Collaborative Project: Implementing Physics by Inquiry Using Undergraduate Peer Instructors and Cooperative Group Learning

在国家科学基金会的支持下，华盛顿大学开发的探究式物理课程（PbI）已被证明在帮助学生学习科学概念方面非常有效。 然而，实施PbI通常所需的低学生与教师比例是广泛采用的一个障碍。 智力优点：该项目的主要目标是适应和调查如何在不需要物理研究生助教的情况下实施PbI课程，因为它目前正在由其开发人员实施。 相反，正式的合作小组学习技术和本科教学助理正在使用。 研究人员都有丰富的经验，在物理教学和学习的最新创新。 更广泛的影响：该项目使PbI更容易被服务于PbI课程目标人群的机构采用（例如，学生和K-12教师）。 这些机构，包括社区学院和教学学院，往往没有研究生或使用本科教学助理的任何历史。 参与这项工作的机构有巴尔的摩城市社区学院（BCCC）、南康涅狄格州立大学（SCSU）和明尼苏达大学综合学院（GC-Minn）。 在SCSU，PbI的目标受众是职前K-12教师。 在BCCC和GC-Minn，大多数学生对大学课程工作准备不足。 BCCC和GC-Minn的许多学生都是代表性不足的少数民族。

The Physics by Inquiry curriculum (PbI), developed at the University of Washington with support from the National Science Foundation, has been shown to be very effective in helping students learn scientific concepts. However, the low student to instructor ratio normally required to implement PbI is one barrier to a widespread adoption. Intellectual merit: The primary objective of the project is to adapt and investigate how the PbI curriculum can be implemented without the need for physics graduate student teaching assistants as it is currently being implemented by its developers. Instead, formal cooperative group learning techniques and undergraduate teaching assistants are being used. The investigators all have extensive experience with recent innovations in the teaching and learning of physics. Broader impacts: The project allows PbI to be more easily adopted by institutions that serve populations targeted by the PbI curriculum (e.g., underprepared students and K-12 teachers). These institutions, including community colleges and teaching colleges, often do not have graduate students or any history of using undergraduate teaching assistants. The institutions collaborating on this effort are Baltimore City Community College (BCCC), Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), and the General College at the University of Minnesota (GC-Minn). At SCSU, the target audience for PbI is pre-service K-12 teachers. At BCCC and GC-Minn, the majority of students are underprepared for university course work. Many students at BCCC and GC - Minn are under-represented minorities.