Sessions & Panels

• Science and Religion  

  • • Critical Reflections on Sharing Stories from a Physics Community

    • PAR-C.07
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Robert Dalka
    • Type: Contributed
    • Gathering and sharing personal stories is a science communication approach that communities have used to showcase the range of individuals who participate in their respective community. In this talk I will share my experiences as an undergraduate writinga column focused on one university’s Physics community for the student newspaper. I originally treated this as a journalistic activity in which I interviewed a member of the community about a specific topic and presented my account of the conversation supplemented by outside resources. Now, as a graduate student, I am critically reflecting on the process of writing the columns. As I do this, I am finding lessons that can inform future projects that aim to share stories from community members. I will discuss the process of writing these columns and my current thoughts resulting from critical reflections, connecting this with work that others have done around representation in research communities.

  • • Activities to Address Equity and Injustice in Physics Classes

    • PAR-C.07
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Christopher Gosling, Natasha Holmes

    • Type: Contributed
    • The Underrepresentation Curriculum Project (URC) provides resources to help educators address equity and injustice in STEM through education. Several of the URC lessons offer students the opportunity to gather information and create artifacts. We will briefly present relevant URC lessons and share artifacts that students created while completing these assignments. These artifacts are not only personally meaningful, but also serve as mechanisms to chronicle student learning around these challenging topics.

  • • A Space Oddity: Exploring the Intersection of Science and Religion in Physics Classrooms

    • PAR-C.07
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Richard Hechter
    • Type: Contributed
    • Physics education, especially astronomy education, is an ideal place to explore the intersection of science and religion. Grounded in tenets of peace education, the study of astronomy can be enriched by punctuating learning outcomes of physics concepts with the stories, mythlore, and teachings emanating from religion and culture. The purpose of this approach is to advance the physics we are teaching by resonating with students’ identities and being an entry to the greater conversation about (under)representation in physics, and how the intersection of religion and science provides insight into living and learning in a multi-religious and multicultural world. This session, which centers on the calendar by which cultural and religious observances are determined, advocates for integrating elements of cultural and religious knowledge with astronomy concepts as an inclusive space for all students. This pragmatic approach aligns with andragogical intentions of developing and delivering an increased holistic and inclusive curriculum.

  • • The Influence of Christianity on 19th-Century Physicists

    • PAR-C.07
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Jill Macko
    • Type: Contributed
    • The 19th-century was a period of giant leaps in physics. Young demonstrated the wave nature of light. Dalton developed atomic theory. Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. The list goes on and on. At the end of the century, Lord Kelvin famously declared, “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now.” Each of these discoveries were performed by human beings, who were influenced by their educational background, family upbringing, religious beliefs, and more. For example, Young stated: “For the talents which God has not given me, I am not responsible, but those which I possess, I have hitherto cultivated and employed as diligently as my opportunities have allowed me to do.” How did this belief in God’s gifts of talent impact his scientific work? This talk will focus on the religious views of significant physicists of the 1800’s. Particularly, we will examine how the Christian faith of many 19th-century physicists influenced their scientific endeavors and shaped the field of physics as we know it.

  • • Paris, Descartes, Newton, and the Void

    • PAR-C.07
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Bradley McCoy
    • Type: Contributed
    • Abstract: Reactions of religious organizations to the concept of vacuum (i.e. the void) changed drastically from the University of Paris condemnations in 1277 AD, to Descartes conception in The World (1664 AD), to Newton’s description in Principia (1687 AD). This talk surveys the reactions to, and eventually reception of, the concept of vacuum on religious grounds.

  • • Challenging Student Ideas about Religion in a General Education Course

    • PAR-C.07
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Mariel Meier
    • Type: Contributed
    • COR-400, Science and Human Nature, is a general education science course required of all students at Oglethorpe University. In this course, students learn about scientific ways of knowing and the scientific process through the lens of scientific revolutions. Specifically, the course content focuses on the Copernican Revolution and the Quantum Revolution of the early 20th century. Students often enter this course with preconceived notions of the relationship between religion and the scientific community – in particular, they often perceive religious authority to have produced barriers to scientific progress and discovery throughout history. During this course, we investigate and challenge these notions. In this presentation I will discuss how this material is presented to students and highlight student comments that demonstrate their evolution in thinking about the relationship between science and religion.

  • • Anomalies and Miracles: Revisitng an Undergraduate Science and Religion Course

    • PAR-C.07
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by David Morgan, Michael Pettinger

    • Type: Contributed
    • The presenters will describe a course that was developed to explore themes related to science and religion. The course — “Science and Religion: Anomalies and Miracles” — was team taught by professors of physics and religious studies, and was designed around a unifying question that motivated the course content and discussions: Historically, how have practitioners of science and religion dealt with unexplained or unexpected events? How do particular worldviews inform the way they receive, interpret, or reject novel ideas? We will present a big-picture overview of the course content, as well as some specific lessons and discussions that illustrate the unique approaches that the team-taught structure permitted. We will also discuss the results of a student survey about the course and explore what students described as the enduring understandings, more than ten years later, that they retained from the experience.

  • • The Effect of Spirituality and Religiousness on Physics Identity and Career Choice

    • PAR-C.07
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Saeed Moshfeghyeganeh, Zahra Hazari

    • Type: Contributed
    • A “conflict thesis”, which claims a methodological, factual, and political conflict between science and religion [1], has led to stereotypes about the low competence of religious people in academic careers, especially in western contexts [2]. People withdeeply held religious beliefs are aware of these negative stereotypes about them, which can lower their interest and performance in science [3]. In this study, we draw on survey data to examine the effect of spirituality and religious beliefs on physics identity and career choice.

  • • Implementing Positive Psychology in Teaching Physics

    • PAR-C.07
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Rahmat Rahmat, Sau Kuen Yam

    • Type: Contributed
    • Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play. Positive Psychology can be used to improve positive learning environment and promote active learning in physics. It can be useful to inspire physics students to have fun with science activities.

• 2020 David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching, Deborah Mason-McCaffrey  

  • • 2020 David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching, Deborah Mason-McCaffrey

    • PL09
    • Tue 07/21, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • Mel Sabella
      
    • Type: None
    • Should Engineers be Teaching Physics?: There are a significant number of engineers teaching Physics at the secondary level. There are data to quantify that. The data are sparse, however, when we ask how many engineers teach physics in 2-year, 4-year, andR1 institutions. If the technology allows, we will take a quick look into that question by polling meeting attendees. So, should engineers be teaching physics? My answer is a qualified ‘Yes.’ We’ll examine a few pros and cons, and some stereotypes. We would be wise to acknowledge that engineers are, indeed, trained to think differently than physicists, which influences our approaches to problem-solving. We also know that teaching can involve things that are difficult to measure; such as building rapport, respect and community. I would like to show how those un-measurables, in concert with my experiences as an engineer, have shaped my approach to teaching physics. I try to balance careful planning and structure, with flexibility and treating teaching as a prototype product that can be continuously improved. And, finally, I will talk about being part of the significant growth in the Physics minor at Salem State University (Massachusetts).

• 30 Demos in 60 Minutes  

  • • 30 Demos in 60 Minutes

    • STPAR-8
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Wenday Adams
    • Type: other

• AAPT Speakers Bureau: Purpose and Samples  

  • • AAPT Speakers Bureau: Purpose and Samples

    • PAR-A.01
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Charles Holbrow
    • Type: other
    • This session will acquaint attendees with and encourage their use of the AAPT Speakers' Bureau. It will begin with a description of the history and purpose of the Speakers' Bureau, including information about how to request a speaker and how to register as a speaker. It will conclude with brief presentations by several of the available speakers.

  • • Lab Equipment for EVERYONE in Alabama!

    • PAR-A.01
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Tommi Holsenbeck
    • Type: Invited
    • Imagine if every public high school science department had thousands of dollars’ worth of high-tech equipment available to educate their students…with Alabama Science in Motion they have access to that and more! 33 classroom teachers (specialists in Physics, Biology or Chemistry) at 11 universities across the state deliver over $11 million work of labs, demos, equipment and more direct to science classrooms. Through workshops, co-teaching, and online methods ASIM works with teachers. This "share the wealth" model can be adopted in all states. Look at our website: www.cws.auburn.edu/asim to see the lessons using learning cycles, white boarding, PER, formative assessment, teacher sharing and more. Many additions to the physics program came from the MSP APEX Grant at Alabama A&M, in partnership with AAPT. ASIM enables physics teachers to acquire a deeper knowledge of physics content and employ more effective pedagogical strategies based on physics education research, enabling students to achieve higher gains.

  • • Benefits of AAPT to High School Physics Teachers

    • PAR-A.01
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Jan Mader
    • Type: Invited
    • As a high school teacher and E-mentor I have found a wealth of information within the AAPT organization to not only assist with my own instruction but to provide support for new teachers in the field. Everything from adopt a physicist to digi-kits is at my finger tips. As a physics teaching association I believe many members do not realize the breadth of resources available and much of the resources are underused.

  • • Computational Modeling in an Introductory Physics Course

    • PAR-A.01
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Thomas O'Kuma
    • Type: Invited
    • You and/or your department are interested in introducing computational modeling into your introductory physics courses, but want some concrete ideas of how to accomplish this. You want it to be student friendly; i.e., not requiring much prior student programming experience. You want it to be instructor friendly; i.e., not requiring huge time investment for the faculty to implement. You want it to be affordable; i.e., not requiring a huge investment by the department, faculty or student. This presentation will illustrate a way to accomplish introducing computational modeling into introductory physics courses.

  • • Motivation for the Speakers Bureau

    • PAR-A.01
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Gordon Ramsey
    • Type: Invited
    • Many speakers’ bureaus exist to provide lists of potential speakers for important events. Scientific bureaus tend to provide lists of speakers with specific expertise in science related topics. The AAPT Speakers Bureau was established early last decade to provide AAPT members and sections with information on available speakers for physics related events. The list can be used for local or national meetings and contain a wide variety topics related to physics and physics education. It is searchable, by geography (sections), topics or speakers names. I will give a small sample of two popular talks that I have given in many locations as an example of what the speakers’ bureau can provide. These are “Physics of Music” and “Physics of Cats”. The AAPT Speakers’ Bureau can be found at: https://aapt.org/Resources/speakers_bureau-landing.cfm.

  • • Contributing to the AAPT Speakers Bureau: Students as collaborators in creating effective, inclusive learning spaces

    • PAR-A.01
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Mel Sabella, Jamia Whitehorn, Ember Smith, Gregory Curry, Andrea Van Duzor

    • Type: Invited
    • The AAPT Speakers Bureau can be a powerful tool to share the expertise of AAPT members and disseminate the diverse work we do to support physics education at all levels throughout the world. The work of my group, at Chicago State University, focuses on supporting students underrepresented in physics by creating opportunities for faculty to collaborate with students on education reform efforts. Much of this work leverages the Learning Assistant Model, input from students, and input from undergraduate education researchers. This student expertise can create effective, inclusive learning environments as well as shifts in who has power in the classroom and who has power in how our learning environments are structured. These are exciting spaces to work in for both faculty and students who all play a role in how we think about physics teaching and learning.

  • • AAPT Speakers Bureau: Mysteries of Quantum Physics

    • PAR-A.01
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Chandralekha Singh
    • Type: Invited
    • The AAPT Speakers Bureau provides AAPT members with an opportunity to share their passion, excitement and expertise in physics with the public as well as students at all levels. I have always enjoyed sharing my passion for quantum physics with the publicand K-16 students. Quantum mechanics is a powerful and mysterious theory. It is our best theory for explaining everything we understand about the properties of matter and the world around us. This understanding has led to incredible transformation of science and technology in the last century. However, even Einstein was disturbed by some of its predictions. We are still doing experiments to understand the most unsettling predictions and foundations of quantum physics. At the same time, researchers are using the most bizarre aspects of quantum theory to create new technologies like quantum computers. It is never too early to learn about the fascinating mysteries of quantum physics.

  • • The Future of Optics is Programmable

    • PAR-A.01
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Gabriel Spalding
    • Type: Invited
    • We teach Optics by leveraging a coherent series of hands-on laboratory engagements that connect well with classroom discussion of mathematical modeling. These labs directly explore mathematical models contained in Optics texts, commonly utilizing liquid crystal Spatial Light Modulators (SLMs), which allow simple and direct programmatic control of phase, amplitude, or polarization across the field of a beam of light. As added bonus, their use avoids the excessive burdens associated with manual alignment and re-alignment (and re-alignment and...) that would be required for systematic studies based on traditional (fixed) optical components. Again, SLMs allow direct control of amplitude and phase modulation of beams, which is useful for teaching Fresnel Diffraction, Fraunhofer Diffraction, and Fourier Optics, as well as spatial filtering, computer-generated Holograms, Aberration Correction, Laser Modes, and much, much more (e.g., encoding information, the linear momentum, spin angular momentum, and orbital angular momentum of light beams).

  • • Using Spandex to Teach Physics

    • PAR-A.01
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Gary White
    • Type: Invited
    • A sheet of spandex is a terrific accessory for any physics classroom, useful for a wide variety of activities from exploring solar system origin and structure to modeling tidal effects to visualizing electrostatic potential wells to making adjustable slingshots. I will demonstrate how I use spandex both in my own classrooms and in presentations to the general public, and provide some background about the physics of stretched spandex.

• Astronomy Paper  

  • • Online Astronomy Programming and Virtual Interaction

    • PAR-D.01
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Ken Brandt
    • Type: Contributed
    • Using Zoom, Stellarium Planetarium Software, and video programming from NASA and ESA, I have built a set of planetarium programs being offered locally and internationally. Here I present lessons learned from these interactive programs, and a set of best practices for teaching astronomical content virtually. A major challenge has been audience interaction. I present some strategies to get the audience more engaged, as this might be useful anywhere virtual teaching and learning are being used.

  • • Supporting Families’ Collaborative Learning of Astronomy

    • PAR-D.01
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Luke Conlin, Megan Luce

    • Type: Contributed
    • At public observatories, families have an opportunity to learn astronomy together. However, the way public observations are typically structured present obstacles for collaborative learning. Often, only one person can look at a time while an expert describes what is in view and gives background information. We have been exploring ways of setting up activities for families to learn astronomy in more collaborative ways that rely less on facilitator explanation. We report on a study in which a family pilot tested new activities to encourage more collaborative sensemaking. We found key factors that supported the family’s collaborative learning include (1) using activities that shift authority and control to each member of the family, (2) Having a variety of activities that can be deployed at strategic times rather than a fixed schedule, and (3) Being responsive to the family dynamics, including the emotional needs of each family member.

  • • Hands-on Radio Astronomy in the Classroom Using a Horn Telescope

    • PAR-D.01
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by John Makous
    • Type: Contributed
    • The description and operation of a horn radio telescope that can be used in introductory physics and astronomy classrooms will be presented. The telescope used in the investigations, which is designed to detect the 21 cm wavelength emitted by atomic hydrogen, can be constructed easily and at an affordable cost. Projects that will be discussed include making a map of hydrogen in the Milky Way Galaxy, measuring its profile, and determining a rotation curve.

  • • Extent of Formative Assessment-Based Active Learning in Interactive Planetarium Shows

    • PAR-D.01
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Sara Schultz, Timothy Slater

    • Type: Contributed
    • Simply having a virtual reality planetarium facility to immerse students beneath a projected night sky in and of itself is insufficient to automatically ensure student learning occurs. Modern teaching strategies, like active learning, have consistently shown to move students toward a better and longer-lasting understanding in classrooms, and one naturally wonders how this plays out in the planetarium. This observation study evaluated the nature of active learning-based formative assessment conversation cycles in the planetarium and, using follow up clinical interviews, identified rationale or barriers to their use. A synthesis of collected data found scant evidence of complete formative assessment conversation cycles, but varying degrees of interactivity between the planetarium lecturer and the audience were observed. Similar to what researchers report about typical K-12 classrooms, the results of this study reveal that active learning featuring assessment conversation cycles is largely absent in the planetarium programs sampled.

  • • A Flat Earth?

    • PAR-D.01
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Bruce Sherwood
    • Type: Contributed
    • Flat-earthism is one kind of science denial, and it asserts that scientists conspire with governments to keep secret the "fact" that the Earth is flat. Many scientists' attempts to disprove a flat Earth unfortunately cite evidence that is not easily accessible to a non-scientist. I have made a navigable 3D computational model of a popular U.S. flat-earthers' model of a flat Earth, which makes it possible to identify a number of naked-eye observations that strongly disagree with the predictions of the flat-earthers' own model. This is potentially useful because flat-earthers privilege naked-eye observations as the only valid kind of evidence. I will demonstrate the computational model, which is available at tinyurl.com/FEmodel.

  • • Preliminary Results on Students in Dispersed Remote Telescope Observing Teams

    • PAR-D.01
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Timothy Slater, Brian Uzpen

    • Type: Contributed
    • Undergraduate research experiences provide mechanisms for enculturating students into the community of scientific research and sharpening research skills. These experiences typically fall into two categories in astronomy: either highly competitive national experiences or localized experiences run by local faculty with access to institutional observing facilities. In leveraging opportunities provided by the remotely controlled Las Cumbres Observatory, we are exploring a third option—25 geographically distributed research teams of a mentoring faculty member and 3-to-4 undergraduate teams collaboratively measuring the distance to a nearby galaxy. As a first step to understanding potential impacts, we find limited changes to student perceptions of science identity, scientific community values and changes of their understanding of scientific inquiry, despite completing an entire inquiry cycle, including publishing of a formal scientific paper.

  • • Extending Engagement Beyond the Planetarium Show: Big Astronomy in Chile

    • PAR-D.01
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jesica Trucks, Kathleen Hinko, Shannon Schmoll

    • Type: Contributed
    • The Big Astronomy Project is a multi-institutional effort that aims to share the stories of the people and places that make big astronomy possible in Chile. We have developed a model, the Dome+ model, to identify best practices for extending engagement beyond planetarium shows. The model’s main component is a planetarium show, where planetarium visitors are shown NSF ground-based observatories in Chile. To support STEM identity, interest, and agency for planetarium visitors, we are creating additional resources such as weekly virtual sessions with STEM professionals, a web portal with additional content, and a suite of hands-on activities. The project strives to 1) promote awareness of the investments in astronomy being made by the US in Chile, 2) encourage interest in diverse STEM career opportunities at large observatories, 3) share knowledge of the science enabled by big astronomy, 4) increase perceptions by Latinx youth and adults about careers at observatories.

• Best Practices in Educational Technology  

  • • Physicality and making in a computational physics class

    • PAR-A.02
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Timothy Atherton, Brian Gravel, Ezra Gouvea

    • Type: Invited
    • Computation is inextricably intertwined with virtually every aspect of contemporary Physics research practice including design of experiments, creation of theory, simulations as well as collection, analysis and visualization of data. In contrast, computational activities in Physics classrooms have tended to focus on coding, problem-solving and simulation. To bridge this gap between pedagogy and practice, we have developed a series of making activities whereby students create physical artifacts from low-cost materials, collect quantitative data describing their motion, build models to predict their behavior and reconcile experiment and theory. Results from our first two trials in a group and project-based Computational Physics class will be presented, showing how this approach enables students to engage in disciplinary practice. Design and implementation advice for instructors interested in adopting similar techniques will be provided.

  • • A Computational CURE: Canopy Waves, Colliding Galaxies, and Traveling Salestronauts

    • PAR-A.02
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Nicholas Nelson, Dillon Anderson, Blake Buckner, Bjorn Larsen, Joshua Meadows

    • Type: Invited
    • Involvement in undergraduate research has been shown to have positive effects on physics students, including improved conceptual and technical understanding, increased interest in graduate study, enhanced motivation for future coursework, and better scientific communication skills. Summer research programs, however, have not kept pace with the roughly tripling in the number of physics majors over the past 20 years. An alternative model is that of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) in which students gain research experience through a course. Here we present an example of a CURE in computational physics which produced three research projects: first, computational fluid dynamics model of so-called canopy waves, which have been observed in wind blowing through orchards; second, updating a classic result from astrophysics that explains the morphology of colliding galaxies; third, a futuristic update on the traveling salesman problem where our salesman travels through the solar system, which we term the traveling salestronaut.

  • • Integrating Computation in Introductory Physics Labs

    • PAR-A.02
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Steven Wolf
    • Type: Invited
    • At East Carolina University, we have been transforming our Introductory Lab Curriculum to privilege authentic science practices as a part of our XLABs (Cross-Disciplinary Lab Transformation) project (NSF-IUSE: #1725655). One of the science practices identified by the NGSS is analyzing and interpreting data. This practice is executed in computational environments in all modern scientific and engineering settings. I will discuss how we are integrating computation in our Introductory Physics labs, focusing on the environments that we are using and the ways that we are supporting student computational skill development.

• Broadening Participation in STEM through Science Cafes and Festivals  

  • • Broadening Participation in STEM through Science Cafes and Festivals

    • PAR-F.01-PAN
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Kristi Concannon
    • Type: Panel
    • The scientific literacy of the general population can be improved through engagement in public science events. From small scale science cafes to large city-wide festivals, the panelists in this session will describe the challenges and successes of increasing STEM participation through public outreach events.

• Communicating Sensitive Topics in the Classroom  

  • • Talking about genders in the classroom

    • PAR-F.02
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jennifer Blue, Adrienne Traxler

    • Type: Invited
    • Gender can be a touchy subject in any classroom, and perhaps it seems even more so in physics, where many women and LGBTQIA+ people have traditionally felt unwelcome. This talk will start with information about the status quo for these groups. Then it will provide advice and resources to help physics teachers as we work towards making everyone feel welcome in our classrooms, at our schools, and in our workplaces.

  • • Tough Topics - Stepping Outside the Comfort Zone

    • PAR-F.02
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Pearl Sandick
    • Type: Invited
    • 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.

• Computer Modeling and Computation in Labs  

  • • Modern Computer Applications in the Advanced Laboratory

    • PAR-G.01
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Daniel Borrero
    • Type: Invited
    • While computers have long played an important part in Physics laboratory instruction, the scope of their use is often limited to relatively simple data processing tasks like fitting experimental data to well-established analytical models. While these applications are obviously important, they are not representative of the full range of ways that computers are used in modern physics research laboratories. In this talk, I will discuss how the Physics department at Willamette University has created engaging laboratory experiences that tightly integrate experiment, theory, and computational modeling and incorporate modern computational tasks like data visualization, simulation of experimental systems, and computer-aided design and fabrication of experimental apparatus. These activities have reduced the time that faculty spend training undergraduates to work in their labs allowing students to make more significant research contributions, while also helping them acquire crucial computation skills that they will need as they join the 21st century workforce.

  • • Adding Computation to the Introductory Physics Lab

    • PAR-G.01
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Ashley Carter
    • Type: Invited
    • There have been many recent calls to overhaul the introductory lab course. This is because it doesn’t meet a commonly stated goal of reinforcing lecture content (Holmes et al., Physics Today, 2018), nor is it focused on teaching experimental skills like designing experiments and analyzing data (Kozminski et al., AAPT, 2014). In addition, it doesn’t teach computational modeling—where students use computational tools to conceive, construct, or test models—even though the laboratory is where this modeling would naturally occur (Behringer et al., AAPT, 2017). One method to overhaul the course that is gaining traction is to have students engage in open-ended projects. I will discuss implementation of this method and how it can be used to teach computational modeling to introductory students without any computational skills. This discussion will include computational practicums, emphasizing modeling in the lab notebook, requiring students to vary two variables in their models, and building in iteration.

• Doing physics and being ____  

  • • Doing physics and being a traitor to the white race

    • PAR-C.01
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Dimitri Dounas-Frazer
    • Type: Invited
    • I am grappling with the Sisyphean task of treason against whiteness. For me, such treason involves explicitly rejecting racial bonding with other white people, as well as deliberately searching for worldviews generated by peoples outside the boundaries of whiteness. In this talk, I elaborate on my understanding of treason to whiteness, the ‘race traitor’ identity, and connections to my identity as a queer Greek-American physics education researcher. I further describe my experiences as an aspiring race traitor whose family, teaching contexts, and research field are predominantly white. I show how white solidarity operates through both the promise/reality of white privilege and the punishment of treason. Finally, this presentation is an opportunity for me to reflect upon my ideologies and practices in the context of work by bell hooks, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, James Baldwin, John Garvey, Mab Segrest, Noel Ignatiev, Patricia Hill Collins, and others who have influenced my thinking.

  • • Doing physics and being other

    • PAR-C.01
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Zahra Hazari
    • Type: Invited
    • Cultural border crossing can stir up feelings of anxiety, pretense, and internal conflict, especially if one feels alien to the culture they are navigating. While individuals can learn to navigate border crossings between cultures, limit their expectations of belonging, and find ways to make meaningful and recognized contributions, the feeling of being "other" is hard to overcome and can be isolating. This has been my experience: feeling recognized but not belonging. For example, I have been identified as the "educator" in physics communities but as the "physicist" in education communities. I have been identified as coming from "somewhere else" in western contexts and as the "American" in eastern contexts. I have been treated as irrationally "religious" in science communities and as overly "analytical" in religious communities. While these experiences are wearisome, they provide substantial opportunities to free oneself from the rigid bounds of any culture. As a community, we need to be cognizant of the cultural boundaries that we create, often unintentionally, so that we can strive to be inclusive in ways that are meaningful to those who are most different from ourselves.

  • • “Doing Physics” and Being a Champion for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Professional Society Arena

    • PAR-C.01
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Arlene Modeste Knowles
    • Type: Invited
    • I’ve spent nearly 30 years navigating the physics and, more recently, astronomy communities advocating within the professional society space for women, people of color, LGBT+ people, and others from marginalized groups so that they might thrive in their educational spaces and careers. At the same time, I’ve had to navigate these communities from the identity of a Black Woman without a physics degree, which has contributed to the experiences I’ve had throughout my career and has shaped my approach to this work. In this talk, I’ll share some of my views, motivations, and experiences doing DEI work in the professional society space; discuss some of the work I’ve done including my most recent work leading the AIP Task Force to Elevate the representation of African Americans in Undergraduate Physics (TEAM-UP) project; and reflect on the ways in which each of us can uplift students and scientists from marginalized communities to create a better environment for them and all of us.

  • • Doing Physics and Being A Carny

    • PAR-C.01
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Valerie Otero
    • Type: Invited
    • I grew up working at the carnival after school since I was 12, where I still work today. In high school, I was counseled into the “career training program,” which is where they directed all the brown kids. I asked if I could continue to study calculus incareer training and they said, “No, take business math.” I said, “No. I won’t go.” I first found physics my 3rd of 6 years in college. It was math with glitter on top! And…I seemed to belong! I was good at it! I failed my first test though, because I worked 16 hours at the carnival the day before. The upshot is that I gained so much business sense over the years, which has helped me build and sustain programs such as the Learning Assistant Alliance and PEER Physics. I will discuss challenges that come from being a low-income, Chicana in physics.

• Early Career Topical Discussion  

  • • Early Career Topical Discussion

    • STPAR-2
    • by Lindsay Owens
    • Type: Topical
    • Postdocs, new faculty, and other junior Physics Education Research (PER) members are invited to this topical discussion to meet and discuss common issues. As this stage in a career can be a period of significant transition, we are hoping to provide a space to facilitate community building, resources, and professional development for those starting a career in PER. The session format will be an open discussion about identifying what are the needs of early career members in the community, how can we plan strategies to address those needs, and how to build the support structures for that community. We will ask participants to discuss these topics in small groups first, then share those ideas with the room.

• Exploring Virtual and Augmented Reality in Physics Education  

  • • Modeling novel physics using virtual reality in introductory physics laboratories

    • PAR-G.02
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jared Canright, Suzanne Brahmia, Peter Shaffer

    • Type: Invited
    • Generating mathematical models of phenomena is central to the practice of physics. Since there is typically no physics in the introductory sequence for which a model doesn't already exist, most laboratory experiences are structured as hypothesis-testing experiments in which students are given a model to verify. As a part of the introductory lab transformation project at the University of Washington (UW) - informed by the Investigative Science Learning Environment learning system - the Physics Education Group has created an authentic model-generating learning opportunity. Using a virtual reality environment, students explore physical phenomena that do not exist in the real world (or Wikipedia). Students generate mathematical models describing these phenomena from scratch, applying reasoning skills similar to those used by research scientists. This talk will describe the development of the "artificial" phenomena, their implementation in UW introductory electromagnetism labs, and the labs' impact on students' learning and development of scientific reasoning.

  • • Teaching 3D Physics Concepts with Augmented Reality

    • PAR-G.02
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Nick Giordano, Michele McColgan, Graziano Vernizzi

    • Type: Contributed
    • Students find difficulty visualizing 3D concepts in our physics courses. In our introductory calculus-based physics and upper-level electricity and magnetism courses, students struggle to visualize electric and magnetic fields, electric flux, Gauss’s law, electromagnetic induction, three-dimensional integration, and the divergence theorem, to name a few of the E&M topics that are well suited for visualization using augmented reality. For example, when teaching Gauss’s law, the mathematical formalism tends to hide the geometrical meaning of Gauss’s law, more than explain it. Therefore, an AR hands-on visual representation can greatly help in rendering the concepts of flux through a surface or charge density in a given volume, so as to help students understand the physics behind it. In this poster presentation, we will demonstrate the AR applications and activities that we’ve developed and plan to use in our courses.

  • • Designing and Assessing the Efficacy of VR Educational Games

    • PAR-G.02
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Mina Johnson-Glenberg
    • Type: Invited
    • Virtual Reality (VR) leverages two “profound affordances”: 1) presence and 2) the agency associated with manipulating content in 3D to explore multidimensional and spatial phenomena. At the Embodied Games lab at Arizona State University, we create VR content that uses presence to get the students’ undivided attention, and then we ensure that all content is interactive and embodied (via gesture and motion capture). Dr. Johnson-Glenberg will present two games and one AR application (designed with Vierya software). The first game is available at the Oculus Store for free and instructs in natural selection (called “Catch a Mimic”). She will present data on best uses of VR and learning gain differences between VR and 2D PC platforms. The second is a new game on Tuned Mass Dampers (think the Taipei 101 building). She will seek audience feedback on how to optimize the educational game for a physics and engineering lesson.

