Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2023
Volume 68, Number 6
Minneapolis, Minnesota (Apr 15-18)
Virtual (Apr 24-26); Time Zone: Central Time
Session M16: Supporting Diverse Learners in Diverse ContextsDiversity Education
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Sponsoring Units: GPER Chair: Jennifer Blue, Miami University Room: Marquette VII - 2nd Floor |
Monday, April 17, 2023 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
M16.00001: Transferring knowledge without building networks: A comparison of virtual vs. in-person CUWiP outcomes Eric Brewe The 2020 APS March Meeting was the first major international conference to be canceled due to COVID-19. Subsequently, conferences transitioned to virtual spaces. The merits of virtual conferences are undeniable: increased accessibility, reduced costs, and minimized environmental impacts of travel and hotels. Yet, conferences have been essential components of professional learning for academics, particularly doctoral students. The APS Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) conference series developed to help undergraduate women continue in physics by providing settings for women to learn about graduate school, professions in physics, network, and research in physics. From 2014-2020, CUWiP Conferences have been held in-person as a distributed conference. In 2021 and 2022, these conferences were held remotely. Rigorous external evaluation surveys were sent to participants both before the conference and after. These surveys asked about participants' knowledge of different careers in physics, their interest in physics, physics identity, self efficacy, sense of belonging, and participation in these conferences. By analyzing these data, we have a unique opportunity to better understand differences between in-person and remote conferences. We find little difference between the two in regard to transmission of knowledge, but participants in remote conferences did not build social networks as effectively as those in in-person conferences. |
Monday, April 17, 2023 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
M16.00002: Examining the physics identity landscape over one semester of introductory physics Joinee Taylor, Zahra Hazari, Geoff Potvin, Thomas B Head, Pooneh Sabouri In this study, we seek to better understand student motivation and how students identify with physics through the framing of utility value and physics identity (recognition, interest, performance/competence beliefs). Given that previous research has primarily examined the factors that shape students' physics identity through cross-sectional analysis, this study seeks to add to the literature by examining physics identity over time. We look at how physics identity at the beginning of high school physics courses relates to and compares to identity at the end. We conducted a path analysis to investigate the longitudinal structural relationships between pre-and post-measures of utility value and physics identity constructs and utilized t-tests to understand how these constructs compared from the beginning of the course to the end, particularly for students with marginalized identities in physics. A regression was also conducted to further investigate correlational patterns between marginalized identities and physics identity measures, utility value, and future intentions to pursue a career in physics. The results highlight the importance of recognition for all students. |
Monday, April 17, 2023 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
M16.00003: Using networks to relate student interactions to their recognition of strong peers Meagan Sundstrom, Lee Simpfendoerfer, Annie Tan, Natasha G Holmes Gaining recognition from peers has been shown to improve student persistence and career intentions in physics. It is important, therefore, to understand how students develop perceptions of their peers. Prior research suggests that interactions are one possible mechanism for peer recognition: interacting with others allows students to demonstrate their physics skills and knowledge and acquire recognition as a physicist. To probe this explanation directly, we use methods from social network analysis to compare students' self-reported interactions to their recognition of strong peers. We find that there is a significant correlation between edges in the interaction and recognition networks, however interactions only account for about half of students' recognition of strong peers. Results suggest that students determine their strong peers by both (i) choosing the strongest of the peers with whom they interact and (ii) indirectly observing other peers with whom they do not interact. We will also discuss how these two processes help explain the formation of biases (e.g., based on gender) in peer recognition. |
Monday, April 17, 2023 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
M16.00004: Correlating undergraduate attitudes with long-term physics retention in women Maxwell W Franklin, Eric Brewe Most prior studies about student retention in physics examine only one variable only in an individual course. Using data collected at the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) from 2014 to 2018, as well as a follow up survey, we see correlations between a wide range of attitudes as an undergraduate student and persistence. From our follow up survey, we can examine correlations between attitude and participation in physics through and after graduation. The CUWiP surveys asked about women's sense of community, performance competence, physics identity, physics interest, sense of belonging, and perceived recognition. Our analysis covers each individual question asked on the survey, as well as compound categories created from grouping similar questions. Our initial analyses have shown that in the surveys taken before the conference, perceived recognition and physics identity correlate most strongly with persistence in physics; we plan to test these with more rigorous statistical analysis and machine learning methods. Our goal for this project is to find which qualities are the best predictors of retention in undergraduate women. Using these qualities and future CUWiP surveys, we can find which undergraduate women need more support from the physics community. |
Monday, April 17, 2023 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
