United States

Active learning has been shown to be more effective than passive lecture methods, but we have yet to establish a vocabulary with which to characterize different active learning methods. We investigated six active learning curricula in physics using the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS), which codes student and instructor activities in two minute intervals. We then used latent profile analysis on the resulting COPUS profiles to determine if these curricula could be sorted into similar groups based on common classroom features. We present our findings and discuss how latent profile analysis can be used to further the goal of describing active learning independently of lecture methods.

AAPT SM 21

Characterizing Active Learning Environments in Physics using Latent Profile Analysis

copus

curriculum

pedagogy

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technical paper

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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.


Comparing and Contrasting College Students At Different Institutions

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.

Energy Transformations with Utah FORGE: Keys to Sustainable Energy Solutions

The Rayleigh-Taylor instability involving accelerated fluid layers with differing densities is well known in fluid physics. A similar instability can arise within the silicate mantles of terrestrial planets because they are typically hot in their interiors and cold at their top boundaries. The strength of the instability is enhanced by the fact that the strength of silicate minerals is a strong function of shear stress and temperature. The instability is expressed by portions of the upper and lower boundary layers detaching to form plume-like diapirs that move through the mantle to the opposite boundary. This talk will present both illustrative numerical examples and observational evidence that it has occurred in the Earth’s past and is responsible for a major mass extinction. The Magellan mission to Venus in the early 1990’s documented that a catastrophic episode of mantle instability had also occurred within Venus in the relatively recent past.

Mass Extinction Caused by Gravitational Instability inside the Earth

During the Battle of Britain in 1940, the British sent a top secret mission under the leadership of Henry Tizard to the United States carrying what was later described by historian John Phinney Baxter III as “the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores.” The cargo was a suitcase full of scientific and technological secrets and one working cavity magnetron, which helped seal the alliance between Britain and the United States, spurred wartime technical breakthroughs, and greatly helped to win the war. In this talk, we will examine some of the key secrets shared by the Tizard mission, including the Whittle jet engine, a system for radar defense, and a proposal on the feasibility of nuclear weapons. We will also explore the historical ramifications of this astounding sharing of secrets across borders spurred by the dire exigencies of war, and draw lessons for the COVID-19 pandemic and future crises.

Most Valuable Cargo: The Tizard Mission in World War II

In 1947 the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists debuted "the doomsday clock" icon as a symbolic representation of how close humanity was to self-annhiliation in the nuclear age. Initially set at 7 minutes to midnight it has been changed 22 times up until the present. There are multiple issues with the "minutes to midnight" framework that are crucial to examine: to what extent a relic of the cold war has relevance today; the ramifications of the "doomsday clock" being a key exemplar of the physics community as public educators across multiple generations; and the presumption that the rhetoric of catastrophism is needed to motivate non-scientists to be cognizant of serious issues raised by scientific research and technological developments. Understanding this history has been made even more urgent today as background to the decisions the scientific community makes about how to communicate with the public about the issue of climate change.

Past/Present: Does the Doomsday Clock Keep the Right Time?

To support physics instructors in improving or modifying physics activities for their courses, we investigate sixty-six research-based activities from eleven different research-based curricula by applying k-means cluster analysis. The best results were found when the program generates three design clusters. We mark these clusters as Thinking like a Scientist, Learning Concepts, and Scientific Reasoning. These three clusters indicate different design goals. In the Thinking like a Scientist cluster, activities emphasize the design of experiments by students, error analysis,
reasonableness checking, and making assumptions or simplifications. The Learning Concepts cluster focuses on the prediction of results and experimental observations. The scientific reasoning cluster emphasizes answering physics or math questions that do not use collected data and finding evidence by students to support their claims.

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