying a Computational Thinking Framework in Introductory Physics

Computational methods have proliferated as part of introductory physics classes at the university level. The Integrating Computational Science Across Michigan (ICSAM) program run by Michigan State University is targeted at bringing those computational practices to secondary science classrooms. 

The initial implementation focused on students enrolled in AP Physics 1 (mostly 12th grade students) building computational models using the mathematical physics models developed from experiments.

Lessons learned from the experience in AP Physics 1 were then applied to 9th grade students when the school adopted a “Physics First” curriculum and made physics a required class. There was a concern that mathematics skills of the 9th grade students would make implementation of computation physics especially challenging. In practice, we have found that the younger students were able to create computational models almost as well as the older students.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (DRL-1741575).

Computational Science with 9th Grade Physics Students

The Paradigms @ OSU team developed a representation for complex numbers where students use their arms to embody an Argand diagram. By grouping students, the Arms Representation can be expanded to represent complex-valued vectors. The Arms Activity Sequence utilizes this expanded form to enable groups of students to represent quantum mechanical state vectors. In this talk we will present the Arms Representation and the Arms Activity Sequence. We will discuss how the sequence supports a spins-first approach by starting with complex numbers, advancing through two- and three-state systems, considering time-dependence, and eventually extending to approximate wavefunctions. The Arms Representation exemplifies the complex nature and geometric definition of a quantum state. We will highlight the development of these and other mathematics and physics concepts in the sequence and provide pedagogical tips for its implementation.

Using Arms to Represent Complex-Valued Vectors in Quantum Mechanics

Efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in the learner population accessible to PER studies compel us to study student populations at all types of institutions. Having extensive experience at a two-year college, and a teaching gig at an elite liberal arts institution, I will present my observations of students’ similarities and differences in these two classrooms. My aim is to continue conversations on ways in which we can broaden the impact of PER findings by incorporating observations from a wider population of students.


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