United States

Secondary school physics teachers often teach out-of-field, out-of-certification and are often the only physics teacher in their school. As a result, physics teachers lack support in developing pedagogical content knowledge. The Physics of Living Systems - Teacher (PoLS-T) network was established in 2020 to address salient challenges in secondary physics classrooms, within a community of practice of high school teachers and education researchers. In the year since its founding, the PoLS-T network has met on a monthly basis to discuss the needs of physics teachers, focusing on existing online resources they could leverage, and disseminating evidence -based best teaching practices. Due to the network’s membership, composed of both U.S.-based and international physics educators, the network has been a rich action-oriented community of practice. In our presentation, we will share key insights and future plans for the network, including the Monthly Speaker Series and other events.

AAPT SM 21

The Physics of Living Systems Teachers (PoLS-T) Network

community of practice

high school physics

professional development

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technical paper

Reasoning consistently across contexts is a challenge in learning physics. Even students who demonstrate correct conceptual understanding and reasoning on one task often fail to use the same knowledge and skills on related tasks. Observed inconsistencies can be accounted for by dual-process theories, which assert that human cognition involves two thinking processes: the heuristic, which is fast and automatic, and the analytic, which is slow and deliberate. Inconsistent responses arise when the heuristic process produces an intuitively appealing (but incorrect) response that the analytic process fails to reject. We speculated that instruction that makes the dual nature of human cognition explicit and more visible to the students could help them recognize and evaluate intuitive responses more productively. We will present results of a study designed to probe the impact of such instruction on student learning in introductory calculus-based mechanics courses.

Making dual nature of human reasoning more explicit during instruction*

In accounting for the terminal speed behavior of a falling object, it can be challenging for students to coordinate the quadratic drag force model with the Fnet=0 condition. On some questions, students seem to reason in ways inconsistent with force balance ideas they have successfully applied in related contexts. We have used dual process theories of reasoning to interpret such responses, and also to guide design of an intervention. This talk will present the intervention, link elements of the intervention to dual process theory, and share preliminary results.

A dual process based teaching intervention for terminal speed*

Mathematics education researchers have been investigating for decades – in math contexts – student understanding of the many uses of algebraic variables. Physics, with its alphabet soup of symbolic representations of quantities and constants, takes this variation in variable use to a whole new level. There is a growing body of evidence from physics education researchers suggesting that student difficulty with manipulating variables presents a barrier to succeeding in physics. The context dependence of symbol use in physics is nuanced, and often not part of students’ mathematics preparation. In this talk we present evidence that the presence of a single variable significantly affects the outcome in even simple quantitative questions for students in calculus-based introductory physics. We present a framework, adapted from mathematics education, for thinking about the various roles that algebraic variables play in physics contexts. We present recommendations for instruction to help students conceptualize these uses.


The mixed messaging of algebraic variables in physics

A large body of research supports the positive impact of interactive instruction on student learning. The mechanism for this increased student learning, however, is less well understood. We propose collaborative mechanistic reasoning as a possible mechanism for this enhanced learning. In this research, we analyze video episodes of small group work during weekly LA preparation sessions, using a discourse analysis framework developed by Russ et al. (2008) to identify elements of mechanistic reasoning. This framework allows us to identify episodes of high-level mechanistic reasoning in LA discussion. In our analysis, we are focused on the highest level of mechanistic reasoning, chaining. We will present analysis of an episode of collaborative chaining in terms of the mechanistic reasoning discourse analysis framework.


Collaborative mechanistic reasoning in a Learning Assistant preparation session

What role does experimental apparatus play as a semiotic resource and what do students do when the apparatus is replaced with a video of the same experiment?
In this talk, we will examine this question in the context of a quasi-experimental study where we examined how students developed scientific reasoning abilities using video-based experiments as compared to students who conducted the same experiments with physical apparatus.
In comparing the affordances and constraints of each environment (video-based experiments versus apparatus-based experiments) we discovered interesting patterns in students’ sense-making behaviors
a. When equipment was present, it served as a key semiotic resource in sense-making.
b. Students in the video-based condition also engaged in sense-making without equipment. When they did, their verbal sense-making was accompanied by extensive use of gesture.
We will present case studies from our research and discuss the broader implications for supporting students' sense-making in different contexts.

