United States

The impact of active learning courses on students greatly depends on how students work in groups. It takes more than placing students in groups for group work to be effective and inclusive. Instructors&#39; knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about group work has been shown to have a tremendous impact on students&#39; experiences and their performance. As part of a larger project aimed at supporting faculty to foster effective and inclusive group work, we interviewed studio physics instructors about how they use group work in their courses. We also surveyed students in these instructors’ courses about their attitudes and beliefs about group work. We analyzed the relationship between the instructional practices used by instructors and the impact of these practices on students&#39; learning and attitudes about the course. In this presentation, we will report preliminary findings comparing the interview and survey data with implications for instructors and researchers.

AAPT SM 22

Supporting Physics Instructors to Facilitate Effective and Inclusive Group Work

AAPT meetings are a great way to reflect on your teaching, recommit to best practices and re-energize your career with new research, products, and techniques. Listen to internationally known plenary speakers, attend sessions, workshops, and special activities. This meeting is an excellent opportunity to share your expertise and learn from and network with leaders in the field.



The impact of active learning courses on students greatly depends on how students work in groups. It takes more than placing students in groups for group work to be effective and inclusive. Instructors' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about group work has been shown to have a tremendous impact on students' experiences and their performance. As part of a larger project aimed at supporting faculty to foster effective and inclusive group work, we interviewed studio physics instructors about how they use group work in their courses. We also surveyed students in these instructors’ courses about their attitudes and beliefs about group work. We analyzed the relationship between the instructional practices used by instructors and the impact of these practices on students' learning and attitudes about the course. In this presentation, we will report preliminary findings comparing the interview and survey data with implications for instructors and researchers.

technical paper

Student-centered introductory laboratory and recitation sessions are frequently led by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) who have varied teaching experiences. GTAs from chemistry and physics participated in a professional development intervention designed to prepare graduate students for active learning. The project included GTAs rehearsing pedagogical skills during four training sessions in a mixed-reality teaching simulator. In each session, groups of two or three GTAs taught a lesson to five avatar-students, observed the other GTAs in their session rehearse, and participated in group feedback discussions. We compare GTAs’ use of “Stretch-It”, a questioning technique, in disciplinarily-homogenous (Chemistry or Physics GTAs only) groups to disciplinarily-mixed (Chemistry and Physics GTAs) groups by comparing how GTAs used questioning within and across the simulator sessions. Then, we analyze the feedback discussions for two groups, one physics-only group and one disciplinarily-mixed group. Finally, we discuss benefits and drawbacks of this type of interdisciplinary collaboration.

Investigating the Effect of Discipline in Mixed-reality STEM GTA Training

Jupyter has become a widely used tool in recent years especially for computational physics. Nbgrader is an extension for Jupyter that assists in building, managing, and grading assignments using Jupyter. This talk will discuss specific ways I use nbgrader to improve assignments in computational and theoretical physics.

Improving Assignments using the Nbgrader Extension for Jupyter

Three interactive MATLAB Live Script tutorials in computational magnetism for first year university students are described. These tutorials explore magnetic fields of finite solenoidal and toroidal current-carrying helical coils, permanent magnets, and a complex analytic expression for the field of a cylindrical current sheet. The tutorials supplement laboratory experiences in electromagnet and permanent magnet field mapping and in eddy currents and induction.

Live Script Tutorials in Computational Magnetism

Because electric fields cannot be touched or seen, simulations are often utilized to enhance students' understanding of them by providing them with a visual representation of electric fields and the motion of test charges within them. We built and tested an electric field "sandbox" simulation that dynamically represents the electric field lines, field vectors, equipotential lines, and the voltage of the charges that the user places anywhere on the screen. We then gamified the simulation with the intent of further improving motivation and engagement in the material. Everything we created was built in JavaScript, so they will run on most browsers on a computer or mobile device. Results and student feedback from a subsequent controlled study of the efficacy of these instructional tools will be discussed. The results indicated that no individual tool was significantly more effective than the others, but pre- to post-diagnostics were significant across all three groups.

