Collaborative Research: Surveying the state and implications of computational physics in courses for physics majors

合作研究：调查物理专业课程中计算物理的现状和影响

• 批准号: 1431776
• 负责人: Marcos Caballero
• 金额: $ 2.14万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-15 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1431776&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Surveying; state; implications

This comprehensive, collaborative research project, leading to the design and validation of a survey instrument will elucidate the extent, character, and attitudes towards the use of computation in undergraduate physics courses. A knowledge base of the computational component of undergraduate physics courses is useful for educational research, programmatic development, and effective employment of undergraduate physics majors. The survey will be the first comprehensive and rigorously statistical national assessment of the position of computation in undergraduate physics courses. The project will be conducted over a period of two years involving a variety of stakeholders. A Workshop, crucial to the validity of the survey questionnaire and the usefulness of its results, will be convened to complete the process of probing the thinking and experiences of stakeholders in advance of designing the survey. Workshop participants will represent several interest groups: faculty and administrators from different educational institution types and enrollment profiles; representatives of businesses, government agencies, and organizations that employ physics bachelor degree recipients; a specialist in computational physics education research; and students drawn from the current cohort of physics majors. Participants will set requirements for the design of a survey of computational methods and their use in undergraduate physics courses, and articulate the desired outcomes from analysis of the results of the survey. Attitudes as well as practices in relation to computation will be surveyed. An external evaluator, with expertise in formative and summative evaluation, and significant experience in assessing changes in the undergraduate physics curriculum will use mixed methods to translate the issues and language treated in the workshop into a survey and questionnaire that measures current computational practices in physics courses and the climate for change in the physics departments that teach them. The PI and the evaluator will consult to gain insights in learning to understand how the design and operation of the Workshop succeeded in eliciting the knowledge needed for constructing the survey and how such advisory workshops can be improved. Results will increase the knowledge base needed to replicate in physics education what the scientific and engineering worlds have been doing for decades-gradually integrating computational modeling into the standard toolbox for professional practice.

这个综合性的合作研究项目导致了调查工具的设计和验证，将阐明本科物理课程中计算使用的程度、特征和态度。 本科物理课程计算部分的知识库对于本科物理专业的教育研究、程序开发和有效就业很有用。该调查将是对计算在本科物理课程中的地位进行的首次全面、严格的统计全国评估。该项目将持续两年，涉及各种利益相关者。 在设计调查之前，将召开一个研讨会，以完成对利益相关者的想法和经验的探究过程，这对于调查问卷的有效性及其结果的有用性至关重要。 研讨会参与者将代表多个利益群体：来自不同教育机构类型和招生情况的教师和管理人员；雇用物理学学士学位获得者的企业、政府机构和组织的代表；计算物理教育研究专家；以及来自当前物理专业的学生。 参与者将为计算方法调查的设计及其在本科物理课程中的使用设定要求，并通过对调查结果的分析阐明所需的结果。 将调查与计算相关的态度和实践。 具有形成性和总结性评估方面的专业知识以及评估本科物理课程变化方面丰富经验的外部评估员将使用混合方法将研讨会中处理的问题和语言转化为调查和问卷，以衡量物理课程中当前的计算实践以及教授这些知识的物理系的变革氛围。 PI 和评估员将进行咨询，以获取学习见解，了解研讨会的设计和运作如何成功地获取构建调查所需的知识以及如何改进此类咨询研讨会。 结果将增加在物理教育中复制科学和工程界几十年来所做的事情所需的知识库——逐渐将计算模型整合到专业实践的标准工具箱中。