An important learning goal for IPLS students is to have them see physics as a way of learning reasoning rather than facts. Unfortunately, many students expect the latter and resist the former. The most critical step is to shift them away from "answer making" to "sense making." A good way is to elicit a mistake, confront it, and scaffold a resolution.[1] But if students see mistakes as shameful instead of an opportunity to learn, this approach can result in strong negative reactions. I frame the class as "reasoning not answers" on the first day by teaching basic psychological principles of memory and decision making [2] using common surprising illusions. I introduce mantras that we use throughout including [3]: "one-step thinking", "missing the gorilla", and "debugging your thinking." These help students begin to see errors as valuable learning tools instead of as an embarrassment and to engage with sense-making.

Why I teach Psychology on IPLS day 1

IPLS students and students in algebra-based physics often see math as a as a calculational tool rather than a way of reasoning about the physical world. But, in physics, math-in-science plays a critical role both in our physical ontology ("What is an E-field, really?") and epistemology ("I derived this result from a true equation so it must be true.") as well as for reasoning and organizing our conceptual knowledge. The critical conceptual blending* of physical concepts with mathematical symbology is rarely taught in math and is often taken for granted in physics. I identify a series of tools (epistemic games**) that can help students learn to connect math to the physical world. These tools include readings and activities that can be used throughout a class and that can be downloaded from the Living Physics Portal*** and integrated into existing classes.

Teaching IPLS students to use math in science

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C1.1 Teaching the Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences (IPLS) Course

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AAPT WM 21

PAR-G.05 Introductory Physics For Life Sciences (IPLS)

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AAPT SM 20

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. 

Edward Redish

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Why I teach Psychology on IPLS day 1

Teaching IPLS students to use math in science

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