United States

We present on updates to a unit on diffusion in an Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences (IPLS) course. We will describe the series of computational tasks designed to build up students’ understanding of random motion and diffusion and contrasting it with coherent motion. These tasks are embedded in an integrated lab-lecture (studio style) introductory physics course that meets the needs of life science students. Our design of this course focuses on incorporating computational simulations that model complex biological phenomenon and complement empirical lab investigations. In this presentation we will describe changes that we have made to the diffusion computational unit and how those changes supported student understanding and engagement. We also add in an optional module that introduced students to quantum computers that are used to simulate random walk.

AAPT SM 22

Modeling Diffusion for Life Science Majors by Incorporating Computation

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

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. This meeting is an excellent opportunity to share your expertise and learn from and network with leaders in the field.



The STEMcoding Project began in 2017 with the launch of a youtube channel featuring coding tutorials on the physics of classic video games. Since then the content has grown and during the pandemic we redesigned nearly all of our activities to give students instant feedback on their codes rather than relying heavily on the instructor to troubleshoot. The pandemic also inspired us to create our own object tracking code that works through the browser on video data so students can perform simple experiments at home and analyze them. Both the object tracker and the instant feedback take advantage of javascript and a library called p5.js. I will also briefly describe coding activities that we designed for 9th grade physical science that also work well in college non-major classes. Many of these activities appear on the PICUP site (compadre.org/PICUP)

Reinventing the STEMcoding Project through the Pandemic

This study explored the effectiveness of integrating computational exercises as an instructional tool in a general education astronomy course over four semesters. Fifteen spreadsheet-based computational exercises were designed and incorporated into a single-semester astronomy course to complement the existing active learning curriculum. Computational exercises were added to improve students’ understanding of concepts, influence connecting concepts with the mathematics, and support the association of science with prediction. As most new curricula only report one or two semesters of results before widespread introduction occurs, the longer-term assessment of these instructional interventions provide a better indication of effectiveness of the new curriculum. Student learning pre to post was measured with the TOAST and LPCI. Additionally, student survey data was collected to investigate student attitudes toward computational exercises and overall perceptions of the course. Assessment revealed TOAST correctness gains of 20%, LPCI correctness gains of 29%, and overall positive attitudes towards the computational activities.

A Long-term Assessment of Computational Activities in an Astronomy Course

In Fall 2019, we reformed all of the introductory physics courses and components at Rutgers, Newark using an ISLE-approach. Each course includes lecture and recitation, what we call “Large Group Meeting” and “Small Group Meeting,” and lab. 450 students enroll in these courses each semester. ISLE is a constructivist approach where students learn physics by doing physics. How do we engage a lecture hall of 150 students in experimentation? What happens in Small Group Meeting? How are labs designed so students learn practices of science? We present the curriculum and structure of our ISLE-based courses to demonstrate what constructivism can look like in large lecture courses.

What Do Large Introductory Physics ISLE-based Courses Look Like?

We reformed our introductory physics courses using ISLE in an effort to teach students to think like scientists. In this approach, students develop physics knowledge by observing phenomena, creating explanations, and testing ideas. Students then apply knowledge to solve problems. Open-ended problems are scored using a rubric with five rows: Sketch, Representation, Problem Solving Procedure, Explanation, and Evaluation. Evaluation requires making sense of physics concepts and one’s own work to determine if an answer or idea is correct. In this presentation we analyze student open-ended submissions to see ways in which they evaluate their work and which methods are most effective, with hopes of better teaching this skill.

How Students Evaluate their Work in an ISLE-based Physic Course

All introductory physics courses and components at Rutgers, Newark are taught using an ISLE-approach. 450 students enroll in these courses, taught by 10 instructors with help from 10 Learning Assistants. ISLE is a constructivist approach, where students build physics knowledge by engaging in practices of science. Each lesson has a clear plan and goals, yet we aim to teach such that the course is driven by students’ ideas. Centering students’ ideas while already having a plan is a challenging skill. In the presentation, I observe an expert ISLE instructor to learn exactly what strategies they use such that the planned lesson flows from students’ thinking. These strategies are useful to anyone teaching a research-based planned curriculum to avoid the trap of answering one’s own questions.

Teaching A Planned Constructivist ISLE Curriculum in A Student-centered Way

The effectiveness of the flipped classroom and hybrid-flipped (partially flipped, partially lecture-based) method of instruction has been studied for lower-level undergraduate physics courses, and it has been shown to increase student understanding of introductory material in physics. However, few studies have been done for upper-level undergraduate courses, and even fewer have been done for virtual courses. We have investigated a fully virtual, hybrid-flipped Modern Physics course and compared student performance to the same hybrid-flipped course with the synchronous portion offered in-person. We will present preliminary results of this study.

Investigating Student Performance in a Hybrid-Flipped Modern Physics Course

From the beginning, PhET simulations and resources have worked to embody the results of education research in their design and to prioritize flexibility and teacher agency in how they are used in teaching and learning. That is, baking in the science, while respecting and enabling the art, of teaching. In this talk, I will highlight rich examples of these approaches, and introduce several initiatives at PhET where we are building on these traditions. Our PhET-iO initiative allows customization of sims and provides access to back-end data. Our PhET Global initiative is focusing on teacher leadership and community in Latin America and Africa. And, our newest work will give teachers and learners access to adjustable sources of error and uncertainty in sims.

The Art and Science of Teaching with PhET Simulations

In the Fall of 2019 with support from a HHMI Inclusive Excellence grant, the Physics Department at Davidson College changed how our introductory physics courses were taught. The traditional format of 3 one-hour lectures and 1 three-hour laboratory per week was converted into a studio format of 3 two-hour class meeting per week in an integrated laboratory-classroom setting. Unlike the standard studio format, our courses use an “experiment-first” approach to each class meeting. In this talk we will discuss the how this approach has worked, focusing on inclusivity, how the approach worked during pandemic-affected semesters, and how these changes are being adopted throughout our entire physics curriculum.

An Experiment-First and Inclusive Approach to Teaching Introductory Physics

Issues related to why women are underrepresented in physics have been investigated from various angles. Motivational factors, such as physics self-efficacy have also been shown to influence students’ persistence and retention in physics. In this presentation, I will summarize our quantitative and qualitative findings showing that inclusiveness of learning environment plays an important role in promoting equitable academic and motivational outcomes. Our findings highlight the role of instructors in creating an inclusive and equitable learning environment. An ecological-belonging intervention will also be discussed to illustrate the viability of an ecological approach to fostering equity and unlocking student potential.

The Importance of Inclusiveness of Learning Environment in Promoting Equity

This talk will include an overview of the AIP TEAMUP research project, "The Time is Now", which provides systemic changes to increase African Americans with Bachelor's Degrees in Physics and Astronomy. As the report enters its third year of publication, it has influenced academia and national policy and continues to serve as a guide for faculty, administrators, and others who want to make impactful changes. Highlights from the report's recommendations offer best practices that can be implemented on campuses, with student organizations, within departments, and in the classrooms to address equity issues in physics.

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Reinventing the STEMcoding Project through the Pandemic

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