Gamifying Simulation to Improve Understanding and Attitudes Towards Electric Fields

TopHat is a platform known for in-class quizzing, with students using their phones to respond to questions. However, in our two-semester introductory algebra-based physics sequence, we are leveraging the TopHat platform to do significantly more than that. In addition to the in-class clicker feature, we are using TopHat for (1) optional pre-class preparation, with quizzes that include videos, content, and feedback from the students to the instructor; (2) online homework; (3) an interactive e-book, with a significant number of embedded simulations; and (4) collecting and grading lab reports. The vast majority of the materials were created by us, with a goal of making high-quality content available to the students for a reasonable cost. The interactive e-book is available for adoption by others for $20/student/semester. For our students this puts the total cost of the course materials at $46/student/semester (e-book + TopHat fee).

Using the TopHat Platform to Minimize Costs for Students

In addition to its rigorous basic-research QISE agenda, the Q-SEnSE NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute oversees a number of educational and workforce development initiatives based in quantum education research and designed to help facilitate a diverse and prepared quantum workforce. In this talk we will present two of these initiatives, highlighting in particular the institutional partnerships that form the foundation for their fruitful implementation. We will also discuss current efforts to connect education stakeholders in QISE and open a conversation on ways to move the field forward in the best interests of students as well as members of the quantum industry.

Diverse Pathways to the Quantum Industry at Q-SEnSE

The second quantum revolution has prompted not only research in quantum science, but also research on how best to teach students who may enter this burgeoning field. Much of this conversation has focused around students’ conceptual learning or skills desired by potential employers, while research on how lab experiments can contribute to undergraduate quantum education has been largely absent. In a recent survey of instructors using lab experiments with single and entangled photons, one of the most important learning goals was to "'see' quantum mechanics in real life." To better understand this goal, we investigate what seeing quantum mechanics means to instructors and why they believe it is an important part of students’ education. We present emergent themes coming from a qualitative coding analysis of 15 instructor interviews, which begin to elucidate the role quantum lab experiments may play in undergraduate education.

What Does it Mean to See Quantum Mechanics?

As quantum technologies become more widespread, there is an increased need for engineers, scientists, and software developers who are "quantum aware". Rochester Institute of Technology has developed a new multidisciplinary minor in Quantum Information Science and Technology that is designed to serve students from over a dozen STEM majors. The minor involved the creation of two courses, one in physics and one in computer engineering. The physics course focuses on foundational concepts of quantum mechanics, quantum computer hardware implementation, and non-computing applications of quantum technology, such as quantum sensing. The computer engineering course uses qubits and quantum gates as a starting point and focuses on algorithms, cryptographic applications, and the software stack linking the application to the underlying hardware. In this talk I will describe the factors that influenced our program design and our efforts to make the minor accessible to a broad range of majors.

Creating a Quantum Information Science and Technology Minor at RIT

I will provide quantitative data on the improvement in student success rates caused by the use of a Student Success Coach at a large two-year college. The College of DuPage (COD) received a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) program to provide support to approximately twenty STEM students per year. Selected students received full tuition scholarships, access to summer internships, guided study groups and STEM activities on campus. In addition, a key element of the support is the assignment of a Student Success Coach who provided close, personal attention to these particular students. In what is sometimes referred to as “intrusive advising”, the Success Coach worked to intervene early before small issues become larger ones. COD has completed this first grant and is applying for a second grant to expand the program to part-time students. (NSF DUE Award #1564720)

Using Intrusive Advising to Improve Student Success

A diverse physics workforce benefits society and the economy; yet, physics graduates do not re?ect an inclusive community. Over 18% of the American population identifies as non-white Hispanic, though American Institute of Physics data show that only 9% of physics bachelor degrees were awarded to Hispanic students as of 2018. Community colleges are more representative of community demographics with 27% of students identifying as Hispanic and over 200 colleges federally recognized as Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), but community colleges do not serve as many physics majors compared to baccalaureate-granting institutions. The TRAINS project supports physics URM transfer students in navigating cultural interfaces and the transition from a community college to a baccalaureate-granting institution. This study focuses specifically on Hispanic community college students’ early expectations for building relationships with mentors and peers. Understanding these expectations will help faculty support URM students through their undergraduate research experiences and transitions to baccalaureate-granting physics programs.

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