United States

Science outreach is an international phenomenon. I have had the privilege of being a part of Science Festivals in various countries in the EU, and through those festivals, witnessed and interacted with other incredible science presenters from around the world. At a science festival in Slovenia, the organizers have a special session called Show It to Others, where the invited presenters have 5 minutes to share something they have created to demonstrate science with the other presenters. Given that this talk is being done remotely, I have asked my international colleagues to become part of this remote presentation and submit to me, a short description of their program that also features an example of their work. I am excited to share a glimpse of these creative presenters to the AAPT membership.



AAPT SM 21

Show it to U.S.

demonstrators

outreach

international

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.

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technical paper

This study investigated the impact of an instructional intervention on student scientific reasoning skills and general attitudes toward science. The intervention consisted of nine PhET simulations introduced to a general education physics class. Students manipulated the simulations while completing worksheets testing their comprehension of the concepts and the scientific reasoning being displayed. Completion of each PhET simulation activity took students about 50 minutes to complete. Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning was administered to assess improvement in student scientific reasoning skills, and the CLASS was used to assess changes in student attitudes towards science. Pre-to post Lawson results show gains in scientific reasoning. CLASS pre to post indicated overall shifts to expert-like responses. Qualitative data in the form of student surveys was collected and showed approval of the use PhET simulations in the class.

Effect of PhET simulations in a general education physics course

Conversations around the interactions of ethics, science, and society within STEM classrooms provide opportunities for students to practice large-scale ethical reasoning in the context of their future careers. We have designed and implemented curricular units which help instructors to scaffold these conversations in Texas State University STEM courses, including Modern Physics and Observational Astrophysics. We have collected and analyzed video data and written work in these course contexts. Our analysis has demonstrated that students’ scaffolded considerations of different stakeholder groups can build empathy and deepen their understanding of the broader context for ongoing ethical issues. We also see that students’ characterization of stakeholder groups’ motivations and identities can grow in complexity and nuance. In this talk, I will use classroom video and other artifacts to illustrate some examples we have identified where we see students building nuance and consider lessons for supporting students’ engagement with complex ethical issues in physics.

Building Nuance in Classroom Conversations about Ethics, Science, and Society

The Paradigms in Physics website provides a wide range of tested active engagement activities for upper division courses. Our team has been redesigning this site to add considerable "mortar" content between activities and to make the content more readily searchable. We have also been working to make it easier to keep the content fresh, and to give users a clearer perspective of how we use our own materials. The features of the new site will be introduced, and we will solicit audience feedback on how the site could better serve you.

Introducing the new Paradigms in Physics Curriculum Website

An analysis of 1,955 physics graduate students from 19 PhD programs shows that undergraduate grade point average predicts graduate grades and PhD completion more effectively than GRE scores. Students’ undergraduate GPA (UGPA) and GRE Physics (GRE-P) scores are small but statistically significant predictors of graduate course grades, while GRE quantitative and GRE verbal scores are not. We also find that males and females score equally well in their graduate coursework despite a statistically significant 18 percentile point gap in median GRE-P scores between genders. A coun- terfactual mediation analysis demonstrates that among admission metrics tested only UGPA is a significant predictor of overall PhD completion, and that UGPA predicts PhD completion indirectly through graduate grades. Thus UGPA measures traits linked to graduate course grades, which in turn predict graduate completion. Although GRE-P scores are not significantly associated with PhD completion, our results suggest that any predictive effect they may have are also linked indi- rectly through graduate GPA. Overall our results indicate that among commonly used quantitative admissions metrics, UGPA offers the most insight into two important measures of graduate school success, while posing fewer concerns for equitable admissions practices.

Do admissions metrics predict PhD completion indirectly through graduate GPA?

Race continues to play a major role in American society which is made evident by racial gaps in wealth, healthcare, and law enforcement. Systemic racial oppression continues to thrive in both secondary and post secondary education, resulting in more obstacles for students and scholars of color. As a result, there is a lack of representation of people of color in the field of Physics among other STEM disciplines. We will highlight some of the current issues of racism within Education using the theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT has deep roots in legal studies and was created for understanding and transforming the relationship between race, racism, and power. Using CRT, we will critically examine why these systemic forms of oppression exist, how they propagate, as well as what we can do to combat them and support racial minorities in our community. 


An Introduction to Critical Race Theory for Physicists

Spiritual/religious individuals are underrepresented in physics. Considering that spirituality/religiosity play a salient role in the life of students of color, especially the Black students, we investigate the intersection of spiritual/religious identities of Black physics students with their physics identity. In this study we interviewed Black physics students to understand how their spiritual/religious identities informed the choice of physics and interact with other kinds of identity like gender to affect how they see themselves as physicists.

Intersection of spirituality/religiosity and physics identities for Black physics students

In recent years, there has been growing awareness of the need for inclusive physics curricula to help address the lack of diversity and representation in the field. Integrating social issues into the physics curriculum has the potential to “change the culture of science to be more welcoming and inclusive” by broadening the cultural contexts in which scientific knowledge is created and science is practiced.

In this presentation, I will discuss a multi-week course assignment for which students were required to read the book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, and to respond to the scientific and social issues in the story. Kamkwamba’s autobiographical narrative of his innovative construction of a windmill is suffused with introductory physics concepts embedded in an intense social context of poverty, famine, deforestation and climate change in his native Malawi. The talk will discuss details of the project as well as student attitudes and responses to the assignment.

Integrating Science and Social Issues in the Introductory Physics Curriculum

I will report on my experiences in promoting student storytelling of the lives of physicists as part of course requirements in lower and upper division college physics courses. The primary objective was to motivate and expand the understanding of physics beyond the concepts and equations by contextualizing discoveries and understanding what motivated the study of physics in the lives of real people. Students are required to dig into the lives of physicists and unusual historical or contextual situations encountered in their lives and discoveries and relate stories they find interesting. A special effort was made to promote story-telling of the background and contributions of women and minorities in physics. Students also learned vital skills in producing short youtube videos up to 5 minutes long. I will report on student responses and reactions to this effort, based on general observations and results of blind surveys.


Student Storytelling of Physicist Profiles to Promote Physics and Diversity

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been the subject of a growing body of psychological and recently, neurological research. The majority of this research has been behavioral and deficit-oriented, focused on “coping” and ways of controlling ADHD behavior to function within institutional norms. This focus persists despite compelling evidence that physiological variations are responsible for ADHD behavior, over which “control” is limited and institutional “functionality” becomes discriminatory. This is evidenced by the lack of scientific works examining ADHD from a positive perspective. In this study, we analyze interviews of STEM students and faculty at Texas State University (a large Hispanic-Serving Institution) who have been diagnosed with ADHD. These interviews will explore learner variability based on interviewees’ experiences in STEM fields, and their perceptions of personal strengths that may be unique to their variant neurobiology and/or their life experience as members of a marginalized academic group.


Strength-based analysis of experiences of physics students with ADHD

This talk focuses on the various methods one can use to produce physics demo videos, with many hints and much advice. Also, storage and dissmemination of such videos is discussed.

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Effect of PhET simulations in a general education physics course

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