United States

A rationale for requiring undergraduate students to take natural science classes as part of their general education is to promote critical thinking skills and scientific literacy. Belief in pseudoscientific, paranormal, and conspiracy theory claims could be indicative of weaker scientific literacy and critical thinking skills. Thus, uncovering to what degree students subscribe to such beliefs can serve as a diagnostic test of the effectiveness of natural science classes in promoting scientific literacy and critical thinking skills. As a preliminary step in exploring this question, we measured how students enrolled in several introductory level physics and astronomy classes respond to pseudoscientific, paranormal, and conspiracy theory claims, as well as genuine scientific claims at the end of a semester of instruction by administering survey questions from the \textit{Inventory of Epistemically Unwarranted Beliefs} (Dyer \&amp; Hall, 2018). We compare the persistence of these beliefs across classes and to prior results in the literature

AAPT SM 22

Exploring Pseudoscientific Beliefs Among Undergraduate Students

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.



A rationale for requiring undergraduate students to take natural science classes as part of their general education is to promote critical thinking skills and scientific literacy. Belief in pseudoscientific, paranormal, and conspiracy theory claims could be indicative of weaker scientific literacy and critical thinking skills. Thus, uncovering to what degree students subscribe to such beliefs can serve as a diagnostic test of the effectiveness of natural science classes in promoting scientific literacy and critical thinking skills. As a preliminary step in exploring this question, we measured how students enrolled in several introductory level physics and astronomy classes respond to pseudoscientific, paranormal, and conspiracy theory claims, as well as genuine scientific claims at the end of a semester of instruction by administering survey questions from the \textit{Inventory of Epistemically Unwarranted Beliefs} (Dyer \& Hall, 2018). We compare the persistence of these beliefs across classes and to prior results in the literature

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At Western Kentucky University, the students in the introductory acoustics course are about one-third music majors, one-third communication disorders majors, and one-third from other disciplines. Such a diverse group provides an excellent opportunity for collaborative learning. Students from different disciplines are grouped together to build an instrument using common household materials. The instrument must be able to play a simple tune. The students showcase their instruments and explain how they work using the physics of vibration, resonance, pitches, and tone colors. In this talk, I will discuss how these projects engage students, and I will present some of the instruments that the students have made.

Instrument Projects for Acoustics Students Who Are Non-Science Majors

As part of a computational thinking practices survey development process, five secondary educators with experience integrating computation into their physics classrooms were given a fourteen-practice computational thinking framework to reflect on and discuss. The computational thinking framework was presented to the teachers via a 54-question survey which they completed and then discussed in detail. This survey gathered data on which practices were the most important to these teachers, why each teacher felt the practices they chose were the most important, and how the practices were explicitly incorporated into their classroom. Our analysis of this survey shows that there are certain patterns across the educator’s interpretation of these practices, as well as overlapping thoughts on the importance of computational thinking in the classroom. This initial data set will be used to iterate on the design of the survey and highlights variation in teachers’ priorities related to computational thinking practices.

Evaluating Patterns Across Educators in their Reflection of Computational Thinking

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams and Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics organize and conduct a host of different outreach programs, all geared to different audiences and goals. Discover the abundance of free resources available to students & teachers, kids & adults in Michigan and anywhere in the world!

Nuclear Science for Everyone

The Michigan State University Department of Physics and Astronomy had the honor of receiving the Improving Undergraduate Physics Education Award this past December. This talk will discuss our efforts and challenges in improving the educational experience for undergraduates, including faculty buy-in, science practices in introductory courses for engineering majors and life science majors, and the integration of computation across the physics curriculum.

Undergraduate Physics Transformations at Michigan State University

Social media is an amalgamation of memes, brunch pictures, personal updates, dance trends—and science? As a communication tool, social media allows scientists to reach audiences where they already are. Seeing scientists in their feed can break stereotypes, introduce new ideas, or ignite lifelong passions for science. Effective science communication via social media can not only educate but also entertain and inspire.

SciTok, Social Media, and Seeing Science

Social media as we know it now has been around for about 18 years. Because social media platforms make it so easy to broadcast information widely and interact with people having common interests online, vibrant communities of physics instructors have arisen and can be a great way to exchange ideas about all aspects of teaching physics. As a means of broadcasting information and interacting with people online that is nearly two decades old, it would be easy to think that social media is a mature technology by now. I will discuss my observations of using various social media platforms over the span of 14 years and try to speculate about what the next 14 year of social media use might look like.

Your Next Great Teaching Idea Is Just A Tweet Away!

Tik Tok has become one of the most popular and influential social media platforms, its content ranges from simple reaction videos to professionally crafted masterpieces, but it lacks in one area; in science education. With the ability to easily reach out to millions of people, it is difficult to ignore the potential that the social media platform offers to get the public more interested in science. By creating short, entertaining and easy to understand videos on physics concepts, my colleagues and I were able to amass over 330,000 followers on Tik Tok. This resulted in a closer relationship with our students, a larger sense of school pride, and an increase interest from the general public to attend our university. Planning, recording, and editing these videos are no easy tasks as one also needs a decent understanding of how Tik Tok's algorithm functions, but it is worth the extra effort.

Physics and Social media: Everyone's Tok'ing About It

Why do physics graduate students leave their programs? Previous studies report that nearly 40% of physics graduate students do not complete their Ph.D. programs. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 54 graduate students from 23 institutions and asked why physics and astronomy graduate students discontinue their graduate studies. Graduate students cited a variety of cultural and systemic issues that negatively impacted their sense of belonging in the physics community, such as citing unhealthy expectations and hostile environments. In addition, personal non-academic (e.g., health-related) reasons were also frequently mentioned. Finally, a lack of available support structures contributed to students’ discontinuing their graduate studies. Understanding the mechanisms behind student departure is the first step in making positive changes to increase retention for all students in physics.

Why Graduate Students Leave: Exploring Student Perspectives and Experiences

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that supports instructors in designing inclusive learning environments that anticipate and plan for variations in students’ needs, abilities, and interests. UDL-aligned instructional design may reduce the need for accommodations for some students with disabilities. In this study, we explore postsecondary physics instructors’ approaches to adapting their teaching and learning environment while engaged in a year-long UDL learning community. Revealed causal mapping (RCM) is an analytic technique that uncovers experts’ mental maps about their subject domain. We employ RCM to value instructors’ knowledge and experiences and identify motivations and goals of the learning community members as they select, implement, and reflect on UDL-aligned modifications to their instruction.

Causal mapping analysis of Universal Design for Learning-aligned instructional changes

Previous literature shows that active learning (e.g., group work) supports student learning better when compared with traditional courses. However, many instructors are not trained to foster effective and inclusive group work. To support faculty implementing group work, we created a guide by reviewing literature in three topical domains: cognitive science, research-based instructional strategies, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. We then compiled 29 recommendations for practice aggregated into 6 categories: 1) creating group work activities; 2) creating groups of students; 3) first day framing; 4) supporting students to engage in group work; 5) classroom culture, norms, and practices; and 6) grading group work. We interviewed studio physics instructors to investigate the face validity of the guide. In this talk, we will present the development process of the guide, recommendations from the group work guide, and examples of how the recommendations can be implemented in high school or postsecondary courses.

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Exploring Pseudoscientific Beliefs Among Undergraduate Students

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Causal mapping analysis of Universal Design for Learning-aligned instructional changes