Bulletin of the American Physical Society
46th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Volume 60, Number 7
Monday–Friday, June 8–12, 2015; Columbus, Ohio
Session N2: Invited Session: Turning Physics Students into Physicists |
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Chair: Tiku Majumder, Williams College Room: Union ABC |
Thursday, June 11, 2015 10:30AM - 11:00AM |
N2.00001: Teaching and Learning Physics Expertise Invited Speaker: Carl Wieman I will discuss what has been learned about the nature of expertise and how it is learned. Expertise is largely about asking the right questions and making the right decisions (both conscious and unconscious) at the right time. This includes knowing and using all the relevant information, and recognizing the limitations of those decisions. Expertise is acquired by the learner explicitly practicing, with guiding feedback, the necessary decisions and knowledge organization and application, and reflecting on decisions. Measures of expert decision making clearly reflect the degree to which different teaching methods provide the learner with the necessary explicit practice and feedback. I will start with describing the most general features of expertise, then specific elements of physics expertise, and finally the example of quite detailed components of expertise in DAMOP experimental physics. This will set the stage for the other talks in this session which will discuss examples of applying these concepts about the acquisition of expertise to a variety of specific physics courses and showing their effectiveness. This talk will make it clear why subject expertise is a necessary (though not sufficient) condition to be an effective teacher. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 11, 2015 11:00AM - 11:30AM |
N2.00002: Preparing students for research excellence in optics and photonics Invited Speaker: Benjamin Zwickl Initial results will be described from an ongoing study that is investigating both academic and industrial career paths in optics and photonics. The dual goals of the project are developing useful information for physics departments and linking physics education research with the national dialog on the role of higher education in training the STEM workforce. The study is refining our understanding of the broad skills needed for success and how specific math, physics, and communication skills are utilized in academic and industrial labs. While physics education research has extensively studied conceptual learning and problem solving at the undergraduate level, this project connects that research with expertise and skills used in physics-intensive careers. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 11, 2015 11:30AM - 12:00PM |
N2.00003: Model-Based Reasoning in Upper-division Lab Courses Invited Speaker: Heather Lewandowski Modeling, which includes developing, testing, and refining models, is a central activity in physics. Well-known examples from AMO physics include everything from the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom to the Bose--Hubbard model of interacting bosons in a lattice. Modeling, while typically considered a theoretical activity, is most fully represented in the laboratory where measurements of real phenomena intersect with theoretical models, leading to refinement of models and experimental apparatus. However, experimental physicists use models in complex ways and the process is often not made explicit in physics laboratory courses. We have developed a framework to describe the modeling process in physics laboratory activities. The framework attempts to abstract and simplify the complex modeling process undertaken by expert experimentalists. The framework can be applied to understand typical processes such the modeling of the measurement tools, modeling ``black boxes,'' and signal processing. We demonstrate that the framework captures several important features of model-based reasoning in a way that can reveal common student difficulties in the lab and guide the development of curricula that emphasize modeling in the laboratory. We also use the framework to examine troubleshooting in the lab and guide students to effective methods and strategies. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, June 11, 2015 12:00PM - 12:30PM |
N2.00004: A Deliberate Practice Instructional Approach for Upper Division Physics Courses Invited Speaker: David Jones In upper division physics courses, an overarching educational goal is to have students think about and use the material much as a practicing physicist in the field does. Specifically, this would include knowledge (such as concepts, formalism, and instruments), approaches, and metacognitive skills that physicists use in solving ``typical'' (research context) problems to both understand and predict physical observations and accompanying models. Using an interactive instructional approach known as deliberate practice (described earlier in this session) we will discuss our work on how to provide students with the necessary practice and feedback to achieve these skills in a core DAMOP course of modern optics. We present the results of a direct and explicit comparison between this approach and traditional lecture-based instruction revealing evidence that a significant improvement of the students' mastery of these skills occurs when deliberate practice is employed. [Preview Abstract] |
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