Collaborative Research: Fluids for Life Science Students

大多数学生报名参加介绍代数为基础的物理课程是生命科学专业。然而，生物学的基本物理主题，如流体，在这些课程中通常很少或不合适。 对流体的理解对于许多这些专业的实践至关重要，包括那些从事医学职业的人：生物体生活在流体环境中，体内的流体执行许多基本功能。 我们目前对学生理解流体的知识是稀疏的，所以我们在这个话题上的教学法是相对不知情的。基于研究的课程干预和评估问题，使一个更明智的教学方法来教学流体。该奖项的研究是通过访谈来考察学生对流体的当前知识状态，这些访谈阐明了学生对流体的先入之见以及学生对流体推理的资源（生产性和非生产性）。 这些发现有助于指导探究实验室，教程，定量问题以及形成性和总结性评估工具的设计。本研究系统地考察了评估问题的有效性和可靠性，目的是构建一个流体概念清单，同时也评估了课程干预措施在提高学生理解方面的有效性。该奖项的广泛影响是显而易见的，因为这些可交付成果使任何为生命科学专业开设课程的机构的教师能够提供经过测试的、基于研究的流体课程，这些课程的主题是生命科学专业的学生非常感兴趣的。

The majority of student enrolling in introductory algebra-based physics courses are life science majors. Yet essential physics topics for biology, such as fluids, often receive little or unsuitable coverage in these classes. An understanding of fluids is essential to the practice of many of these majors, including those who pursue careers in medicine: organisms live in fluid environments and fluids inside the body carry out many essential functions. Our current knowledge of student understanding of fluids is sparse and so our pedagogy on this topic is relatively uninformed.Research-based curricular interventions and assessment questions enable a more informed pedagogical approach to teaching fluids. The research of this award is examining students' current state of knowledge of fluids through interviews that elucidate student preconceptions about fluids and student resources (both productive and unproductive) for reasoning about fluids. These findings are then serving to help in the design of guided inquiry labs, tutorials, quantitative questions, as well as formative and summative assessment tools. The research systematically examines assessment questions for validity and reliability with the objective of constructing a fluids concept inventory, while also assessing the curricular interventions for effectiveness in improving student understanding. The broad impact of this award is apparent, as these deliverables enable instructors at any institution with a course for life science majors to offer a tested, research-based curriculum on fluids with topics of high interest to life science students.