We have transitioned from teaching a course called Physics for Filmmakers (PfF) to one called simply Conceptual Physics (CP). PfF did many things at the level of an introductory algebra-based physics course, but used film clips as both a jumping off point for lectures and a basis for final projects. CP was designed to be more accessible to our arts and media-focused student body by removing a lot of the purely mathematical content (simultaneously decreasing overlap with the standard introductory course) and opening up final projects to different art forms. My goal was to take the best demos and film discussions from PfF and include hands-on activities and content from other courses such as optics and electronics. This poster will outline some choices made in transitioning between these courses, focusing on how the first round of CP projects cultivated physics interest from an arts perspective.

Recent research on faculty adoption and adaptation of research-based instructional materials suggests that the development and dissemination of such materials are most effective when they center instructors’ productive ideas about teaching and learning and when they build on instructors’ current instructional practices. We interviewed 17 physics faculty to understand their instructional values and practices, for the purpose of informing the development and dissemination of resources-oriented instructional materials—materials that elicit and build on students’ productive ideas. In this poster, we will explore the ways in which faculty discourse aligned (and did not align) with features of the misconceptions and resources frameworks that have influenced curriculum development in PER.

Over the last several years, the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of South Carolina has been working to improve the learning gains of the students enrolled in both introductory physics sequences.  Recognizing that properly implemented, research-validated, active-learning approaches have been shown to improve student learning as compared to the traditional lecture/recitation/laboratory format, we have adopted the Lecture/Studio format and are in the process of adapting the curricular materials developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to meet the needs of our students.  Room renovation began in Spring 2022 and the first semester of the calculus-based sequence went live in Fall 2022.  In this poster we will describe the decision process, implementation, and pre/post-implementation results from the FCI. We will also discuss future plans for expanding Lecture/Studio to the second semester calculus-based course as well as to the algebra-based sequence.

The open-source python module genlatex is a tool that enables instructors to generate beautiful randomized assessments with corresponding solutions using LaTeX and python together. Examples of source files and output will be provided including diagrams, graphs, and, of course, lots of mathematical equations. 

Physicists implicitly use metaphorical reasoning to explain physical phenomena (such as understanding energy as a substance). We develop a perspective that precisely describes mathematical models of reality as "theoretical metaphors." Beginning with observations of reality, physicists map concepts—energy, time, space, etc.—to a mathematical model, interpreting physical observations in terms of the mathematical model. We propose a study to determine the effectiveness of introducing students to observations of reality before a mathematical model, as in the theoretical metaphors perspective.

Any university's standard undergraduate physics curriculum generally consists of classical mechanics, electromagnetism, and quantum mechanics physics. Currently, not every university follows the same academic course outline; therefore, we are studying the physics major course offerings to identify and document different models. An important course: Mathematical Methods in Physics course bridges complex mathematical concepts with various physics concepts to prepare students for future upper division physics courses. Two research questions we aim to answer: What course models exist in US universities for the mathematical preparation of physics students? And is there a correlation between course model and institutional variables such as the number of majors, retention rates, student demographics, public versus private, research-intensive, and primarily undergraduate, and to what extent? By reviewing catalogs from colleges and universities in California, we gathered data on the effects of a Mathematical Methods course in Physics vs. a non-Mathematical Methods course physics curriculum.

Prior to COVID, we surveyed students taking introductory physics courses either online or face-to-face to compare the resources students reportedly used to learn physics. In the study, the same instructor was assigned to both online and face-to-face sections. Respondents reported differences in the motivation behind resource-seeking behaviors.