• Finding and adapting IPLS materials from the Living Physics Portal  

  • • Interactive Simulations of Equilibrium Problems on Human Body

    • PAR-D.09
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Dan Liu
    • Type: Contributed
    • The curricula of interdisciplinary introductory physics courses for life science programs such as Physics of Sports, Physics of Human Body etc. have a big component of Kinetics in general. Equilibrium is one of the most important chapters with a variety of applications of fundamental physics knowledges including force analysis, Newton’s laws and the conditions of equilibrium for translation and rotation. In order to better engage students to learn statics, we start to develop interactive simulations of equilibrium problems on human body and implement the simulation activities in the course Physics of Human Body, which is mainly for students majoring in Physics Therapy, Health Sciences and Rehabilitation Sciences. A couple of the simulations will be shared in the presentation and later in Living Physics Portal.

  • • Creating a Biomechanics Course for Future Occupational Therapists - Twice!

    • PAR-D.09
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by J. Caleb Speirs
    • Type: Invited
    • One week is not enough time to design an entire course, especially a course with unfamiliar subject matter. Yet many educators find themselves in similar or more daunting situations. This talk will describe two iterations of an introductory biomechanics course designed for undergraduates in the field of occupational therapy (OT). More importantly, it will also highlight the ways that the physics education research community aided the course design, both in pedagogical stance and in terms of specific activities and materials. The course itself leads students with no physics background and little math skills through basic mechanics and allows them to productively use and analyze biomechanical models of various "activities of daily living" (ADL's). Largely project based, the course draws from materials posted on the Living Physics Portal in addition to exposing students to published research in OT and asking them to blend their OT perspectives into the course content.

  • • Adapting IPLS Materials for Large Enrollment, Algebra-based, Studio Courses

    • PAR-D.09
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Brokk Toggerson
    • Type: Invited
    • Introductory physics for life science (IPLS) courses can vary wildly in sizes, pre-requisites, major distributions, and pedagogical frameworks. These variations mean some level of adaptation of found materials is almost always required. This talk will focus on the process of adapting materials from the IPLS Portal (and elsewhere) to a two-semester, algebra-based, studio-style IPLS sequence of large enrollment at University of Massachusetts Amherst. In this context, large enrollment means a single instructor, with some TA support, is responsible for two sections of 100 students each in the first semester, and for two sections of 250 students in the second. Therefore, scalability, while maintaining an active learning environment, is a key consideration. Other adaptations motivated by our large number of kinesiology majors, as well as differences arising from algebra- versus calculus-based courses will also be considered.

  • • Adapting materials for a transferable IPLS studio course

    • PAR-D.09
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Xian Wu
    • Type: Invited
    • The University of Connecticut has initiated the transition of its calculus-based intro-physics courses from traditional lecture into interactive studio. Numerous materials have been newly developed or adapted to leverage studio classroom facility to benefit student learning. A mock-up IPLS studio course is taught in the 2020 summer semester with limited enrollment. We would like to share with the PER community the lessons we have learned through the transition so far.

• Frontiers of Astronomy  

  • • Astrobiology: Formation and Processing of Amino Acids in Space*

    • PAR-F.03
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Michael Famiano, Richard Boyd, Toshitaka Kajino, Takashi Onaka, Yirong Mo

    • Type: Invited
    • The discovery of bio-molecules in meteorites with an excess of one chiral state has created one of the biggest questions in science today. That is, what is the origin of bio-molecular homochirality? Studies of this question are highly interdisciplinary, and while several phenomenological models exist, we examine the relationship between fundamental symmetries at the particle level and the macroscopic formation of bio-molecules. A model has been developed which couples fundamental interactions with the formation of molecular chirality. In this magneto-chiral model atomic nuclei bound in amino acids interact via the weak interaction in stellar environments. Nuclei are coupled to the molecular geometry (chirality) via the shielding tensor – the same interaction responsible for NMR identification. Interactions with leptons can then selectively destroy one chiral state over the other. Possible sites are proposed in which this model may exist. It may be possible to test the formation of chiral bio-molecules in space in a polarized electron beam experiment. Such an experiment will be discussed along with several problems and questions associated with it.

  • • The Hunt for (Almost) Dark Galaxies

    • PAR-F.03
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Lukas Leisman
    • Type: Invited
    • Are there galaxies that we can't see? The ALFALFA survey uses Arecibo Observatory, the largest fully functional radio telescope in the world, to search for (nearly) starless galaxies that emit radio waves. This talk will summarize the field of galaxy formation and evolution, present results from ALFALFA, and explore what these results tell us about how galaxies form. A special emphasis will be given to the contributions of student researchers to this work.

• Gender  

  • • Instructor and Student Gender's Effect on Performance in Introductory Courses

    • PAR-C.02
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Matthew Dew, Tatiana Erukhimova, Jonathan Perry, Lewis Ford, William Bassichis

    • Type: Contributed
    • Previous studies have shown evidence of a gender gap in performance in introductory physics courses for conceptual assessments, course grades, exams, and homework. This study explores the relation between a student’s gender and their performance, and perception of that performance, in both calculus-based and algebra-based introductory physics sequences at Texas A&M University. Investigation of student performance based on gender is done using analysis of variance on student midterm exam grades and final letter grades from multiple instructors’ courses from 2008-2018. Student perception of their performance and inclusion in the course was measured through a survey administered in fall 2019. We present results from both parts of this study to try to better understand differences in gendered performance in introductory physics sequences.

  • • Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving: Gender and Instructional Method

    • PAR-C.02
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Melanie Good, Alex Maries, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Contributed
    • To examine the potential changes in attitudes and approaches to problem solving over a semester, we administered a previously validated Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving (AAPS) survey both at the beginning (pre) and at the end of instruction (post) in eight large enrollment calculus-based introductory physics classes at a large research university in the United States. We found that all classes exhibited a decline in score on the AAPS but that classes which involved significant use of evidence-based active engagement methods exhibited statistically significantly better scores on the AAPS survey at the end of the course. Equally importantly, unlike broader epistemological surveys, female students were found to exhibit less of a decline in AAPS scores than did their male counterparts in all classes and the AAPS scores were always higher for female students at the end of the course.

  • • Understanding the Local Contexts for the Implementation of STEP UP Lessons

    • PAR-C.02
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Thomas Head, Raina Khatri, Zahra Hazari

    • Type: Contributed
    • After having implemented two lessons developed as part of the STEP UP project, five teachers were interviewed about their experiences using the materials in their classes. These teachers have unique backgrounds and teach in schools with different social and economic contexts. We triangulated the quantitative outcomes of their students with their interview reflections to determine how local context is associated with student outcomes, particularly students’ perceptions of the lessons and the post-high school physics intentions.

  • • Supporting Gender Equity in the STEM Classroom

    • PAR-C.02
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Lynn Jorgensen
    • Type: Contributed
    • The fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have grown in the past twenty years, while the proportion of women in these fields has not seen the same growth. This article researches how inquiry-based instructional approaches canbetter 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.

  • • Impact of Women in Physics lesson on students’ bias perceptions

    • PAR-C.02
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Conner Kelley, Keely Scott, Robynne Lock, Zahra Hazari, Geoff Potvin

    • Type: Contributed
    • The STEP UP Project is focused on challenging societal beliefs surrounding the roles of women in physics and helping interested young women achieve their goals to become physicists. The movement includes many high school physics teachers across the country. Of many teachers recruited to implement the STEP UP lessons, three returned student essays associated with the Women in Physics lesson. Students wrote essays before and after a class discussion, and we compared the students’ pre-assignment response with those of the post-assignment and noted changes, if any, in the students’ thoughts on the discouragement of women from studying physics. We compared students’ shift in beliefs before and after the lesson and constructed diagrams showing changes between the pre- and post-assignment.

  • • STEP UP: Implementation Factors Promoting Student Future Physics Intentions

    • PAR-C.02
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Raina Khatri, T. Blake Head, Zahra Hazari, Geoff Potvin, Laird Kramer

    • Type: Contributed
    • As part of the STEP UP project, we developed and tested lessons that help teachers encourage women to pursue physics degrees in college. To understand how the impacts of these lessons varied between different student sub-populations, we carefully investigated three different classroom/teacher cases. We drew upon multiple sources of data collected from both teachers and students including teacher interviews, teacher and student open response surveys, and student artifacts from the lessons. This talk will present findings that identify factors that are potentially important to the successful implementation of the lessons, and the implications for how to better support female students.

  • • Teaching Women's History in Physics

    • PAR-C.02
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Beth Parks
    • Type: Contributed
    • Much effort has been expended to uncover forgotten contributions by women in physics and publicize examples of female physicists to students, largely to help female students see themselves in physics. However, the physicists who formulated the ideas taught in college courses were almost all men, and women’s absence from these most important roles will be noted by students. If we don’t acknowledge and address their absence, then female students won’t feel fully supported in their decision to become physicists, since they’ll see women only in less influential roles. We need to discuss the social context in which these most influential physicists worked. Since the necessary combination of educational opportunities, family support, social acceptance, financial means, and employment opportunities were available to a much smaller fraction of women than men, it’s no surprise that a small fraction of discoveries were made by women. This talk will present a brief sampling of history, looking at the opportunities of three important male physicists--James Clerk Maxwell, Robert Millikan, and Albert Einstein--and comparing them to their female peers. Just a few minutes of class time are needed to discuss this disparity, and also open the door to discussions of current social conditions.

  • • The Challenges and Joys of being a Physicist Parent

    • PAR-C.02
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Sarah Phan-Budd, Ashley Carter, Emily Rice, Heather Whitney, Laura Tucker

    • Type: Contributed
    • While the dearth of women in academic STEM positions has long been known (1) , a recent study found that 43% of women and 23% of men leave full time STEM jobs after their first child (2) . This talk addresses the challenges of maintaining an academic physics career while parenting young children. We are a group of mid-career physicists, in an AAPT-sponsored E-Alliance mutual mentoring group, with ten young children between the five of us. We review the efficacy of programs from our various universities, professional organizations, and research collaborations for parents with small children. We make recommendations for how policies and programs can be improved and expanded. Finally, we suggest personal strategies and tips for surviving and thriving as academic physicists with small children.

• General Relativity in the High School Classroom  

  • • General Relativity in the High School Classroom

    • PAR-D.04B
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Charlie Payne
    • Type: Invited
    • Given current cutting-edge science that is in the news, from Gravitational Waves to Particle Physics to GPS, Relativity has a place in the high school physics classroom. I will discuss the Why, Where, and How of putting General Relativity into the classroom. With activities from sources such as the Perimeter Institute, OzGrav, and LIGO, students can delve into a conceptual model of General Relativity in a variety of ways beyond reading and videos. These will include hands-on as well as VR and AR activities that have worked in my own classroom setting.

  • • Introducing General Relativity via Hands-on Activities

    • PAR-D.04B
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Damian Pope
    • Type: Invited
    • General relativity is one of the most modern, powerful, and beautiful theories in all of physics. Yet, it's also complex and rarely taught in high school physics. This session will share some cheap, simple, hands-on activities for introducing high schoolstudents to general relativity. Building on what students already know about Newtonian gravity, the activities including modelling curved spacetime with stretchy fabric and tape and introducing the equivalence principle by dropping a bottle of water into freefall.

• Get the Facts Out: Changing the Conversation Around Physics Teacher Recruitment  

  • • Get the Facts Out: Resource updates and recent research results

    • PAR-C.03
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Wendy Adams, Savannah Logan, Jared Breakall

    • Type: Invited
    • The Get the Facts Out (GFO) project is a joint effort between four national societies and the Colorado School of Mines to change the conversation around grade 7-12 physics, chemistry, and math teaching careers. We have developed the first ever set of research-based, user-tested STEM teacher recruitment materials. To do this and to better understand best practices around recruiting math and science teachers, GFO has a rigorous research arm. Our research includes the study of both student and faculty perceptions of the teaching profession including development of instruments to measure these. Finally, to measure the effectiveness of the project, we are engaging in a large-scale longitudinal study that includes annual collection of qualitative data from eighteen departments and quantitative data from another 60 departments. Here we will share resource updates and recent highlights of research results. This work is supported by NSF DUE-1821710 & 1821462.

  • • My biggest project evaluation challenge: Get the Facts Out

    • PAR-C.03
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Stephanie Chasteen, Wendy Adams

    • Type: Invited
    • Get the Facts Out (GFO) is a complex and ambitious social change initiative. It involves a huge number of people at national scale, across different levels of the system. As external evaluator, it is my (rather difficult) job to evaluate the success of the project, and help it to improve. I will describe my use of “developmental evaluation,” where results are intended to provide timely feedback to a rapidly evolving complex project. The evaluation has also been guided by the project’s theory of change, and thus addresses questions such as “how well prepared are champions to undertake the work,” and “are campaigns faithful to the principles of GFO”? I will discuss the decentralized, embedded evaluation measures we are using (including a Fidelity of Implementation rubric, activity tracking forms, chat-bots, and surveys). This talk will be of interest to people with an interest in program design and/or project evaluation and assessment.

  • • “So, What Does a Typical Mid-career Teacher Actually Make Anyway?”

    • PAR-C.03
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Drew Isola, Wendy Adams, Allison Costley

    • Type: Invited
    • It turns out that answering the above question is not an easy thing to do. In the GFO project* we are defining a ‘mid-career teacher’ as a high school teacher in a public school district in the U.S. who has about 15 years experience and has a Masters degree or a Masters plus some number of graduate credits. Finding enough data on the salaries earned by such a teacher is a painstaking process of accessing salary tables district by district and looking up these values. The GFO project has been trying to collect useful data on this topic from a wide range of district types and geographic locations. This talk will present the methods used in this time consuming quest, some of our current results and how these salary values compare with cost of living values and median incomes for those same districts. This comparison more accurately reflects these districts’ affordability for the teachers that work there.

• Graduate Education in US- Thinking about Admissions, Diversity, Content Knowledge, and Institutions  

  • • Using Deliberate Innovation Methodologies to Enable Graduate Student Success

    • PAR-E.09
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Erika Cowan*, Michael Schatz, Emily Alicea-Munoz, Edwin Greco

    • Type: Contributed
    • It is a given that not everyone who starts their PhD in physics will complete it. That being said, there are people who have the great potential of being competent and able researchers that leave without the PhD. Using techniques from the Georgia Tech Center for Deliberate Innovation, based in developmental psychology and behavioral economics, we are working to see more clearly what might be getting in the way of competent, motivated students who fail to complete their PhD.

  • • Review of Physics Education in USA and Indian Colleges

    • PAR-E.09
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Pooja Kasam, Ramadevi Kasam, Mallikarjunarao Kasam

    • Type: Contributed
    • Background: In the present paper, we are reviewing the interest statistics in the field of physics at the undergraduate level. Materials/Methods: We reviewed the data from various credible sources regarding information from the past three decades and analyzed this data. Results/Discussion: We reviewed the independent variables such as the number of students majoring in physics during their junior and senior years in their undergraduate degree. Another independent variable is examining the undergraduate graduation rate with a major in physics. In the present work, we reviewed and reported the data into 3 segments: 1975-90, 1990-2005, and 2005 – 2020. Data was collected from different reporting sources of all Indian and U.S. universities. Statistical analysis was conducted on this data and the results were discussed.

  • • Improving the Content and Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Physics Graduate Students Using Physics Education Research

    • PAR-E.09
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Emily Marshman, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Invited
    • Many physics graduate students face the unique challenge of being both students and teachers concurrently. To succeed in these roles, they must develop both physics content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Our research has involved improving both the content knowledge and PCK of first-year graduate students. To improve their content knowledge, we have focused on improving their conceptual understanding of materials covered in upper-level undergraduate courses since our earlier investigations suggest that many graduate students struggle with developing a conceptual understanding of quantum mechanics. Learning tools, such as the Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorials (QuILTs), have been successful, e.g., in helping graduate students improve their understanding of Dirac notation and single photon behavior in the context of a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer. In addition, we have been enhancing our semester long course focusing on the professional development of the teaching assistants (TAs) by including research-based activities. Implications of these interventions for the preparation of graduate students will be discussed.

  • • How do undergraduate institutions matter for physics GRE cutoff scores?

    • PAR-E.09
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Nils Mikkelsen, Nicholas Young, Marcos Caballero

    • Type: Contributed
    • Despite limiting access to applicants from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, the practice of using hard or soft GRE cutoff scores in physics graduate program admissions is still a popular method for reducing the pool of applicants. The present study considers whether the undergraduate institutions of applicants have any influence on the admissions process by modelling a physics GRE cutoff score with application data from admissions offices of five Midwestern universities. Two distinct approaches based on inferential and predictive modelling are conducted. While there is some disagreement regarding the relative importance between features, the two approaches largely agree that to include institutional information significantly aids the analysis. Both models identify cases where the institutional effects are comparable to factors of known importance such as gender and undergraduate GPA. As the results are stable across many cutoff scores, we advocate against the practice of employing physics GRE cutoff scores in admissions.

  • • “Optional” General and Physics GRE Requirements: The Impact on Prospective Graduate Students

    • PAR-E.09
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Lindsay Owens, Benjamin Zwickl, Casey Miller

    • Type: Contributed
    • Graduate program’s reported Physics GRE requirements, recommended minimum scores, and previous cohort score averages influence students’ application decisions. In recent years, the test-optional language of No Required Minimum and GRE Optional requirements has muddied the waters for prospective applicants, particularly for women. In this qualitative study, 60 graduate students (27-F; 31-M; 2-DND) from 24 different graduate programs were asked how they decided where to (and not to) apply to graduate school. Male and female students were equally likely to apply to graduate programs that stated No Required Minimum or GRE Optional language on their admission requirements webpage. This talk will highlight how Physics GRE requirements influenced students’ decisions on where to apply to graduate school and how students interpreted GRE-optional phrases when submitting their application materials. Supported by NSF-1633275

  • • Guided group work and student understanding in graduate-level physics

    • PAR-E.09
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Christopher Porter, Andrew Heckler

    • Type: Invited
    • Guided group work (GGW) has been effectively used in undergraduate physics classrooms for years. Given the substantial selection effects between graduate and undergraduate populations, it is an open question whether group work might be useful at the graduate level. At The Ohio State University, GGW sessions have been developed and run over the past five years for each core course, but this work will focus on quantum mechanics. Students were given pretests and posttests that consist of some calculations, but mostly of conceptual questions. We will discuss trends in student performance across four years (~ 160 students), using many assessment questions covering various standard quantum mechanics content areas. We will note some prevalent misconceptions. We find a statistically significant effect of GGW attendance on student performance on related conceptual questions, even many weeks after instruction. Potential confounding effects are discussed, including student self-selection into treatment groups.

  • • Why Physics Doctoral Students do not Persist?

    • PAR-E.09
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Diana Sachmpazidi, Charles Henderson

    • Type: Contributed
    • Low retention rates in physics PhD programs are an unpleasant reality. There have been many efforts to study and report doctoral attrition and most studies have focused on students’ attributes and mentoring relationships. However, not much work has been focused on examining the interconnection between individual attributes and departmental practices. Last year, using survey data from 19 physics graduate programs, we identified 31 students that were not intending to complete their degree. About half of these students were enrolled in two institutions. In this talk, we use survey and interview data to describe factors related to why these students did not complete their doctoral programs. For example, students who dropped out often described feeling that they did not belong in the department and that they needed to figure things out on their own. We discuss how these results can inform policymakers’ decisions towards improving retention of doctoral students.

  • • Graduate Program Reform at the University of Utah

    • PAR-E.09
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Pearl Sandick, Ramón Barthelemy, Jordan Gerton

    • Type: Contributed
    • 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.

  • • The Physics GRE does not help “overlooked” applicants

    • PAR-E.09
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Nicholas Young, Marcos Caballero

    • Type: Contributed
    • One argument for keeping the physics GRE is that it can help applicants who might otherwise be missed in the admissions process stand out. In this work, we evaluate whether this claim is supported by physics graduate school admissions decisions. We used admissions data from five PhD-granting physics departments over a 2-year period to see how the fraction of applicants admitted varied based on their physics GRE scores. We compared applicants with low GPAs to applicants with higher GPAs and applicants from large undergraduate universities to applicants from smaller undergraduate universities. We find that for applicants who might otherwise have been missed (e.g. have a low GPA or attended a small school) having a high physics GRE score did not seem to increase the applicant’s chances of being admitted to the schools. However, having a low physics GRE score seemed to penalize otherwise competitive applicants.

• High School  

  • • Analyzing Classroom Discussions on the Underrepresentation of Women in Physics*

    • PAR-D.04A
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Benjamin Archibeque, Geoff Potvin, Zahra Hazari, Raina Khatri

    • Type: Contributed
    • Engaging in discussions about the underrepresentation of women have been found to increase women's interest in physical science-related careers and improve their physics identities. Understanding deeply these conversations and how they develop may offer insight into the ways in which teachers can support women in physics classrooms. To this end, we recorded two different sections of an experienced high school physics teacher while implementing a lesson about the underrepresentation of women in physics developed as part of the STEP UP project. In this talk, we will present a comparative analysis of students’ argumentation during these two classes.

  • • Modeling in Michigan: Decade Long, Statewide Program on Modeling Instruction

    • PAR-D.04A
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Don Pata, Mike Gallagher

    • Type: Contributed
    • The Modeling in Michigan program provides workshops to Michigan physics and physical science teachers. It is a comprehensive statewide program conceived and organized by the MiSTEM Network and others. Starting with the carefully designed frameworks provided by Arizona State University, we enhanced the workshops by ensuring alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards, using newer scaffolds that support productive academic classroom discourse and by appending PBL modules on alternative energy and connected and automated vehicle technology. Participants will learn how we grew this program to one that has engaged over 1200 teachers, and receive powerful tools that enhance instructional effectiveness.

  • • We Love Physics: Infusing Your AP Physics C Curriculum with Service Learning

    • PAR-D.04A
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Eric Walters
    • Type: Contributed
    • As poet George Herbert once noted, “In doing, we learn.” Service learning offers students the opportunity to engage in “a wide range of experiences, which often benefits the community, while also advancing the goals of a given curriculum.” In this interactive session, participants will discuss the mechanisms and strategies for infusing service learning opportunities into the AP Physics C: Mechanics curriculum to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of advanced physics concepts in a real-world context. We will also discuss how students planned, designed, and created walkSTEMs, customized, interactive physics-based learning experiences for Central Park to stimulate inquiry and spark curiosity. Participants will review student projects, and brainstorm other meaning service learning projects for physics. You’ll also hear from students as they discuss the benefits and challenges of this new learning model.

• Impact of Evidence-based Active Engagement Pedagogies on Student Learning  

  • • Toward a Neurobiological Basis for Understanding Learning in Physics Courses

    • PAR-G.03
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jessica Bartley, Katherine Bottenhorn, Matthew Sutherland, Eric Brewe, Angelia Laird

    • Type: Invited
    • There is a rich literature investigating the impact of physics pedagogy on student learning. Significantly less, however, is understood about the fundamental neural mechanisms that accompany learning across physics classroom environments. In this study we provide the first neurobiological evidence demonstrating physics instructional approach yields large-scale reorganization in student’s brain networks. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure physics-related brain activity in University students and probed for differences resulting from a semester of Lecture or Modeling physics classroom instruction. Students underwent pre- and identical post-instruction fMRI sessions where we assessed their brain activity during physics reasoning and identified regions more engaged post- relative to pre-instruction. We describe key project findings, including consistent brain activity associated with physics-related cognition, evidence that different knowledge organizations are paralleled by differential engagement of physics-related brain networks, and the characterization of neurobiological changes associated with classroom learning across contrasting pedagogies.

  • • Kinematic Robots Foster Student Inquiry by Optimizing Student Feedback

    • PAR-G.03
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Matthew Greenwolfe
    • Type: Invited
    • In this talk, I describe the design of a robotic kinematic apparatus and a curriculum designed to make use of its unique features to shape the inquiry process. Students program a robot by drawing kinematic graphs on a computer, and the robot precisely and reliably produces the motion, providing immediate visual feedback. Preliminary results support the hypothesis that a physics apparatus precise and reliable enough to serve as a control of error minimizes the need for teacher intervention and improves student absorption in inquiry as well as learning outcomes. The importance of optimal feedback inertia emerged from the study. The turn-around time of several minutes to analyze a mistake and test a new idea encourages students to learn from their mistakes and really think things through.

  • • Active Engagement and Real Applications: Ohio State’s Honors Robotics Project

    • PAR-G.03
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Kathleen Harper
    • Type: Invited
    • The Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors program at The Ohio State University actively engages first-year students contemplating engineering in realistic engineering experiences. This helps solidify their understanding of what engineering is, the kindsof activities engineers engage in, and the elements of engineering design. The most popular second-semester course includes a substantial robotics project which includes planning, budgeting, documentation, teamwork, and of course the technical aspects of designing, programming, constructing, and testing a robot. This course is now in its 25th year. Instructors have based course refinements on results in the science education literature and also assessed the impact of course modifications on the student and teaching assistant experiences. This presentation will give an overview of the project and share multiple examples of the varied ways students are made to be active in their learning process.

  • • Race to Improve Student Understanding of Uncertainty: Using LEGO Race Cars in the Physics Lab

    • PAR-G.03
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Maria Parappilly
    • Type: Invited
    • A novel method is proposed for how LEGO race cars can help students increase their understanding of uncertainty and motivate them in physics labs. The intervention was developed for students in an introductory physics topic with a high early drop-out rate. This intervention was extended into the intro level physics topic the next year, for comparison and evaluation. A qualitative survey of the students was taken to gain insight into their perception of the incorporation of LEGO into physics labs. In this talk, I will discuss the results of the study and how variations in the delivery yielded better learning outcomes. We subsequently adapted the delivery of the LEGO labs for a large Engineering Mechanics cohort. For Engineering, the findings show that LEGO physics was instrumental in teaching students ideas of measurement and uncertainty, improving their lab reporting skills, and was a key factor in reducing the early attrition rate.

• Innovations in Teaching Space Science and Astronomy  

  • • Scaffolds to Support Student Learning: Judging Astronomical Explanations

    • PAR-F.03B
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Janelle Bailey, Doug Lombardi, Timothy Klavon, Archana Dobaria

    • Type: Invited
    • Critique and evaluation of scientific explanations has been underemphasized in K-12 science classrooms (NRC, 2012), and as a result, college students may still need assistance in learning how to make such evaluations about astronomy concepts. The Model-Evidence Link (MEL) diagram is an instructional scaffold that promotes students to critically evaluate alternative explanations and increase their ability to understand complex scientific concepts. Relatedly, the build-a-MEL (baMEL) allows student agency in selecting from provided choices to make and use a new MEL diagram. We have created two astronomy-related activities: a MEL about the Moon's formation and a baMEL on the origins of the Universe. Research on student learning about the Moon’s formation and about the Universe’s origins, as well as on students’ ability to be critically evaluative, is ongoing. These activities are NSF-sponsored and freely available to instructors. The activities are appropriate for undergraduate non-science majors, future teachers, and high school students.

  • • Undergraduate Astronomy Majors: Curriculum Topics, Approaches, and Needs

    • PAR-F.03B
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Kimberly Coble, Janelle Bailey, Colin Wallace, Rica French, Karen Masters

    • Type: Invited
    • The field of astronomy education research has made great strides in basic research, assessment, and development of active learning materials for general education (“ASTRO 101”) courses. However, very little has been done in the realm of astronomy majors.We have been working with the American Astronomical Society’s Education Committee to create a survey and hold forum discussions for instructors interested in the undergraduate majors’ curriculum to identify current topics, practices and needs. We report preliminary results and invite members of the AAPT community to provide input. Our eventual goal is to use this information to strategically guide research and curriculum development for undergraduate astronomy majors.

  • • Space Science, Physics Education, and the NASA/AAPT Collaboration

    • PAR-F.03B
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Ramon Lopez
    • Type: Invited
    • All industrialized countries are facing the same problem of declining student interest in pursuing STEM careers. In physics education, the typical response is to examine issues of appropriate and effective pedagogy, as well as gender and cultural inclusion (both in and out of the classroom). While it is appropriate that the physics community examine what it can do to make physics education more accessible to a greater diversity of students, there are some boundary conditions concerning student interest and motivation that need to be considered in parallel. In this presentation I will examine some issues related to student interest in science, and how the broad student interest in space science can be leveraged to recruit and especially retain students in STEM majors. NASA has established a National Space Science Education center that is partnering with AAPT to capitalize on the leverage that student interest in space science provides. I will present the current status of the effort, plus outline how the AAPT team is launching a project to create a network of space science educators in 2-yr colleges, in collaboration with NASA’s Space Grant program.

• Integrating Computation into High School Physics  

  • • The Experience of Integrating Computation into the Physics Classroom

    • PAR-C.04
    • Sun 07/19, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Julie Bennett
    • Type: Invited
    • Integrating computation into the classroom has been an uncharted journey; from learning to code at a week long seminar to encouraging students in the classroom to interpret code and solve problems. Gathering information gained through practice and discussion, I introduced my students to vpython using trinket. Programming activities ranged from moving and creating shapes to using the program to confirm physics homework challenges. The results have been varied as I learn to understand how quickly (or not) students pick up the logic flow of programming. Exposing students to the world of coding is valuable in that no matter where and what they end up doing in their lives, they will be exposed to some need for programming. As an experienced teacher, but not an experienced programmer, I am a great model for “anyone can do this”.

  • • Integrating Computation in Science Across Michigan

    • PAR-C.04
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Paul Irving, Marcos Caballero, David Stroupe, Niral Shah

    • Type: Invited
    • Integrating Computation into Science Across Michigan (ICSAM) is an NSF funded project that focuses on supporting teachers who wish to incorporate computational activities into their physics classroom in an equitable way. Teachers from across Michigan come to MSU for one week during the summer to participate in a hands-on computational workshop. The emphasis of the workshop is to build up teachers' efficacy and ability with computation while also focusing on encouraging the teachers to consider the impact on equity that computation can have in the physics classroom. Teachers design a computational activity that they intend to use in their class while also having access to the array of computational activities designed by the other teachers. The teachers then participate in bi-monthly workdays that the ICSAM team tailor to the challenges and needs of the teachers. In this presentation, we report on the workshop design and impacts of the ICSAM project.

