skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


  • NSF Public Access
  • Search Results
  • 2024 David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching Lecture: It's not business, it's personal. Teaching large classes, one student at a time
Title: 2024 David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching Lecture: It's not business, it's personal. Teaching large classes, one student at a time
“I can't help but see physics everywhere I go now.” This quotation from students' evaluations summarizes what I consider to be the most important learning outcome. I will discuss our efforts to make introductory physics a meaningful and enjoyable journey rather than a survival experience in weed-out classes. There is no single recipe to achieve that, but I'll share some ideas and resources that we have created. Additionally, I will discuss several new outreach programs that we introduced with the help of our students. Outreach is not just a service that we provide for the benefit of the public; it is an integral part of the learning experience for the students.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2214493
PAR ID:
10620647
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Publisher / Repository:
American Association of Physics Teachers
Date Published:
Journal Name:
American Journal of Physics
Volume:
92
Issue:
12
ISSN:
0002-9505
Page Range / eLocation ID:
910 to 917
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; (, American Society of Engineering Education)
    The mission of the Inclusion Diversity Excellence Achievement (IDEA) Engineering Student Center at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering is to promote equity, community, and success for all engineering students at the University from admission through graduation. The Academic Achievement Program (AAP) originally focused on academic performance (i.e., grades) and is evolving to more fully address the myriad of factors that contribute to the overall success of undergraduate engineering students. The AAP aims to promote a culture of care for students’ personal well-being and academic success within engineering courses by providing just-in-time support and reinforcing attitudes and habits that empower students to succeed. This effort can be broken down into three goals: I) promote a multifaceted understanding of factors that influence student success, II) teach learning attitudes and behaviors for effective learning, and III) provide tools to support proactive advising at the classroom level. To reach these goals, we envision instructional teams (typically made up of faculty and teaching assistants) who have the knowledge and tools to proactively provide students with support based on deep understanding of how factors inside and outside the classroom influence learning. Such instructional teams can more effectively improve the learning experience and student outcomes like persistence. We also envision students with attitudes and habits that help them learn effectively and use supporting resources to overcome any challenges they encounter. To achieve these goals, AAP includes three components at various stages of development, implementation, and assessment: 1) the Engineer Your Success Course for undergraduates, 2) Student Support Planning Checklist and community of practice for instructional teams, and 3) content on effective learning strategies for instructional teams. This paper will present a developing conceptual framework that guides these activities, describe each component, present preliminary findings, and discuss potential next steps. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; (, European Journal of Physics)
    Abstract Leveraging computational resources for modern physics education has become increasingly prevalent, especially catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic when distance learning is widely implemented. Herein, we report an open-source software for students and instructors to on-demand simulate optical reflection behaviors of one-dimensional photonic crystals (1D-PCs), a model system for understanding light–matter interactions relevant to materials science and optical physics. Specifically, our MATLAB application, ReflectSim, employs an adapted transfer matrix method simulation and can account for the effects of several critical material design parameters, including interfacial roughness and layer geometry, to determine the reflectance spectrum of user-defined 1D-PCs. By packing our codes into a graphical user interface, this software is simple to use and bypass the requirement of any coding experiences from users, which can be widely used as an education tool in high school/undergraduate classrooms and K-12 outreach activities. We believe that ReflectSim provides great potential for assisting students in understanding optical phenomenon in nanostructured layered materials and relevant scientific concepts through enabling more engaging learning experiences. 
    more » « less
  3. (, Molecular Biology of the Cell)
    I am deeply humbled and honored to receive the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) Prize for Excellence in Inclusivity. Thank you to the ASCB for recognizing the contributions of faculty to inclusion and diversity in STEM and the importance of this for the advancement of science. Thank you to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) for your generous support of inclusivity. The prize money will be used to fund outreach activities aimed at increasing inclusion in science and to create research opportunities for students from underrepresented groups in the sciences. In this essay, I share bits of my life’s story that I hope will resonate with a broad audience, especially students from underrepresented groups in STEM, and that drive my passion for inclusion and diversity. I provide points of consideration for students to enhance their preparation for science careers and for faculty to improve the current landscape of inclusion and diversity in STEM. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Journal of Engineering Education)
    Abstract BackgroundDespite the prevalence and potential of K–12 engineering outreach programs, the moment‐to‐moment dynamics of outreach educators' facilitation of engineering learning experiences are understudied. There is a need to identify outreach educators' teaching moves and to explore the implications of these moves. Purpose/HypothesisWe offer a preliminary framework for characterizing engineering outreach educators' teaching moves in relation to principles of ambitious instruction. This study describes outreach educators' teaching moves and identifies learning opportunities afforded by these moves. Design/MethodThrough discourse analysis of video recordings of a university‐led engineering outreach program, we identified teaching moves of novice engineering outreach educators in interaction with elementary student design teams. We considered 18 outreach educators' teaching moves through a lens of ambitious instruction. ResultsIn small group interactions, outreach educators used ambitious, conservative, and inclusive teaching moves. These novice educators utilized talk moves that centered students' ideas and agency. Ambitious moves included two novel teaching moves: design check‐ins and revoicing tangible manifestations of students' ideas. Ambitious moves offered students opportunities to engage in engineering design. Conservative moves provided opportunities for students to make technical and affective progress, and to experience engineering norms. ConclusionsOur work is formative in describing engineering outreach educators' teaching moves and points to outreach educators' capability in using ambitious moves. Ambitious engineering instruction may be a useful framework for designing engineering outreach to support students' participation and progress in engineering design. Additionally, conservative teaching moves, typically considered constraining, may support productive student affect and engagement in engineering design. 
    more » « less
  5. (, ACM SIGACT News)
    As I write this in July 2020, I have no idea what the COVID-19 situation will be like when this September 2020 issue reaches your mailbox or your previewer. My typical advice is to prove exciting theorems. But in these times, all I can share are my hopes: that you'll each be safe and well (and that the medical profes- sion will create an effective vac- cine quickly enough that early in 2021 schools can return to fully in-person teaching); that you'll nd ways to, if a faculty member, help your students thrive even in the hybrid-mode-learning settings they'll probably nd themselves in for the fall semester; and that you'll (while staying careful and safe) nd time to (yes, here it comes) prove exciting theorems. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email