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.

这个全面的，合作的研究项目，导致调查工具的设计和验证，将阐明的程度，性格和态度，在本科物理课程中使用计算。 本科物理课程计算部分的知识库对于教育研究、程序开发和本科物理专业的有效就业是有用的。这项调查将是第一次全面和严格的统计国家评估的位置计算在本科物理课程。该项目将在两年内进行，涉及各种利益攸关方。 将举办一次对调查问卷的有效性及其结果的有用性至关重要的讲习班，以便在设计调查之前完成探讨利益攸关方的想法和经验的过程。 研讨会的参与者将代表几个利益集团：来自不同教育机构类型和招生概况的教师和管理人员;企业，政府机构和雇用物理学学士学位获得者的组织的代表;计算物理教育研究专家;以及从当前物理学专业的学生中抽取的学生。 与会者将设置的计算方法及其在本科物理课程的使用调查的设计要求，并阐明从调查结果的分析所期望的结果。 将调查与计算有关的态度和做法。 一个外部评估，在形成性和总结性评价的专业知识，并在评估本科物理课程的变化显着的经验，将使用混合的方法来翻译的问题和语言在车间处理成一个调查和问卷，测量当前的计算实践物理课程和气候变化的物理系教他们。 PI和评估人员将进行磋商，以获得深入的了解，了解讲习班的设计和运作如何成功地获得构建调查所需的知识，以及如何改进此类咨询讲习班。 结果将增加知识基础需要复制在物理教育科学和工程世界已经做了几十年，逐步整合计算建模到专业实践的标准工具箱。