  • • Testing the STEMcoding Curriculum in an Intense Two Week Course

    • PAR-C.04
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Chris Orban
    • Type: Contributed
    • The STEMcoding project (http://youtube.com/c/STEMcoding) has developed a number of high school level “Physics of Video Games” coding activities that are fusion of PhET-like web interactives and traditional coding activities. A crucial question is whetherthese activities have an impact on student conceptual physics knowledge. The curriculum was tested in an intensive two-week course at a STEM high school in Columbus, Ohio in January 2020. I briefly overview assessment results from that effort, including what we learned, how the assessments will be improved, and how teachers can participate in the research side of the STEMcoding project. I will also give an update on efforts to develop coding activities that allow students to simulate objects in direct motion videos, and other improvements to our suite of activities.

• Introductory Courses II  

  • • Agency Building and Early Research Exposure: A Study of the Indian Undergraduate Science Education Programs

    • PAR-F.08
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Deepa Chari, Deepika Bansal, Savita Lagade

    • Type: Contributed
    • Undergraduate research provides students with opportunities to positively perceive their association with discipline through agentic experiences, and thereby fostering the disciplinary identity building. This study explores students’ experiences of participating in a two-week long ‘chemistry research exposure camp’ in India, attended by approximately 50 students every year. Students participate in a short proto-research project during the camp, additionally, they are provided guidance on core topics in chemistry and laboratory skills throughout. This study will discuss students' (n=15) overall perceptions of participation in the camp including their self-reported accounts of the emergence of agentic personalities during this camp.

  • • Student-driven projects in introductory physics for life sciences

    • PAR-F.08
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Kathleen Hinko
    • Type: Contributed
    • BLiSS Physics is an introductory calculus-based course for life science majors at Michigan State University. The course uses modeling instruction and weaves biological applications and computation throughout. In this talk I will report on efforts to include student-directed projects into the course alongside other structures such as investigations, formal lab reports, and problem-solving. Students were asked to pursue independent study on some aspect of introductory physics content, including taking a historical approach to physics, considering current research, investigating phenomena in everyday life, connecting to other disciplines, and creating an act of personal expression. I will show examples of student work and consider how this approach was successful in facilitating agency and affect as well as generating a host of new physics models for future instruction.

  • • Students’ visual strategies during physics line-graph problems

    • PAR-F.08
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Stefan Kuechemann, Sebastian Becker, Jochen Kuhn

    • Type: Contributed
    • Graphs form an integral part during STEM education and the understanding of graphs is essential for the interpretation of data, critical thinking and reasoning in physics. Different previous works have shown that students struggle with specific difficulties, such as a confusion of slope and height, interpreting changes in height and changes in slope and the area underneath a curve. In this work we use eye tracking to study the question how the students' conceptual understanding of the slope and area concept is linked to the visual attention to different areas of a graph. Using machine learning and different gaze-based metrics, the eye-tracking data reveals characteristic visual strategies during solving of quantitative slope and area problems. The results allow the optimization of classifying correct and incorrect answers and the identification of underlying students’ difficulties.

  • • Physics Learning Goals versus AAPS Survey Results: Life Science Majors

    • PAR-F.08
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Andrew Mason
    • Type: Contributed
    • The Attitudes and Approaches to Problem Solving (AAPS) Survey has been used to analyze students in introductory calculus-based physics, introductory math-based astronomy, upper division/graduate-level physics, as well as Turkish students in high school and introductory university physics. In this study, post-test survey results from introductory algebra-based physics course sections in 2019 and 2020 will be checked for statistical relationship with the following variables: 1) students’ self-reported learning goals in introductory algebra-based physics courses; 2) students’ choice of major (in particular, life science majors dominate the student population). From prior studies regarding these two variables, it is anticipated that students that express a mastery learning goal (as opposed to a performance learning goal or otherwise) may have more expert-like views than other students; discussion will focus on the accuracy of this statement and potential explanations for results.

  • • Building Models of Biological Systems in an IPLS Course

    • PAR-F.08
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Dawn Meredith, Edward Redish

    • Type: Contributed
    • There is agreement that being able to use, build, and/or evaluate models of biological systems is an important outcome for students in an IPLS course. We describe three biological systems (polyphonic overtone singing, sap moving up trees, and counter current exchanges) that are explicable (at least to first order) using introductory physics ideas. We share our “expert” models of these systems and consider how we could scaffold student development of these models.

  • • Who Wins This Race?

    • PAR-F.08
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Carl Mungan
    • Type: Contributed
    • Two wheeled carts are identical except that one has its wheels taped so that it slides on them with kinetic friction. The other cart rolls frictionlessly. Both carts are placed at the bottom of identical side-by-side rails and propelled up them using identical spring launchers. The carts turn around and return to their starting location. Which gets back first? Or is it a tie? Video of an experimental demonstration will be shown, along with theory and computer simulations, to explain the interesting results.

  • • A Direct Comparison Between Multiple Choice and Free Response Problems

    • PAR-F.08
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Dean Richardson
    • Type: Contributed
    • Introductory Physics for Life Sciences can be challenging classes to teach. These tend to be large classes and therefore grading exams can be very time consuming. We have been experimenting with breaking a test problem into five multiple-choice questions. The greatest drawback from this is that the student is guided through the problem without having to figure out all the steps necessary to reach the answer. It is not ideal for all problems, but we considered using it in place of some problems and wanted to see how much better students did on problems graded multiple choice compared to the normal free-response (constructed response) problems. This study makes a direct comparison. We found that students, on average, score 16.9% +/- 3.6% higher on problems graded multiple choice versus free response.

  • • Relativity on Rotated Graph Paper: Diagrams for the Muon Experiment

    • PAR-F.08
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Roberto Salgado
    • Type: Contributed
    • We analyze the Muon Experiment problem in Special Relativity using the author's Relativity on Rotated Graph Paper. After briefly introducing our method to visualize tickmarks on a spacetime diagram, we show how to calculate graphically using the countingof ticks and simple algebra. Using a simpler numerical example, we construct the diagram for the muon problem. We interpret the situation in the lab frame and in the muon frame. Finally, we use the more realistic values to obtain the standard numerical results. With more motivation for students, we feel that this approach can be used in an introductory algebra-based physics course.

  • • Smooth Transition to Concept-Focused Mechanics, Covering Concepts in Parallel

    • PAR-F.08
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Peter Schwartz, Jennifer Klay, Owen Staveland, Dean Stocker

    • Type: Contributed
    • Parallel Pedagogy simultaneously introduces and develops the four mechanics concepts of Momentum, Energy, Dynamics, and Kinematics. We report on how our free, online comprehensive resources supported a first-time mechanics instructor to smoothly adopt this pedagogy. These resources include 100 public videos and a free online textbook/workbook, both of which are interactive through student access via PlayPosit and Perusall, respectively. The flipped format and online interactive resources are also ideally suited for conversion to virtual instruction with Zoom class meetings facilitating peer instruction and relationship-building. Student acceptance of this new model is built by transparently motivating practices with physics education literature and openly sharing the student adaptation experience. We’ll show some positive learning outcomes. Consistent with this learning model, before our presentation please prepare (but come anyway if you can’t): 1) See the video of our model for learning physics: https://api.playposit.com/go/share/225308/32670/0/0/Different-Way-to-Learn-Physics 2) Look over the most recent class: https://canvas.calpoly.edu/courses/22072

  • • An Ethnographic Approach to Understanding Informal Physics

    • PAR-F.08
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Bryan Stanley, Dena Izadi, Kathleen Hinko

    • Type: Contributed
    • We are continuing a nationwide effort to develop a systemic understanding of the landscape of informal physics using an organizational theory perspective. We have collected surveys and interviews with facilitators, but this information is only from the perspective of the faculty or physics student leaders and does not tell us about the social dynamics within each program. Thus, to complement these data, we need to observe informal physics events as they occur. In this talk, we will discuss our strategy for visits to program sites to observe social interactions between program participants as well as programmatic details in action. We report on an initial site visit to a physics open house outreach event, where we took field-notes and conducted formal and informal interviews with participating personnel members. Here, we discuss findings from applying an organizational framework to the site visit data and challenges we encountered in the data collection process.

  • • Presenting Physics Concepts via Head-Fake Learning

    • PAR-F.08
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Dan Young, Justin Hadad

    • Type: Contributed
    • Head-fake learning (“HFL”) is a form of teaching material wherein the students do not realize the form or complexity of what they are learning. This occurs primarily when the mechanism through which the material is taught makes the students think they are learning something entirely different, i.e. how to succeed in Minute to Win It style mini-games instead of learning projectile motion. We discuss how we utilized HFL to present introductory physics and mathematical principles in a newly designed course at UNC entitled Game Show Theory, which uses game show structure and optimal play as a driving motivator. In addition, we will present examples of student work and testimonials regarding how they interacted with the course (and it’s HFL methodology) and will discuss small-scale game show demonstrations which teach physics concepts with minimal cost.

• Introductory Labs/Apparatus  

  • • Measuring the speed of sound with 3 technologies

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Alan Bates
    • Type: Contributed
    • The author applies 3 different technologies to measure the speed of sound in air: a. Pasco motion sensor with Capstone software; b. Arduino board with ultrasonic distance sensor; c. Phyphox, sonar-timing, smart phone app. Each technique offers a particular learning challenge and experience with a common outcome. With the different technologies, there is greater access to the experiment be it at home or in the school lab. Each of the experiments naturally give rise to open-ended investigations related to the speed of sound.

  • • Inexpensive Muon Detectors

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Ian Bearden
    • Type: Contributed
    • We have built and used a number of fairly inexpensive muon detectors using Silicon photomultipliers to collect light produced by the interaction of muons with material. The examples which will be discussed are based on coincidence measurements in scintillator plates and Cherenkov detectors, both water and plastic. In all cases, data acquisition is performed using Digilent Analog Discovery 2 digital oscilloscopes. Data analysis is performed in Jupyter notebook. Finally, we will discuss how such detectors can be used in both outreach and educational contexts.

  • • Integrating Laboratory and Computation: An Adjustable Physical Pendulum

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Ernest Behringer, Steven Temple

    • Type: Contributed
    • Mechanics provides many opportunities for integrating computation into physics curricula. We have developed different versions of an adjustable physical pendulum that can help students learn and apply rotational motion concepts while achieving many of the learning outcomes described in the AAPT recommendations for the laboratory curriculum and for computational physics. Because these pendula undergo large amplitude oscillations, they are difficult to investigate analytically. Instead, students can computationally model the experimental data they obtain with these pendula using spreadsheets or structured language programs to better understand the underlying mechanics, and determine whether different dissipation mechanisms are active while the pendulum ‘rings down’. We describe the construction and use of these pendula and the results that can be obtained.

  • • They're smarter than us: Algebra-based learning assistants in calculus-based labs

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Samuel Engblom, Mats Selen

    • Type: Contributed
    • Introductory physics labs at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign make use of Undergraduate Learning Assistants (LAs) to assist with the implementation of reformed lab activities. As the reformed lab program has been scaled up to include a greaterselection of introductory courses, the high initial demand for LAs in calculus-based lab sections has led to expert LAs (ELAs) from the algebra-based introductory physics courses being recruited to teach in lab sections beyond their course experience. In this presentation, the attitudes and traits of the ELAs that choose to make the jump to the calculus-based introductory physics labs will be discussed, along with the provisions made within the lab course to aid with the transition.

  • • Supporting student understanding of linear fitting with non-identical uncertainties

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Saima Farooq, Mary Jane Yeckley, MacKenzie Stetzer

    • Type: Contributed
    • Students in introductory physics laboratories often do not recognize the importance of estimating uncertainties – sometimes dismissing it as busy work. In addition, they often struggle with accounting for uncertainties in their measurements when reporting their findings. Here, we describe the implementation of a new laboratory activity in the calculus-based introductory physics sequence, which was informed by an emerging body of research on laboratory instruction. This laboratory activity focuses on the impact of measurement uncertainties on the construction of a linear best-fit model, particularly when the data points have non-identical uncertainties. In this talk, we will also share preliminary results from pre- and post-laboratory assessments.

  • • Measuring the speed of light: Teaching statistics through experiments

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Rebekka Frøystad, Ian Gardner Bearden

    • Type: Contributed
    • We have developed a lab for measuring the speed of light (c) aimed at high school students. Light is emitted from an LED lamp to a beamsplitter, where part of the light is reflected to a monitor. The rest hits a reflector and upon returning to the beamsplitter is reflected again and measured by another monitor. By increasing the distance between the beamsplitter and the reflector, the time difference between the signals can be measured and c extrapolated from performing a linear regression on the measurements. The students see first hand the importance of making consistent measurements and gain experience in handling electronic equipment. Usually, individual groups of high school students measure values of c deviating by about 10-30% from the accepted value. However, when we analyze the data sets of all groups in a class, we typically find results with about 3%. This sparks productive discussions on statistics.

  • • Treatment of Statistics and Error in Introductory Physics Lab Manuals

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jimmy Gonzalez, John Walkup

    • Type: Contributed
    • Many students experience their first practical application of statistics and error analysis conducting activities in their introductory physics labs. During this time, they learn definitions, concepts, and skills they will use for the rest of their academic and postgraduate career. The presenters will discuss their analysis of the use of statistical methods used in labs by comparing lab manuals aimed at science and engineering students collected from two-year community colleges and four-year universities. Approaches to introducing statistical concepts and procedures are examined for consistency, with particular reference to national and international guidelines such as the NIST and ISO. Their analysis reveals severe inconsistencies in the treatment of statistics and error among the samples. Most notably, wide disparities surfaced in terminology and relationships, along with a dearth of topics that should have warranted a more concerted treatment. Results point to inadequate development of statistical reasoning skills among future scientists and engineers.

  • • Student-Centered Approach to Online Radiation Experiments during a Pandemic

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Yugjeet Grewal, John Walkup

    • Type: Contributed
    • First-year students at California State University, Fresno learn to perform scientific research through a Building Opportunities with Networks of Discovery (BOND) course sequence. Students perform their own research as a culminating project. Although COVID-19 eliminated on-campus student involvement, one group of freshmen was undeterred. Spurred by a presentation on the dangers of radium, they decided to complete their research nevertheless. Using a Geiger-Muller tube and sound-capturing software, they measured to reasonable precision the half-layer of steel in absorbing high-energy gamma rays emanating from a Revigator, an early quack medical device. The study describes how they conducted radiation exposure experiments through Zoom, with the instructor acting in the reversed role of “Lab Rat,” and how their procedure can drive similar online radiation experiments without compromising student safety. Finally, it describes how such a project offers lessons in medical history, especially disasters that unfolded when greed and ignorance supplanted science.

  • • An Improvement on Pohl’s Pendulum for Nonlinear Dynamics Demonstration

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Zhencheng Huang, xintu cui, han shen, fuli zhao

    • Type: Contributed
    • We made an improvement on the Pohl's pendulum by replacing the symmetrical balance wheel into an oscillating weight, which introduces no-linear torque while swinging. With the coupling of the no-linear torque and resonant vibration driving by a stepping motor, the system is able to produce various mechanic dynamic phenomena, such as bifurcation, double-well potential, chaos and etc. It can be easily observed through the motion of oscillation weight or precisely recorded by the rotation detector. We used it to generate different kinds of periodic or chaotic patterns in phase diagram. The system helps students to establish the non-linear physics concept intuitively.

  • • Using 3D Printed Atomic Force Microscope Models to Facilitate Instruction

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Merrell Johnson
    • Type: Contributed
    • Three low cost, raspberry pi controlled atomic force microscope models will be presented. Two of the systems are more compact, which utilize inexpensive servo motors and either laser cut or 3D printed components to build the two dimensional scanners. Thethird larger system uses 3D printed parts, a series of stepper motors and belt drives to create a scalable scanner. A series of investigations that were created as precursors to operating the instruments will be presented. The goal of these experiments is to help students understand concepts pertaining to the resonance of cantilevers and how those ideas are employed in measuring forces. A presentation on how the knowledge relevant to measuring forces with cantilevers and the two dimensional stages are used to map a metallic surface with a magnetic probe. A discussion on how these systems were employed for instruction in the classroom will also be exhibited.

  • • Using PHET Simulations to Improve Scientific Abilities in Students

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Rex Taibu, Lloyd Mataka, Shekoyan Vazgen

    • Type: Contributed
    • Science educators usually face a lot of challenges in designing and implementing inquiry-based activities. Common challenges include limited apparatus and time constraints. In this study, students were engaged in scientific inquiry using Physics Education Technology (PHET) simulations via semester-long group projects. The instructor and students used the Scientific Abilities Assessment Rubrics (SAAR) to evaluate project presentations and papers (formative assessment). The overall research project was evaluated using lab assessment scale (pre and post) as well as the post reflection survey. The Science Process Skills Inventory (SPSI) was used to analyze students’ responses to the reflection survey. Quantitative analysis of the lab self-assessment scale showed a larger effect size for both introductory and general physics students. Qualitative analysis of the reflection surveys supported this apparent huge gain in lab skills and revealed students’ experiences of the PHET simulations.

  • • Incorporating Python-Based Digital Notebooks into Introductory Physics Labs

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Diego Valente, James Jaconetta, Zac Transport

    • Type: Contributed
    • 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.

  • • Transformation of introductory mechanics lab at Fort Lewis College

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Alexandra Werth
    • Type: Contributed
    • Laboratory courses offer opportunities for engagement in authentic practices of science; however, there have been recent concerns raised on the effectiveness of labs at reaching this goal. Here, we present on our initial research on transforming an introductory mechanics lab at Fort Lewis College (FLC) in Durango, CO. FLC is one of six designated Native American-serving, non-tribal colleges by the U.S. Department of Education and is one of the most diverse colleges in the nation—FLC has approximately 4,000 undergraduate students, 25% of which are American Indian or Alaska Native identifying. We began our work by actively seeking out input on goals and content for the labs both from students and faculty members. We report on the consensus learning goals determined from faculty interviews, the formation of a Student Advisory Council, the development of the structure and guiding principles of the lab, and our initial research findings.

  • • An Instrument to Measure the Little-g in Teaching Labs

    • PAR-G.04
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Jingbo Ye
    • Type: Contributed
    • I will present the instrument that I have developed to measure the gravitational acceleration g in teaching labs. This instrument employs two independent methods, one includes the g-ball to obtain time of a free-fall, the other is a simple pendulum, to measure the same physics quantity with precisions within a few percent. This provides students with information to discuss about systematic and random errors in the measurements. I will share the lab manual (pre-lab, discussion questions, a skeleton for lab-report), data acquisition guide (a spreadsheet), and the information about how to DIY this instrument with those who would be interested in trying it in their labs.

• Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences (IPLS)  

  • • Introductory Physics at CU Boulder

    • PAR-G.05
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Daniel Bolton
    • Type: Invited
    • How can we achieve our teaching and learning goals in an introductory physics course for non-majors? At CU Boulder we are employing an array of strategies including group work, reformed labs, and two-stage exams. We will also discuss how a department canencourage good teaching by using research-based assessments and teaching circles.

  • • A New IPLSCourse: Five Years Later*

    • PAR-G.05
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Alice Churukian, Duane Deardorff, Laurie McNeil, Colin Wallace, Daniel Young

    • Type: Invited
    • At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, we completely transformed our two-course sequence of introductory physics for life science majors (IPLS) into the integrated lecture/studio format using biological phenomena to motivate the physics. Across both courses, we have created a suite of 54 active-engagement studios, interactive lectures, and assessment questions, all of which have been developed using the findings and best-practices from PER. This suite includes materials for many topics that are important for life science majors, but not part of the traditional introductory physics curriculum, including non-linear stress/strain, diffusion, chemical energy, and life at low Reynolds numbers. Now five years after the first complete implementation, the two-course sequence is running smoothly. In this talk, I will provide an overview of our journey from germination to realization.

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

    • PAR-G.05
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Kristine Lang
    • Type: Invited
    • 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.

  • • Teaching IPLS students to use math in science

    • PAR-G.05
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Edward Redish
    • Type: Invited
    • 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.

• K-12 PER  

  • • Studying the long-term effects of learning physics through ISLE

    • PAR-C.05
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Danielle Bugge, Eugenia Etkina

    • Type: Contributed
    • Today’s high school students need to develop abilities and skills that are applicable across many fields. Recommendations from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for integrating science practices into learning of normative concepts in science classrooms. In my classroom, students learn physics through the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) approach. Based on previous studies, we know that ISLE students are capable of developing science-process abilities. However, how do we know if this approach to curriculum design and learning prepares students for success in the workplace? During Fall 2019, I administered a survey to alumni who learned physics through the ISLE approach. In this talk, I report on the findings from this study with regard to what students remember learning, how their mindset changed during their time in the course, and what elements of their experience had an effect on and/or were transferrable to their future courses and careers.

  • • What Are Students Learning in AP Physics?

    • PAR-C.05
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Eric Burkholder, Carl Wieman

    • Type: Invited
    • We examined variations in Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE) pre-class scores according to self-reports of students' high school physics courses. Most students in our unusual sample population had taken an AP physics course, allowing us to calculate the correlation between FMCE scores and AP exam scores. We also carried out regression analyses to determine how FMCE scores and course final exam scores depend on taking an AP course and AP exam scores when math SAT score is included as a proxy of students’ general level of college preparation. The results of our analysis suggest that taking AP physics and even scoring well on the AP physics exam may be a rather weak measure of conceptual understanding of physics or the mastery of physics one would expect students to achieve from an introductory university physics course.

  • • Using PER to Develop and Adapt PRISMS PLUS

    • PAR-C.05
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Lawrence Escalada, Christopher Like, Jeff Morgan, Juliana Huegerich

    • Type: Invited
    • Physics Resources and Instructional Strategies for Motivating Students (PRISMS) is a high school physics curriculum resource that has been used extensively in UNI teacher preparation and professional development. The original PRISMS materials were a collection of 130 high interest activities related to the real-life experiences of high school physics students designed to develop student conceptual understanding and to cultivate student scientific reasoning and problem skills. The enhanced and revised version, called PRISMS PLUS, focuses on complete learning cycles that provide fully integrated experiences that enable students to develop not only their problem solving and inquiry skills but also deep, long-lasting understanding of physics concepts. This presentation will focus on how PER has been used to develop PRISMS PLUS and adapt it to teacher preparation and professional development including alignment with the Next Generation Science Standards.

  • • Case Study on the Computational Experiences of High School Physics Students

    • PAR-C.05
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Paul Hamerski, Daryl McPadden, Marcos Caballero, Paul Irving

    • Type: Contributed
    • The recent widespread integration of computation into high school physics classrooms raises questions around how high school students come to use computation for science learning. This presentation examines the experiences and academic identity development of high school students as they take up computational practices in their physics course. Through a multi-level analysis of moment-to-moment classroom discourse, interviews, and broader histories of STEM teaching policy and teacher-driven computational integration, this presentation provides a detailed case study on the computational experiences of students at a racially diverse, suburban American high school.

• Meet-up for Members and Supporters of the LGBTQ Community  

  • • Meet-up for Members and Supporters of the LGBTQ Community

    • STPAR-9
    • Wed 07/22, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • Rebecca Lindell
      
    • Type: None

• Museum and Building Lobby Science  

  • • Hands on with Quantum Physics

    • STPAR-4
    • Wed 07/22, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Boaz Almog
    • Type: Invited
    • Quantum physics is weird and un-intuitive. We usually imagine the classical world around us when think about physics. But in reality it is much more interesting and surprising. I will talk about my personal journey as a physics educator to take modern physics out of the lab and into the public hands. I will show how we can use hands-on demonstrations of superconductor levitation to tell the story of quantum physics. I will argue that this should be our mission as educators.

  • • Welcome to Physics: Hallway Outreach Displays at Simon Fraser University

    • STPAR-4
    • Wed 07/22, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Sarah Johnson
    • Type: Contributed
    • Over the last 10 years the Department of Physics at Simon Fraser University has installed a variety of science outreach displays in the main hallway leading into our building. These include hands-on physics demonstrations of electromagnetism, optics and chaos that people can try themselves. We have also installed monitors showing videos of our activities at TRIUMF and the Trottier Observatory. An additional monitor pays tribute to the generous alumni who have made donations to the department. The walls are painted with images of diagrams and equations from physics lectures, and a schematic of the TRIUMF accelerator. All of this makes for a welcoming entrance to our department that people from all walks of life, from preschool-aged children to seniors, enjoy. We will discuss how various members from the SFU Physics Dept. came together to design and build these displays, and the impact they have had on visitors to our campus.

  • • Hands-on Experience in the Lobby of Texas A&M Mitchell Physics

    • STPAR-4
    • Wed 07/22, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Dawson Nodurft
    • Type: Contributed
    • Each year, hundreds of people from all ages experience hands-on demonstrations in the Texas A&M Mitchell Physics Building lobby. The majority of these demonstrations are on permanent display, so anyone who happens to come to our building has a chance to interact and learn science on the way to a class, meeting, or even if they are just passing through. To encourage participation, we aim for each demo to have a common set of traits. Each demo must be eye-catching; easy to use with little instruction; give an immediate effect from use; and most importantly be fun! We will demonstrate how our exhibits achieve these results.

  • • Particle Accelerators and Pool Balls: Integrating Big Science and Small Exhibits

    • STPAR-4
    • Wed 07/22, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Rebecca Thompson
    • Type: Invited
    • Education, both formal and informal, is a foundational principle of Fermilab. We have exhibits in both our iconic Wilson Hall and in the Lederman Science Center, but it can be difficult to create small, hands-on exhibits to illustrate the principles behind really big science. Merging the exhibits and site tours can give students a unique understanding of the amazing physics going on at Fermilab.

  • • The UNE Squeak

    • STPAR-4
    • Wed 07/22, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by James Vesenka, Benjamin Wheeler

    • Type: Contributed
    • The "UNE Squeak" is a classic example of "repetition pitch", a phenomenon attributed to Huygens relating to a reinforced echo generated by a white noise source off a a long stone staircase. This is a first day, second semester, introduction to class, that embodies many features of our second semester curriculum. It is an interesting topic for students to start our second semester. Students are asked to go to one of three concentric brick rings before the first class and generate the squeak and puzzle over the physics behind the phenomena. We explore the answer over the semester as we slowly cover the physics behind the phenomena.

• Neutrino Physics in the Classroom  

  • • Neutrino Experiments Inspire Students

    • PAR-D.04C
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Marla Glover
    • Type: Invited
    • Many students in high schools have misconceptions about frontier science experiments. They may think that there is nothing new for them to discover or that they do not have the background necessary to understand what is happening in these experiments. Yet students can use classical physics to analyze neutrino experimental data and draw conclusions. This talk will describe my students' analysis of neutrino data through conservation of momentum. The audience can participate as students for a very brief time to get the feel of being the investigator. I will also share the reaction of my students to using this activity.

  • • How To See Neutrinos

    • PAR-D.04C
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Nathaniel Tagg
    • Type: Invited
    • Neutrino experiments are impressive: they are huge, they require measure nearly-undetectable particles, and recently have been capturing high-resolution "pictures" of neutrino-matter. We will show some tools for displaying this physics to high-school audiences (as well as professional physicists) and describe some of the challenges in translating real, raw data into understandable ideas.

• New Curriculum by K-12 Outreach Programs  

  • • Nuclear Science for Everyone

    • PAR-B.03
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Zachary Constan
    • Type: Contributed
    • The National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics conduct a host of different outreach programs. Camps offer the experience of being a nuclear scientist to students of (nearly) any age and science teachers. Lessons and games connect nuclear science with current astrophysics topics. Tours offer a close-up view of research in action, while talks are available to groups that can’t travel. Museum exhibits make the research truly hands-on, while dance introduces nuclear concepts in a novel fashion for a brand new audience. There truly is something for everyone. Discover the FREE resources available to students & teachers, kids & adults anywhere in the world!

  • • BYU/UVU-GAL: A focused Outreach Activity for Young Women

    • PAR-B.03
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Dallin Durfee
    • Type: Contributed
    • Since 2013 I have run a multiple-day, focused summer outreach program. The goal of the program is to dispel biases and show junior high and high school aged girls that they have the ability and opportunity to become scientists. The event is designed to give approximately 16 young women an intense, multi-day experience. The small size of the group and the length of the activity allows them to understand and perform in-depth activities. Insights I have gained about successfully running this type of activity will be discussed.

  • • Physics content and practices across the landscape of informal physics

    • PAR-B.03
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Dena Izadi, Julia Willison, Kathleen Hinko

    • Type: Invited
    • There are multiple ways for K-12 students to learn about physics and communicate science. One example is informal physics programs, which provide significant science resources in their communities. These programs house unique collections of physics artifacts and experiences for K-12 and are facilitated by educators who are experts at motivating interest and involvement in students. As part of our nationwide effort to develop a systemic understanding of the landscape of informal physics, we have developed a framework to investigate how these programs are structured and facilitated. Our study is focused on a number of important aspects, including the curriculum used by practitioners, how informal physics programs are facilitated, how they are socially constructed, how they attract their audience, and what type of assessment they use to evaluate their own effectiveness. In addition, we will share our experiences combining physics for K-12 students with other disciplines, including art, in program curricula.

  • • Sharing to Learn: Undergraduate Experience in Little Shop of Physics

    • PAR-B.03
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Heather Michalak
    • Type: Invited
    • Throughout the Little Shop of Physics’ (LSOP’s) 29 years, we’ve shared informal, hands-on science education with over 600,000 K-12 students. This success has been — and continues to be — possible thanks to over 4,000 undergraduate volunteers and interns.All the interactive experiments we take to schools across the country are built and maintained by undergraduates at Colorado State University. These same undergraduates have primary responsibility for interacting with K-12 students during LSOP school visits. Our volunteers and interns come from all majors and backgrounds; this diversity benefits the volunteer and intern cohort, the LSOP, and the K-12 students we work with. In turn, during their time at LSOP, volunteers and interns learn marketable skills, acquire conceptual physics understanding, and belong to an inclusive campus community. Undergraduate involvement is at the heart of LSOP’s ongoing cogency; it keeps the program harmonized to current needs of K-12 students.

