United States

A variety of pressures are felt by teachers to integrate programming and computational thinking into science classrooms. These pressures primarily arise from the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards and recent increases in emphasis on computer programming and computational thinking as methods of conducting investigations. Yet many preservice teachers are ill equipped to engage in investigatory computational practices and they often lack strong orientations or beliefs that doing so is valuable. This presentation will outline the preliminary results of an interpretation-based workshop where preservice elementary teachers interpret block coding rather than writing it in order to collect data about simple experiments.


AAPT SM21

Changes in Preservice Elementary Teachers&#39; Attitudes Toward Computational Thinking

teacher education

computational thinkning

computer science

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Changes in Preservice Elementary Teachers' Attitudes Toward Computational Thinking

technical paper

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The Costs to Persist in Introductory Physics for Pre-Health Majors

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LGBT+ Physicists: Harassment, Persistence, and Uneven Support Systems

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From LBGT to Queer: Physicists Without Identities

Women make up a shrinking portion of physics faculty in senior positions, a phenomenon known as a "leaky pipeline.'' While fixing this problem has been a priority in academic institutions, efforts have been stymied by the diverse sources of leaks. In this paper we identify a bias potentially contributing to the leaky pipeline. We analyze bibliographic data provided by the American Physical Society (APS), a leading publisher of physics research. By inferring the gender of authors from names, we are able to measure the fraction of women authors over past decades. We show that the more selective, higher impact APS journals have lower fractions of women authors compared to other APS journals. Correcting this bias may help more women publish in prestigious APS journals, and in turn help improve their academic promotion cases.

The Leaky Pipeline in Physics Publishing

While the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have grown in the past twenty years, the proportion of women in these fields has not seen the same growth. This article researches how inquiry-based instructional approaches can better support gender-equity in classrooms. It will look at the effects that confidence, group work, and Socratic questioning have on women in STEM courses, and how small changes in instruction can have large impacts on the experiences women have in STEM courses.

Supporting Gender-Equity in the STEM Classroom

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Reflection on Underrepresented Curriculum Implementation in an Urban K-12 Setting

This research focuses on the experiences of three undergraduate women majoring in physics and astronomy. Specifically we conducted semi-structured, empathetic interviews which reveal how uncomfortable physics environments inside and outside of the classroom exclude undergraduate women. The women give accounts of the behaviors of their male peers and instructors that influenced the physics culture. We use standpoint theory to focus on the experiences of undergraduate women to provide a holistic perspective of physics as well as identify key issues that these women faced in their undergraduate physics program and potential strategies to implement in the future to support undergraduate women in physics. Some of their suggestions include providing mentoring for women, training sessions, and establishing a code of conduct.

Negative Impacts on female physics majors of Cold Physics Environment

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Investigating the Relationship Between Motivation and Retention in Women Undergraduates

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Impact of Informal Physics Programs on Female Students

Bridgewater State University is continuing to grow an undergraduate physics teacher preparation program during the pandemic using various strategies. In the Spring of 2020, we began teaching a one credit seminar course called Physics Teaching Methods which runs on a four-semester rotation of topics. The course is designed to attract students early in their undergraduate career, retain their interest in teaching, build physics teacher identity and community, and teach the foundations of physics pedagogical content knowledge. Our course has seen steady enrollment throughout the pandemic even as we switched to an online, synchronous format as well as increasing numbers of enrolled students working as peer tutors and learning assistants in our introductory physics courses. I’ll share our experience developing and teaching this course as well as our successes and challenges.

Changes in Preservice Elementary Teachers' Attitudes Toward Computational Thinking

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The Costs to Persist in Introductory Physics for Pre-Health Majors

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