United States

In recent years, there has been growing awareness of the need for inclusive physics curricula to help address the lack of diversity and representation in the field. Integrating social issues into the physics curriculum has the potential to “change the culture of science to be more welcoming and inclusive” by broadening the cultural contexts in which scientific knowledge is created and science is practiced.

In this presentation, I will discuss a multi-week course assignment for which students were required to read the book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, and to respond to the scientific and social issues in the story. Kamkwamba’s autobiographical narrative of his innovative construction of a windmill is suffused with introductory physics concepts embedded in an intense social context of poverty, famine, deforestation and climate change in his native Malawi. The talk will discuss details of the project as well as student attitudes and responses to the assignment.

AAPT SM 21

Integrating Science and Social Issues in the Introductory Physics Curriculum

social issues

education research

diversity

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technical paper

To support physics instructors in improving or modifying physics activities for their courses, we investigate sixty-six research-based activities from eleven different research-based curricula by applying k-means cluster analysis. The best results were found when the program generates three design clusters. We mark these clusters as Thinking like a Scientist, Learning Concepts, and Scientific Reasoning. These three clusters indicate different design goals. In the Thinking like a Scientist cluster, activities emphasize the design of experiments by students, error analysis,
reasonableness checking, and making assumptions or simplifications. The Learning Concepts cluster focuses on the prediction of results and experimental observations. The scientific reasoning cluster emphasizes answering physics or math questions that do not use collected data and finding evidence by students to support their claims.

Diverse strategies for design physics activity by investigating research-based activities

Active learning has been shown to be more effective than passive lecture methods, but we have yet to establish a vocabulary with which to characterize different active learning methods. We investigated six active learning curricula in physics using the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS), which codes student and instructor activities in two minute intervals. We then used latent profile analysis on the resulting COPUS profiles to determine if these curricula could be sorted into similar groups based on common classroom features. We present our findings and discuss how latent profile analysis can be used to further the goal of describing active learning independently of lecture methods.

Characterizing Active Learning Environments in Physics using Latent Profile Analysis

We will describe two iterations of a fully open lab course in which natural science students (N=15,20) conceive, design, and carry out two extended experiments using open-source materials. A flipped-style is used whereby students set up experiments and take measurements without supervision, allowing the instruction time to focus on the more difficult parts of their empirical research cycles. In our analysis, we explore the merits and trade-offs of this radically open approach, whereby student agency is prioritized over the quantity and scientific quality of the inquiries. In student projects, initially unforeseen constraints or unexpected results usually require changes to the experimental design and sometimes even force students to alter their research questions. Happily, students make demonstrable progress towards becoming critical and independent researchers, especially in the conception and iterative design of their experimental methods. We also describe interdependencies amongst the open-inquiry and flipped-classroom teaching methods and the accessible open-source materials.

Assessing a flipped-lab course consisting of open-inquiry projects using Arduinos

The Essential Skills learning application has been iteratively developed for over 7 years and implemented as a regular weekly assignment with over 10,000 students at the Ohio State University for the algebra and calculus-based introductory physics course and the second-year physics major course. The assignments include mastery practice of basic skills such as trigonometry, algebra, vector math, and calculating work and torque. These skills are practiced multiple times throughout the semester to improve accuracy, fluency, and retention. We report on data showing that students typically increase on all of these factors throughout the semester, and we also find some evidence of transfer for hierarchical sets of skills. Though we will report on some pilot studies on potential benefits on exam performance, there are still open questions as to how or whether improvements on basic skills are helping to achieve larger scale and more complex instructional goals.