  • • PiA - Physics in Advent, A Hands-on Physics Advent Calendar

    • PAR-B.03
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Arnulf Quadt
    • Type: Invited
    • "PiA - Physic in Advent" https://www.physics-in-advent.org is an Advent calendar of a special kind: a physics Advent calendar. From 1st to 24th December, small physics experiments using household material are presented every day as youtube videos by Mr.Santa or Ms. Santa. Participants do the experiments and answer a question on the PiA website. On the following day, there will be a solution video and possibly a point. After 24th December, all participants receive individual certificates. Among the best participants, prizes will be raffled off in the categories individual, school class or school. „PiA - Physik im Advent" is aimed at children and pupils aged between 11 and 18 years. It is intended to awaken the joy of experimenting and offer education, entertainment, and fun at the same time. In 2019, a new record was set with 43,500 registered participants, 49% of whom were girls, and 1.7 million visitors overall.

  • • A Free Renewable Energy-based Physics Camp for Diverse Middle School Girls

    • PAR-B.03
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Roberto Ramos
    • Type: Contributed
    • A safe, nurturing learning environment, hands-on collaborative learning, interaction with women model scientists, laboratory and industrial plant tours, engagement using novel experiences, and an atmosphere of positive reinforcement were key interventions implemented in a physics camp designed to enhance the physics learning of and disciplinary appreciation by middle school girls. The Physics Wonder Girls Program provided a free, renewable energy physics-based summer camp to two cohorts of middle school girls from the Philadelphia area. Coming from diverse communities, the girls took a crash course on circuits using solar cell kits, and built and raced solar cars and boats. They compared the efficiencies of silicon cells vs. organic solar cells, built solar cells based on dyes from raspberry and blackberry fruit, and used a thermal imager to audit heat leaks. They met women physicists and engineers, toured a local food plant and presented demonstrations to a community of friends and teachers.

  • • Creating Explanatory and Predictive Models of Magnetism in the Middle-Grades

    • PAR-B.03
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Tamara Young, Lauren Barth-Cohen, Sarah Braden, Sara Gailey

    • Type: Contributed
    • There is a growing interest in the scientific practice of Developing and Using Models as it is included in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2013). However, often the focus has been on models that capture how a given phenomenon looks, rather than models for explaining and predicting how scientific phenomena work. We developed a curriculum focused on supporting students in creating mechanistic (or explanatory) models of magnetism that can be used to make predictions. In this curriculum, students: explore an anchoring phenomenon, create models, investigate additional magnetic properties while collecting data, revise their models, and finally, through consensus building activities, create a consensus model that they present to the class. We have found that this process allows students to create models of magnetism that are both explanatory and predictive. We will present this curriculum and show examples of student work to help participants use this in their own classrooms.

• PER Curriculum and Instruction III  

  • • Characterizing Active Learning Environments in Physics Using COPUS

    • PAR-F.05
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Kelley Commeford, Eric Brewe, Adrienne Traxler

    • Type: Contributed
    • Active learning has been shown to be more effective than passive lecture methods, but more work must be done to understand what mechanisms lead to effective active learning environments. The first step in understanding the mechanisms of active learning pedagogies is to establish a vocabulary with which to characterize them. One such method we have used is the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS), which codes student and instructor activities in two minute intervals. These profiles give us a picture of what kinds of activities are occurring in the classroom with the implementation of a given pedagogy. We have gathered COPUS profiles for six active learning pedagogies in physics. We discuss the individual characteristics for each pedagogy and present results from latent profile analyses.

  • • Harnessing Active Learning in Educational Videos

    • PAR-F.05
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Gregory Kestin, Kelly Miller

    • Type: Contributed
    • The recent global move to online instruction has increased the importance of videos in education. At the same time, active learning has become increasingly accepted as an improvement over passive instruction. How can we transfer the advantages of active learning to instruction via video? We found that physics videos are most effective when they are designed both to actively engage students and manage their cognitive load. Notably, it is the combination that matters; videos that either solely promote active learning or solely manage cognitive load provide no advantage to learning outcomes.

  • • Daily Bell Ringers: Short activities impacting science identity, pedagogical knowledge, and students’ science attitudes

    • PAR-F.05
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Steven Maier
    • Type: Contributed
    • Can regular, short, beginning of class activities (ie “Bell Ringers”) favorably impact students’ science identity, pedagogical knowledge, and attitudes toward science? These types of activities are supposed to engage learners at the very start of the class, getting them on task and settled from the hallway. As this is an instructional strategy common in K-12 learning environments, their effectiveness and utility among pre-service teachers merits investigation. Firstly, treating pre-service teachers more as adult learners, these activities could be “make and take” mini lessons for teacher candidates to collect for use in their own classrooms. Secondly, though seemingly unrelated at first, the “lessons” to be learned in these activities could further build upon or augment course curriculum in subtle yet measurable ways. In this talk, I will briefly explore how these types of activities could serve other roles while presenting initial findings investigating their effectiveness.

  • • Temporal Patterns of Students Using Online STEM Skills Practice Assignments

    • PAR-F.05
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Megan Nieberding, Andrew Heckler

    • Type: Contributed
    • “Essential Skills” is an online skills practice application assigned weekly to students to improve their fluency in the basic STEM skills necessary for solving more complex physics problems. We have investigated the temporal patterns of over 1500 algebraand calculus physics students practicing multiple topics, several times each, throughout the semester. We report an observed increase in student accuracy and a decrease in response time per question for the vast majority of the topics. We will characterize the progression of student response times and accuracies as they revisit the topics though out the semester, including observations of patterns relating the accuracy and time evolution data to student grades in the course. Additionally, we will comment on the comparisons between the two groups of students (algebra vs calculus physics students) in terms of their accuracies and response time throughout the practice.

  • • The impact of IPLS in a senior biology capstone course

    • PAR-F.05
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jack Rubien, Sara Hiebert Burch, Catherine Crouch, Benjamin Geller

    • Type: Contributed
    • In this second of two paired talks exploring the longitudinal outcomes of Introductory Physics for Life Science (IPLS) on student learning, we examine whether differences in student work on a diffusion task given in the senior biology capstone course canbe correlated with prior enrollment in IPLS, and how those differences reflect competencies developed in the IPLS curriculum. More specifically, we assess whether IPLS students are more likely to reason quantitatively about diffusive phenomena and to successfully coordinate between multiple representations of diffusive processes. We also use survey data to describe the attitudes toward physics of IPLS and non-IPLS students in the senior capstone, and position these findings within the broader context of our longitudinal study of the impact of IPLS on student work in later biology and chemistry environments.

  • • Does IPLS help students apply physics to biology?

    • PAR-F.05
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Maya Tipton, Benjamin Geller, Catherine Crouch

    • Type: Contributed
    • Although we have found that students in our Introductory Physics for Life Science (IPLS) course describe physics as more relevant to their primary interests than do their counterparts in a traditional introductory physics environment, we do not yet know whether IPLS courses better prepare life science students to use physical reasoning in contexts that extend beyond those explicitly encountered in IPLS. To answer this question of whether IPLS better prepared our students for future learning, we designed and administered a task related to fluid dynamics at the conclusion of both traditional and IPLS introductory physics courses. We describe the construction of the task and the ways in which IPLS students approached the task differently than did students in the traditional course. We interpret the results in light of the goal of the IPLS course, supporting transfer within the preparation for future learning paradigm around which our course is designed.

  • • Distance Learning Comparative Study

    • PAR-F.05
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Kenneth Walsh
    • Type: Contributed
    • The rapid increase in distance learning presents a unique opportunity to incorporate PER-based curriculum in a new classroom environment. It also presents a chance to carve out a new education sub-discipline in physics. At Oregon State University we havebuilt an entirely online Introductory Physics curriculum that leverages many of the lessons learned in PER. Students engage in Peer Instruction and collaborative learning through our innovative Virtual Classroom. The structure, content, and practices in the Ecampus environment mirror the reformed on campus curriculum as much as possible. This has enabled what we believe is the best apples-to-apples comparative study within the physics community to date. I'll report on the preliminary findings of this study, including shedding light on the value of real-time engagement in online classes.

  • • Understanding the student experience with emergency remote teaching

    • PAR-F.05
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Bethany Wilcox, Michael Vignal

    • Type: Contributed
    • In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities transitioned in-person instruction to a new modality we refer to as `emergency remote teaching' (ERT). As many instructors may be facing this same format in future semesters, and in responseto future emergency events, it is important to understand the student experience with ERT in order to inform recommendations and best practices that can be used to improve instruction. In this manuscript, we report on preliminary findings from a survey administered to physics students to gain both qualitative and quantitative feedback on what approaches to ERT are being used as well as which were most effective at supporting student learning. Here, we four initial themes relating to: interactivity and student motivation; lecture format; exam format; and new challenges experienced by students as a result of ERT. These findings have significant implications for instructors with respect to optimizing ERT.

• PER Using Institutional Data Sources and Big Data Research Methods  

  • • “Big Data” Analysis of Postsecondary Student Engagement and Performance: Insights and Perils

    • PAR-G.07
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jacquelyn Chini, Adan Vela, Shahab Boumi

    • Type: Invited
    • Institutions record multi-faceted data about student identity, engagement and performance, from family income and zip code to “check-ins” at the campus gym to course enrollment and performance. This data could help us identify systemic barriers to students’ engagement and degree completion and describe the enrollment strategies of successful students. However, because the data is often de-identified, it does not tell the complete story of a student’s journey through their degree program. In this talk, I will describe the questions and methods our team has explored, as well as the challenges that have arisen in interpreting the data and results.

  • • What do Grades Tell Us About Students, Instructors, and Programs?

    • PAR-G.07
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Andrew Heckler
    • Type: Invited
    • Course grades are concrete outcomes with real-world consequences for students. To what extent do grades, as they are currently awarded, achieve our instructional and programmatic goals and reflect our values? Higher Educational Institutions are sitting on vast amounts of data that can help us to gain more insight into these questions and perhaps lead us to more desired outcomes. I will discuss three data analytics projects we conducted—based on data from over 5 years and 20,000 students-- to provide examples. First, to set context, we characterize grade outcomes in introductory physics courses, including ACT scores, age, and several demographic groupings. Next we examine the effects of individual instructors on student grades in their own courses, and the grades of their students in follow-on courses. Finally, we examine grade components and find moderate demographic differences between various components, suggesting that various grade components and grade-weighting may benefit from reconsideration.

  • • Extending Machine Learning to Predict Unbalanced Physics Course Outcomes

    • PAR-G.07
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jie Yang, Seth DeVore

    • Type: Invited
    • Machine learning algorithms represent an exciting new class of quantitative methods to understand physics classes and students. Recent work has applied these algorithms to classify students as those likely to receive an A or B or students were likely to receive an C. D, F in a physics class. The metrics used become unreliable when the outcome variable is substantially unbalanced. This talk further explores the classification and extends those methods to predicting whether a student will receive a D or F. This study also investigated the previous finding that demographic variables such as gender, underrepresented minority status, and first-generation status had low variable importance for predicting class outcomes; down sampling revealed that this result was not due to the underrepresentation of these students in the class studied.

• PER: Assessment, Grading and Feedback II  

  • • Report and Rerun: Closing the Loops in Education

    • PAR-E.04
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Mohamed Abdelhafez, David Pritchard

    • Type: Contributed
    • We’re developing a web-based utility to give instructors next morning formative reports on last night’s assignments, including the time and difficulty on questions and videos/readings to guide today’s instruction. Together with additional metadata, thisinformation can guide revising the course for rerunning next year. Data are presented using color codes for quickly assessing how well students are doing on individual resources and on the entire assignment. This quickly identifies resources to eliminate or move elsewhere. We use “edx2bigquery” to convert edX log data into Google BigQuery which generates the dynamic reports. It also provides an easy way of adding static metadata via a popup in a modified version of open edX or directly into the resource database. These uses illustrate the desirability of “closing the loop” in education, a powerful way to improve instruction and content. The audience can suggest what information they desire - or to mohamedr@mit.edu

  • • Evaluating Gender Fairness in the FCI via the LASSO Platform

    • PAR-E.04
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by John Buncher, Drew Aubrey

    • Type: Contributed
    • Recently, there has been a lot of interest in assessing the gender bias in a number of widely-used conceptual surveys. One recent study by Traxler et al. found several items on the FCI to be biased towards male students. In this work, we examine if thesame items are problematic when administered in an online format across different institutions (via the LASSO platform). Using Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT), we find that most FCI items are substantially unfair to women, supporting the findings of Traxler et al. Additionally, items that had the most bias towards men are consistent with those Traxler et al. suggested removing to reduce the overall gender bias in the FCI.

  • • Studying distractors with ReMNIRT: Reduced Multidimensional Normalized Item Response Theory

    • PAR-E.04
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Byron Drury, Yunfei Ma, John Stewart, Mohamed Abdelhafez, Dave Pritchard

    • Type: Contributed
    • Distractors (i.e. incorrect responses) on research-designed multiple choice instruments are often designed to reflect specific prevalent belief structures among students. Traditional Item Response Theory (IRT) models only consider the correctness of students’ responses, not the specific incorrect responses given, and therefore cannot reveal the specific misconceptions held by a population of students. We introduce a new model, ReMNIRT, which extends upon prior work in polytomous IRT by introducing a weight matrix which concisely quantifies what each possible response tells us about the latent skills of students. We apply this model to a data set of pre- and post-instruction administrations of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) to approximately 17500 students at seven undergraduate institutions. The insight that this analysis gives on the specific ways in which students misunderstand mechanics will help instructors to use the FCI and other research-designed assessments more effectively as formative assessments to inform their teaching.

  • • Gauging student attendance and participation: Generic clickers versus TopHat

    • PAR-E.04
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Adebanjo Oriade
    • Type: Contributed
    • In my practice I have found TopHat [1] a much better tool (than generic clickers) for gauging student attendance and participation. I have used clickers for over six semesters, and TopHat I have used this spring 2020 semester. In this light, the observations I share might be premature, time will tell. TopHat seems better, for reasons like having a wider spectrum of question types, and having an easy to use facility for students to review the questions later. Engagement is vital for active learning since we want students motivated, and we want to have measures of progress towards the learning goals of the course [2]. Our score for attendance was binary while that of participation was measured on a skewed ternary scale. Zoom chat transcripts and Google document chats were also used as gauges. I look forward to learning from you how you gauge engagement and learning in your learning spaces.

  • • Modeling Students as Thermodynamic Systems using the Canonical Ensemble

    • PAR-E.04
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Trevor Smith, Nasrine Bendjilali

    • Type: Contributed
    • 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.

  • • Optimizing Machine Learning to Identify At-Risk Physics Students

    • PAR-E.04
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by John Stewart
    • Type: Contributed
    • Recently, machine learning algorithms, primarily random forests, have been used to identify students at risk of failing introductory physics. While these algorithms produced excellent accuracy when identifying students who would receive an “A” or “B” in a physics class, the performance was much worse when identifying students who would receive a “D” or “F”. This work investigates multiple pathways to optimize the algorithms to improve performance including using alternate algorithms such as support vector machines, optimization algorithms such as gradient boosting and regularization, and ensemble algorithms which allow multiple different algorithms to vote on the results. This work seeks to identify the limit of accurate prediction with only institutional variables.

  • • More representative and less biased methods for interpreting student outcome data

    • PAR-E.04
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Ben Van Dusen, Jayson Nissen

    • Type: Contributed
    • We address two major issues in the methods PER has historically used to interpret student outcomes on research based assessments (e.g., the FCI). First, PER has historically used normalized learning gain (g) as a normalizing factor to interpret student outcome scores. This is problematic because g has no statistical basis and is biased in favor of high pre-score groups. Second, instructors have been comparing their student outcomes to those in the published literature. This is problematic because the published literature overrepresents outcomes from courses in highly-selective institutions. In this talk we will offer two alternative methods for interpreting student outcomes based on our analysis of a large-scale dataset with representation across the spectrum of institution types. Specifically, we recommend interpreting student outcomes using either a scatter-plot of a large-scale course pretest and posttest scores or an effect size measure (e.g., Cohen’s d of Hedges g).

  • • Evaluating impact of GTA training in a mixed-reality classroom simulator

    • PAR-E.04
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Tong Wan, Constance Doty, Ashley Geraets, Erin Saitta, Jacquelyn Chini

    • Type: Contributed
    • In this study, we evaluate the impact of rehearsing teaching skills in a classroom simulator on GTAs’ instructional practices in combined tutorial and laboratory sections of an algebra-based introductory physics sequence over three semesters. GTAs participated in different numbers of simulator rehearsal sessions across the three semesters: no simulator training, one session, and four sessions. We conducted 109 classroom observations for 23 GTAs, using a modified version of Laboratory Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (LOPUS). To classify and characterize GTAs’ instructional practices, we conducted a hierarchical cluster analysis and found three instructional styles: “the group-work facilitators”, “the whole-class facilitators”, and “the waiters.” These instructional styles vary in multiple GTA codes, including amount of wait time and posing questions in small groups and whole class. We discuss the characteristics of the instructional styles and distributions of GTAs’ use of the styles in each semester.

  • • Assessing Mathematical Reasoning: The Physics Inventory of Quantitative Reasoning

    • PAR-E.04
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Suzanne White Brahmia, Alexis Olsho, Andrew Boudreaux, Trevor Smith

    • Type: Contributed
    • Mathematical reasoning flexibility across physics contexts is a desirable learning outcome of introductory physics, where the “math world” and “physical world” meet. Physics Quantitative Literacy (PQL) is a set of interconnected skills and habits of mindthat support quantitative reasoning about the physical world. We present the Physics Inventory of Quantitative Literacy (PIQL), which is a validated instrument that assesses students’ proportional reasoning, co-variational reasoning, and reasoning with signed quantities as they are used in physics. Unlike concept inventories, which assess conceptual mastery of specific physics ideas, the PIQL is a reasoning inventory that can provide snapshots of student ideas that are continuously developing. We are exploring analysis methods of student responses on the PIQL that will allow for assessment of hierarchical reasoning patterns, and thereby potentially map the emergence of mathematical reasoning flexibility throughout the introductory sequence, and beyond. (NSF DUE-1832836, DUE-1832880, and DUE-1833050)

  • • Applying Machine Learning to Automatically Assess Middle-School Students’ Argumentation

    • PAR-E.04
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Xiaoming Zhai, Kevin Haudek, Chris Wilson, Tina Cheuk, Jonathan Osborne

    • Type: Contributed
    • Recent science education reform calls for argumentation as one of the central practices in science classrooms. However, evaluating student argumentation proficiency is challenging. Based on an existing learning progression of argumentation and grade-appropriate objectives, we developed a measure for middle-school students in three contexts (e.g. kinetic theory of gases) of 19 constructed response items. Experts coded responses from 932 middle-school students for components of argumentation and used these coded responses to train machine learning algorithms for each item. The algorithms were validated using a cross-validation approach. We found that the machine-human agreements are robust, with a mean Cohen’s kappa=0.75, SD=0.08. We further applied a many-facet Rasch analysis and found the item difficulty in this measure is well aligned with the established learning progression. The algorithms developed in this study can be used in classrooms to automatically evaluate students’ argumentation proficiency.

• PER: Curriculum and Instruction  

  • • Examining Student Design Tasks in Research-based Activities

    • PAR-B.04
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Amin Bayat Barooni, Joshua Von Korff, Brian Thoms, Zeynep Topdemir, Jacquelyn Chini

    • Type: Contributed
    • One goal of physics activities may be to develop student skills in designing experiments. Understanding the use of student design tasks can help instructors who want to use research-based approaches to create new activities. In this research, we analyzedstudent design actions in 66 research-based activities from 11 different curricula to determine the frequency of various design tasks that students were asked to perform. Our definitions of student design tasks were: 1) describing an experimental procedure invented by the student, 2) improving a previous experiment, 3) making a hypothesis, 4) choosing questions to investigate, and 5) designing, stating, inventing, or improving a mathematical or quantitative procedure.

  • • A First-Year Research Experience for Physics Majors

    • PAR-B.04
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Jonathan Bougie
    • Type: Contributed
    • Faculty in the Loyola University Chicago (LUC) Physics Department initiated the “Freshman Project” in 1996. This project has continued each year until today, becoming a separate one-credit course that is a graduation requirement for majors in the department. Students, generally in their first year in the major, work in small groups with a faculty mentor, carrying out a semester-long investigation designed to model many aspects of the research experience. Students propose an investigation, design and carry out an experiment, conduct theoretical analysis, and present their results at a department symposium. I will discuss the important role this program has played in the growth and development of the Physics Department at LUC, as well as the benefits of engaging students in this activity early in their undergraduate careers.

  • • An Online Physics Course to Empower the Adoption of Open Education Resources

    • PAR-B.04
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Zhongzhou Chen, Geoffrey Garrido, Matthew Guthrie, Zachary Felker, Tom Zhang

    • Type: Contributed
    • Our group has created open source online learning modules covering around 95% of common topics in a college level calculus-based mechanics course. These learning modules are hosted on an open-source platform, Obojobo, which can be deployed on a cloud server and integrated with any learning management system supporting LTI standards. The motivation to create this new set of open education resources (OER) is threefold: 1. They blend instruction, practice and assessment together in a mastery-based modular design to improve student learning; 2. The modular design provides higher flexibility and better organizational structure to facilitate, adopt, and reuse OER; 3. Our group is developing methods to analyze student learning data that enable the modules to be continuously improved based on data analysis. In the future, these modules could hopefully replace lectures and textbooks to promote the adoption of active learning practices in the classroom.

  • • Can Extra Credit Effectively Reduce Cramming Behavior for Online Homework?

    • PAR-B.04
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Zachary Felker, Matthew Guthrie, Zhongzhou Chen

    • Type: Contributed
    • It is common among many college students to wait until the last minute to complete homework assignments, which leads to insufficient time for study. Can assigning extra credit for early completion of homework assignments alter students’ behavior? We study students’ work habits when completing mastery-based online learning modules for homework by analyzing clickstream data collected from the online learning platform over multiple semesters. In some semesters, students may earn extra credit by completing some of the assigned modules well before the due date in the form of “treasure trove” quizzes. These quizzes receive overwhelmingly positive feedback from students. We examine in what ways the "treasure troves" change student behavior by clustering learning events into sessions using a machine learning algorithm. We examine how duration, number, or event density of clusters differs when “treasure troves” are introduced. We also study their impact on exam scores.

  • • Direct observation of student behavior in online learning modules

    • PAR-B.04
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Matthew Guthrie, Zachary Felker, Tom Zhang, Zhongzhou Chen

    • Type: Contributed
    • Interpretation of student behavior in online learning platforms based on clickstream data is complicated by not being able to directly observe the learner. This leads to difficulties in understanding inherently unobservable effects on the students’ clickstream data. For example, we try to calculate the amount of time that each student spent studying the instructional material in each module, which requires estimating certain properties of the resulting data. Consequently, the major issue we address in this work is the difficulty of making reasonable cutoffs for abnormally short and abnormally long events. Students enrolled in introductory mechanics courses participated in a study where they completed online homework modules in a controlled, observed environment. In this talk, we will present comparisons between students’ clickstream data for those who were observed and those who were not observed, and for the same student in proctored and non-proctored sessions on different modules.

  • • Guiding Student Learning with Data

    • PAR-B.04
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Sujata Krishna, Asa Levi, Jason Lokkesmore

    • Type: Contributed
    • We report on the use of data in guiding student’s self-assessment of mastery of the learning objectives. Online homework and assessment are commonly used in introductory physics courses. In a gradebook with multiple assignments it can be difficult for a student to realize where they stand with respect to specific learning objectives. We developed individual student-dashboards for the online and face-to-face physics students with a view to revealing the particular concepts they are yet to master and where the payoff from increased effort is maximized. Pearson and UF partnered over the last 6 months to enable students to view their performance relative to the class average at the learning objective level. We also implemented similar dashboards for groups in the group problem solving sessions with Learning Assistants. We report on how the Learning Assistants used the analytics to structure their study sessions.

  • • Using Interactive Online Modules to Improve Student Outcomes

    • PAR-B.04
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jeremy Munsell, N. Sanjay Rebello

    • Type: Contributed
    • The expertise reversal effect (ERE) is concerned with the relative effectiveness of different presentations of instructional materials for learner’s with differing levels of domain knowledge. In this work we present the results of a pilot study meant to develop online instructional modules (OIM) that were made adaptive according to the ERE. N = 185 students enrolled in a first year algebra based physics course were provided instruction by way of an OIM covering the concept of energy. Students were randomly shown a module offering a high level guidance or a low level guidance. Student’s were designated as either being high prior knowledge or low prior knowledge post-hoc based on their score on a mid-term exam. Consistent with the ERE, we found that high knowledge students did significantly better when presented with instructional materials using a low level of guidance. This effect was absent for students with low levels of domain knowledge.

  • • Exploring the Durability of Student Attitudes Toward Interdisciplinarity

    • PAR-B.04
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Gwendolyn Rak, Benjamin Geller, Catherine Crouch

    • Type: Contributed
    • Building on prior analyses of how introductory physics experiences affect student attitudes, preliminary evidence suggests that IPLS students, more so than their counterparts in traditional introductory physics courses, express the attitude that physics is relevant to their primary biological interests. We report on the durability of these attitudes. We present results from interdisciplinary attitude surveys given to students a year (or more) after their initial experience in IPLS, as well as immediately after that experience. By tracking the evolution of student attitudes over time, we assess whether attitude improvements due to IPLS are in fact stable and long-lasting. We also explore how students’ subsequent coursework in biology or other disciplines may influence these attitudes.

  • • Examining the Social Dynamics of Small-Group Discussions

    • PAR-B.04
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Muxin Zhang, Eric Kuo, Gloriana González

    • Type: Contributed
    • Group work provides valuable opportunities for students to actively participate in classroom conversations. Instructors often emphasize generating and sharing ideas in group work, but how these ideas are shared in small-group discussions can be complicated by social dynamics within that group. In this project, we applied techniques from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to analyze the interpersonal meanings in students’ discourse in a college physics lab section. By examining how students socially positioned themselves in the episode, we found that students steered the group’s conversation not only by explicitly offering ideas, but also by positioning as not-knowing, raising questions, and appealing to authority. This episode provides another example to a growing body of research describing the consequential role of social dynamics in how physics students contribute to small-group discussions.

• PER: Diverse Investigations  

  • • Biases, Limitations and Focus: Student Perspectives on Subjectivity in Physics*

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Randeep Basara, Andrea Wooley, Leander Villarta, Abigail Daane

    • Type: Contributed
    • Descriptions of the nature of science contrast the view of physics as objective, unaffected by human influence. In order to better understand students’ thinking about the nature of physics, we collected responses to the question, “Do you think physics isobjective or subjective?” In this presentation, we compare and contrast the ideas from “Science for All Americans” to students’ ideas about the presence of subjectivity in physics. Students, prior to engaging in conversation about subjectivity, tend to describe physics without reference to human influence. After discussing this question with peers, students acknowledge the individual limitations of human perception and focus in research. We argue that an awareness about the influence of structural and individual subjectivity in classrooms can create a robust scientific community and disrupt the current culture that serves to marginalize groups of people.

  • • Assessing Cross-Disciplinary Understanding of Energy Concepts*

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Andrew Boudreaux, Todd Haskell, Emily Borda

    • Type: Contributed
    • The ability of students to apply learned ideas in new settings is an implicit assumption that underlies the structure of most programs of study in STEM, in which introductory coursework in a range of fields serves as a foundation for advanced coursework in a more targeted area. A salient example involves an energy-based model for interactions, in which energy is associated with objects, has various forms, is transferred and transformed during interactions, and is conserved. At Western Washington University, we have developed a pair of multiple choice assessments to gauge student learning of such an energy framework in a physics context, and to then assess student ability to apply this framework in a novel chemistry context. We frame these assessments as a way of conceptualizing cross-disciplinary learning and an associated approach to measuring such learning. This talk will describe the development and piloting of the assessments and share preliminary data.

  • • Cartoon Clicker Questions in Physics Classrooms to Engage and Enhance Critical Thinking.

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Kausiksankar Das
    • Type: Contributed
    • This talk describes a holistic pedagogical approach for classroom engagement using concept cartoons. We will also discuss how classroom students translate theory and fundamental classroom knowledge to authentic application with cutting edge research implemented by undergraduates at a Historically Black University. In our project, we developed and assessed cartoons custom designed for classroom instruction and evaluated student engagement while using the cartoons. We further report on student successes achieved through undergraduate research projects.

  • • Three productive ways physics students utilize a digital learning environment

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Elias Euler, Christopher Prytz, Bor Gregorcic

    • Type: Contributed
    • In this paper, we present three types of activity that we have observed during students’ self-directed use of a physics software called Algodoo. In contrast to many common digital learning environments used in physics education, Algodoo allows students to explore a variety of physics phenomena within the same digital learning environment. We describe the characteristics of the three activity types and discuss how the types can be seen as productive for the teaching and learning of physics. For the interested physics teacher and physics education researcher, we present how, in allowing students to creatively engage within physics environments such as Algodoo, physics educators can help students springboard into a range of relevant physics topics while supporting the students’ agency and divergent thinking.

  • • Academic Integrity Regarding Online, Out-of-Class Resources: Student and Instructor Interviews

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Brandon James Johnson, Ayush Gupta, Erin Ronayne Sohr, Andrew Elby

    • Type: Contributed
    • Many students’ out-of-class learning experience includes using online and social-media resources such as Khan Academy, YouTube, Chegg, GroupMe, and Wikipedia. Most of these resources emerged in the last few decades, change rapidly, and are used widely. These resources and their use by students are understudied in PER. We conducted semi-structured interviews with seven students and four instructors of university-level introductory physics focusing on how they think about the use of out-of-class resources with respect to ethics and learning. Our preliminary analysis suggests that students’ stances toward academic integrity in the context of out-of-class resources are entangled in nuanced ways with their stances toward learning in the context of the course, instructional expectations, classroom practices, and a variety of extra-curricular constraints experienced by students. We will present empirical evidence for some of these connections that reflect across our student and instructor interviews and discuss their implications for physics education.

  • • Dream jobs and desired career paths of physics majors

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Anne Leak, Krystina Williamson, Benjamin Zwickl

    • Type: Contributed
    • Physics can be considered a 21st century liberal arts degree where students learn valuable technical and transferable skills they can apply to a range of careers. As part of the APS PIPELINE Network, we examined fields and sectors physics majors were interested in pursuing, their dream job, and what influenced their career goals. Responses from 178 physics majors at 12 institutions were analyzed using descriptive quantitative approaches for multiple-select questions and emergent thematic qualitative approaches for open-ended questions. Initial findings highlight a diverse range of careers students hoped to pursue, yet these tended to center around research even when students were open to both industry and academic sectors. Furthermore, many students indicated desires for careers that would help the world and provide a supportive working environment. Understanding physics majors’ desired careers and perceptions of what is possible has implications for how we prepare them for their next steps after graduating.

