Do connections persist? A pilot study investigating the lasting impact of a physics course designed to facilitate connections with biology.

该项目将研究向未来的生命科学家和医学专业人员教授物理学的新方法的有效性，以支持在全国范围内使用和改进这些新课程。这些新的，主动学习为基础的物理课程已经开发，以响应生命科学和医学专业协会的要求，介绍物理课程，帮助学生应用物理科学的生命科学。近年来开设了多门物理课程，全国每年有约30万名生命科学和健康专业的本科生毕业，因此，了解这些物理课程是否以及如何为学生所选择的领域提供支持是非常重要的。本研究项目的目标是解决两个问题：（1）生命科学物理学导论（IPLS）的学生是否表现出更大的能力，在他们以后的生物课程中利用物理能力，与他们的同龄人相比，他们没有采取物理或传统的物理学导论？如果是，在哪些方面？(2)与同龄人相比，IPLS学生是否认为物理学与他们的生物学和化学课程更相关？如果是，在哪些方面？这项纵向研究将分析访谈，学生的调查，和学生的书面工作的任务，在他们的中级和高级生物课程。从这些数据中，该项目将了解生物学学生如何利用他们的物理知识和技能，以及IPLS课程是否以及如何支持他们不同于传统的物理课程。由于以前没有进行过这样的纵向研究，该项目很重要，因为它为今后的大规模评估奠定了基础。此外，该项目将开发与物理学有关的中级和高级生物学任务，这些任务将传播用于教学和进一步研究。

This project will study the effectiveness of new approaches for teaching physics to future life scientists and medical professionals, in order to support the use and improvement of these new curricula nationwide. These new, active learning-based physics courses have been developed in response to calls by life science and medical professional associations for introductory physics courses that help students apply the physical sciences to the life sciences. With several such courses having been developed recently, and with roughly 300,000 undergraduates graduating each year with majors in the life sciences and health professions nationwide, it is important to find out whether and how these physics courses support students in their chosen fields.The goal of this research project is to address two questions: (1) Do introductory physics for life sciences (IPLS) students demonstrate a greater ability to leverage physics competencies in their later biology coursework, compared to their peers who have taken no physics or traditional introductory physics? If so, in what ways? (2) Do IPLS students view physics as more relevant and connected to their biology and chemistry coursework, compared with their peers? If so, in what ways? This longitudinal study will analyze interviews, surveys of students, and students' written work on tasks in their intermediate and advanced biology courses. From these data, this project will develop an understanding of how biology students draw upon their physics knowledge and skills, and whether and how IPLS courses support them differently than traditional physics courses do. As such a longitudinal study has not previously been done, this project is important because it lays the groundwork for future large-scale assessment. In addition, the project will develop intermediate and advanced biology tasks with connections to physics, which will be disseminated for both instructional use and for further research.