Learning basic physics skills via regular online mastery practice

This study investigated the impact of an instructional intervention on student scientific reasoning skills and general attitudes toward science. The intervention consisted of nine PhET simulations introduced to a general education physics class. Students manipulated the simulations while completing worksheets testing their comprehension of the concepts and the scientific reasoning being displayed. Completion of each PhET simulation activity took students about 50 minutes to complete. Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning was administered to assess improvement in student scientific reasoning skills, and the CLASS was used to assess changes in student attitudes towards science. Pre-to post Lawson results show gains in scientific reasoning. CLASS pre to post indicated overall shifts to expert-like responses. Qualitative data in the form of student surveys was collected and showed approval of the use PhET simulations in the class.

Effect of PhET simulations in a general education physics course

Conversations around the interactions of ethics, science, and society within STEM classrooms provide opportunities for students to practice large-scale ethical reasoning in the context of their future careers. We have designed and implemented curricular units which help instructors to scaffold these conversations in Texas State University STEM courses, including Modern Physics and Observational Astrophysics. We have collected and analyzed video data and written work in these course contexts. Our analysis has demonstrated that students’ scaffolded considerations of different stakeholder groups can build empathy and deepen their understanding of the broader context for ongoing ethical issues. We also see that students’ characterization of stakeholder groups’ motivations and identities can grow in complexity and nuance. In this talk, I will use classroom video and other artifacts to illustrate some examples we have identified where we see students building nuance and consider lessons for supporting students’ engagement with complex ethical issues in physics.

Building Nuance in Classroom Conversations about Ethics, Science, and Society

The Paradigms in Physics website provides a wide range of tested active engagement activities for upper division courses. Our team has been redesigning this site to add considerable "mortar" content between activities and to make the content more readily searchable. We have also been working to make it easier to keep the content fresh, and to give users a clearer perspective of how we use our own materials. The features of the new site will be introduced, and we will solicit audience feedback on how the site could better serve you.

Introducing the new Paradigms in Physics Curriculum Website

An analysis of 1,955 physics graduate students from 19 PhD programs shows that undergraduate grade point average predicts graduate grades and PhD completion more effectively than GRE scores. Students’ undergraduate GPA (UGPA) and GRE Physics (GRE-P) scores are small but statistically significant predictors of graduate course grades, while GRE quantitative and GRE verbal scores are not. We also find that males and females score equally well in their graduate coursework despite a statistically significant 18 percentile point gap in median GRE-P scores between genders. A coun- terfactual mediation analysis demonstrates that among admission metrics tested only UGPA is a significant predictor of overall PhD completion, and that UGPA predicts PhD completion indirectly through graduate grades. Thus UGPA measures traits linked to graduate course grades, which in turn predict graduate completion. Although GRE-P scores are not significantly associated with PhD completion, our results suggest that any predictive effect they may have are also linked indi- rectly through graduate GPA. Overall our results indicate that among commonly used quantitative admissions metrics, UGPA offers the most insight into two important measures of graduate school success, while posing fewer concerns for equitable admissions practices.

Do admissions metrics predict PhD completion indirectly through graduate GPA?

Race continues to play a major role in American society which is made evident by racial gaps in wealth, healthcare, and law enforcement. Systemic racial oppression continues to thrive in both secondary and post secondary education, resulting in more obstacles for students and scholars of color. As a result, there is a lack of representation of people of color in the field of Physics among other STEM disciplines. We will highlight some of the current issues of racism within Education using the theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT has deep roots in legal studies and was created for understanding and transforming the relationship between race, racism, and power. Using CRT, we will critically examine why these systemic forms of oppression exist, how they propagate, as well as what we can do to combat them and support racial minorities in our community. 


An Introduction to Critical Race Theory for Physicists

Spiritual/religious individuals are underrepresented in physics. Considering that spirituality/religiosity play a salient role in the life of students of color, especially the Black students, we investigate the intersection of spiritual/religious identities of Black physics students with their physics identity. In this study we interviewed Black physics students to understand how their spiritual/religious identities informed the choice of physics and interact with other kinds of identity like gender to affect how they see themselves as physicists.

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Integrating Science and Social Issues in the Introductory Physics Curriculum

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Diverse strategies for design physics activity by investigating research-based activities

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