  • • Qualitative analysis of students’ perceptions of their self-efficacy

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jillian Mellen, Geraldine Cochran, John Kerrigan, Lydia Prendergast, Antonio Silva

    • Type: Contributed
    • Students' self-efficacy, their confidence in their ability to complete a task, is a good predictor for success and persistence. Previous research indicates that improvements in learning methods can improve student self-efficacy and that classroom dynamics may impact students' self-efficacy by allowing for different kinds of self-efficacy opportunities. In this study, we analyzed interviews from 12 students enrolled in a flipped integral calculus course to understand their perceptions of their self-efficacy and how this related to classroom dynamics and activities. Preliminary findings reveal that experiences in previous math courses, particularly high school, impacted students’ perceptions of their self-efficacy in math both positively and negatively, active learning activities increased students’ confidence in their ability to do math from their perspective, and verbal persuasion (implicit encouragement) increased students’ confidence and was seen as a helpful way to learn.

  • • Applying Social Network Analysis to an Online Community of Practice for Teachers

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Michael Nadeau, Bahar Modir, Robynne Lock, William Newton

    • Type: Contributed
    • We take a social network analysis approach to investigate how members of an online teacher community interact with each other through a nine-week classical mechanics summer course. The class, associated with the Master program in physics with teaching emphasis at Texas A&M University-Commerce, requires students to participate in weekly problem solving and biweekly reading reflection discussion boards. We measured the weekly activity level for the community and number of interactions between students, and compared these to the average values determined for the entire semester. We found that the participation of students in problem solving discussions fluctuates from week to week; revealing the activity of the community of practice, influence of student backgrounds, and possible structural features of the course. Comparatively, the reading reflection participation did not show a noticeable variation. In order to gain more insight into our findings we characterized the types of interactions by categorizing student communication.

  • • Structures that support students’ identities in informal physics programs

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Brean Prefontaine, Claudia Fracchiolla, Claire Mullen, Kathleen Hinko, Shane Bergin

    • Type: Contributed
    • Understanding how one builds a physics identity is an important step to creating structures and practices that support physics students both in and out of the classroom. We have investigated how university students’ physics identities can be fostered through teaching youth in informal physics programs. We collected reflections and interviews from participants in three different informal programs and analyzed them with an operationalized Communities of Practice framework. Our analysis shows that students’ identities can be supported through different structures and practices within each program. We find that students’ personal values aligning with the program’s mission was the biggest predictor of membership, while interactions with members of the community served as the most important mechanism for integration into the community. This work illuminates the specific aspects of informal physics programs that facilitate physics identity formation among the university students who choose to participate.

  • • Investigating research themes, partnerships, and funding for the Physics-Education-Research community

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Rebecca Rosenblatt, Michael Rook

    • Type: Contributed
    • This study will inform the Physics Education Research community about patterns of research topics, partnerships between researchers, and funding sources for the PER community over the last ten years. The study involves a textual analysis of all PERC proceedings between 2010 to 2019 to identify funding sources and determine patterns. PERC proceedings were selected given the central role of the Physics Education Research Conference to the PER community. PERC proceedings represent the community across scope of project from small to large, across stage of project from beginning to finished, and from new researchers to those established in the field. Findings are contrasted with those from the Learning Sciences community to provide context for understanding the significance of patterns. The goal of this work is to provide insight into the community’s history and ten-year trajectory so that the community can consider how to move the field forward in new directions.

  • • "Diving into a Void:" Student Views of Research

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Adrienne Traxler, Jason Deibel, Meredith Rodgers

    • Type: Contributed
    • The Applying Scientific Knowledge (ASK) program recruits science and math majors in their second year, who take a shared research methods class and then conduct research with faculty mentors for two or more semesters. Assessment throughout the program studies students' experiences of research, their STEM community development, and their skill development and academic progress. The question guiding this portion of the analysis was: How do students define or describe the concept of research, and how does that change as they advance through the ASK program? Students were interviewed near the end of the methods class (prior to joining labs), then after one or more semesters of research experience. We will present a preliminary analysis of interview themes from the first two cohorts, focusing on the physics majors and their similarities or differences from other students. We find that students have a mix of career-oriented and personal motivations for pursuing research.

  • • Gains as a function of pre-test scores

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Paul Walter, Gary Morris, Eleanor Sayre

    • Type: Contributed
    • Using matched PhysPort data, we assess the utility of plotting gains as a function of pre-test scores on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). Doing so has the advantage of providing nuance regarding differences in populations, whether it be to shed light on the efficacy of instructional methods or equity among different student populations. We empirically compare raw and normalized gains and find for a population of 9,354 students that neither the raw nor the normalized gain is uniform for students of all pre-FCI scores. We suggest alternative methods for quantifying gain, the relative gain, and the relative raw gain, on standardized assessments that overcome this diculty. We compare the relative gain measures to effect size and nd that each contributes to our understanding of gains. The relative gain measures are straightforward to interpret and visualize. We suggest effect size and other gain measures, particularly the relative gain measures, be used in a complementary way to better assess the differences between populations.

  • • Analyzing Time-to-Degree for Transfer Students at Michigan State University

    • PAR-C.06
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Alyssa Waterson, Rachel Henderson, Marcos Caballero

    • Type: Contributed
    • Earning a bachelor's degree is expensive and time-consuming. Many undergraduate students pursue Advanced Placement (AP) courses in high school or transfer coursework from degree-granting institutions. However, the effect of those transfer courses on the time that it takes students to graduate (time-to-degree) is currently not well understood. We have investigated how incoming transfer courses impact students’ time-to-degree by defining three independent groups of transfer students: (1) those entering with college level transfer courses, (2) those with only AP level transfer courses, and (3) those without any transfer credit. The time-to-degree has been shown to be statistically different for each of these groups, with students who enter with college level transfer courses graduating the earliest. We have explored differences in time-to-degree for various demographic information (e.g. gender, race/ethnicity). In this presentation, we will discuss these results in addition to the results from regression models that predict a student’s time-to-degree.

• PER: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion II  

  • • Impact of Learning Environment on Male and Female Students’ Physics Self-Efficacy, Interest and Identity in Calculus-Based Introductory Physics Courses

    • PAR-B.06
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Yangqiuting Li, Kyle Whitcomb, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Contributed
    • Students’ self-efficacy, interest and identity in physics can influence their learning, performance and career decisions. Therefore, we investigated the impact of learning environment on male and female students’ physics self-efficacy, interest and identity in calculus-based introductory physics. Findings can be useful in creating equitable and inclusive learning environments in which all students can thrive. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

  • • Using Learning Assistants in a Multidisciplinary Algebra-Based Physics Classroom

    • PAR-B.06
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Kathryn McGill, Sujata Krishna

    • Type: Contributed
    • We present student learning gains in each of a two-part introductory algebra-based physics sequence for a multidisciplinary student population taught with and without the use of undergraduate learning assistants (LAs). We report on our pilot program design, inspired by the Learning Assistant Alliance model and adjusted to suit the particular considerations of this physics sequence, including student population, class size, and existing course structure. We specifically discuss the results of assigning our LAs to submit written feedback to their groups, as well as issues arising from whether or not the group work is for a grade. Additionally, we discuss the development of our LAs throughout this program, closing with lessons learned and plans for Fall 2020. As we are extremely pleased with the results of this program, we plan to continue it and are glad to offer our experience to the physics teaching community.

  • • Characteristics of Institutions with Learning Assistant Programs: An Equity Investigation*

    • PAR-B.06
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Alexa McQuade, Jayson Nissen, Manher Jariwala

    • Type: Contributed
    • Learning assistant (LA) programs support instructors transforming their courses to use evidence-based instructional strategies. We investigated the types of schools that have LA programs to better understand how the distribution of those programs supports excellent and inclusive education across institutions. We used the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education (CCIHE) public database to compare schools with and without LA programs, looking at a variety of institutional characteristics to determine whether the distribution of LA programs is equitable across different types of institutions. We will discuss the implications of our findings and identify areas for future research using critical quantitative perspectives in physics education research.

  • • Toward characterizing the demographics of introductory physics courses [1]

    • PAR-B.06
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Raphael Mondesir, Amy Robertson

    • Type: Contributed
    • Recent work by Kanim and Cid [2] suggests that the data used in PER is not representative of students enrolled in physics courses at the national level. Using university-level demographics, Kanim and Cid showed that PER studies oversample from white, wealthy, mathematically-prepared populations of students. What we do not yet know is whether these university-level demographics are representative of introductory physics courses, which are a primary site of research in PER. In this talk, we present data from nine US institutions, comparing the composition of introductory physics classes to aggregate university demographics across a number of social markers, including gender, race/ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Our aim is to make progress in characterizing the demographics of introductory physics courses, which is imperative to deepening our understanding of how social disparity is manifested in physics classrooms and the institutions that host them. We discuss limitations of our approach, including problematizing our use of statistics to make sense of who is enrolling in introductory physics.

  • • Physics Career Expectations and Diversity among Secondary School Students

    • PAR-B.06
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Elizabeth Parisi, Giovanna Masia, Desaree' Vaughan, AJ Richards

    • Type: Contributed
    • There is a dramatic underrepresentation of ethnic minorities and women within physics. The reasons for this underrepresentation are not fully understood. To explore this, we have surveyed high school physics students in order to investigate their perception of the various physics career paths. We paid special attention in our analysis to how a student’s demographic data affected these variables. In this presentation, we will detail the trends we found between the students’ perception of various physics career paths, their likelihood to pursue a career in physics, and their demographics.

  • • How technocracy becomes visible in engineering learning assistants’ role-plays*

    • PAR-B.06
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Hannah Sabo, Jennifer Radoff, Chandra Turpen, Andrew Elby, Ayush Gupta

    • Type: Contributed
    • Technocracy, a problematic world view that values technical abilities and solutions over social ones, pervades engineering. In our pedagogy seminar for Learning Assistants (LA) in an engineering design course, we engaged LAs in role-plays, semi-improvised performances guided by a prompt, around troubles faced by a student team. We draw on audio-video records of a role-play and following discussion from our pedagogy seminar in which LAs, playing as students or an LA, had to contend with both social and technical issues. Using tools from discourse analysis, we analyze how technocracy is both reproduced and challenged during the role-play and following class discussion. The discussion allowed the LAs to reflect on their assumptions and decisions during the role-play. We will present implications for the design and facilitation of role-plays as well as for research studying STEM cultures. *Work supported by NSF Grant 1733649.

  • • The Impact of Social Comparison Concern on Grades

    • PAR-B.06
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Srividya Suresh, Andrew Heckler

    • Type: Contributed
    • Social Comparison Concern (SCC) is a measurement of how negatively students compare themselves respect to their classmates based on their skill and knowledge of the class. Previous research found that female students, underrepresented minorities, and first generation students reported higher SCC on average, SCC was moderately (negatively) correlated with grade, and SCC mediated the effect of belonging on grade. To further understand SCC, we designed an online intervention by adapting prior motivational intervention designs, and administered a semester-long online SCC pilot intervention study for the first course in the introductory calculus physics sequence at the Ohio State University. Students were divided into SCC treatment or no-treatment control conditions by lecture section. We report on evidence that SCC may be impacting midterm and final exam scores (and vice-versa), especially for lower-scoring students, but the results of our pilot treatment remain inconclusive, and we will discuss our next steps.

• PER: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion III  

  • • How Does The Learning Environment Predict Student Outcomes In Algebra-Based Introductory Physics Courses?

    • PAR-E.05
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Sonja Cwik, Kyle Whitcomb, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Contributed
    • Student outcomes in introductory physics courses influence their retention in STEM disciplines and future career aspirations. This study investigates how the learning environment predicts male and female students’ outcomes, including grade, self-efficacy, interest, and identity. These findings can be useful to provide support and to create an equitable and inclusive learning environment to help all students excel in algebra-based physics courses.

  • • Physics-specific discourses and white identity: Examples from classroom video*

    • PAR-E.05
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Wilford Hairston, Sarah McKagan, Amy Robertson, Rachel Scherr

    • Type: Contributed
    • Sociocultural theory has articulated the central role that identity plays in learning, and has pointed to some of the ways in which instructional practices actively interact with discipline-specific identities. The lack of diversity and inclusion within physics suggests that physics instructional practices are actively centering particular identities while marginalizing others. In this talk, we use classroom video to illustrate ways in which physics-specific discourses mediate a particular type of physics identity, one centered around whiteness as a historical and material reality.

  • • Science cafes as a collaborative, informal event for professional learining.

    • PAR-E.05
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Mossy Kelly, Sophie Eden, Bianca Moone

    • Type: Contributed
    • The focus of the talk will be on two events that were run mid-way through a 12-week laboratory course. These events, named ‘Science Cafés’, were used as an informal way to get students and staff to gather together to collaboratively work on professional development. The theme of the first event was to reflect on the things students do and recognise aspects of professional learning within that experience. The second event was focussed on writing resumés for potential job applications in the future. In the collaborative spirit, this talk will be co-delivered with a student who attended these events who had this to say: “The science cafés were chances to discuss with people who’ve hired, and been hired by other academics, to talk through what we’ve done, and have the things which we as students see as routine and part of being a student, actually being very valid scientific experience.”

  • • Impact of Peer Interaction on Male and Female Students’ Sense of Belonging in Introductory Physics

    • PAR-E.05
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Alysa Malespina, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Contributed
    • We investigate how students’ perceptions of interactions with their peers in introductory physics courses predict their sense of belonging in those courses using a validated survey. We also compare male and female students’ perceptions of peer interactions when they worked in mixed gender vs. same gender groups. Findings can be useful in creating learning environments in which all students have a high sense of belonging and can thrive while learning physics. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

  • • Perceiving whiteness and masculinity in physics teaching and learning

    • PAR-E.05
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Sarah McKagan, Wilford Hairston, Amy Robertson, Rachel Scherr

    • Type: Contributed
    • In the Centering Project, we are studying how whiteness and masculinity show up in the physics classroom, through video of classroom interactions among students and between students and instructors, and in the content and practices of physics, including curriculum. In this talk we present results of this analysis that we think will be relevant for physics educators.

  • • Cultural Exchange events

    • PAR-E.05
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Ruth Saunders
    • Type: Contributed
    • This talk describes some events designed to share culture among students and faculty. In order to enhance the participation of women and minoritized students and to elevate the experiences of all students, we must find ways to allow students to bring their whole selves into their studies. The illusion that Physics has no culture is damaging especially those who do not feel welcome. By discussing culture and sharing our culture we can strengthen connections between students and faculty.

  • • When the Gatekeeper Says No: Mechanics Students’ Resilience and Success

    • PAR-E.05
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Devyn Shafer, Tim Stelzer

    • Type: Contributed
    • What happens to aspiring engineers who do not pass their introductory mechanics class? At UIUC, approximately 11 percent of introductory mechanics engineering students earn a D, F, or W. Just 31 percent of these students go on to earn an engineering degree, compared with the 87 percent of students who pass the course on their first attempt. While most students who perform poorly in their introductory physics class choose a non-engineering major or leave the university altogether, there is a unique subset of initially struggling students who choose to persist in an engineering major. We interviewed engineering seniors in this group to learn about their experiences as engineering students who overcame an initial setback. In this talk, we will discuss big-picture outcomes for students who retake this fundamental course as well as insights into the difficulties some students face and what resources may help them succeed.

  • • Creating interdisciplinary pathways into quantum careers: opportunities for physics departments

    • PAR-E.05
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Michael Verostek, Benjamin Zwickl

    • Type: Contributed
    • Aligning with the National Quantum Initiative and NSF’s “Quantum Leap,” we are working toward an interdisciplinary approach to quantum information science and technology (QIST) education. We present results from a single institution based on interviews with faculty and administrators in engineering, computing, and the sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology, which suggest that it is feasible and desirable to provide STEM majors with accessible degree pathways that embed quantum-related electives. Combined with results from studies on the skills of quantum industry employees, our results indicate a minor or concentration in QIST provides STEM majors with sufficient preparation for quantum careers, and a new major in QIST is unnecessary. Physics departments could play an essential role in such programs by offering an introductory QIST course open to all STEM majors that prepares students for advanced QIST coursework. We also provide insight into structural barriers that might hinder implementation of this arrangement.

  • • In A Physics Curriculum Only Introductory Physics Course Grades Show Gender Differences

    • PAR-E.05
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Kyle Whitcomb, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Contributed
    • Analysis of institutional data for physics majors showing predictive relationships between required mathematics and physics courses in various years is important for contemplating how the courses build on each other and whether there is need to make changes to the curriculum for the majors to strengthen these relationships. We use 15 years of institutional data at a large research university to investigate how introductory physics and mathematics courses predict male and female physics majors' performance on required advanced physics and mathematics courses. We used Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) to investigate these predictive relationships and find that among introductory and advanced physics and mathematics courses, there are gender differences in performance in favor of male students only in the introductory physics courses after controlling for high school GPA. We found that a measurement invariance fully holds in a multi-group SEM by gender, so it was possible to carry out analysis with gender mediated by introductory physics and high school GPA. Moreover, we find that these introductory physics courses that have gender differences do not predict performance in advanced physics courses. Also, introductory mathematics courses predict performance in advanced mathematics courses which in turn predict performance in advanced physics courses. Furthermore, apart from the introductory physics courses that do not predict performance in future physics courses, there is a strong predictive relationship between the sophomore, junior and senior level physics courses.

  • • PER doctoral programs and women bachelor’s degree recipients in physics

    • PAR-E.05
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Susan White, Gary White

    • Type: Contributed
    • It has been shown previously* that PhD physics departments that maintain a doctoral degree specialization in Physics Education Research (PER) for 10 years produce significantly more physics bachelor's degree recipients than PhD departments which do not support such a specialty, even after accounting for department size via their respective numbers of FTE faculty members. Here we report on related work, wherein we investigate the correlation between sustained PER PhD programs in physics departments and the number and proportion of undergraduate physics degrees granted to women as reported by those departments. We use data from past issues of the GradsSchoolShopper publication, and from the surveys of physics departments conducted by Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics.

• PER: Student Content Understanding, Problem-Solving and Reasoning  

  • • The Conceptual Framework Approach for Modeling Deep Learning in Physics

    • PAR-A.06
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Lei Bao, Joseph Fritchman, Kathleen Koenig

    • Type: Contributed
    • Research has shown that traditional instruction often falls short of helping students develop deep understanding in learning physics. To support the assessment and instruction that promote knowledge integration and deep learning, a new modeling approach,the Conceptual Framework, has been developed, which establishes models of plausible student knowledge structures that focus on the core idea(s) and sub-dimensions for a given concept. Assessments based on conceptual frameworks focus on determining what connections students exist for students in both familiar and novel problem formats, while instruction based on conceptual frameworks suggests which material to teaching in order to best facilitate building expert-like connections within the students’ knowledge structures. This presentation will introduce the conceptual framework approach and review the recent studies that have shown promising outcomes from applying this method.

  • • Shared Resources in Student Understanding of Spherical Unit Vectors: Theory

    • PAR-A.06
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Ying Cao, Brant Hinrichs

    • Type: Contributed
    • The resources framework has been applied in physics education research in many different contexts. While it focuses on the thinking of individuals, in this work we instead apply an expanded framework called shared resources to look at a small group as they solve problems together related to spherical unit vectors in the context of upper-division E&M. Using examples from this think-out-loud interview, we illustrate what we mean by the theoretical lens of shared resources: what they are, how they are shared, and what role they can play in helping students make sense of a difficult physics topic. This work extends previous work by including more substantial and more in-depth analysis from a richer example.

  • • Spanning the space of student ideas on change-of-basis in quantum

    • PAR-A.06
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Giaco Corsiglia, Benjamin Schermerhorn, Homeyra Sadaghiani, Gina Passante, Steve Pollock

    • Type: Contributed
    • Representing a state in an observable’s eigenbasis encodes probabilities for measurement outcomes and facilitates computation of useful quantities such as expectation values. Converting state vectors between bases is therefore a key skill for students in quantum mechanics. Our research in upper-division quantum mechanics courses at three diverse institutions investigates student understanding of basis and change-of-basis in the context of spin-1/2 systems. Our investigation focuses on procedural and conceptual written questions as well as student reasoning interviews. We identify the range of methods students employ when changing basis, illuminate student understanding of the structure and meaning of a basis expansion, enumerate student ideas about whether and how changing basis affects the state, and examine how students perceive notation as indicative of choice of basis. Together, these results paint a broad qualitative picture of the various ways students grapple with basis and change-of-basis, with potential implications for instruction.

  • • Relating solutions to the heat equation to the underlying physics

    • PAR-A.06
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Mieke De Cock, Paul van Kampen, Sofie Van den Eynde, Johan Deprez, Martin Goedhart

    • Type: Contributed
    • Interpreting and understanding the way students use and understand the mathematics used in physics is a central theme in Physics Education Research. Physical phenomena described by partial differential equations (PDEs) provide a promising context to study how students combine physics and mathematics. An example is the description of heat flow and temperature distribution in a one-dimensional rod, which can be described by the (1D) heat equation, together with an initial condition (IC), and boundary conditions (BCs). In this contribution, we present data from an interview study where we gave students the mathematical description of a system (PDE, IC and BCs) together with the analytical solution. We asked to describe the time evolution of the system, both in mathematical and physical terms. Our analysis shows that students’ reasoning is mainly mathematical with little reference to the underlying physics and that most students do not connect their mathematical statements to physical processes.

  • • Assessment of Student Learning of the Hand Rules in Electromagnetism

    • PAR-A.06
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Yikun Han*, Lei Bao, Feipeng Pi

    • Type: Contributed
    • In the Chinese high school physics curriculum, the Ampere's rule, the left-hand rule, and the right-hand rule are used to determine the direction of the magnetic field, the ampere and Lorentz force, and the direction of the electric current. However, without a deep understanding of the basis of these rules, which arises from the concept of cross-product, it is easy for students to confuse these rules. This leads to inefficiency and difficulty in problem-solving, which is also the difficulty faced by most teachers. The central idea of these three rules is the cross product; therefore, by guiding students to establish the concept of cross product can cultivate deep learning of electromagnetism knowledge. In this presentation, a conceptual framework of the hand rules will be instructed along with an assessment tool that evaluates students’ understanding of the mastery of the three rules at different phases of their learning.

  • • Shared Resources in Student Understanding of Spherical Unit Vectors: Examples

    • PAR-A.06
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Brant Hinrichs, Ying Cao

    • Type: Contributed
    • The previous talk introduced and elaborated on the theoretical framework of shared resources in the context of students solving problems about spherical unit vectors in upper-division E&M. In this companion talk, we discuss additional examples that we have identified from three small group think-out-loud interviews on the same topic, and go into greater detail about how these resources speak to their ability to navigate through some of the difficulties of this extremely challenging concept. We conclude with some implications for possible instructional strategies.

  • • Technical-Vocational Education (TVE) Students' Mental Models about Electric Circuits

    • PAR-A.06
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Voltaire Mistades, Jasmin Elena Orolfo

    • Type: Contributed
    • The study looked into the conceptions and misconceptions about electric circuits of students taking an electricity-related program in a technical-vocational education (TVE) high school. The study showed that majority of the students have misconceptions and incomplete conceptions about electric circuits and the elements that make a circuit work. While they showed familiarity with actual circuit elements, they lacked familiarity with the symbols used in an electric circuit. The TVE students had varied understanding about how energy flows in an electric circuit. Some students subscribed to the Unipolar Model, the idea that electrical energy flows from the negative terminal only. The Bipolar Model was also present among the students, with the students describing the current from the positive terminal moving faster than the current that flows out of the negative terminal. The students' self-constructed idea about what happens when the energy reaches the load is analogous to a two-way traffic model.

  • • From Cartesian to Hilbert space: Improving understanding of quantum bases

    • PAR-A.06
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Benjamin Schermerhorn, Giaco Corsiglia, Homeyra Sadaghiani, Steven Pollock, Gina Passante

    • Type: Contributed
    • The meaning and representation of basis is fundamental to many quantum mechanics topics, including probability, measurement, and time evolution. Furthermore, students are often required to change the basis of a state in order to gain other information about a system. Data collected from “spins-first” courses across three institutions has illuminated a variety of challenges for students, related to procedures, interpretation, and notation. To help improve student understanding, we designed an activity that makes an analogy between spin basis vectors and more familiar two-dimensional Cartesian unit vectors. In this activity, students draw vectors for a state and discover that changing the basis is analogous to using a different set of coordinate axes to represent the same state. We provide evidence that this activity supported students in their understanding of basis representation and in the procedure of changing basis.

  • • Inevitably Uncertain: Student reasoning about measurement uncertainty

    • PAR-A.06
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Courtney White, Emily Stump, N.G. Holmes, Gina Passante

    • Type: Contributed
    • Measurement is a concept that students are familiar with well before they enter university. However, measurement and uncertainty are widely misinterpreted by students in physics laboratory settings. In this work we investigate student reasoning about thedistribution present in experimental data. We analyze semi-structured interviews with advanced physics students where they were asked to explain the distribution in a fictitious data set. Our coding focuses on whether or not students think there is a true value that can be measured and how they believe the distribution can be reduced (or eliminated).

  • • Assessment of Knowledge Integration in Learning Geometric Optics

    • PAR-A.06
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Yue Xiao*, JianWen Xiong, Lei Bao

    • Type: Contributed
    • A key strategy in solving geometric optics problems is drawing ray diagrams. However, through interviews with middle school teachers in China, it appears that the ray diagram is not emphasized in instruction due to the fact that most problems homework and exams can be solved by memorizing the final results of special cases (such as the three special rays that go into a lens). As a result, students did not make the connection between the principles of geometric optics and the final results that they memorized. In this talk, a conceptual framework on geometric optics is introduced to map out students’ knowledge structures. Based on the conceptual framework, a multiple-choice test is designed to further probe students’ conceptual understanding. Assessment outcomes will be discussed to shed light on new instruction methods that emphasize the ray diagram method for achieving deep understanding of geometric optics.

• PER: Student Content Understanding, Problem-Solving and Reasoning III  

  • • Counterintuitive Basic Electric Circuits Test

    • PAR-F.07
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Nuri Balta
    • Type: Contributed
    • The purpose of this study is to develop a test to assess students’ level of counter-intuitiveness in basic electric circuits. Data from four samples were gathered and used to develop and validate the counterintuitive basic electric circuit test (CBECT). The initial version of the CBECT was administered to the first sample and data collected from this sample were used for pilot study. The aim of the data collected from the second sample was to comb out the items that were not counterintuitive. The data collected from the third sample were used for concurrent validity issue while from the fourth sample were used for the test-retest reliability analysis. Finally, 26 items that can be used to determine counterintuitive cases in basic electric circuits in high school and college levels were constructed.

  • • Identifying Student Conceptual Resources for Understanding Electric Circuits*

    • PAR-F.07
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jonathan Corcoran, Lauren Bauman, Amy Robertson

    • Type: Contributed
    • Most research focusing on student ideas about electric circuits frames these ideas in terms of misconceptions, difficulties, and misunderstandings. Our project reports student resources for understanding electric circuits, ideas that we consider to be the “beginnings” of foundational understanding. In this talk, we will present four conceptual resources for understanding electric circuits based on our analysis of students’ written responses to conceptual circuits questions. Our aim is to add to instructors’ existing knowledge of students’ ideas, supporting them in identifying and building on student resources for understanding electric circuits.

  • • Exploring Graduate Students' Understanding of Entropy

    • PAR-F.07
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Nate Crossette, Michael Vignal, Bethany Wilcox

    • Type: Contributed
    • As a first step in a larger study of student difficulties in upper-division thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, we present the results of think-aloud interviews with graduate students on a set of entropy related questions. The four interview questions were developed to probe student understanding of entropy as a pressure towards equilibrium, as a quantity maximized in equilibrium, as a connection between microstates and macrostates, and as a macroscopic state-function. Exploring graduate students' understanding entropy and their ability to solve problems and reason with entropic arguments will provide insights into how physicists develop a mature understanding of entropy as a physical quantity. Specifically, we hope to see if new conceptual difficulties emerge as students progress to graduate school, and whether difficulties seen in undergraduate courses persist, evolve, or cease to present issues in the graduate setting.

  • • Action, Reaction, and Newton’s Third Law

    • PAR-F.07
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Joseph Fritchman, Bao Lei

    • Type: Contributed
    • Student understanding of Newton’s third law and causality are intrinsically linked. It is known that using 'action-reaction' language when teaching Newton’s third law may imply a causal relation yet that is exactly the way the law is still presented in textbooks and introductory physics courses. 20 undergraduate and 22 graduate students were interviewed on their understanding of Newton’s third law and causality. Nearly all students interviewed at both levels recite Newton’s third law using similar 'action-reaction' language. Most students attribute cause to the acting or dominate force (and call it the action force) while stating that the other force must be the reaction force, and over half of both groups of students would incorrectly identify the pair(s) of forces interacting when more than two forces were present. However, graduate students were more likely to recognize a contradiction in their understanding of causality and Newton’s third law and correct their responses.

  • • Student conceptual resources for understanding kinematics

    • PAR-F.07
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Brynna Hansen, Cheyenne Broadfoot, Amy Robertson

    • Type: Contributed
    • Physics education research on student understanding of kinematics has largely focused on misconceptions and difficulties. Our project reports student resources for understanding kinematics -- ideas that we consider to be the “beginnings” of sophisticatedunderstandings. Our preliminary analysis highlighted four common resources that students are using to solve kinematics problems. In this talk, we will elaborate on the resources used most often by students and give examples from our preliminary research.

  • • Secondary Student Perspectives of Quantum Physics

    • PAR-F.07
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Zac Patterson, Lin Ding

    • Type: Contributed
    • Secondary physics curricula predominantly focus on physics content established prior to the 20th century (e.g., Newtonian mechanics, conservation of energy). Rarely are students exposed to modern physics topics (e.g., quantum mechanics, special relativity) in their formal education. Even so, students inevitably encounter terms such as “quantum” and “quantum physics” in their everyday lives. The aim of this study is to provide insight on secondary student perspectives of the terms “quantum” and “quantum physics”. While there is a body of research available that analyzes university physics majors’ perspectives of quantum physics topics, little research has been done at the secondary level. Clinical interviews of students at a Midwestern high school are conducted to establish commonalities among perspective of quantum physics topics.

