Collaborative Research: Fluids for Life Science Students

选修以代数为基础的物理入门课程的大多数学生都是生命科学专业的学生。然而，生物学的基本物理主题，如流体，在这些课程中往往很少或不合适。对流体的理解对于许多这些专业的实践是必不可少的，包括那些从事医学职业的人：生物体生活在流体环境中，体内的液体执行许多基本功能。我们目前对学生对流体的理解的了解很少，因此我们在这个主题上的教学方法相对来说是不知情的。以研究为基础的课程干预和评估问题使教学流体的方法更加明智。这个奖项的研究是考察学生吗？通过访谈了解流体知识的现状，阐明学生对流体的先入为主的观念和学生对流体的推理资源（包括生产性和非生产性）。然后，这些发现有助于设计指导性探究实验室、教程、定量问题以及形成性和总结性评估工具。本研究系统检视评估问题的效度和信度，目的是建立一份流动概念清单，同时评估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，因为这些成果使任何有生命科学专业课程的机构的教师都能够提供生命科学学生高度感兴趣的流体主题的经过测试的研究型课程。

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.