Collaborative Research: Assessing Undergraduate Student Learning in Upper-Level Courses in Thermal and Statistical Physics

本项目旨在通过改进本科物理教育服务于国家利益。热与统计物理是本科物理专业的核心组成部分，包括研究流体、热流、能量传递以及原子级相互作用与宏观行为之间的联系。这些主题不仅是物理学的核心，也是化学、生物学和工程学的核心。确保物理专业和其他学习热物理和统计物理的学生理解这一学科领域对于培养能够满足雇主对STEM劳动力期望的毕业生非常重要。由于热物理和统计物理在STEM领域的广泛重要性，了解针对该内容领域的课程的有效性至关重要。然而，没有标准化的工具来衡量学生在热物理和统计物理高级课程中的学习情况。为了解决这一差距，研究人员打算开发和试点测试一种评估工具，以衡量学生的知识以及他们“做”物理的能力。它将通过比较不同课程、教学策略、机构和学生群体的学生学习情况，帮助教师确定有效的教学方法。这个评估工具应该对物理学生的教育质量以及他们进入STEM劳动力的准备产生长期影响。热与统计物理评估（TaSPA）将包括针对学生的概念理解和他们从事科学实践（如建模）的能力的项目。为了适应不同热物理课程内容覆盖的差异和评估实践的重要性，TaSPA将采用灵活的格式，教师将能够选择最符合其课程具体学习目标的项目子集。TaSPA的发展将遵循以下原则：1)以证据为中心的设计，这是一种包括科学实践和核心思想的评估方法；2)项目反应理论，该理论历来被用于开发具有这种灵活内容覆盖的评估。项目反应理论的使用还将允许明确关注不同亚群体执行不同的评估任务，这种可能性对于识别和减少TaSPA中潜在的偏见尤为重要。详细记录和传播发展进程将使其他教育工作者能够在为其他内容领域制定未来评估时复制这一进程。该合作项目涉及科罗拉多大学博尔德分校（奖励DUE-2013332）和堪萨斯州立大学（奖励DUE-2013339）的研究人员。该项目由改善本科STEM教育（IUSE: EHR）计划资助，该计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving undergraduate physics education. Thermal and statistical physics is a core component of the undergraduate physics major and includes the study of fluids, heat flow, energy transfer, and the connection between atomic-level interactions and macroscopic behavior. These topics are central not only to physics, but also to chemistry, biology, and engineering. Ensuring that physics majors and other students who take thermal and statistical physics understand this subject area is important for producing graduates who can meet the expectations of employers for the STEM workforce. Because of the broad importance of thermal and statistical physics across STEM fields, it is crucial to understand the effectiveness of courses targeting this content area. However, no standardized tool exists to measure student learning in upper-level courses in thermal and statistical physics. To address this gap, the investigators intend to develop and pilot-test an assessment tool that will measure students’ knowledge as well as their ability to "do" physics. It will help instructors identify effective teaching approaches by comparing student learning across courses, instructional strategies, institutions, and student populations. This assessment tool should have long-term impact on the quality of physics students' education as well as their preparedness to enter the STEM workforce.The Thermal and Statistical Physics Assessment (TaSPA) will include items targeting both students' conceptual understanding and their ability to engage in scientific practices (e.g., modeling). To accommodate both the variation in content coverage in different thermal physics courses and the importance of assessing practices, the TaSPA will feature a flexible format in which instructors will be able to select a subset of items that best aligns with the specific learning goals of their course. Development of the TaSPA will be guided by: 1) Evidence-Centered Design, which has been highlighted as an approach to developing assessments that include scientific practices and core ideas; and 2) Item Response Theory, which has historically been used to develop assessments with this type of flexible content coverage. Use of Item Response Theory will also allow explicit attention to assessment tasks that perform differently for different subpopulations, a possibility that is particularly important for identifying and reducing the potential for bias in the TaSPA. Detailed documentation and dissemination of the development process will allow other educators to replicate the process in the development of future assessments for other content areas. This collaborative project involves investigators at the University of Colorado at Boulder (Award DUE-2013332) and Kansas State University (Award DUE-2013339). The project is funded by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE: EHR) program, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.