  • • Investigating high school students' understanding of wave optics

    • PAR-F.07
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Maja Planinic, Karolina Matejak Cvenic, Ana Susac, Lana Ivanjek, Katarina Jelicic

    • Type: Contributed
    • Wave optics is a difficult teaching topic that was up to now usually investigated on university students. In Croatia, this topic is compulsory for a significant fraction of high school students, aged 18-19 years. In 2018. we started a four-year research project that includes investigation of high school students' difficulties with wave optics, construction of a new diagnostic instrument (Conceptual Test on Wave Optics), and development and testing of an experimental teaching sequence on wave optics. The final goal of the project is to investigate the effect of the new teaching approach, which includes several students' investigative experiments, on students' conceptual understanding of wave optics and on their scientific reasoning. Some preliminary results of the project will be presented, including findings from the 27 semi-structured interviews and from the process of the CTWO development. The most frequent students' conceptual difficulties regarding interference, diffraction and polarization of light will be discussed.

  • • Investigating and Improving Student Understanding of Quantum Mechanical Observables and their Corresponding Operators in Dirac Notation

    • PAR-F.07
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Chandralekha Singh, Emily Marshman

    • Type: Contributed
    • Here we focus on an investigation that suggests that, even though Dirac notation is used extensively, many advanced undergraduate and Ph.D. students in physics have difficulty expressing the identity operator and other Hermitian operators corresponding to physical observables in Dirac notation. We first describe the difficulties students have with expressing the identity operator and other Hermitian operators corresponding to observables in Dirac notation. We then discuss how the difficulties found via written surveys and individual interviews were used as a guide in the development and validation of a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) to help students develop a good grasp of these concepts. We also discuss the effectiveness of the QuILT based on in-class evaluations. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

  • • Investigating the impact of a bottom-up training on Newton’s 2nd Law

    • PAR-F.07
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by J. Caleb Speirs, Thanh Lê, Shawn Ell, Robyn Leuteritz

    • Type: Contributed
    • Some physics questions prove difficult for students even after research-based instruction and demonstration of relevant conceptual knowledge. Recent studies have indicated that reflexive, bottom-up reasoning processes seemingly unrelated to conceptual understanding may be responsible for these difficulties. These studies also suggest that attending to these bottom-up processes during instruction may improve performance to a greater degree than attending solely to top-down, analytical reasoning. It is important to leverage these findings to produce meaningful improvements to instruction. Towards that end, we have investigated the impact of a training targeted at reflexive, bottom-up reasoning processes on questions related to balanced forces and compared results to a more standard, top-down approach to the same topic. This talk will relate the findings and suggest implications for future work.

  • • Tutorial to connect mathematics and physics of the heat equation

    • PAR-F.07
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Sofie Van den Eynde, Mieke De Cock, Johan Deprez, Martin Goedhart

    • Type: Contributed
    • We developed a guided-inquiry tutorial to foster connections between mathematics and physics in the context of undergraduate thermodynamics, specifically the heat equation. Based on literature and empirical reasons, we formulated design principles that guided the development, including promoting graphical reasoning, stimulating thinking about physical meaning first, and paying explicit attention to the mathematical and physical aspects of concepts and ideas, and as such promote interdisciplinary connections. We determined the effectiveness of the design principles by testing the tutorial in teaching-learning interviews with three groups of three students each. In this session, we present the design principles and how they impacted the students’ reasoning process. We aim to inform practitioners in the field who teach this subject, but furthermore anyone who wants to strengthen the connections between mathematics and physics in the topic they are teaching.

• PER: Student Content Understanding, Problem-Solving and Reasoning IV  

  • • Brief Concept Survey of Units/Unit Systems in Introductory Physics Abstract

    • PAR-G.06
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Nathaniel Amos, David Harris, Jeff Hutchinson

    • Type: Contributed
    • Proficiency in units/dimensional analysis is a useful skill in the sciences and engineering, and STEM instructors often presume competence from their students in this area. However, unit analysis techniques and unit systems are not always formally taught, and even with explicit emphasis during instruction, many students lack the repeated exposure necessary to master them. To assess student understanding of units and unit systems, we administered a brief, itemized survey to N=53 calculus-based introductory university physics students. The survey was intended to uncover possible misconceptions and identify previously unknown obstacles to student success within this topic. Our results suggest that as many as half of surveyed participants may not recognize the adaptability of symbolic physical equations to different unit systems. Furthermore, a similar proportion failed to eliminate non-viable answer choices involving analytic functions with units inside their arguments. Consequently, we believe units/dimensional analysis is a topic ripe for further investigation.

  • • Impact of Peer-Led Recitation Sections in Introductory Physics

    • PAR-G.06
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Rebecca Forrest, Jacqueline Hawkins, Donna Pattison, Monica Martens, Shuo Chen

    • Type: Contributed
    • Peer-led recitation sections were implemented in introductory algebra-based physics courses to improve student success. Recitation attendance is required depending on student’s score on a diagnostic exam taken during the first two weeks of class. Recitations are led by two undergraduate Peer Facilitators, limited to about 25 students per section, and focus on problem-solving in small groups. An analysis of 2,738 students in first semester introductory algebra-based physics courses shows a positive correlation between recitation attendance and final exam score for the targeted students. Recitation structure and analysis results will be presented.

  • • Investigating the role of cognitive reflection in following reasoning chains*

    • PAR-G.06
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Beth Lindsey, Werner Hager V, MacKenzie Stetzer

    • Type: Contributed
    • As part of a multi-institution collaboration, we are investigating the efficacy of educational interventions rooted in dual-process theories of reasoning (DPToR). In prior work, we examined the extent to which students are able to follow and infer conclusions from reasoning chains that have been provided to them. In order to explore this issue, we developed a collection of tasks that are administered online to large populations of students in introductory calculus-based courses. We have previously reported that students who themselves respond correctly to the base task will be more likely to follow the correct reasoning chain provided. In this talk, we examine the factors that influence students to set aside their own reasoning and adopt correct reasoning when it is shared with them. The relation of our findings to DPToR, and the implications of our results for instruction and curriculum development will be discussed.

  • • Insights into student understanding of statistical mechanics

    • PAR-G.06
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by William Lo
    • Type: Contributed
    • As part of our effort to develop a concept inventory for statistical mechanics, we have interviewed a number of students who have taken a thermal physics course, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, about their understanding of the statistical mechanics topics taught in the thermal physics curriculum. The questions asked during the interviews were formulated with input from experts in the field, and will later be fleshed out into multiple-choice questions. Here, we report some of our intermediate findings about the students understanding of some of the topics.

  • • Framework for the Natures of Covariational Reasoning in Introductory Physics

    • PAR-G.06
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Alexis Olsho, Charlotte Zimmerman, Suzanne White Brahmia

    • Type: Contributed
    • Covariational reasoning--how a change in one quantity is related to a change in another quantity (e.g., a 1/r potential, or the exponential decay with time of a charged capacitor)--is integral to how scientists model the physical world. It is also a skill we expect students to develop as a result of introductory physics instruction. Little research has been done to characterize physics experts' covariational reasoning. Our research suggests that physics experts use a number of strategies--distinct from those of mathematics experts--that optimize thinking about physical quantities and how they relate to each other. We present a framework that describes physics expert covariational reasoning in introductory-level physics contexts as an important first step toward an understanding of students' covariational reasoning, how students' covariational reasoning changes over the course of physics instruction, and how instruction can be designed to help develop this important type of reasoning.

  • • The associations between conceptual learning, physics identity and social interdependence

    • PAR-G.06
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Miguel Rodriguez-Velazquez, Geoff Potvin

    • Type: Contributed
    • This study takes place in a Modeling Instruction Introductory Physics I course and investigates whether students’ social interdependence experiences are associated to semester-long conceptual and physics identity gains. In Modeling Instruction students spend the majority of class time working in small groups leading to varying levels of task and outcome interdependence with other group members. Detailed data were collected to measure pre to post conceptual and identity gains as well as their reported task and outcome interdependence for each of their assigned groups. Students’ individualism and cooperation beliefs were also collected as they have been shown to be correlated with social interdependence. Using the mean of students’ task and outcome interdependence throughout the course, linear regressions were conducted to find correlations with the pre to post semester differences in students’ conceptual and physics identity. A significant shift in student’s pre to post semester cooperation beliefs was also observed.

  • • Transfer from Discrete to Continuous Inner-Products in a Computational Course

    • PAR-G.06
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Christian Solorio, David Roundy, Corinne Manogue

    • Type: Contributed
    • Because a “spins-first” approach is becoming a more common method of teaching quantum mechanics, we want to know how the knowledge of discrete spin systems might help student’s understanding of continuous quantum systems. Leveraging computation, where wavefunctions are necessarily discretized, is a promising strategy of exploring this. During the junior-year of Oregon State University’s physics curriculum, students take a computational lab course in parallel with the “spins-first” lecture course. In this computational lab, students solve quantum problems by pair-programming in Python. We observed three pairs of students in class while they worked on a computational task of taking inner products of wavefunctions and basis states. In this talk, we will discuss the concepts of inner products students transferred from the discrete case used in the lecture course to the continuous case used in the computational lab and how they implemented these mathematical and physical concepts into their code.

  • • Scaffolding student exploration of alternative approaches*

    • PAR-G.06
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by MacKenzie Stetzer, Ryan Moyer, J. Caleb Speirs, Beth Lindsey, Mila Kryjevskaia

    • Type: Contributed
    • A growing body of research in physics education indicates that the nature of human reasoning itself may impact student performance on physics questions. Analysis of student reasoning patterns through the lens of dual-process theories of reasoning (DPToR) suggests that students may struggle to engage analytical processing productively when responding to a physics question that contains salient distracting features. As part of a larger effort to investigate and support student reasoning in physics, we have used reasoning chain construction tasks in order gain insight into students’ initial perceptions of viable approaches for solving a qualitative physics question and to examine the impact of guiding students to explore alternative approaches before revisiting that physics question. In this talk, preliminary results will be presented and implications for research-based curriculum development aligned with DPToR will also be discussed.

  • • Similarities and Differences between Unprompted and Prompted Student-generated Diagrams

    • PAR-G.06
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Michael Vignal, Bethany Wilcox

    • Type: Contributed
    • Diagraming physical scenarios is ubiquitous in physics problem solving and a key focus of physics education. In this talk, we discuss and compare unprompted and prompted diagrams generated by 19 physics majors (ranging from lower-division to graduate students) during one-on-one problem-solving interviews. These interviews included multiple-choice introductory-level physics problems (that neither contained nor asked for diagrams) followed by explicit diagraming tasks for similar scenarios. We discuss patterns and surprises in student-generated diagrams as well as implications for instruction and assessment.

  • • Shift Toward Scientific Reasoning in the Introductory Physics Lab

    • PAR-G.06
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by John Walkup, Roger Key, Avery Sheldon, Michael Walkup

    • Type: Contributed
    • The authors present samples of a complete lab sequence developed for introductory physics labs that target industrial statistical analysis and scientific reasoning as primary learning objectives. This shift in approach replaces traditional verification of lecture content with the more industrial practice of estimating unknown values through statistics and error analysis. These activities place students in the role of lab designers, using data-driven decision making -- which is explicitly taught -- to optimize lab procedures. Most importantly, the learning objectives for each lab are tailored to generate a broad range of skills developed incrementally throughout the semester. Four of the activities developed for the sequence garnered publication in refereed physics education journals, with one representing a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURES) activity. Benefits include a tightened adherence to ISO and NIST definitions and procedures, reduced equipment demands, a heightened career focus, and explicit instruction in writing.

  • • Student reasoning about integration of charge density

    • PAR-G.06
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Paul van Kampen, Leanne Doughty

    • Type: Contributed
    • Charge distributions provide an early example where students need to apply integration, first encountered in a calculus course, in a physics context. Where mathematics courses typically focus on techniques for finding antiderivatives, in physics courses both the function (say the linear charge density) and the product of the function at a point and the differential of the integrating variable (say the infinitesimal length) tend to have physical meaning (the charge on that length). We have investigated responses of students to different questions about charge density. We asked them to describe how they would obtain the total charge on a nonuniformly charged rod, to interpret definite integrals of the linear charge density in the context of a charged rod, and to calculate the charge on a rod or disk for a given charge density distribution. We have identified a number of inconsistencies in students’ reasoning and explore possible reasons for these.

• PER: Student and Instructor Support & Professional Development, Program and Institutional Change  

  • • Studying student reasoning in an ISLE-based classroom

    • PAR-C.08
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Sheehan Ahmed, Diane Jammula, Joshua Rutberg, Eugenia Etkina

    • Type: Contributed
    • In this talk we present data collected in two introductory physics courses (algebra-based and calculus-based) using the ISLE approach at Rutgers, Newark. The data come from students’ solutions of traditional physics problems evaluated using a rubric that assesses student reasoning abilities, such as ability to communicate, to use different representations consistently, and to evaluate their answer. We track students through one semester and analyze their progress using weekly assessments and course exams.

  • • Research Results and Best Practices for GTA Preparation

    • PAR-C.08
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Emily Alicea-Munoz
    • Type: Contributed
    • Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are essential in the teaching of introductory physics at many universities, and have been so for over a century. However, no formal efforts to prepare GTAs for their teaching responsibilities existed before roughly 1970, and only the last three decades have seen systematic research on the best methods of GTA training. In this talk, I provide a brief summary of the most salient results from research in GTA preparation, and synthesize the most important recommendations from the literature into the six (plus one) principles for best practices in GTA development.

  • • ISLE-based reforms in an urban public university

    • PAR-C.08
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Diane Jammula, Sheehan Ahmed, Joshua Rutberg, Eugenia Etkina

    • Type: Contributed
    • This talk will describe the innovations that we made in our introductory physics courses at Rutgers, Newark (algebra-based and calculus-based) using the ISLE approach. In the spring of 2019 we ran two pilot sections of ISLE-based labs and in the fall of 2019 we implemented whole course reforms in two of our introductory courses with over 400 students. The reforms included revisions in student activities in all three parts of the courses - lectures (large room meetings), recitations (small room meetings) and laboratories. We provided professional development for the 12 instructors and 20 Learning Assistants teaching these courses in a pre-semester workshop and weekly preparation meetings. We will share the details of the changes that we made and the data that we collected using the E-CLASS survey and student evaluations. Rutgers, Newark is an urban public university. Our experience will be useful for those teaching in similar institutions.

  • • Facilitating Instructor Change in an ISLE-Based Course

    • PAR-C.08
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Joshua Rutberg, Sheehan Ahmed, Diane Jammula, Eugenia Etkina

    • Type: Contributed
    • Teaching in an active, student-centered environment is very different from teaching in a traditional environment, requiring a different set of dispositions, knowledge and skills. This environment can be particularly challenging for new instructors with no classroom experience. During the 2019-2020 academic year, we reformed the introductory physics courses at Rutgers, Newark using the ISLE approach. The laboratory portion of this reform included eight instructors, including one ISLE expert and four graduate teaching assistants with no previous teaching experience. In this talk we will discuss the professional development conducted and the changes we observed in lab instruction that occurred during the fall semester. Specifically, we will present the observation protocols we used, our measurements of instructor improvement, and the relationship between the instructor scores and student learning and attitudes about experimental physics.

  • • Periscope: Looking into learning in best-practices physics classrooms

    • PAR-C.08
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Rachel Scherr
    • Type: Contributed
    • Periscope is a set of lessons that connects big questions of physics teaching and learning to authentic video episodes from best-practices physics classrooms. Periscope lessons are useful if you supervise learning assistants or teaching assistants, lead faculty development, seek to improve teaching in your department, or want to improve your own teaching. Periscope’s primary aim is to help STEM instructors see authentic teaching events the way an expert educator does – to develop their “professional vision” (C. Goodwin, American Anthropologist 96(3), 1994). This development of professional vision is particularly critical for educators in transformed STEM courses, who are expected to respond to students’ ideas and interactions as they unfold moment to moment. By watching and discussing authentic teaching events, instructors enrich their experience with noticing and interpreting student behavior; practice applying lessons learned about teaching to actual teaching situations; train to listen to and watch students in their own classrooms by having them practice on video episodes of students in other classrooms; observe, discuss, and reflect on teaching situations similar to their own; develop pedagogical content knowledge; get a view of other institutions’ transformed courses; and expand their vision of their own instructional improvement. Periscope is free to educators at physport.org/periscope.

  • • Co-teaching an Introductory Mechanics Course; An Opportunity to Teach or Learn?

    • PAR-C.08
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Azita Seyed Fadaei, Elizabeth Schoene

    • Type: Contributed
    • Classes with multiple teachers is a challenging way for teaching science. The hard part is, teachers have mostly chosen their teaching styles, and blending teaching styles after years of development can be daunting. This limits opportunities to try new approaches. However, co-teaching provides the opportunity to teach with different approaches and group work strategies, which can be a little hard but exciting. We decided to follow the same lesson plans, lab tools, quizzes and grading strategy for three introductory calculus-based mechanics classes for one quarter, including combining the classes in our Learning Management System, Canvas. We were all equally responsible as the course instructor in our in-class instruction and our online presence as well. In this experience, we improved our teaching and collaboration skills and students learned how to engage in co-taught a class with many students and multiple teachers.

  • • Resonance: Peer group mentoring for first-year, undergraduate physics majors

    • PAR-C.08
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Laura Tucker, Kameryn Denaro

    • Type: Contributed
    • To address the challenge of involving physics majors into the department early in their career, we created a peer group mentoring program. Incoming undergraduate first-year students are assigned to a group of other incoming students and two undergraduatepeer mentors. This mentoring circle meets multiple times per quarter to discuss common student concerns and success strategies. Initial outcomes include higher GPA for program participants, a difference that is not explained by demographic factors or incoming preparation.

  • • Scrutinize SA-student interaction in inquiry-oriented college physics courses

    • PAR-C.08
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jianlan Wang, Beth Thacker, Kyle Wipfli, Stephanie Hart

    • Type: Contributed
    • Student assistants (SA), which includes graduate and undergraduate teaching/learning assistants, are pivotal to non-traditional physics instruction in large classrooms. Despite its effectiveness, little is known about how SA-student interactions promote students’ learning. How should SAs respond to students’ questions? What support should SAs provide or refrain? What makes a SA effective or ineffective? We are particularly interested in SAs’ questioning skills. We propose a coding scheme to scrutinize SA-student interactions. For analysis, we segment a SA video into vignettes based on different situations SAs encounter and define activities like guiding questions, probing questions, and imparting information. From the pattern of activities, we code a vignette as one of the 6 levels on the hierarchy of students’ accountability. The frequency of certain levels in multiple vignettes could suggest a SA’s practical knowledge of questioning, which will be compared with SAs’ narrated knowledge measured by a written test of their questioning skills.

  • • Coding Students’ Statements of Science Degree and Transfer Self-Efficacy

    • PAR-C.08
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Laura Wood, Angela Little, D'Mario Northington, Vashti Sawtelle

    • Type: Contributed
    • Self-efficacy, or confidence in one's ability to perform some task, is often used as a predictor of academic persistence, particularly in science fields with low retention and in the difficult process of transferring from a two-year college (TYC) to a four-year college (FYC). Self-efficacy has traditionally been measured quantitatively through surveys explicitly asking for confidence rankings. We describe the process of developing a codebook to qualitatively code statements of self-efficacy made in open-ended settings like interviews. To develop this codebook, we used interview and written data from two populations: (1) FYC students pursuing a science degree; and (2) TYC students planning to transfer to a university. The discussion prompts were designed to elicit discussion of these students’ self-efficacy to complete their degrees in natural science majors, to navigate academic requirements, and, when applicable, to transfer to a FYC. We will discuss the mechanics of using this codebook and intended applications.

• PER: Student and Instructor Support & Professional Development, Program and Institutional Change II  

  • • Explore your assessment data with PhysPort

    • PAR-F.06
    • Tue 07/21, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Eleanor Sayre, Sarah McKagan, Adrian Madsen

    • Type: Contributed
    • PhysPort (www.physport.org) has hundreds of free, evidence-based, and friendly resources for teaching physics. In this talk, I'll outline how PhysPort can help you choose research-based assessments (like the FCI, BEMA, or CLASS), collect data in your classes, and make sense of what your data tell you. The PhysPort Data Explorer has a beautiful, intuitive interface to help you understand how groups of students are learning, track your teaching over time, and include useful information in your annual review, promotion, and tenure documents. The Data Explorer can handle your old spreadsheets of past data, too.

  • • How Faculty Take Up Ideas from a Professional Development Program

    • PAR-F.06
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Lydia Bender, James Laverty

    • Type: Contributed
    • College faculty commonly participate in professional development to learn how to improve their teaching. Typically after the program finishes there is little support for faculty to bring new teaching practices into their classrooms. By employing the Situative Perspective and Pedagogical Reasoning and Action, we investigate how faculty take up ideas from a professional development program and the factors that influence their instructional design choices. In this study we investigate a program that aims to bring Three-Dimensional Learning (3DL) into undergraduate STEM classrooms. During this program participants are tasked with creating a teachable unit that aligns with 3DL. Using interviews, fellowship recordings, and online forum responses we look at two different faculty members, Ron and Charlie, and investigate influences that impact their design of classroom materials. Moving forward, we plan to expand the case study to more participants in order to explore how these influences effect the design of professional development programs.

  • • A Refined Model for Characterizing Pedagogy in Informal Learning Environments

    • PAR-F.06
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Michael Bennett, Noah Finkelstein

    • Type: Contributed
    • Compared to pedagogy in formal settings, comparatively little work has been done investigating techniques of pedagogy in informal learning environments. A 2016 study [1] addressed this issue, developing an observation-based model characterizing the pedagogical modes of volunteer instructors in an afterschool informal education program. Following the methodology of that study, we have observed and analyzed instructor pedagogy in a University of Colorado Boulder-based informal physics education program. The result is a model that both corroborates and expands upon the results of the 2016 study, more clearly accounting, e.g., for instructors’ varying objectives in the informal learning environment. We will describe study methodology and results, discuss the expanded model, and address application of the model in other informal learning environments.

  • • “Guiding Star” Principles to Organize Change Efforts: The TRESTLE Network*

    • PAR-F.06
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Stephanie Chasteen
    • Type: Contributed
    • In 2015, seven institutions joined forces to apply a common model of change, creating the Transforming Education, Stimulating Teaching and Learning Excellence (TRESTLE; http://trestlenetwork.org) network. In this talk I will discuss how we are using “principles” to evaluate the network and its impacts (see M.Q. Patton, 2017). Principles are statements which identify the core values, philosophy, or operating assumptions of an initiative, allowing a project to externalize its core values and create accountability for enacting those values. For example, one core principle of TRESTLE is “focus on the department as the main unit of change.” Identifying the core principles of TRESTLE allows us to ask questions such as “Has the network adhered to its principles?”, “How were the principles adapted?”, “Are these principles effective?”, and “How do these principles appear differently at different levels of the system?”

  • • Evaluating the uptake of research-based instructional strategies in physics, math and chemistry

    • PAR-F.06
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Melissa Dancy, Charles Henderson, Naneh Apkarian, Marilyne Stains, Estrella Johnson

    • Type: Contributed
    • We report results from a survey of physics, math and chemistry instructors teaching introductory courses across the United States (N=3769). The survey asked about respondents knowledge and use of various research based strategies and general pedagogical practices and included questions designed to probe for personal and environmental characteristics that might impact knowledge and use. We summarize main research findings, including relative reported use of specific strategies, comparison to historic data, and a comparison of the three disciplines. *Additional author: Jeff Raker, University of South Florida

  • • Longitudinal impact of flipped and traditional introductory physics courses

    • PAR-F.06
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Benjamin Dreyfus, Rebecca Jones, An Hoang

    • Type: Contributed
    • The first two semesters of introductory calculus-based physics at George Mason University are taught in two parallel formats: a flipped section (taught in a SCALE-UP-style active learning classroom, replacing lecture and recitation) and a traditional lecture section. To assess the influence on these formats on student performance and retention, we analyzed a data set of over 1000 students who took the traditional and/or flipped introductory courses in 2013-15, and tracked them longitudinally through their subsequent physics and engineering courses. Initial results suggest that taking flipped Physics I is associated with higher grades in later courses, and taking flipped Physics II is associated with lower grades. However, the full picture is more complicated. A greater fraction of the students who take flipped Physics II go on to take advanced courses, which suggests that flipped Physics II is associated with higher overall retention in physics and related fields.

  • • Long-term impact of faculty online learning community (FOLC) participation

    • PAR-F.06
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Alexandra Lau, Melissa Dancy

    • Type: Contributed
    • In this talk, we present results from our analysis of the long-term impacts of participating in the New Faculty Workshop-Faculty Online Learning Community (NFW-FOLC). The NFW-FOLC supports new physics and astronomy faculty as they implement research-based instructional strategies (RBISs) in their classrooms. A NFW-FOLC cohort meets regularly via videoconference over the course of one year. We have interviewed participants two years after the completion of their FOLC cohort to investigate the longitudinal impacts of FOLC participation on their current teaching practices. The main goals for NFW-FOLC participants are for them to develop as reflective practitioners and for them to successfully implement RBISs over the long term. We also hypothesize that participants may become change agents at their local institutions. We will speak to all three of these impacts in this presentation, discussing the potential of a FOLC experience to influence participants’ teaching well after the FOLC stops meeting regularly.

  • • Improving education through departmental change: a comparison of approaches

    • PAR-F.06
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Alanna Pawlak, Sarah Andrews, Dena Rezaei, Joel Corbo, Noah Finkelstein

    • Type: Contributed
    • Those seeking to change the policies, practices, and cultures of universities to support effective educational practices often find it a challenge. To navigate this work, change efforts are increasingly being focused at the department-level, including two models for departmentally-based change: the Departmental Action Team (DAT) Project and Teaching Quality Framework (TQF) Initiative. In the DAT Project, externally-facilitated working groups, comprised of students, faculty, and staff, pursue collectively-determined projects aimed at improving the undergraduate experience in their department. In the TQF Initiative, externally-facilitated working groups of faculty (modeled on the DAT Project) focus on transforming teaching evaluation practices in their department. To better understand these related models of institutional change, we conducted interviews with individuals from the DAT Project and TQF Initiative, including facilitators and grant PIs. We present results that give insight into outcomes of these models, impacts of differences between the models, and avenues for growth in the models.

  • • Beyond Teaching Methods: Highlighting Physics Faculty's Strengths and Agency

    • PAR-F.06
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Linda Strubbe, Adrian Madsen, Sarah McKagan, Eleanor Sayre

    • Type: Contributed
    • Much work in physics education research (PER) characterizes faculty teaching practice in terms of whether faculty use specific named PER-based teaching methods, either with fidelity or with adaptation; we call this research paradigm the "teaching-method-centered paradigm." However, most faculty do not frame their teaching in terms of which particular named methods they use, but rather in terms of their own ideas and values, suggesting that the teaching-method-centered paradigm misses key features of faculty teaching. These key features include the productive ideas that faculty have about student learning and faculty agency around teaching. We offer three case studies of faculty talking about their teaching, and analyze them in terms of two theoretical frameworks: a framework of teaching principles (How Learning Works) and a framework of faculty agency (Self-Determination Theory). We show that these frameworks well characterize key features of faculty teaching practices and agency, and can be combined in a new paradigm for modeling faculty teaching which we call an "asset-based agentic paradigm." We therefore encourage physics education researchers to move beyond the teaching-method-centered paradigm and think about faculty teaching using an asset-based agentic paradigm.

  • • Improving High-School Physics Lessons through Action Research

    • PAR-F.06
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Sachiko Tosa
    • Type: Contributed
    • The use of active-learning instructional strategies in high schools is strongly emphasized in the new Course of Study in Japan. However, in the actual classroom, one-way didactic teaching is more common. This study focuses on a high-school physics teacher and examines how his beliefs and teaching change through action research. The change of his teaching from the teacher-driven way before the treatment to more student-centered way after the treatment was shown by the use of S-T graphs and co-occurrence network diagrams of the observation data. It was interesting to notice that the teacher does not recognize the change in spite of the obvious change in his teaching style. Further discussions on the effects of action research for promoting active learning in high-school physics will be included in the presentation.

  • • Living Physics Portal: Designing analytics to map faculty’s evolving participation

    • PAR-F.06
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Stephanie Williams, Chandra Turpen, Lyle Barbato

    • Type: Contributed
    • The Living Physics Portal* (www.livingphysicsportal.org) is a website dedicated to cultivating a community in which physics faculty teaching interdisciplinary physics courses can discuss problems of practice and share curricular content. Our research team is interested in understanding faculty’s use of the Portal. As part of this effort, we have been exploring what forms of participation can be tracked and meaningfully interpreted from users’ actions. We have developed a model that categorizes particular actions on the Portal. The model of participation includes the following categories: Networking, Interpreting, Dialoguing, Collecting, Connecting, Creating, Remixing and Viewing. In this talk, we will showcase our model of online participation and apply this model to a single user’s online activity. *This work is supported by NSF #1624478 and #1624185.

  • • Influential factors on faculty experiences with long-term professional development

    • PAR-F.06
    • Wed 07/22, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Tra Huynh, Adrian Madsen, Linda Strubbe, Eleanor Sayre, Sarah McKagan

    • Type: Contributed
    • Faculty can engage in long-term professional development activities, continually learning and applying various innovations into their teaching practices. As part of a project that designs environments to support faculty professional development, we take an asset-based and agentic perspective to explore faculty experiences with on-going processes of change. We conducted longitudinal interviews with physics and astronomy faculty members from diverse backgrounds and carried out an ethnographic study regarding their long-term professional development trajectories. Our preliminary work shows that disciplinary professional development programs and on-going relationships with disciplinary colleagues are significant for faculty in making, appreciating, and sustaining changes. Additionally, faculty often pay attention to contextual constraints for structuring and creating changes.

