Physics education is facing challenges in terms of ensuring student engagement with physics. This can be due to the techno-centric approach in physics education when little or no attention is devoted to exploring the relationship between physics concepts and human needs. To change this may require that in addition to examining questions of “what” and “how” required for developing skills in abstract problem-solving, we may also need to leverage a techno-centric approach to teaching physics curriculum to enhance student engagement with physics by helping them to understand the “why” that inspires STEM undergraduates to learn physics. The essence of the socio-technical approach to physics education is based on contextualizing physics in real-world applications that reveals impact of physics on human and humanity. We will discuss the results the connection between Physics Innovation and Entrepreneurship computational and laboratory skillset that can offer an enhanced model for teaching physics.

Lab courses can meet the ideals of a "Physics for Tomorrow" curriculum by integrating theory, computation, and experimentation in ways that emphasize social impact and career-relevant applications. COVID-19 served as the catalyst for a significant overhaul of the 2nd-year electronics lab at Rochester Institute of Technology, which is taken by about 45 physics majors. The course now uses low-cost lab kits (120 USD), which increase the hands-on lab experience for every student, whether they are in-person or remote. Circuit simulations in LTspice (free) provide experience with commercial circuit simulators, while Jupyter notebooks are used as electronic lab notebooks and to incorporate scientific Python. An optical heart rate monitor is the focus of a culminating 2-week lab showing human-centered interdisciplinary applications of physics and electronics. Finally, multi-week final projects are proposed and executed by students to reinforce that physics is a creative and applied discipline.

Introductory physics classes often present physics in an overly-abstracted context that is far removed from how it is actually practiced, and the impact that it has on society. In this talk, I will advocate for teaching physics in its broader context as a driver of social change and economic agency. Additionally, I will argue that classroom physics should more closely resemble the real-world practice of physics, with an emphasis on computational methods and the analysis of empirical data instead of just analytical derivations. These approaches both increase recruitment and retention, by presenting physics as an inspiring vehicle for change and a practically-useful set of skills, and better prepare students for the careers that they are likely to have when they graduate