Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2015
Volume 60, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 2–6, 2015; San Antonio, Texas
Session G3: Invited Session: NSF-Funded Physics Education: Celebrating Accomplishments and Looking Forward |
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Sponsoring Units: FEd Chair: Theodore Hodapp, The American Physical Society Room: 002AB |
Tuesday, March 3, 2015 11:15AM - 11:51AM |
G3.00001: NSF Support for Physics at the Undergraduate Level: A View from Inside Invited Speaker: Duncan McBride NSF has supported a wide range of projects in physics that involve undergraduate students. These projects include NSF research grants in which undergraduates participate; Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) centers and supplements; and education grants that range from upper-division labs that may include research, to curriculum development for upper- and lower-level courses and labs, to courses for non-majors, to Physics Education Research (PER). The NSF Divisions of Physics, Materials Research, and Astronomy provide most of the disciplinary research support, with some from other parts of NSF. I recently retired as the permanent physicist in NSF's Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE), which supports the education grants. I was responsible for a majority of DUE's physics grants and was involved with others overseen by a series of physics rotators. There I worked in programs entitled Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement (ILI); Course and Curriculum Development (CCD); Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI); Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education (TUES); and Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE). NSF support has enabled physics Principal Investigators to change and improve substantially the way physics is taught and the way students learn physics. The most important changes are increased undergraduate participation in physics research; more teaching using interactive engagement methods in classes; and growth of PER as a legitimate field of physics research as well as outcomes from PER that guide physics teaching. In turn these have led, along with other factors, to students who are better-prepared for graduate school and work, and to increases in the number of undergraduate physics majors. In addition, students in disciplines that physics directly supports, notably engineering and chemistry, and increasingly biology, are better and more broadly prepared to use their physics education in these fields. I will describe NSF support for undergraduate physics with both statistics and examples. In addition I will talk about trends in support for undergraduate physics at NSF and speculate about directions such support might go. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 3, 2015 11:51AM - 12:27PM |
G3.00002: The Impact of NSF-funded Physics Education Research at the University of Washington Invited Speaker: Paula Heron It is now well known that many students who complete introductory physics courses are unable to apply fundamental concepts in situations that involve qualitative reasoning. Systematic investigations have helped researchers understand why so many students fail to develop robust and coherent conceptual frameworks, and have led to the development of new teaching practices and materials that are far more effective than conventional ones. The Physics Education Group at the University of Washington has played a leading role in raising awareness of the need to improve instruction, and in supporting physics faculty in their efforts to do so. With support from the National Science Foundation, the group has helped build a research base that instructors can draw on, and has produced practical, flexible instructional materials that promote deeper learning in physics classrooms. Both ``Tutorials in Introductory Physics'' (Pearson, 2002) and ``Physics by Inquiry'' (Wiley, 1996) have been developed in an iterative process in which ongoing assessment of student learning plays an integral role. These materials have had a widespread and significant impact on physics teaching and on student learning from kindergarten through graduate school. In this talk I will describe the role of research in curriculum development, and speculate on the next generation of tools and resources to support physics teaching and learning. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 3, 2015 12:27PM - 1:03PM |
G3.00003: The Maryland PERG: Two decades of learning how students learn Invited Speaker: Edward Redish Over the past twenty years, the University of Maryland's Physics Education Research Group (UMd-PERG) has carried out educational research and development using a variety of NSF funding opportunities, building from basic research in cognitive modeling, to instructional materials development, to basic research on professional development. The group has drawn on opportunities in teacher training, K-12 teaching and learning, and university level research and development. In this talk I will recap some of the key lessons we have learned and how it all fits together. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 3, 2015 1:03PM - 1:39PM |
G3.00004: An NSF rotator's perspective: view from inside the hamster wheel Invited Speaker: Gary White Duncan McBride served as my unofficial mentor during my time at NSF as a ``rotator'' (or, in NSF-speak, an IPA, short for an Intergovernmental Personnel Act assignee), from fall 2012 through summer of 2013. A rotator's main job is to help keep the wheels of the grant submission process turning, shepherding individual proposal jackets through the submission cycle. While most proposals are eventually ``Declined'' it is the few that are funded that evoke the most vivid memories of my time there. I hope to relay a little bit about what that was like on a daily basis, to give one hamster's take on the machinations of the NSF machine, and testify to Duncan McBride's critical role in establishing physics as the leader in disciplinary based educational research (DBER). It was a heady experience in many ways, despite the sheer girth of proposal jackets to be processed and the uncertain footing upon which federal employees tread these days. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 3, 2015 1:39PM - 2:15PM |
G3.00005: The SCALE-UP Project Invited Speaker: Robert Beichner The Student Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-down Pedagogies (SCALE-UP) project was developed nearly 20 years ago as an economical way to provide collaborative, interactive instruction even for large enrollment classes. Nearly all research-based pedagogies have been designed with fairly high faculty-student ratios. The economics of introductory courses at large universities often precludes that situation, so SCALE-UP was created as a way to facilitate highly collaborative active learning with large numbers of students served by only a few faculty and assistants. It enables those students to learn and succeed not only in acquiring content, but also to practice important 21st century skills like problem solving, communication, and teamsmanship. The approach was initially targeted at undergraduate science and engineering students taking introductory physics courses in large enrollment sections. It has since expanded to multiple content areas, including chemistry, math, engineering, biology, business, nursing, and even the humanities. Class sizes range from 24 to over 600. Data collected from multiple sites around the world indicates highly successful implementation at more than 250 institutions. NSF support was critical for initial development and dissemination efforts. [Preview Abstract] |
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