• Per Curriculum and Instruction II  

  • • Designing for Cultural Relevance in Observational Astrophysics at Texas State

    • PAR-D.06
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Danny Barringer, Alice Olmstead, Brianne Gutmann, Audiel Maldonado, Rose Najar

    • Type: Contributed
    • Racial and ethnic minority students rarely see themselves and their cultural backgrounds reflected in undergraduate STEM courses. In response, education research scholars have presented a broad vision for inclusive teaching in the form of culturally relevant pedagogy. However, implementing culturally relevant pedagogy in the classroom requires significant, intentional work from curriculum designers and instructors, and there is no single blueprint for designing for cultural relevance. In this talk, I will describe the collaborative development process for a new upper-division Observational Astrophysics course in the Physics Department at Texas State and the work we have done to make the course more culturally relevant to our student body. I will highlight what we have learned from students during the development and first implementation of the course.

  • • Epistemological beliefs and learning: An example from resource-oriented instructional materials*

    • PAR-D.06
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Lauren Bauman, Amy Robertson, Lisa Goodhew

    • Type: Contributed
    • In this talk, we will investigate the relationship between context and learning using video of students engaging with resources-oriented instructional materials. Resources-oriented instructional materials aim to elicit and build from student resources for understanding physics—context-dependent “pieces of knowledge” which can be leveraged to develop sophisticated scientific understandings. We use a socio-cultural lens to explore a case in which students are frustrated as they work through the worksheet and discuss implications of our analysis for instructional design.

  • • Developing scientific abilities while learning physics through the ISLE approach

    • PAR-D.06
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by David Brookes, Eugenia Etkina, Peter Bohacek, Matthew Vonk, Anna Karelina

    • Type: Contributed
    • Prior research has shown that students can develop scientific reasoning abilities by engaging in authentic scientific investigations in a course following the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) approach. In our current project, we set outto answer two questions: a. Can students develop scientific reasoning abilities through video-based experiments in place of experiments with physical apparatus? b. What are the affordances and constraints of each environment (video experiments versus real experiments)? To answer those, we created and implemented five video-based ISLE learning cycles (v-ISLEs) and used a quasi-experimental design in a class of 96 students. We randomly assigned 2 lab sections to the vISLE condition and another two lab sections to an apparatus condition. Both engaged in the identical experiment sequence. We will present how students developed and displayed scientific reasoning abilities in their lab reports and in exam questions that were created to specifically examine scientific reasoning.

  • • Facilitating Ethics Discussions in Physics Classrooms at Texas State University

    • PAR-D.06
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Brianne Gutmann, Egla Ochoa-Madrid, Alexander Vasquez, Daniel Barringer, Alice Olmstead

    • Type: Contributed
    • The absence of direct discussions about the intersections of science and society in classrooms reinforces the idea that physics is purely objective and removed from societal impact or influence. This messaging can justify students’ disengagement from social responsibility, leave them unprepared to use ethical reasoning in their careers, and isolate students who feel commitment to their communities. At Texas State University, we developed two units to scaffold student discussions around ethics in physics classrooms: a unit about The Manhattan Project (in Modern Physics) and a unit about the Thirty Meter Telescope (in Observational Astrophysics). This talk will discuss the motivation and development of the units, then share some emerging themes from the Manhattan Project implementation. Using video-recordings of classroom interactions, I will highlight group dynamics that limit and enhance students’ engagement, consider why these dynamics may have emerged, and discuss their implications for facilitating complex ethical reasoning among students.

  • • Rediscovery of a child-centered Japanese educational approach: Hypothesis–Experiment Class

    • PAR-D.06
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Michael Hull, Saiki Kitagawa, Haruki Abe, Hiroshi Yokotani, Haruhiko Funahashi

    • Type: Contributed
    • Hypothesis–Experiment Class (HEC) is the educational approach proposed by Itakura in 1963. Since that time, a number of HEC curricular materials have been developed to teach students of all ages a wide range of topics in both natural and social sciences. Although Hatano and Inagaki introduced HEC to the West in the 1980s, it was done in service of discussing findings in cognitive science, and HEC itself has received little attention outside of Japan. That is beginning to change, however, with the recent translation and publication of the book “Hypothesis-Experiment Class (Kasetsu)” in 2019. HEC has been compared with the well-known Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) approach as well as other educational approaches, but there are some salient features that make HEC unique. In this presentation, we will discuss how HEC is similar to and different from other educational approaches, looking in particular at a specific HEC lesson on background radiation.

  • • Students’ attitudes during ISLE-based apparatus labs and video labs

    • PAR-D.06
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Anna Karelina, Eugenia Etkina, Petter Bohacek, Matthew Vonk, David Brookes

    • Type: Contributed
    • It is known that flow theory [1] can be a powerful tool investigating people's mental states during different activities. Previous research has shown that using the flow theory as a framework we can create a Likert scale survey measuring students’ mentalstate during the laboratories [2]. We used this survey to investigate students’ attitudes towards ISLE-based labs. Students answered the survey after regular ISLE-based labs, where they used real equipment, and after vISLE labs, where students worked with video recorded experiments. We analyzed students’ answers to the flow survey to observe how these different lab settings affect students’ mental states. [1] M. Csikszentmihalyi, "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience", (Harper and Row, New York, NY, 1990). [2] A. Karelina, “Flow Theory: Students’ Mental State During Physics Labs”, AAPT Summer Meeting, Provo UT, 2019.

  • • Lessons from teaching ethics using the Thirty Meter Telescope controversy

    • PAR-D.06
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Alexander Vasquez, Brianne Gutmann, Daniel Barringer, Alice Olmstead

    • Type: Contributed
    • It is important for physics students to develop ethics knowledge, yet this is rarely taught in physics classes. We are addressing this limitation in our physics classes at Texas State University. Here, we focus on teaching about the ethics of building the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii for an observational astrophysics class. We developed resources for students to make informed decisions about this complex issue. The unit encompasses an introduction of the TMT, a local perspective in San Marcos, a history of Hawaii, and perspectives about the TMT relative to formal ethical frameworks. In this talk, we will present data from this new unit in Spring 2020 including students’ video-recorded classroom conversations and their written work. We will highlight what worked well in our design and what could be improved in order to support the community of physics educators and education researchers in teaching about ethics in physics classes.

  • • The differences of students' scientific reasoning ability

    • PAR-D.06
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Zixin Xiao
    • Type: Contributed
    • Due to different levels of education development in China, there are several college entrance examination modes. Scientific reasoning is an important part of core competence. The knowledge points of the three college entrance examination models are identical. However, the difficulty of the items in different models are different. What we are interested in is whether there are differences in scientific reasoning ability among students who have experienced three different college entrance examination modes under the same examination syllabus. We use a standardized tool developed by MIT to evaluate students' mechanical reasoning ability?Mechanics Reasoning Inventory, MRI. The samples are collected from East China Normal University, with a total number of 330. We found that the students who participated in mode 1 had the best scientific reasoning ability, and mode 2 was slightly higher than mode 3. We also found that the ability of all students to reason physical process is inferior to the ability to reason result.

• PhysTEC: Building Institutional Support and Leadership for Teacher Preparation  

  • • Attracting STEM-Talented Undergraduates to Secondary Education with Early Teaching Experiences*

    • PAR-G.08
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Nicole Gugliucci, Kelly Demers

    • Type: Contributed
    • We investigated how participation in a semester-long after-school teaching experience attracts undergraduate STEM majors to consider a career in teaching. The students were asked several questions about their attitudes towards teaching in high-need districts before and after the experience through surveys and interviews. Preliminary analysis suggests that experience with teaching in this program does lead STEM majors to consider teaching as a career. However, our sample was not ideal, since students typically need to declare their second major in secondary education in their sophomore year in order to fit all of the course requirements in four years. The strong interest in teaching as a career among graduating seniors was striking and leads us to conclude that earlier intervention with a teaching experience could spark interest in teaching in time to add the secondary education major, thus ensuring that the students are well prepared upon entering the classroom.

  • • Using the SPIN-UP Report and UTeach to Revitalize Teacher Education

    • PAR-G.08
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Bruce Palmquist
    • Type: Invited
    • In 2012, Central Washington University became a PhysTEC supported site. The success of our project relied on us strengthening our partnerships with other STEM departments as well as our existing science teacher education program. Along with the PhysTEC project, the physics department was in the middle of a pedagogical revitalization using the results of the SPIN-UP report (1). Curriculum revisions such as integrated lecture-lab courses, mentored inquiry projects for all majors, and a learning assistant program lifted the physics department to a position of pedagogical leadership on campus. The department worked with pedagogical experts in mathematics and other science departments to translate some of these innovations to their content and pedagogy courses. This broader collaboration attracted the attention of two deans and the provost, leading the College of the Sciences and the College of Education and Professional Studies to overhaul STEM teacher education by revising and implementing the UTeach model.

  • • PhysTEC at Virginia Tech, Leadership in Action

    • PAR-G.08
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by John Simonetti
    • Type: Invited
    • The PhysTEC program at Virginia Tech utilizes an effective collaboration, and division of labor, between the Physics Department and the School of Education. In the Physics Department students receive their content knowledge, acquiring a BS or BA in Physics. And they have early teaching experiences which provide moral sustenance to the students who have decided to pursue teaching, but also help some students to realize they wish to pursue teaching. These experiences include partaking in Physics Outreach, the Physics Teaching and Learning course, and the Physics Learning Assistant Program. With their BS/BA, our majors can then obtain a Masters of Education (MAEd) degree, in the School of Education. While they pursue their MAEd, the Physics Department financially supports these students as teaching assistants in Physics. This last aspect of our program is particularly important to our recruitment and production of physics teachers.

  • • Building Institutional Support: Lessons Learned from Two Physics Sites

    • PAR-G.08
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by John Stewart, Gay Stewart

    • Type: Invited
    • Successful programs build support among department colleagues and university administration. Ideally building a teacher preparation program begins with institutional commitment before the first proposal is written. University strategic plans often include sentiments like: “Enhance our ability to recruit new students of excellent quality and support their success” and “Provide students the tools for success in the job markets of the future.” Showing your efforts are aligned with administrative priorities is necessary to ensuring institutional support. Department support is also easier to gain and maintain when teacher preparation is cast in terms of departmental priorities such as an improved undergraduate program and significant positive attention from administration. Related efforts around launching two PhysTEC programs will be discussed.

• Physics Education Research in Labs  

  • • Learning Outcomes in Simple Harmonic Motion Labs Aided by Simulations

    • PAR-C.09
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Emily Allen, Sheila Sagear, Andrew Duffy, Manher Jariwala

    • Type: Contributed
    • Computer simulations have been used to support student learning in physics to boost conceptual understanding and make labs more widely accessible. To better understand their impact on student learning outcomes, the use of HTML5-based computer simulationsfor topics in mechanics were investigated in a large, algebra-based, studio physics course for life science students at a private, research-intensive institution. For the past three years, we have used an A/B testing methodology to compare learning outcomes associated with a lab activity on simple harmonic motion. Different groups in this study included students using traditional hands-on equipment only, a simulation only, or, a hybrid combination of both. We will present our findings of this study in the context of previous work and discuss the larger implications of the use of simulations in physics education.

  • • Re-defining Lab Norms via Professional Learning Communities: Meeting the Constraints

    • PAR-C.09
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Smadar Levy, Zehorit Kapach, Esther Magen, Edit Yerushalmi

    • Type: Contributed
    • We present a study of a large-scale intervention designed to shift lab instruction away from "cookbook" lab norms. The intervention was implemented in a network of Professional Learning Communities of Israeli high-school physics teachers (N=250; ~20% of the national workforce). The intervention was tailored to respond to findings on teachers' dissatisfaction with the limited scope of experimental design employed in traditional labs, as well as the highly constrained setting in which these teachers work: a high-stakes exam setting, limited resources, and diverse groups of students. The intervention followed two design guidelines: a) restructuring traditional labs, by encouraging students to reflect on the considerations underlying the experimental design; b) an evidence-based learning process involving teachers in collaborative reflection on classroom enactments of the restructured labs. We found that most teachers chose to carry out the restructured labs, even though they expressed concerns about the demands, as compared to the standardized exams.

  • • MAPLE, the Modeling Assessment for Physics Laboratory Experiments

    • PAR-C.09
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Benjamin Pollard, Laura Ríos, Michael Fox, Alexandra Werth, H. Lewandowski

    • Type: Contributed
    • Physics laboratory classes offer great potential for learning, often in ways that are distinct and complementary to theory-focused courses. However, there are relatively few research-based assessments that are suitable for use in an upper-division physics laboratory course. Our group has created a new set of research-based assessments for measuring a central aspect of laboratory learning: modeling. The assessments, known as the Modeling Assessment for Physics Laboratory Experiments (MAPLE), are computer-based surveys with two parts. The first part is a "choose your own adventure," while the second part consists of standard coupled multiple response items. There are three surveys in MAPLE, each contextualizing modeling within different experimental apparatus: a pendulum, an op-amp circuit, and a laser incident on two polarizers. I present the development process and theoretical foundations of MAPLE, describe the assessments themselves, and discuss how they can be used to measure and improve laboratory learning.

  • • A New Advanced Lab Textbook, with Support for Remote Instruction

    • PAR-C.09
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Walter Smith, Melissa Eblen-Zayas, Kozminski Joseph, Jami Shepherd, Paul Freeman

    • Type: Contributed
    • We have co-authored a new textbook, “Experimental Physics: Principles and Practice for the Laboratory”, inspired by the 2014 AAPT report “Recommendations for the Undergraduate Physics Laboratory Curriculum”. We discuss the philosophy and organization of the book, and the support that will be offered for remote education, assuming it is needed this year. We also detail aspects that differ from previous texts. For example, ours is written by a team of 17 research-active authors, allowing authoritative writing about techniques relevant to all major areas of physics; detailed instructor manuals are included so that you can confidently teach outside your area of expertise. As of abstract submission, development of remote instruction materials is only beginning. They will include a variety of approaches, such as modifications of some experiments so they can be done at home using modestly priced kits, as well as “choose your own adventure”-style video walkthroughs of other experiments.

  • • Re-defining Lab Norms via Professional Learning Communities: Instructors' Expectations

    • PAR-C.09
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Edit Yerushalmi, Smadar Levy, Zehorit Kapach, Esther Magen

    • Type: Contributed
    • We present a study of a large-scale intervention designed to shift lab instruction away from "cookbook" lab norms. The intervention was implemented in a network of Professional Learning Communities of Israeli high-school physics teachers (N=250; ~20% of the national workforce), operating in a high-stakes exam setting, with limited resources, catering to diverse groups of students. An introductory questionnaire examined teachers' framing of the instructional lab norms as compared to an experimental research lab (via a modified E-CLASS), as well as the lab goals that the teachers valued. The questionnaire was an integral part of the teachers' learning process. The teachers acknowledged the disparity between their optimal lab goals and prevailing ones, in particular as concerns experimental design. We discuss the implications for the design of an intervention addressing both teachers' interest in change as well as the constraints imposed by the setting in which they work.

  • • Thematic analysis of student manipulations of the PhET simulation “Fluid Pressure and Flow

    • PAR-C.09
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Raymond Zich, Rebecca Rosenblatt, Amber Sammons, Andrew Princer, Jeffrey Rosauer

    • Type: Contributed
    • Student issues with both understanding electrical potential and difficulties with interpreting diagrams have been well explored. A major issue in student ranking of electric potentials is identification of the sign of the electric charge. An investigation of modifying traditional equipotential diagrams based on theories of visual affordances to improve students’ recognition of electric change sign when ranking electric potential was undertaken. A prior study showed equipotential diagram modifications significantly increased student gaze times at the diagrams without increasing students’ overall correctness rates. In this study modifications of color and line style were made to equipotential lines to increase visual salience of indicators of change sign. Students were randomly assigned to the traditional or modified diagrams and asked to compare electric potentials for indicated points on given diagrams. Pre- and post-test comparisons and the results of student interviews will be presented to clarify the specific issues students have reading equipotential diagrams.

  • • Exploring student use of "goes like" thinking when linearizing data

    • PAR-C.09
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Charlotte Zimmerman, Alexis Olsho, Andrew Boudreaux, Suzanne White Brahmia

    • Type: Contributed
    • "Goes like" thinking refers to the way that physics experts quickly relate the behavior of one changing quantity to that of another, e.g., "the electric field goes like one over R squared.'" This statement is deeply meaningful and intuitive to experts, who understand why other quantities such as charge are omitted; however, it is not clear that students interpret this phrase the same way. One application of "goes like" reasoning is data linearization---choosing quantities to use for the independent and dependent axes to produce a linear graph whose slope has meaning. Preliminary work suggests that students may not understand the value and meaning of data linearization. We aim to describe our attempts to design and assess online lab curriculum in an introductory physics course addressing data linearization, and discuss some of the ways students make sense of their data analysis using "goes like" reasoning.

  • • Challenges and Opportunities for Innovation and Research in Physics Lab Education

    • PAR-C.09
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Benjamin Zwickl
    • Type: Invited
    • I overview three aspects of physics lab instruction where there is a tremendous opportunity for education researchers and innovative practitioners to impact student learning. The first area is shifting the theory-centric culture of physics education to abalanced emphasis on experiment and theory, which reflects professional practice within physics. I will show why the laboratory should be recognized as a critical environment for learning complex problem-solving and as highly relevant for students' career preparation. The second area is embedding scientific practices within labs. Within the growing literature there is variation in viewing practices as discrete and transferrable skills versus integrated and highly contextualized, which has implications for researchers and educators. Third, I see potential for more project-based courses to blur the boundaries between lab instruction and research experiences by integrating a range of practices and reframing the purpose of a lab, which can affect students' autonomy and identity within the lab.

• Promoting and Supporting Equity and Inclusion in STEM Introductory Courses  

  • • Why Is It Critical to Focus on Making Physics Classes Equitable and Inclusive?

    • PAR-A.08
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Z.Yasemin Kalender, Emily Marshman, Christian Schunn, Timothy Nokes-Malach, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Invited
    • The discipline of physics suffers from low diversity at all educational levels. Our research seeks to understand the issues related to representation of women in physics related fields and to enhance diverse groups of students to advance and succeed in physics and related fields. In this talk, we will describe the role of students’ motivational characteristics in introductory level calculus-based physics courses. These studies aim to understand observed gender differences in students’ motivational factors that may arise, e.g., from societal biases against women’s ability to excel in physics. We will also discuss the link between prior knowledge and students’ learning outcomes across different student demographics and how motivational factors can explain this mechanism. We will describe how we use quantitative tools, such as Structural Equation Modeling, to evaluate complex models of student characteristics, attitudes as well as student learning outcomes. Finally, we will also describe how small and large-scale interventions can mitigate the representation issues, and can create inclusive and equitable learning environments.

  • • Characterizing Conceptual Understanding in Introductory Physics using Funds of Knowledge, Mental Models and Resource Framework

    • PAR-A.08
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Juniar Lucien
    • Type: Invited
    • Science education studies framed around funds of knowledge, mental models and student resource framework appear to have three general characteristics: they are learner centered, tend to deviate from the deficit student model of teaching that present learners as empty vessels, but rather present learners as individual beings with different sets of skills and needs. However, there is not a consensus on the ways, as far as we know, in which these three concepts relate with each other. We conduct a systematic inquiry of the literature available for how funds of knowledge, mental models, and resource framework are respectively used in science education, and present a scheme relating these three frameworks that can be utilized when evaluating students’ ideas about physical concepts such as energy. Considering how those frameworks connect with one another might provide additional avenues to further explore how students' conceptual understanding of the physical world are formed.

  • • Rethinking Foundational STEM Courses: Pulling Weeds or Growing Deep Roots?

    • PAR-A.08
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Timothy McKay
    • Type: Invited
    • At research universities, foundational STEM courses are offered to hundreds or even thousands of students every year. Unfortunately, success in these courses is neither universal nor equitably distributed. Development of such courses and research into their efficacy should be a shared endeavor, yet it often takes place only locally - one discipline and one campus at a time. The Sloan Equity and Inclusion in STEM Introductory Courses project aims to change this. Motivated by a focus on equity, inclusion, and excellence as central goals of the reform process, SEISMIC brings together more than a hundred individuals from ten institutions in a collaborative structure inspired by ‘big science’ research projects. This talk will describe the emergence and early progress of this R&D project, including parallel data analysis, coordinated experimentation, continuous exchange of speakers, and extended annual meetings.

• Recruiting Retaining and Empowering Underrepresented HighSchool Teachers of Physics  

  • • Recruiting Retaining and Empowering Underrepresented HighSchool Teachers of Physics

    • PAR-E.10
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Mark Hannum
    • Type: Panel

• Remote Delivery of Advanced Physics Labs Lessons and Victories  

  • • Resources from ALPhA for Fall Advanced Lab Classes

    • PAR-F.09
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Ashley Carter
    • Type: Contributed
    • The Advanced Laboratory Physics Association (ALPhA) had meetings with ~30 advanced lab instructors from around the US and the world in May 2020. Many of those instructors talked about how hard it was to transition to online or remote lab classes during the Spring when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and about their worries for the Fall. These instructors asked ALPhA for two things: 1) increased communication to allow instructors to share ideas or to team up to solve problems, and 2) a curated list/database/website/document of resources that includes instructors’ experiences. During June and July, ALPhA will focus on these two requests by facilitating member communication and posting instructor-curated resources. As secretary of ALPhA, I will report back about these resources and relay the most important take-aways. To get up-to-date information or to join the conversation, please visit the ALPhA website at advlab.org.

  • • A Home-Built Geiger-Müller Counter Based Modern Physics lab

    • PAR-F.09
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Paul Fontana
    • Type: Contributed
    • In response to the COVID-19 epidemic, Seattle University moved all courses to remote instruction for spring quarter 2020. The Modern Physics Laboratory course PHYS 2060 was adapted by organizing it around the building, programming, and implementation of a home-built Geiger-Müller counter. Students had no prior LabVIEW experience and most had no electronics experience. They were provided with a National Instruments myDAQ board, an electronics breadboard, electronics components, and a schematic diagram [1] and given synchronous instruction via Zoom. They wrote LabVIEW VI's for lab bench tools and automated data acquisition. They designed and executed three nuclear physics experiments using their own software and hardware. Relative to the in-person format of the course, students executed a narrower range of experiments and did not study historic experimental literature, but gained data acquisition and electronics skills, experience in building and troubleshooting apparatus, and the satisfaction and self-confidence of making their projects from scratch.

  • • Advanced Laboratory at Home: From Single Photons to Chaos

    • PAR-F.09
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Margaret Koker, Douglas Martin

    • Type: Contributed
    • Lawrence’s Advanced Laboratory course trains students in experimental physics. Using research equipment, students engage deeply with real physics while learning scientific communication. Students worked on three self-selected projects using analog and digital electronics, ranging from single photon detectors to chaotic dynamics. Each student created an extension to one project, consisting of design and prototyping as well as collection and analysis of data. One student built an analog electronics neuron, firing upon exposure to a trumpet played at 392 Hz. Students shared project results with their scientific community via a scientific symposium (after students attended the APS Virtual April Meeting), an issue of Advanced Laboratory Letters at Lawrence (after PRL-based journal club discussions), and video demonstrations. Join us for a discussion of our approaches to evaluation and feedback, inclusive strategies, and course (and Zoom-related) fatigue. We will present what worked, what fell flat, and what surprised us along the way.

  • • Teaching an Advanced Acoustics Laboratory Course without a Laboratory

    • PAR-F.09
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Ronald Kumon
    • Type: Contributed
    • During the Spring 2020 quarter, the COVID-19 pandemic precluded access to our acoustics laboratory. In response, I redeveloped the experiments of our acoustics lab course in several ways. For some introductory activities, I employed videos to show basic concepts and methods in place of lab demonstrations and used applets to maintain some student interactivity. However, for most of the specialized experiments, I was able to draw upon past student work archived in electronic laboratory notebooks to extract photos, setup details, and experimental data sets. I then used that information to write activities that described the experimental methods, but required the current students to visualize, analyze, and interpret the data. To facilitate the course remotely, I used electronic laboratory notebooks to deliver and receive content. Preliminary indications are that the students are obtaining a similar understanding of the experimental methods and possibly better understanding of the data analysis than previous students.

  • • Student Design of Advanced Lab Experiments at Home using Available Resources

    • PAR-F.09
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Randall Tagg
    • Type: Contributed
    • Our Junior Lab requires four experiments per semester. In spring 2020 the final two experiments were done by students at home. They were asked to design their own experiments using available resources. Extra credit was given for an inventory of these resources, which varied quite widely amongst students. Details and computer code for one possible experiment was given to students: the use of mobile phone image sensors for cosmic ray detection. An alternative to the final experiment was to submit instead a white paper describing plans to develop an application of physics to the Covid19 pandemic; students were sent a primer on possible topics. Students were individually counseled on their projects by email and through Zoom meetings. The capacity of students to independently conceive of and execute experiments varied widely and revealed the need to better equip students with knowledge and skills to pose problems, deal with ambiguity, and work resourcefully with physical devices, materials, and supporting literature.

• Remote Delivery of Introductory Physics Labs Lessons and Victories  

  • • Hands-on Lab Experiences With Social Distancing

    • PAR-A.11
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Wolfgang Bauer
    • Type: Contributed
    • The essence of laboratory experiences is the gathering of data, analyzing data, forming hypotheses, comparing with models and theories, discussion sources of and estimating statistical and systematic uncertainties, and drawing conclusions, usually in theform of a lab report. All of these components have been replicated in a complete set of first- and second-semester laboratory online experiments at Michigan State University, which can be used to enable undergraduate students to obtain authentic laboratory experiences while staying off campus. The availability of these online labs is crucial, even in universities planning to resume on-campus teaching in the fall, because groups of students in high risk groups need accommodations to remain sheltered during the pandemic. All of these experiments do not need special software, can be run on a web-browser on any computer, tablet device, or even smartphone, and in this way do not contribute to widening the digital divide.

  • • Hands-On Laboratories in Online Physics: For Now and Post-COVID

    • PAR-A.11
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Martin Connors, Farook Al-Shamali

    • Type: Contributed
    • Many instructors have recently been thrust into the online delivery of physics courses. When Athabasca University pioneered distance education physics in the 1990s with standard freshman mechanics and E&M content, labs could not be done remotely. Then, calculators able to control detectors, such as sonic rangers, became available. A “home lab” approach was developed, which later extended to other subjects, allowing students to perform quality physics experiments with real data, using a lab kit borrowed from the library and sent by mail. Through time our highly successful home lab approach has changed to use what are now common household items like smartphones. We discuss how to implement physics home labs now and urge retaining them when “normal” status returns. In the overall adjustment to a post-COVID world, we argue that successes with our home labs show that this approach should become part of the “new normal”.

  • • Conducting a Summer Introductory Laboratory on Short Notice Using iOLab

    • PAR-A.11
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Jack Dostal
    • Type: Contributed
    • This summer, Wake Forest University's introductory calculus-based physics courses were delivered fully remotely for the first time. The laboratory portion of the course was primarily conducted using the iOLab Wireless Lab System. We moved to the system on relatively short notice. We conducted lab meetings through synchronous sessions on Zoom to introduce each lab. Following the sessions, students worked on the experiments independently or occasionally in pairs. I will report some of the successes and challenges we experienced.

  • • Teaching the Introductory Laboratories Remotely: Lessons Learned

    • PAR-A.11
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Tatiana Krivosheev
    • Type: Contributed
    • We present our experience of conducting first semester calculus-based introductory physics laboratories remotely in the Spring 2020 semester. Six laboratories were redesigned to give students maximally hands-on experience under the restrains of coronavirus stay-at-home conditions. The video analysis by using Tracker software was used to collect and process the experimental data for most of these labs. The lessons learned allowed us to confidently teach the full semester of the labs remotely the following Summer 2020 semester.

  • • Virtual Reality Physics Labs

    • PAR-A.11
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by William Miner
    • Type: Contributed
    • Physics labs have been traditionally hands on courses requiting students in the lab to set up specific equipment designed to demonstrate explicit physical phenomena that can then be measured and analyzed. This makes the lab a two-part process. The first is developing the techniques necessary to set up the equipment, understand its functionality, and then use it carefully to take data. The second part is analyzing and interpreting that data to see if it fits the physical phenomena being demonstrated. In general, this part of the lab is done outside the laboratory. Providing the student with a video, a simulation, or simply a data set does not implement the hands on part. The student can have this experience via the use of a virtual reality laboratory. A variety of virtual reality labs for both physics I and physics II will be discussed.

  • • Rethinking the value of remote undergraduate physics laboratory work

    • PAR-A.11
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Drew Rosen, Angela Kelly

    • Type: Contributed
    • The global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has provoked an abrupt disruption of postsecondary education on an unprecedented scale. The present study reviews the nature of laboratory work and demonstrates how remote labs provide a viable alternative to in-person learning. Nearly every college in the U.S. has transitioned to remote learning in a short time frame. Regardless of when students return to higher education institutions, this disruption will influence the way laboratory-based coursework is conceptualized. With over half a million undergraduate physics students, the advantages of remote learning may expand STEM access to students who may have been traditionally underrepresented. Physics faculty have been generally hesitant to implement online labs for various reasons such as time, inexperience, and questionable rigor. This paper reviews the historical progression of laboratory work in the U.S., with a critique of the evolving nature of its purpose and relationship to students’ performance in physics.

• Rethinking the Boundaries of the Laboratory Classroom  

  • • Even My Robots Are Non-Binary: Questioning Borders of Ideas and Land

    • PAR-G.09
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Mylene DiPenta
    • Type: Invited
    • What helps students transfer ideas between labs, lectures, non-school projects? Why are students in my electronics lab so angry that there is no clear border between “conductor” and “insulator”? I’m experimenting with creating connections between ideas by making play-dough circuits, teaching metrology, and analyzing assumptions about borders. Borders as binary and absolute took hold ~500 years ago, alongside the scientific revolution. So did the rise of the nation-state, narrowing of gender roles, criminalization of same-gender sex, invention of race and white supremacy, creation of policing and prisons, and of course colonialism. Science, along with many other disciplines, suddenly became more centrally controlled and rigid in its borders. What can each of these borders teach us about the others? What could non-binary borders look like, and how do they affect lab learning and teaching? Please join us if you are interested in informal science, laboratory assessment, gender fluidity, colonialism, or of course non-binary robots.