M16.00005: Validating a Weekly Survey to Understand Student Division of Roles in Physics Labs Matthew A Dew, Emily M Stump, Natasha G Holmes In introductory physics laboratories, students typically work in groups where they divide and share different roles to complete assignments. Data on student participation in these different roles within groups help assess equity in labs. However, little work has investigated the division of these roles week-to-week with class observations as it is a time-intensive process. To address this, we designed a closed-ended survey delivered weekly during lecture to measure student perceptions of their involvement in various roles. Specifically, we asked students about the extent (i.e., led, worked with other students, helped but someone else was in charge, or not/barely involved) with which they used equipment, analyzed data, took notes, and managed the group. We compared survey responses to two sessions of class observations and found that student responses can tell us how much time students spend in each role. While observations were aligned with responses for leading, sharing, and barely working on a role, the observational differences were not so clear between the sharing responses (working with other students and helping but not in charge). These survey responses allow us to obtain information that may not be easily seen in classroom observations and will be used in the future to study equity issues in role division. |
Monday, April 17, 2023 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
M16.00006: Diverging Pipelines: Examining Identity of Neurodivergent Physicists Left Behind by Academia Liam G McDermott, Nazeer Mosley Education, including physics education, is in the midst of an exciting paradigm shift. Scholars are beginning to question how we conceptualize cognitive and sensory disability. Specifically, we are shifting towards a new Neurodiversity Paradigm, in which we understand our neurodivergent (autistic, ADHD, OCD, dyslexic, PTSD, etc.) students as not having deficits, but experiencing differences in how their mind works which can be unaligned with how the classroom and the broader physics culture we live in operates. Because of this and numerous other reasons, many neurodivergent physicists leave the field. Very little research examines why neurodivergent physicists leave the field, and even less examines what keeps these physicists identifying as physicists despite leaving. In this talk, I will present and discuss my preliminary findings based on interviews with neurodivergent physicists who leave the field, and discuss what role we, as in-field physicists can play in encouraging these neurodivergent physicists. |
Monday, April 17, 2023 11:57AM - 12:09PM |
M16.00007: Qualitative Social Network Analysis in PER: Discussing possibilities from practice Camila Amaral, Ramón S Barthelemy, Madison Swirtz, Adrienne L Traxler, Justin A. Gutzwa, Charles Henderson Part of a successful career trajectory in physics is building and maintaining a professional network of peers, collaborators, and mentors that supports one’s professional growth and advancement. Building these networks can be challenging for minoritized groups, such as women and LGBT people, and may be one of the reasons leading to the challenges they face in physics. This study applies qualitative Social Network Analysis (SNA) to better understand how these groups build their social networks and the impact of these networks on their careers. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with participants who are women and/or LGBT, hold a Ph.D. in physics, and currently work in academia, government, or industry. In this presentation we focus on how we applied a qualitative approach to SNA to characterize the type of networks women and LGBT physicists build, understand their experiences while navigating their careers, and compare the experiences of participants in different job sectors. In doing that, we expect to contribute perspectives on incorporating qualitative egocentric network analysis in Physics Education Research, where this approach to SNA is relatively underutilized. |
Monday, April 17, 2023 12:09PM - 12:21PM |
M16.00008: Results from a two year study of graduate admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic Geoff Potvin, Galen Pickett, Christopher D Porter Since 2020, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global society in many ways causing substantial harm and suffering to millions. Academia has been disturbed in myriad ways including threatening established efforts to improve diversity in higher education. This talk will report on a study conducted during 2020-2022 on the disruptions to, adaptations around, and prospects for graduate admissions and induction in physics departments in the U.S. Drawing on multiple sources of data gathered from Directors of Graduate Study and new graduate students, we present the evolving challenges that students and physics departments faced in this period. From the perspective of new graduate students, we observe substantial variability in the opportunities students had to maintain their own safety, balance demands of family and other non-academic considerations, the treatment they received as the pandemic impacted "business as usual", and their prospects for future study and employment. From a departmental perspective, we identify program resilience - a characteristic of programs which had previously developed intentional recruiting/admissions processes that incorporated students' challenges and interests - as a distinguishing factor for departments that felt better able to withstand COVID-related disruptions. |
Monday, April 17, 2023 12:21PM - 12:33PM |
M16.00009: I'm Uncomfortable Getting Rid of the Physics GRE Matthew Bellis Traditionally the Physics GRE has been part of getting into a graduate Physics program. However, studies show that a student's GRE score is uncorrelated with their success in grad school and that students from underrepresented groups perform less well on the GRE on average, contributing to a less diverse community. Because of this, a number of Physics departments have not just de-weighted GRE performance but dropped it entirely. While I recognize the bias inherent in the GRE, particularly due to the financial cost, I believe the community is missing an opportunity to address why many otherwise strong students do not perform well on this particular assessment. I'm also concerned that this sends a message to undergraduate students about the value of learning and internalizing material presented in a physics curriculum. I am cognizant of my own immense privilege and biases as a white, cisgendered, heterosexual, neurotyplical male in physics and understand that these biases affect my approach to education. I will elaborate on these thoughts while posing possible alternative approaches for assessing preparation for graduate school. |
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