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Addressing complex societal problems requires STEM workers with expertise such that they are able to recognize, understand, and effectively reason out solutions using principles of their disciplines. This need emphasizes the importance of skills-based learning. This presentation will provide details about the development of an introductory physics lab curriculum, which was designed around the theory-evidence coordination (TEC) framework to advance select reasoning skills through scaffolded lab activities. Best practices for using the TEC framework to modify existing curriculum will be provided along with how one might assess subsequent impact on student development of scientific reasoning. We will also discuss our interest in pilot sites for our curriculum.

AAPT SM 20

Transforming Lab Instruction to Promote Essential Scientific Reasoning Abilities

decision-making abilities

introductory physics lab

critical thinking

scientific reasoning

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AAPT WM 21

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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.

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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. 

In the undergraduate lab experience, computation and experimentation are typically presented as distinct lab experiences. This approach ignores the important interplay that can exist between these two different ways of understanding the physical world. At Carleton College, we developed one two-week lab that treats computation and experimentation as interconnected, equal partners in students’ understanding of the natural world. I will discuss this lab that focuses on finding the half-lives of two simultaneously decaying isotopes and discuss how we encourage students to think about the interplay between computation and experimentation. Additionally, I will discuss efforts to promote lab skill development and inclusion broadly in this sophomore-level lab course and particularly how these inclusion efforts are manifested in the lab I will present in this talk.

Computation and Experimentation as Equal Partners in Undergraduate Lab Education

Given current cutting-edge science that is in the news, from Gravitational Waves to Particle Physics to GPS, Relativity has a place in the high school physics classroom. I will discuss the Why, Where, and How of putting General Relativity into the classroom. With activities from sources such as the Perimeter Institute, OzGrav, and LIGO, students can delve into a conceptual model of General Relativity in a variety of ways beyond reading and videos. These will include hands-on as well as VR and AR activities that have worked in my own classroom setting.

General Relativity in the High School Classroom

We present a study of a large-scale intervention designed to shift lab instruction away from "cookbook" lab norms. The intervention was implemented in a network of Professional Learning Communities of Israeli high-school physics teachers (N=250; ~20% of the national workforce), operating in a high-stakes exam setting, with limited resources, catering to diverse groups of students. An introductory questionnaire examined teachers' framing of the instructional lab norms as compared to an experimental research lab (via a modified E-CLASS), as well as the lab goals that the teachers valued. The questionnaire was an integral part of the teachers' learning process. The teachers acknowledged the disparity between their optimal lab goals and prevailing ones, in particular as concerns experimental design. We discuss the implications for the design of an intervention addressing both teachers' interest in change as well as the constraints imposed by the setting in which they work.

Re-defining Lab Norms via Professional Learning Communities: Instructors' Expectations

Computational Thinking (CT) is used to describe how our approaches to formulating and solving STEM problems is affected by the availability of modern computers. Many educators use CT broadly to include traditional problem-solving skills, persistence, the ability to work in groups, and so on, along with the development of computational algorithms and coding. Given the wide-spread calls for including CT in both K-12 schools and higher education, educators and policy makers have realized there are not enough teachers to provide stand-alone CT courses for all students. Here I argue that there are strong benefits, both practical and educational, of integrating CT with standard STEM courses. Based on the recommendations of the May 2019 NSF-supported conference on Advancing the Integration of Interdisciplinary Computational Thinking in the Physical and Life Sciences, I discuss how that integration might work in physics courses.

Integrating Computational Thinking with Physics. What Does That Mean?

The University of Connecticut has initiated the transition of its calculus-based intro-physics courses from traditional lecture into interactive studio. Numerous materials have been newly developed or adapted to leverage studio classroom facility to benefit student learning. A mock-up IPLS studio course is taught in the 2020 summer semester with limited enrollment. We would like to share with the PER community the lessons we have learned through the transition so far.

The lessons learned from developing a studio physics course for life sciences

Introductory physics for life science (IPLS) courses can vary wildly in sizes, pre-requisites, major distributions, and pedagogical frameworks. These variations mean some level of adaptation of found materials is almost always required. This talk will focus on the process of adapting materials from the IPLS Portal (and elsewhere) to a two-semester, algebra-based, studio-style IPLS sequence of large enrollment at University of Massachusetts Amherst. In this context, large enrollment means a single instructor, with some TA support, is responsible for two sections of 100 students each in the first semester, and for two sections of 250 students in the second. Therefore, scalability, while maintaining an active learning environment, is a key consideration. Other adaptations motivated by our large number of kinesiology majors, as well as differences arising from algebra- versus calculus-based courses will also be considered.

Adapting IPLS Materials for Large Enrollment, Algebra-Based, Studio Courses

Are there galaxies that we can't see? The ALFALFA survey uses Arecibo Observatory, the largest fully functional radio telescope in the world, to search for (nearly) starless galaxies that emit radio waves. This talk will summarize the field of galaxy formation and evolution, present results from ALFALFA, and explore what these results tell us about how galaxies form. A special emphasis will be given to the contributions of student researchers to this work.

The Hunt for (Almost) Dark Galaxies

Abstract: Reactions of religious organizations to the concept of vacuum (i.e. the void) changed drastically from the University of Paris condemnations in 1277 AD, to Descartes conception in The World (1664 AD), to Newton’s description in Principia (1687 AD). This talk surveys the reactions to, and eventually reception of, the concept of vacuum on religious grounds.

Paris, Descartes, Newton, and the Void

In spring 2019, the Physics & Astronomy Department at Western Washington University began hosting weekly discussions about (in)equity. The main goals are to provide opportunities for students, staff, and faculty to develop a common vocabulary and shared knowledge about issues of (in)equity, and to explore how these issues manifest in our field. During these discussions, we learned about allegories for race and racism, models of oppression, characteristics of white supremacy culture, technical/social dualism, white fragility, white saviorism, invisible disabilities, microaggressions, physics metaphors for gender and sexuality, and the scope and limits of physics ways of knowing. The co-facilitators are a white male physics professor and a white nonbinary student, and the Physics & Astronomy Department is predominantly white and male. This talk will provide an overview of the background, purpose, guiding principles, content, and the experience of participants as conveyed through feedback surveys to be administered in the spring.

Inclusive Physics & Astronomy Discussions at Western Washington University

Aligning with the National Quantum Initiative and NSF’s “Quantum Leap,” we are working toward an interdisciplinary approach to quantum information science and technology (QIST) education. We present results from a single institution based on interviews with faculty and administrators in engineering, computing, and the sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology, which suggest that it is feasible and desirable to provide STEM majors with accessible degree pathways that embed quantum-related electives. Combined with results from studies on the skills of quantum industry employees, our results indicate a minor or concentration in QIST provides STEM majors with sufficient preparation for quantum careers, and a new major in QIST is unnecessary. Physics departments could play an essential role in such programs by offering an introductory QIST course open to all STEM majors that prepares students for advanced QIST coursework. We also provide insight into structural barriers that might hinder implementation of this arrangement.

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