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During a recent discussion in PICUP (Partnership for Integration of Computation into Undergraduate Physics), it was noted that once a simulation is in hand, students don’t necessarily see the connection between the simulation and the “real world”. This presentation will demonstrate several examples of making that connection of simulation to world. As a first step, a simulation can be calibrated for digital world consistency, e.g., is a pixels-per-second animation visually accurate? As a next step, when a known physical system is modeled, is the model true to the system? And a further, most powerful step is to run simulations side-by-side with the corresponding physical system. Representative examples will be presented of simulations coded up in Python by high-school physics students, and issues discussed.

AAPT SM 21

Connecting Simulations to The World

high-school

experience

python

simulations

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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.

 qSupporting Gender-Equity in the STEM Classroom

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Negative Impacts on female physics majors of Cold Physics Environment

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Changes in Preservice Elementary Teachers' Attitudes Toward Computational Thinking

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Video Killed the Radio Star: Flipgrid for online physics pedagogy.

The Physics Teacher Preparation Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is a collaboration between the STEM Education Center and the Physics Department that leverages significant PhysTEC resources that have emerged over the past two decades since PhysTEC started. As a PhysTEC supported site, WPI has been able to implement several key components identified as effective practices at other PhysTEC sites, such as a Teacher-in-Residence to serve as a role model and mentor to students in the program. The PTEPA rubric has allowed our team to strategically plan the next steps in building a thriving physics teacher preparation program. Other elements we will discuss include the Peer Learning Assistant program that includes pedagogical training, a regional physics teacher network, and utilization of the Get the Facts Out resources. In addition to generating interest in high school physics teaching careers, an interest in Physics Education Research has also emerged.

PhysTEC at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

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