Competency-Based Classes, How Students Talk About Physics, and News from Amazing Places
Rajapaksha and Hirsch from Purdue have a paper in PR:PER about their "Competency-Based" approach to an algebra-based, first-year physics course. The end result is a 30% bump on FCI scores over the semester, which is pretty good. Their approach looks like studio physics (sessions mediated by TAs) + standards-based grading (including redoing assessments) + rubrics based on trans-disciplinary skills.
Amy Robertson and Leslie Atkins Elliott have a paper in The Physics Teacher that, I think, serves as a capstone for that journal's 4-issue focus on social justice. They "issue a call to teachers to join us in becoming aware of the multiplicity of ways that we can talk about physics". The work draws on the idea that cultural differences matter for students in the physics classroom: attending to dialogue is the first way to deal with this.
Meanwhile, Antonio Carlos Fontes Santos writes about colorism in the physics community in Brazil. (It's no better than in North America)
A study from Vanderbilt interviewed African-American and Latinx students and found that they were largely motivated by an "equality ethic" or, in other words, a desire to use STEM as a tool for social justice.
In this month's Physics World, Michael Falk writes about the climate experienced by LGBT physicists (based on the APS report). He uses the story of Ettore Majorana as a hook for the piece, which I think it really effective.
In physics news from amazing places this week, the Middle East's new synchrotron (SESAME) has come online. The IceCube detector at the south pole has results showing what happens when neutrinos pass through the Earth.
There's an article on EdSurge about using computers in the science classroom, with some good examples. It's billed as computer science, but is really more about using the right tools, isn't it?
The next #iteachphysics chat will be about assessment and teaching optics, with guest Dr Dark.
Frank Noschese's picture is worth a thousand free-body diagrams. Evan Weinberg uses Lego Mindstorms to do kinematics graph-matching. Matt Blackman shows us the center of mass (Nathan Porter's students did the video analysis) and has a great half-parabola.
And on YouTube, some car videos: Backyard Scientist made a gigantic mousetrap car, Veritasium has a video about some car safety physics (sponsored by a big German automaker), and Real Engineering has a video about wheels for land-speed record cars.
Amy Robertson and Leslie Atkins Elliott have a paper in The Physics Teacher that, I think, serves as a capstone for that journal's 4-issue focus on social justice. They "issue a call to teachers to join us in becoming aware of the multiplicity of ways that we can talk about physics". The work draws on the idea that cultural differences matter for students in the physics classroom: attending to dialogue is the first way to deal with this.
Meanwhile, Antonio Carlos Fontes Santos writes about colorism in the physics community in Brazil. (It's no better than in North America)
A study from Vanderbilt interviewed African-American and Latinx students and found that they were largely motivated by an "equality ethic" or, in other words, a desire to use STEM as a tool for social justice.
In this month's Physics World, Michael Falk writes about the climate experienced by LGBT physicists (based on the APS report). He uses the story of Ettore Majorana as a hook for the piece, which I think it really effective.
In physics news from amazing places this week, the Middle East's new synchrotron (SESAME) has come online. The IceCube detector at the south pole has results showing what happens when neutrinos pass through the Earth.
There's an article on EdSurge about using computers in the science classroom, with some good examples. It's billed as computer science, but is really more about using the right tools, isn't it?
The next #iteachphysics chat will be about assessment and teaching optics, with guest Dr Dark.
Frank Noschese's picture is worth a thousand free-body diagrams. Evan Weinberg uses Lego Mindstorms to do kinematics graph-matching. Matt Blackman shows us the center of mass (Nathan Porter's students did the video analysis) and has a great half-parabola.
And on YouTube, some car videos: Backyard Scientist made a gigantic mousetrap car, Veritasium has a video about some car safety physics (sponsored by a big German automaker), and Real Engineering has a video about wheels for land-speed record cars.