  • • Connecting Physics and Engineering through a Modernization of the Advanced Physics Laboratory Curriculum

    • PAR-G.09
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by J. Archibald Peters, Mel Sabella, Austin Harton, Russell Ceballos, Justin Akujieze

    • Type: Invited
    • The current environment in the STEM workforce is one of unprecedented challenges and opportunities, demanding innovation and leadership skills. Current students must be forward-thinking to solve grand challenges and take advantage of diverse opportunities. To thrive in this workforce, students need a robust STEM curriculum that focuses on traditional and modern perspectives to address science and engineering applications. The goal of this project is a complete modernization of the advanced laboratory curriculum for our physics and engineering-physics students. The project has outcomes that include: 1. Outlining a curriculum plan for the modernization of our applied physics/engineering laboratory with the inclusion of modern equipment, applications, and new experimental Learning Lab modules 2. Establishing a student learning community that will inform instructional revisions by incorporating student input through the use of the Learning Assistant Program. 3. Providing outreach opportunities for increasing STEM interest by utilizing the student-developed modules at local high schools.

  • • Letters Home: Transcending the Boundary Between Lab and Family/Friends

    • PAR-G.09
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Charles Ramey II
    • Type: Invited
    • Communication is an important skill in all fields of STEAM learning environments, including physics lab courses. The AAPT Recommendations for the Undergraduate Physics Curriculum identify ‘communicating physics’ as one of six major learning outcome focus areas for undergraduate physics labs. But, to whom? Traditionally, physics classrooms (including labs) are a black-box where the learning process is shrouded from stakeholders such as policymakers, practitioners, and families. My research investigates the pedagogical method Letters Home (Lane, 2014), which provides students with the opportunity to communicate beyond the borders that constrain practical lab reports. In my implementation, the Letters Home method tasks students with writing letters to a non-physicist then gradually to a graduate student or a physics professor. We used the AAPT Recommendations to inform development of a coding scheme. However, the recommendations still contain ‘communicating physics’ within the boundaries of a black-box. In this talk, I will present about my implementation of Letters Home as a foothold into exploring the question, How can we develop writing activities that extend beyond the traditional borders of the classroom and communicate with all stakeholders? Lane, W. B. (2014). Letters home as an alternative to lab reports. The Physics Teacher, 52(7), 397-399.

  • • Constructing physical and experimental models in upper-division lab courses

    • PAR-G.09
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Laura Ríos
    • Type: Invited
    • Recently, discourse on the role of laboratory courses asks “What are labs for?” Notably, there does not appear to be an equivalent discourse for lecture-based content or courses. When data show small or null gains on learning assessments for theory courses, we innovate in these courses; we do not throw them away. I embrace a similar orientation of investment and innovation in lab courses. In this talk, I will discuss how I have begun to transform my research practices align with this orientation towards lab courses by focusing on a specific project. My current research involves uncovering how students begin to construct models during their upper-division modern physics lab sequence. Using the Modeling Framework for Experimental Physics as a theoretical foundation, the lab’s evaluative tools lab focus on how students use physical principles combined with experimental assumptions or simplifications to gain a deeper conceptual understanding of the experiments they endeavor.

• Solo PER  

  • • Solo PER

    • STPAR-1
    • Wed 07/22, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Steve Maier
    • Type: Topical
    • Are you the only professional active in PER within your department? Are there only one or two colleagues in close proximity you can talk “PER shop” with? The membership of Solo PER is larger than you may think, and more diverse than most suspect. Join usfor this topical discussion to connect with other Solo PER professionals and learn what is being done to help our/your endeavors. As in the past, bring questions, ideas and professional concerns to share. Consider joining the Solo PER group at PERcentral ahead of the meeting for occasional updates (https://www.compadre.org/per/programs/). Also, you can join in on live conversations using our Discord server (https://discord.gg/5fADGZr).

• Student Topical Discussion and Social  

  • • Student Topical Discussion and Social

    • STPAR-3
    • Wed 07/22, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Constance Doty
    • Type: Topical
    • This session is the primary opportunity for student members of the PER community to meet and discuss common issues. While this session is aimed toward graduate students, we welcome undergraduates who are interested in studying PER or curious about life as a graduate student!

• TA Training and Innovations to Make Introductory Labs Work  

  • • Roleplaying in GTA Preparation: Microteaching and Lab Simulation

    • PAR-A.09
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Emily Alicea-Munoz
    • Type: Invited
    • First-time graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are usually nervous about their first teaching assignment. They worry about knowing the material well enough to teach it, they worry about public speaking and getting respect from their students, and they worry about potentially malfunctioning lab equipment, among many other concerns. Since "practice makes perfect," it makes sense to provide GTAs with the opportunity to practice before their teaching duties begin. In this talk, I describe two such activities that are part of the GTA Preparation class in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech. These activities allow the GTAs to take turns performing as teacher/facilitator and as students, providing them with an idea of what to expect in their classrooms. Course assessments over the past several years have shown that GTAs consider these activities to be very useful in preparing them and increasing their teaching self-efficacy.

  • • Creating supplemental teaching material for teaching assistants

    • PAR-A.09
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Darsa Donelan
    • Type: Invited
    • There are as many ways to go about instructing a lab as there are teaching assistants. What we hope for our TAs to gain as lab instructors is to come into their own identity as teachers and the ability to effectively communicate scientific work. In this presentation, I will discuss material I have implemented to provide TAs the opportunity to practice their teaching skills while also benefiting from their teaching experience. One project was creating an instructor's guide to laboratories written by former TAs. Written as a refresher for TAs who already have familiarity with the laboratory course, the primary goal is to save them time and effort so that they can focus on the matter at hand: helping the students take as much as they can from the course. I will also discuss the use of supplemental videos that allow TAs and students to visualize portions of the lab.

  • • Impact of Practice in a Mixed-reality Classroom Simulator on GTAs’ Questioning Strategies

    • PAR-A.09
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Constance Doty, Tong Wan, Ashley Geraets, Erin Saitta, Jacquelyn Chini

    • Type: Invited
    • In this study, we investigated the impact of practicing with questioning strategies in a mixed-reality classroom simulator on GTA use of questioning both in the simulator and in their actual classroom. During the simulator training, GTAs were in a physical classroom interacting with five avatar-students on a computer monitor. Throughout the fall 2019 semester, GTAs participated in four practice sessions, which were video-recorded. GTAs were tasked with practicing specific teaching skills, and one of the sessions focused on questioning strategies. In each session, GTAs were given two 7-minute opportunities; feedback and reflection time were provided after each 7-minute practice. In addition, GTAs were observed three to four times throughout the semester in their actual classroom. Here, we report frequencies and discuss examples of questioning strategies implemented by GTAs in the simulator and in their classroom. The results suggest that the simulator training supports GTAs’ implementation of questioning strategies.

  • • GTA Training: Promoting Inclusive Environments and Students’ Sense of Belonging

    • PAR-A.09
    • Sun 07/19, 11:30AM - 12:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Caitlin Kepple, Kim Coble

    • Type: Invited
    • The Physics and Astronomy Department at San Francisco State University has recently implemented a pedagogical training course for incoming graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). Using student surveys, we investigate various contributors to students’ sense of belonging and compare to testimonies from GTAs (in the form of surveys and interviews) about how they attempt to foster a sense of belonging for their students in lab. We find similar emergent themes in both student and GTA data. After implementing the training course, we found that GTAs were able to cite both a wider range and higher number of pedagogical techniques to create an inclusive classroom. We also found that the testimonies of GTAs who took the pedagogy course were more closely aligned with that of their students’ about how to promote a sense of belonging in lab.

• Teaching Equity in Physics  

  • • Inclusive Physics & Astronomy Discussions at Western Washington University

    • PAR-F.10
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jess Mollerup, Dimitri Dounas-Frazer

    • Type: Invited
    • In spring 2019, the Physics & Astronomy Department at Western Washington University began hosting weekly discussions about (in)equity. The main goals are to provide opportunities for students, staff, and faculty to develop a common vocabulary and shared knowledge about issues of (in)equity, and to explore how these issues manifest in our field. During these discussions, we learned about allegories for race and racism, models of oppression, characteristics of white supremacy culture, technical/social dualism, white fragility, white saviorism, invisible disabilities, microaggressions, physics metaphors for gender and sexuality, and the scope and limits of physics ways of knowing. The co-facilitators are a white male physics professor and a white nonbinary student, and the Physics & Astronomy Department is predominantly white and male. This talk will provide an overview of the background, purpose, guiding principles, content, and the experience of participants as conveyed through feedback surveys to be administered in the spring.

  • • What Parts of Ourselves Belong in a Physics Class?

    • PAR-F.10
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Vashti Sawtelle, Abigail Daane

    • Type: Invited
    • Teachers of introductory physics spend a significant amount of time figuring out how to structure our classes to be inviting to many different students. One thing to consider is the culture of our classrooms and the physics community they represent. In this presentation, we offer a pathway to position activities in our classrooms as doing feminist science, thus inviting more students to see their ways of knowing and learning as part of our classrooms. We describe a lesson plan that supports students and instructors in reflecting on the problematic norms of physics culture. We aim to provide a foothold for identifying the stereotypical masculine and feminine elements of common classroom science lessons. We then describe a series of activities that support students in seeing different parts of themselves in the physics classroom and identifying how activities might privilege some identities and disempower others.

  • • Towards a multimodal semiotic approach in teaching physics

    • PAR-F.10
    • Tue 07/21, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Johan Tabora, Maria Varelas

    • Type: Invited
    • Teaching physics using a multimodal semiotic approach provides students with various opportunities to construct, represent, and communicate their developing understandings of physics concepts. Physics education research has shown that using multiple representations for problem-solving can enhance student learning. This talk extends the idea of multiple representations by arguing that engaging students in various semiotic modes such as speech, written text, gestures, images, and body positioning and movement not only enhances student physics understandings but also offers students different avenues of development and expression of their identities as physics learners that embrace their diverse sociocultural, racial, and ethnolinguistic backgrounds. Expanding our notion of what counts as valid physics representation provides a more equitable space for physics teaching and learning.

• Technologies  

  • • Treatment of Statistics and Error in Introductory Physics Lab Manuals

    • PAR-G.10
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Jimmy Gonzalez, John Walkup

    • Type: Contributed
    • Many students experience their first practical application of statistics and error analysis in their introductory physics laboratory courses. The activities they conduct in their lab courses teach definitions, concepts, and skills in statistics and erroranalysis that they will use for the rest of their academic and postgraduate career. We analyze the use of statistical methods in college-level introductory physics laboratory courses by reviewing a sample of student lab manuals collected from two-year community colleges and four-year universities. Approaches to introducing statistical concepts and procedures are examined for consistency, with particular reference to national and international statistical guidelines such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO). Our analysis reveals a severe inconsistency in the treatment of statistics and error among the sampled lab manuals for courses aimed at science and engineering students.

  • • Measurement Uncertainties

    • PAR-G.10
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Kris Lui
    • Type: Contributed
    • One aspect of data analysis that seems overlooked in introductory lab instruction is that of measurement uncertainties. Students have difficulty grasping the concept that measurements are not infinitely precise. In this talk, I will outline an activity and follow-up methods to instill the idea of measurement uncertainty in an introductory college-level lab setting.

  • • The physics of a yoyo using a smartphone

    • PAR-G.10
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by MARTIN MONTEIRO, Isabel Salinas, Juan Antonio Monsoriu, Arturo Martí

    • Type: Contributed
    • The usage of toys to teach physics is an interesting approach to promote engagement and creativity. Traditionally, toys have been widely used in qualitative demonstrations. However, it is frequently difficult to extract quantitative results in physics experiments involving toys. One possible strategy to address this difficulty is the use of smartphone sensors. In this work we investigate the dynamics of a traditional toy, the yoyo, theoretically and experimentally, using smartphone’ sensors. In particular, using the gyroscope, the angular velocity was measured. The experimental results were complemented thanks to a digital video analysis. As the yoyo is a ubiquitous, simple and traditional toy this simple proposal could encourage students to experiment with everyday objects and modern technologies. More information: http://smarterphysics.blogspot.com/

  • • Small force project for teaching statistical analysis in the lab 

    • PAR-G.10
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Nathan Powers, Robert Davis

    • Type: Contributed
    • Statistical analysis is one of the technical skills we are targeting in a newly developed project-based lab course. Students are asked to measure the smallest possible force using a strain gauge and to provide convincing evidence that the force has been detected. This goal extends over several class periods as students make revisions to improve their measurements and complete pre-lab readings and activities on statistical analysis methods. At the culmination of the module, students design and conduct an experiment that requires the measurement of a small force. They must use the statistical methods they have learned to support their findings. 

  • • Remote Sensing Spectroscopy and Algae Concentration in the Finger Lakes

    • PAR-G.10
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by ileana dumitriu, peter spacher, john halfman, Lisa Cleckner

    • Type: Contributed
    • Harmful algae blooms (HABs) are a routine occurrence that compromise the many uses of the Finger Lakes. In-situ standard water quality testing to determine the presence of HABs in the lakes is often time consuming and expensive. The use of drones outfitted with spectrometers to detect HABs could prove to be a more cost effective and efficient practice. In the present study, reflectance spectra and water quality in situ parameters were measured at the same time and location during 2019 monthly water quality surveys of the eight eastern Finger Lakes. The reflectance spectra were measured over a wavelength range of 300 to 800 nm using a STS spectrometer recording both the down-welling and upwelling radiation and subsequently calculating the Up/Down ratio. Peak heights in the spectra were correlated to algae (chlorophyll-a) concentrations measured in the laboratory. Results of spectral analyses indicate that remote sensing reflectance spectroscopy complemented by in-situ data is an effective approach for monitoring HABs in the freshwater lakes.

• Tools for Data Analysis  

  • • Developing Data Analysis Skills with Simple, Common Experiments

    • PAR-C.11
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Paul Arpin
    • Type: Invited
    • In our Advanced Laboratory course students develop practical data analysis skills working through two simple experiments early in the semester that we then revisit throughout the course. For most of the semester, students rotate through different experiments. Having these two common experiments enables all students to practice specific data analysis and error analysis techniques on their own measured data at appropriate times during the semester. For example, students calculate the wavelength of a laser from the glancing incidence diffraction pattern from a machinist’s ruler. They gradually refine the estimates of the wavelength and the corresponding uncertainty. In this talk, I will describe the two experiments and how we use them to teach data analysis and error analysis throughout the semester.

  • • Computation and Experimentation as Equal Partners in Undergraduate Lab Education

    • PAR-C.11
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Martha-Elizabeth Baylor, Jay Tasson

    • Type: Invited
    • In the undergraduate lab experience, computation and experimentation are typically presented as distinct lab experiences. This approach ignores the important interplay that can exist between these two different ways of understanding the physical world. At Carleton College, we developed one two-week lab that treats computation and experimentation as interconnected, equal partners in students’ understanding of the natural world. I will discuss this lab that focuses on finding the half-lives of two simultaneously decaying isotopes and discuss how we encourage students to think about the interplay between computation and experimentation. Additionally, I will discuss efforts to promote lab skill development and inclusion broadly in this sophomore-level lab course and particularly how these inclusion efforts are manifested in the lab I will present in this talk.

  • • Enhancing Computational Instruction for Physics Majors: Developing Tools for Assessment

    • PAR-C.11
    • Mon 07/20, 12:30PM - 1:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Kendra Letchworth-Weaver, Harold Butner, Keigo Fukumura, Gabriel Niculescu, Klebert Feitosa

    • Type: Invited
    • Computer programming is an essential skill for physics majors seeking employment in a highly technological world. The advent of “big data” in business, engineering, and traditional STEM fields requires graduates proficient in data acquisition, storage, manipulation, and analysis. Physics departments are responding to this trend by integrating computational instruction into their undergraduate programs, but questions remain regarding the effectiveness of this training. In the Department of Physics and Astronomy at James Madison University, we have developed a set of learning objectives related to computational skills and integrated these objectives throughout our curriculum, primarily in laboratory courses. Our team has also developed an assessment tool, consisting of multiple choice and free response questions, that can quantitatively measure students’ computational skills within the context of physics. This presentation will discuss both the successes and challenges we encountered as we seek to enhance computational instruction and evaluate student learning improvement in our department.

• Tools for Teaching Computation in Physics  

  • • The Friendly Command Line: Computational Physics on the Unix Shell

    • PAR-D.10
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Walter Freeman
    • Type: Invited
    • Often the skills required to use the Unix/Linux command line are perceived as old-fashioned, difficult to learn, and unnecessary. However, the Linux command line is an extraordinarily flexible environment for programming, data reduction and analysis, simulation, and visualization, and is thus in wide use throughout the physics research community and beyond. These skills are surprisingly accessible to students. In this talk, I will argue that the command-line environment is a pedagogically beneficial environment for students to learn computational physics, with advantages both within the classroom and beyond it, and demonstrate some of the tools and methods the computational physics students at Syracuse use for simulation, visualization, animation, and data analysis.

  • • The Opportunities and Challenges of Minimally Working Programs

    • PAR-D.10
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by W. Brian Lane
    • Type: Invited
    • When assigning a computational activity, it's a common best practice for physics educators to provide students with a minimally working program (MWP) that the students modify, rather than asking them to code from scratch. On-line coding platforms such asGlowScript and Trinket make it easy to deploy MWPs and for students to share their completed work. I’ll discuss how we can supplement this best practice with pre-class video tutorials about our MWPs and outline a process for scaffolding student learning using MWPs. I’ll also describe some challenges one can encounter with MWPs (such as, “Do students really learn how the MWP works?” “Do skills and understanding really carry over from one activity to the next?”) and open the floor for discussion about how we might address those challenges.

  • • Impact of learning assistants on problem solving in computational thinking

    • PAR-D.10
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Bahar Modir, Macon Magno, Robynne Lock, William Newton

    • Type: Invited
    • In Fall 2019, we started to implement the learning assistant program into our middle division physics courses at Texas A&M University-Commerce. As part of this effort, we have implemented the learning assistant program for the first time to our computational physics course. The class time is a combination of lecture and group problem solving. We will analyze the interactions between the learning assistant-student, student-student and student-instructor. To investigate, we have recorded the student group work during coding to find the effect of a learning-assisted classroom on students computational thinking and the role of learning assistants in nudging students towards more productive approaches.

  • • Cloud-based Tools and Software for Integrating Computation into a Physics Curriculum

    • PAR-D.10
    • Mon 07/20, 2:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Jason Ybarra
    • Type: Invited
    • I will present an overview of some of the cloud-based tools and software to facilitate integration of computation into a physics curriculum. These tools allow students to do computational work without having to install and configure software on their personal computers. The ability to share their code in real-time with classmates allows for collaborative learning, and sharing with the instructor provides an avenue for fast feedback. Examples of assignments using cloud-based tools will be presented.

• Transforming Physics Curricula to Include Computation  

  • • Threading Computation into the Physics Curriculum at Lewis University

    • PAR-E.07
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Ryan Hooper
    • Type: Invited
    • Heavily motivated by the 2016 AAPT Undergraduate Curriculum Task Force Report, the Physics Department at Lewis University in Romeoville, IL revised its curriculum to include more computational skills throughout. This talk will address how Lewis embeds computational components into the core curriculum as student learning outcomes with College and University wide acceptance. The dual environment model used by Lewis, which emphasizes VPython and Maple, will be articulated. An outline of the curriculum and examples of how the model is executed will be presented along with anecdotal evidence of success. Finally, the talk will describe how Lewis strives to empower educators in the Chicagoland area to enhance their curriculum with computational skill sets.

  • • Computational Physics at Weber State University: Successes and Excuses

    • PAR-E.07
    • Tue 07/21, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Daniel Schroeder
    • Type: Invited
    • Weber State University is an open-enrollment commuter school where each year about 300 students take the first semester of calculus-based introductory physics, while about 10 students receive physics bachelor's degrees. We have successfully put quite a bit of computation into the curriculum for the latter group, but not for the former. In this talk I will describe some of the computational pieces in our curriculum for physics majors, including a sophomore-level scientific computing course, microcontroller programming in our electronics course, and integration of numerical approaches into some of our core theory courses. I will also offer our excuses for not making computation a significant part of the introductory course.

• Upper Division/Graduate Courses  

  • • Demonstration to Show Resonant Oscillations of a Simple Pendulum

    • PAR-G.11
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by D. Baker
    • Type: Contributed
    • One of the ubiquitous problems in classical mechanics is that of a simple pendulum attached to a support that oscillates in time. Under certain conditions, such a pendulum can be modeled as a driven harmonic oscillator, and, as a result, the pendulum canundergo large-amplitude oscillations when the driving frequency of the oscillating support matches the natural frequency of the pendulum. To accompany analysis of this problem in mechanics courses, a simple apparatus has been built to model the system described above. The apparatus will be presented, along with a Lagrangian mechanics analysis of the motion. In addition, several other applications of the demonstration will be discussed.

  • • Strategies for the Math Physics Course at TLU

    • PAR-G.11
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Calvin Berggren
    • Type: Contributed
    • A course in mathematical methods for physics is a valuable course in many physics departments to build a bridge between introductory courses and demanding upper-division courses, yet there are a number of challenges in successfully implementing such a course. After designing a math physics course from scratch and refining it over the last six years, I will discuss strategies for the course relating to content coverage, level of rigor, grading scheme, textbook selection, integration of conceptual thinking, and use of software.

  • • A New Assessment Approach that Models Legitimate Practice

    • PAR-G.11
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by David Donnelly
    • Type: Contributed
    • The author modified his assessment methods in upper division and graduate courses to better align professional physicists. Instead of using timed tests, students took one written test, gave one oral presentation, and submitted one written report. The courses in which this was implemented will be discussed, along with management issues encountered, details of the assessments, and student feedback.

  • • Preparing for the quantum revolution - the role of higher education

    • PAR-G.11
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Michael Fox, Benjamin Zwickl, Heather Lewandowski

    • Type: Contributed
    • Since the passing of the National Quantum Initiative Act in December 2018, there has been great interest from business, academia, and the general public in the quantum industry. Faculty at higher-education institutes, mainly in physics, engineering, and computer science departments have been struggling with the question of how to adapt their courses to meet the demands of students interested in this exciting new field, ensuring that the content delivered would be relevant to possible future careers, whilst also maintaining academic relevance. Results from an interview study of 21 companies in the quantum industry will be presented, illustrating the skills and knowledge present in the workforce of the quantum industry; how those skills and knowledge relate to existing courses and training; and where there are opportunities for new and innovative course development.

  • • Astronomical Spectroscopy for Upper-Division Labs

    • PAR-G.11
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Savannah Lyons*, Christopher Nakamura, Joseph Bruessow

    • Type: Contributed
    • Upper-division lab courses typically focus on modern physics ideas. The experiments usually address topics in atomic, molecular, optical and solid-state physics well. However, they often lack astronomy/astrophysics experiments, particularly at institutions without dedicated on-campus observatories. These subfields are of significant interest to students, and continue to be important areas of research, so relevant labs are desirable. In this project, we explored astronomical spectroscopy measurement with the aim of incorporating it into an upper-division laboratory curriculum. The focus was on inexpensive, portable equipment. Our primary interest was in measuring the red shift of highly red-shifted quasars, which are of interest in cosmology, particularly with respect to measuring the Hubble constant. Additionally, we have measured stellar spectra, primarily as a means of calibration, but also to explore the possibility of connecting to stellar astrophysics. In this talk we present results of these investigations and discuss possibilities for implementation.

  • • Improving Student Understanding Of Dirac Notation by Using Analogical Reasoning in the Context of a Three-Dimensional Vector Space

    • PAR-G.11
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Emily Marshman, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Contributed
    • We discuss an investigation of student difficulties with Dirac notation in the context of a three-dimensional vector space and the validation and evaluation of a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) to improve student understanding of these concepts. We find that many upper-level undergraduate students in quantum mechanics courses have difficulties with Dirac notation even in the context of a three-dimensional vector space after traditional instruction. The QuILT uses analogical reasoning and builds on students’ prior knowledge of three-dimensional vectors in the familiar context of introductory mechanics to help students build a coherent understanding of Dirac notation in three dimensions before transitioning to the quantum mechanical context. We summarize the development of the QuILT and findings from its evaluations. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

  • • Advanced Students’ and Faculty Members’ Reasoning about the Double-slit Experiment with Single Particles

    • PAR-G.11
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Ryan Sayer, Alexandru Maries, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Contributed
    • We describe an investigation focusing on advanced students’ and faculty members’ understanding and reasoning about two questions related to the double-slit experiment with single particles. One of the questions posed was a standard double-slit question while the other question was more speculative. First, undergraduate and graduate students in advanced quantum mechanics courses were asked the questions in written form, and six students were interviewed individually using a think-aloud protocol in which they were asked follow-up questions to make their thought processes explicit regarding their responses to the questions. We also interviewed five faculty members who had taught modern physics, quantum mechanics and/or solid-state physics to understand their reasoning and thought processes. All faculty members provided thoughtful responses to the more speculative question related to the double-slit experiment with single particles, which shed light on what it means to think like a physicist. Student responses varied greatly in their correctness and sophistication of reasoning, suggesting that while some advanced undergraduate and graduate students had begun to think like a physicist in the challenging quantum mechanical contexts of the problems posed, others needed additional guidance and scaffolding support in order to develop expert-like reasoning skills.

  • • What Is 'Parametric Drive' of a Simple Harmonic Oscillator?

    • PAR-G.11
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    
    • by David Van Baak
    • Type: Contributed
    • Students know that a simple harmonic oscillator (SHO) has a ‘resonance curve’, and some students even know how to label the axes of a plot showing that resonance curve. The frequency (and amplitude) of a sinusoidal drive force are the main independent variables, and the steady-state amplitude of the SHO’s response is the main dependent variable. But a simple modification to a mechanical SHO can change it from ‘direct drive’ to ‘parametric drive’, and this subtle change has dramatic consequences. First of all, parametric resonance occurs when the drive frequency is not at the SHO’s natural frequency, but nearly "double" that frequency. Next, there no longer emerges any steady-state amplitude of response, and the right dependent variable to measure is the rate of "exponential growth" (or decay) of the system’s oscillations. There is also a "threshold amplitude" for the drive required to give any growth in the response. This presentation features a torsional SHO with a non-contact parametric drive, and shows theoretical predictions and experimental data for its performance. Finally, we connect this parametric drive of a mechanical SHO to some glamorous applications of parametric excitation in modern physics.

  • • Micropattern Gas Detectors for Advanced Physics Laboratories

    • PAR-G.11
    • Wed 07/22, 10:00AM - 11:00AM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Shawn Zaleski, Kerstin Hoepfner

    • Type: Contributed
    • Micropattern gas detectors (MPGDs), of which gas electron multipliers (GEMs) are a class, are a recent technology meeting today’s higher requirements of both spatial and temporal resolution in high energy physics, as well as medical applications. GEM chamber performance depends on many different parameters such as gain, gas tightness, high voltage (HV) response and noise. The gain is a key parameter, a measure of the chamber’s ability to amplify an electronic signal from ionizing particles passing through the chamber’s gas volume. Students in the RWTH Aachen University advanced physics lab studied the effect on gain while varying gas mixture and HV, as well the incoming particle rate. This experiment allows the instructor to cater to diverse set of applications and student interest. Student feedback will be presented.

• Using the Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3) Guide and its online communities to improve, review, and assess your department  

  • • Serving as an External Consultant for a Departmental Review

    • PAR-B.09
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Neal Abraham
    • Type: Invited
    • Periodic review by a department of its programs can be a rewarding opportunity for reflection, evaluation, and improvement; assisting a department with its review as an external consultant is also rewarding. This presentation will review how to find these rewards with a specific focus on the advantages to departments of using external consultants and suggestions for consultants on how they can be most effective. The advantages of a departmental review lie in taking a systematic approach that includes gathering relevant data on a regular basis, assessing the data regularly, and regularly assessing and revising departmental initiatives designed to achieve desired improvements. Though the detailed planning and development of strategic initiatives are the responsibilities of the department and its institution, external consultants can help a department pay closer attention to trends in their data and outcomes, ask critical questions that may have been overlooked, and direct them to examples of alternative practices and models, in addition to providing useful findings and recommendations. This presentation draws heavily on chapters of the new EP3 guide: Effective Practices for Physics Programs which provides advice and suggestions for both physics departments and external consultants during the departmental review process.

  • • Supporting Program Improvement with a Departmental Action Leadership Institute

    • PAR-B.09
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    

    • by Joel Corbo, David Craig, Sarah McKagan

    • Type: Invited
    • The Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3) Project aims to help physics programs respond to challenges they already face with a collection of knowledge, experience, and proven good practice. In addition to a written guide, the EP3 Project will run a Departmental Action Leadership Institute (DALI), a two-day in-person workshop and year-long virtual community to support department members in leading improvements to their program that align with EP3. Five departments will select two faculty members each to participate in a DALI. These participants will learn to effectively lead a local departmental team, strengthen the capacity of that team to create and sustain change, and help the team to implement and assess their plans—all with the goal of developing a culture of continuous self-reflection, assessment, and improvement in the department. We will discuss the goals, structure, and planned implementation of DALIs in this presentation.

  • • EP3: A Guide to Departmental Improvement

    • PAR-B.09
    • Sun 07/19, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Theodore Hodapp
    • Type: Invited
    • To assist physics departments and faculty as they improve undergraduate education, the American Physical Society, in collaboration with the American Association of Physics Teachers, is developing a comprehensive guide for program improvement and evaluation, drawn from research findings and community knowledge. Scheduled for release in late 2020, the guide will provide concise advice on nearly all aspects of undergraduate education including suggestions on how to effectively evaluate impact. The EP3 guide will also offer departments guidance on how to produce detailed evidence of how they plan, evaluate, and improve undergraduate learning to help meet university accreditation requirements or prepare for or conduct external site reviews. This presentation will give a broad introduction to the guide and solicit feedback from the audience on how best to make these materials available to the community.

• Voices of Women in Physics  

  • • Voices of Women in Physics

    • STPAR-7
    • Wed 07/22, 1:30PM - 2:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Chandralekha Singh
    • Type: Panel

  • • Voices of Women in Physics

    • STPAR-7
    • Wed 07/22, 1:30PM - 3:30PM (EDT)
    
    
    • by Chandralekha Singh
    • Type: Panel
    • This panel discussion with four women physicists focuses on many topics pertaining to their physics journey. The panelists are Ximena Cid, Geraldine Cochran, Gina Quan and Donna Stokes.