Collaborative Research: Measuring Learning and Improving Teaching of the Physics of Fluids in Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences

合作研究：测量生命科学物理导论中流体物理的学习和改进教学

• 批准号: 2021261
• 负责人: James Vesenka
• 金额: $ 4.62万
• 依托单位: University of New England
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2021261&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Measuring; Learning; Improving

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving biology students' mastery of physics concepts. More than 100,000 students graduate from college each year with degrees in the biological sciences, and many of them go on to become physicians and other health professionals. Most of these biological sciences majors take an introductory physics course as part of their degree program or as a prerequisite for admission to a graduate or professional school. This course is usually the only physics course they take in college and it is often a special introductory physics class targeted to biology majors. As a result, this course provides their most significant opportunity to understand how physics constrains and enables life. Although these Introductory Physics for Life Sciences (IPLS) courses have been the target of significant national reform efforts, more improvements are needed. This project will address a specific area of need: the study of static and dynamic fluids. Fluids are essential to life and understanding fluids is essential to life science students. The need for students to understand the physics of fluids has been cited by biologists and health professionals alike. However, these topics are not always included or taught well in IPLS courses. To help physics instructors design more effective approaches to teaching fluids, this project will develop and pilot-test a Fluids Conceptual Evaluation (FCE), which will allow instructors to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and measure students' understanding of the concepts. While developing this assessment tool, the investigators will also develop supports to help IPLS instructors teach the physics of fluids well.The investigators will pursue two complementary lines of work in the project. First, they will develop a preliminary version of the FCE, using a process that is novel not only in the content covered but also in following psychometric methodologies, in gathering data from a diverse set of students, and in producing several forms of the conceptual evaluation. The FCE will consist entirely of two-tier test items, where the first tier consists of a multiple-choice conceptual question and the second tier consists of a multiple-choice question asking test-takers to explain the reason they chose the answer they did for the first question. Using Rasch analysis, the investigators will create several forms of the instrument that are on the same scale. These variations are intended to address the concern that conceptual evaluations do not function well as both a pre-test and a post-test, since some questions are too hard for the pre-test and others are too easy for the post-test. The availability of different forms will also address the concern that some topics are not included in different IPLS courses. In summary, the development process is designed to increase the rigor and flexibility of conceptual evaluations. Second, the investigators will conduct surveys and virtual discussions with IPLS instructors to develop insights about how they perceive the difficulty and value of teaching fluids. With that information, the investigators aim to build supports and dissemination activities to meet instructors' needs. Those resources should increase the likelihood that fluids will be included in IPLS courses, as recommended. This collaborative project involves investigators at the University of New Hampshire (Award DUE-2021273), the American Association of Physics Teachers (Award DUE-2021059), the University of New England (Award DUE-2021261), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Award DUE-2021224). This project is funded by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE: EHR) program, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目旨在通过改善生物学学生对物理概念的掌握来满足国家利益。每年有100,000多名学生从大学毕业，在生物科学中获得学位，其中许多学生继续成为医生和其他卫生专业人员。这些生物科学专业的大多数是其学位课程的一部分或作为毕业生或专业学校入学的先决条件。 本课程通常是他们大学唯一参加的物理课程，它通常是针对生物学专业的特殊介绍性物理课。 结果，本课程提供了他们最重要的机会来了解物理学如何限制和实现生命。尽管这些生命科学物理学（IPLS）课程一直是国家改革努力的目标，但仍需要更多的改进。该项目将解决需要的特定领域：静态和动态流体的研究。 流体对生活至关重要，理解流体对于生活科学专业的学生至关重要。生物学家和卫生专业人员都引用了学生了解液体物理学的需求。 但是，这些主题并不总是包括或在IPLS课程中很好地教授。为了帮助物理讲师设计更有效的教学方法，该项目将开发和试点测试流体概念评估（FCE），这将使教师能够评估其教学的有效性并衡量学生对概念的理解。在开发此评估工具的同时，研究人员还将开发支持IPL教师很好地教授流体的物理学。首先，他们将使用不仅在涵盖的内容中而且在遵循心理测量方法，收集来自不同学生的数据的数据以及在产生几种概念评估的几种形式的过程中使用一个新颖的过程来开发FCE的初步版本。 FCE将完全由两层测试项目组成，其中第一层由多项选择的概念问题组成，第二层由一个多项选择的问题组成，要求测试人员解释他们选择第一个问题的答案的原因。使用Rasch分析，研究人员将创建几种形式的仪器，这些仪器的规模相同。这些差异旨在解决以下问题：概念评估既不能很好地进行测试，又是测试后的，因为有些问题对于预测试而言太难了，而其他问题对于后测试中来说太容易了。不同形式的可用性还将解决以下问题：某些主题不包含在不同的IPL课程中。总而言之，开发过程旨在提高概念评估的严格性和灵活性。其次，研究人员将与IPLS讲师进行调查和虚拟讨论，以开发有关他们如何看待教学流体的难度和价值的见解。有了这些信息，调查人员旨在建立支持和传播活动，以满足教师的需求。这些资源应增加IPLS课程中包括流体的可能性。 该合作项目涉及新罕布什尔大学（Du Dududy-2021273奖），美国物理教师协会（奖励2021059奖），新英格兰大学（Duduty-2021261奖）和北卡罗来纳大学Chapel Hill（Do Do-20221224奖）。 该项目由改善本科STEM教育（IUSE：EHR）计划提供资金，该计划支持研发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习轨道，该计划支持有希望的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估的评估来支持的。