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AAPT SM 20

Should Engineers be Teaching Physics?

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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.

For more information please visit the 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting page at: https://www.aapt.org/Conferences/SM2020/index.cfm.


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. 

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Computation is a critical part of professional physics practice and has been shown again and again to be useful for helping student build physics understanding. But, what are the essential elements that allow physics students to productively use computation? I argue that we can use the theory of computational literacy to answer this question. According to diSessa (2000) and Berland (2016), computational literacy consists of three main elements, or pillars: 1) The material pillar, which involves writing and understanding computer code; 2) The cognitive pillar, which involves breaking down problems into a form that can be addressed with computation (also known as computational thinking); 3) The social pillar, which involves communicating with and about computation. Using the physics department of the University of Oslo, Norway, as a case study, I describe what each of these elements can look like and how we can help our students achieve computational literacy in physics

Computational Literacy and Computational Essays at the University of Oslo

Understanding and supporting graduate education policies and practices is critical to the success of future physicists and astronomers and to supplying well-trained science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals to the US workforce. As such, it is essential that graduate programs study and promote practices that support equity and inclusion. During the 2018-19 academic year, admissions into the Physics and Astronomy graduate program at the University of Utah was halted while a complete overhaul of all aspects of the program was initiated by the Department. The program reform included the recruitment and admissions process, orientation and teaching assistant training, advising practices and other student support, the curriculum, and the exam structure. This presentation will outline our process of change and highlight results from the first year of new policy implementations.

Graduate Program Reform at the University of Utah

We have previously established a ranking of incorrect responses to FMCE questions using Item Response Theory. In Bock’s Nominal Response Model (NRM), each student has an associated latent trait (i.e., understanding of mechanics), and each response is represented by two parameters. One of the parameters is reported as showing the strength of correlation between that response choice and the latent trait. Bock does not interpret the meanings of these parameters; however, the mathematical form of the NRM is identical to the probability of a system being in a discrete degenerate energy state in the canonical ensemble. Through analogy we may interpret the latent trait as relating to the system temperature, and explain why one parameter (“energy”) is related to the latent trait but the other parameter (“degeneracy”) is not. We may also gain additional information by extending this analogy to consider macroscopic quantities such as average energy and entropy.

Modeling Students as Thermodynamic Systems using the Canonical Ensemble

The life sciences present a rich trove of physics problems to ponder and solve. However, a challenge I faced in teaching the physics of biological topics is that, as a physicist, I don’t know very much biology. To address this challenge, I developed and co-teach two life-science oriented physics courses in collaboration with biologists. In collaboration with a molecular biologist, I teach a research-based course for first-year students focusing on modalities of microscopy including fluorescence and atomic force microscopy. In collaboration with a human biology and kinesiology professor, I developed and co-teach a 100-level science requirement course focusing on human athletic performance. In this talk I discuss several of the activities and labs developed from these collaborations. I also discuss the rewards and the challenges of teaching with life science colleagues.

Putting Biology into Biophysics: Adventures in Co-Teaching with Life Scientists

In our roles as instructors and mentors, we are responsible, at a minimum, for training our students to be competent scientists and colleagues. We are also responsible for maintaining a respectful, positive, and inclusive classroom environment that is conducive to learning for all students. It can be necessary, from time to time, to discuss issues of gender, race, and identity, and to lead productive conversations about these topics with our students. In the course of my career, I have increasingly embraced these conversations as teaching and learning moments. Here, I will discuss some examples of leading students into what can be uncomfortable territory, what I’ve learned on these excursions, and the benefits of such discussions in the classroom and beyond.

Tough Topics: Stepping Outside the Comfort Zone

Identity development is critical to student retention in physics degree programs. Historically, research on physics identity in Physics Education Research has been conducted at Predominately White Institutions and has largely ignoring the unique identity intersections experienced by women of color, and women who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer. The research team conducted semi-structured interviews with women who identify as racial minorities and/or as LGBTQ+ at two Hispanic Serving Institutions located in Central Texas. We apply a critical and intersectional lens to analyze the narratives and aim to identify the systemic structures provided by these institutions. We will present data highlighting the various systems that exist that aid in the continuous support and intersectional physics identity development for multiply-marginalized women that ultimately lead to their academic and social success in the field.

Women of color and LGBTQ+ women’s discussions of support systems at two HSIs

As part of our large-scale transition to studio-based instruction in our introductory physics courses, we were faced with the challenge of redesigning our lab experiments to significantly shorten lab sessions. To better streamline our lab activities, we have implemented Python-based digital notebooks. In addition to shortening the amount of time students spend writing their reports, these notebooks allow for a flexible implementation of data analysis that can be tuned to the level of the course, while also allowing for the utilization of open-ended questions to assess student understanding and the incorporation of coding in an introductory physics lab setting. This work presents details of our redesign, including our initial steps implementing labs using Jupyter notebooks before we decided on the utilization of the Google Colab cloud-based platform. We discuss advantages and disadvantages of both platforms, as well as measures we have implemented to mitigate plagiarism of work submitted by students.

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Should Engineers be Teaching Physics?

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