Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Annual Meeting of the APS Four Corners Section
Volume 60, Number 11
Friday–Saturday, October 16–17, 2015; Tempe, Arizona
Session I8: Education IV: Strategies for inclusive science teaching and assessment |
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Chair: Kelli Gamez-Warble, Arizona State University Room: PSA107 |
Saturday, October 17, 2015 11:00AM - 11:12AM |
I8.00001: Fundamentals of Scientific Inquiry: Enhancing the first-year experience Katherine Rainey, Kerrie Dochen CU-Prime is an organization developed by graduate and undergraduate students, with the goal of increasing inclusion in the Physics Department at the University of Colorado Boulder, especially for traditionally underrepresented groups in physics. Alongside a talk series and a mentorship program, CU-Prime offers an introductory-level physics course which promotes a sense of community and introduces undergraduate students to cutting-edge research. Informed by experiential-based pedagogy research, the course, Fundamentals of Scientific Inquiry, aims to support students from both under- and over-represented groups by focusing on developing communication, collaboration, and metacognition skills while providing student-driven research experiences in a low-stakes environment. Throughout the semester, students complete personal weekly reflections and attend regular research talks by graduate students. The course involves class discussions about the psychology of learning, as well guided small-group experiments, then it centers around student-driven research projects supported by graduate student mentors. Along the larger goals of CU-Prime, implementing this course involved a collaborative effort between the instructors, the rest of CU-Prime, and the physics department as a whole. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 17, 2015 11:12AM - 11:24AM |
I8.00002: From pipeline to watershed: A community-focused approach to increase diversity and success in math and science at the University of Utah Jordan Gerton, Holly Godsey, Tino Nyawelo, Nadia Jassim, Erin Moulding The University of Utah (the U) is a watershed for students arriving along many different educational, professional and cultural tributaries. To significantly increase the number and diversity of college graduates in this watershed with competency in science and math disciplines, the Center for Science and Mathematics Education engages with all phases of the educational spectrum by building communities of educators and students in both K-12 and Higher Education, and by bridging these two communities. Two cohort-based programs are highlighted to demonstrate impact across a broad spectrum of communities. One program seeks to address the under-representation of women, minorities, refugees, non-native English speakers, and economically disadvantaged students in STEM disciplines through cohort-based after school and summer bridge programs and the development of robust University-community partnerships. The second program is designed to develop K-12 teacher-leaders in earth, physical and life sciences through a multi-year cohort experience that includes disciplinary coursework, a mentored research experience, and community building. These programs, along with other campus initiatives, have the potential to truly transform the communities within the U's educational watershed. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 17, 2015 11:24AM - 11:48AM |
I8.00003: Investigating Student Ownership of Projects in Upper-Division Physics Laboratory Courses Invited Speaker: Dimitri Dounas-Frazer In undergraduate research experiences, student development of an identity as a scientist is coupled to their sense of ownership of their research projects. As a first step towards studying similar connections in physics laboratory courses, we investigate student ownership of projects in a lasers-based upper-division course. Students spent the final seven weeks of the semester working in groups on final projects of their choosing. Using data from the Project Ownership Survey and weekly student reflections, we investigate student ownership as it relates to students' personal agency, self-efficacy, peer interactions, and complex affective responses to challenges and successes. We present evidence of students' project ownership in an upper-division physics lab. Additionally, we propose a model for student development of ownership through cycles of frustration and excitement as students progress on their projects. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 17, 2015 11:48AM - 12:00PM |
I8.00004: Cognitive difficulty and format of exams predicts gender and socio-economic gaps in exam performance of students in introductory science courses Christian Wright, Sarah Eddy, Mary Pat Wenderoth, Sara Brownell National agencies have called for the promotion of deeper conceptual thinking in STEM students and the development of assessments that test this conceptual understanding. However, changing the characteristics of questions can result in bias against historically underrepresented groups. As instructors change their assessments to test higher-order thinking, it will be important to understand if and how these changes impact students. We collected 4800$+$ students' exam data from 87 instructor-generated exams taken across three years of the introductory biology series at a large research university. We determined the Bloom's level and the percentage of constructed-response questions (Percent.CR) for each exam. We explored how changing the characteristics of an exam differentially impact the exam scores of male and female as well as high- and low socio-economic status (SES) students while controlling for prior academic ability. We found that males and high-SES students disproportionately benefitted as the Bloom`s level of exams increased. Male and female students equally benefitted from increasing the Percent.CR of exams; however, high-SES students disproportionately benefitted from increasing the Percent.CR of exams. Given that we controlled for prior academic ability, our findings do not likely reflect differences in academic ability level. We discuss possible explanations for our findings (i.e., stereotype threat) and future research directions. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 17, 2015 12:00PM - 12:12PM |
I8.00005: An interactive, dynamic, visual tool for div, curl, and Stokes' Matthias Kawski We demonstrate a free JAVA tool that promotes inquiry based learning. Students experiment and discover divergence, curl, and (the planar form of) Stokes' theorem. 15 years experience with this tool confirm that this visual language much helps integrate vector calculus, differential equations, complex analysis, and physics (both mechanics and electromagnetics), whereas the traditional different algebraic symbolism forms barriers between these different of view. Highlights are the role of vector precalculus, the dark side of the moon (harmonic oscillator) in contrast with irrotational, and geometric (coordinate independent) definitions of curl, curl, and grad) in a dynamic graphical context. https://math.la.asu.edu/~kawski/vfa2/vfa2sample.html [Preview Abstract] |
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