Sense-making by manipulating apparatus and using gesture

In a field that is known for being predominantly white and male, teachers have a greater than usual obligation and challenge to ensure students can see themselves as doers of physics. Starting from Gholdy Muhammad's Historical Responsive Literacy framework, the identity encounters were formed. Rather than a focus on "inspiring" students, students are exposed to a diverse group of physicists and physics students in both live and pre-recorded formats. The structure of the encounters and their impact on student identity will be discussed.

Identity Development though Diverse Encounters

Arkansas is primarily an agricultural economy with billions of dollars accrued through crop production. Because of this, agriculture should be represented in Arkansas classrooms and in national education as agronomy requires a broad range of STEM trained graduates. Teachers can introduce basic physics concepts such as fluid flow and thermodynamics using real world agricultural scenarios and in-class demonstrations such as measuring water amount in soil, to demonstrating the effect of water evaporation in irrigation systems (and the resultant cost of such). As a cross cutting concept, soybeans are cultivated to be used in the implementation of this lesson to determine water evaporation which includes discussion of soybean transpiration. The concepts and examples presented can easily be modified for any science classroom using locally used crops.

Teaching physics using agricultural concepts.

General, conceptual, and “Physics First” instructors are often isolated and left to either adapt advanced curricula or piece together resources. PEER Physics provides a robust NGSS-aligned curriculum and a community for teachers to connect and learn about implementing science and engineering practices. Students are immersed into the discipline of physics through anchoring phenomena that drive their curiosity while they make and defend claims. This evidence-based reasoning is supplemented with argumentation and consensus building where the whole class generates a set of broadly-applicable principles. Materials have been carefully developed and tested with input from practicing teachers, physics content and pedagogy experts, and instructional coaches. This unique collaborative effort has led to a physics program that is unlike anything else available for high school general and conceptual physics. In this presentation, we will share about our newly released open source Waves chapter, and the accompanying phenomenon, engineering design challenge, and 3D-assessment.


PEER Physics: Open Source Waves Unit

I have applied the syllabus of a First Year University Physics course toward Instructing High School Juniors in AP Physics C Mechanics and E&M (Calculus based). As these students are enrolled in Calculus I concurrently (have not yet fulfilled the pre-requisite), I must creatively teach them concepts and applications of differentiation, integration, and differential equations "on the fly." Rather than struggling, the students consistently rise to the occasion and attain success in understanding and mastering advanced topics not normally expected of High School students (e.g., I use imaginary exponentials to help them solve SHO problems with damping). I will present anecdotal evidence from Physics Faculty at the University associated with the High School that the students are not only superbly prepared, they "trounce the curve" and are encouraged to skip First Year Physics. I will also present AP Score distributions and Student evidence as to their satisfaction and enhanced confidence.

Pushing The Limit: Students Rising To The Challenge

Special Relativity is a critical issue in the teaching of physics in the Italian high school.
The theory does not show daily examples, thus preventing the possibility of structuring simply laboratory's experiences.

In this talk, we present the results of an experimentation regarding the teaching of Special Relativity.
The main innovation of our project consists of a mechanical instrument we use to explain Special Relativity. This tool is a big spacetime diagram in which each event on the grid can be moved along certain hyperbolas-shaped tracks, that represent the surface of constant interval.
Thus, one physically and mechanically performs Lorentz’s transformation by hands, exploring the effects of a change of the reference frame. Teachers and students can deal “by eye” with unusual phenomena as the loss of simultaneity, times dilation, lengths contraction, relativistic addition of velocities and Doppler’s effect which are the main topics of interest for High Schools.

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