Collaborative Research: Institutionalizing a Reform Curriculum in Large Universities

在拥有大型科学和工程项目的大学中，基于微积分的物理学入门课程在教育大量将成为科学家和工程师的学生中发挥着核心作用。尽管物理学界一再呼吁改进和现代化这门入门物理课程，但在过去50年里，大多数大型机构教授的传统课程的内容和结构几乎没有变化。虽然科学和工程大学往往发挥主导作用，在制定标准的课程在其他机构，在其入门课程的大量招生，以及大量的研究人员和学术支持人员的参与，很难实施实质性的课程改革。最近，三所大型大学（北卡罗来纳州立大学、普渡大学和格鲁吉亚理工大学）已经开始实施物质相互作用课程，该课程最初是在卡内基梅隆大学开发的。物质相互作用是一门以微积分为基础的入门物理课程，其中20世纪世纪物理被整合为课程的核心部分，其中一小部分基本原理被强调并用作所有分析的起点，并且计算是课程的一个组成部分。这一项目的合作工作侧重于促进实施和扩大传播基础，涉及创建支持性基础设施和活动，研究和记录使课程在不同机构良好运作所需的变化和调整，评估这一课程对学生和教师的影响，并努力进一步改进学生使用的教学材料。研讨会和工作组会议最初将有来自三个机构的参与者参加;随后几年将有来自其他感兴趣的机构的团队参加。智力优势：本项目的研究和开发重点是详细记录和研究出现的问题，以及进行必要的调整和定制，以在不同的大型机构实施改革课程。 该项目还研究学生在这一课程中的学习情况，并查明和纠正教材本身的不足之处。记录这种规模的传播过程可以为未来的大规模内容改革提供信息，无论是在物理学还是其他物理科学和工程学科。现有的物理教育研究并没有涵盖学生在新课程中需要掌握的一些核心概念和技能，因此继续研究学生的学习也很重要。全国知名的认知科学家的参与为这项研究带来了重要的专业知识和不同的视角。更广泛的影响：尽管《费曼讲座》和《伯克利物理学》系列等教科书的内容非常优秀，但之前对大学水平微积分物理入门课程的内容和重点进行改革的尝试都没有实现长期和广泛的制度化。当代概念和模型的重要性现在比过去更加显著，因为科学和工程专业的学生需要这种背景来解决当代问题，例如新导电材料的设计;快速，高密度数据存储和检索;新的通信技术;纳米科学和纳米技术;以及极其复杂系统的计算机建模，包括气候和地球物理现象。北卡罗来纳州立大学、普渡大学和格鲁吉亚理工学院都是规模大、知名度高的大学，拥有强大的科学和工程项目。在这些机构有效实施创新课程可以激励其他大型机构考虑类似的改革。规模较小的机构可能不需要使用该项目开发的所有材料和结构，但大部分工作是制作对教学规模较小的机构也有用的材料和方法。

In universities with large science and engineering programs, the introductory calculus-based physics course plays a central role in the education of very large numbers of students who will become scientists and engineers. Despite repeated calls from the physics community for improvement and modernization of this introductory physics course, the content and structure of the traditional course taught at most such large institutions has changed very little in the past fifty years. Although science and engineering universities often play a lead role in setting the standards for courses taught at other institutions, the large enrollment in their introductory courses, and the involvement of a large number of research faculty and academic support staff, has made it difficult to implement substantive curricular changes. Recently three large universities (NC State, Purdue, and Georgia Tech) have begun the process of implementing the Matter & Interactions curriculum, which was initially developed at Carnegie Mellon University.Matter & Interactions is a calculus-based introductory physics curriculum in which twentieth century physics is integrated as a central part of the curriculum, in which a small set of fundamental principles are emphasized and used as the starting point for all analyses, and in which computation is an integral part of the course. The collaborative work in this project, focused on facilitating the implementation and on widening the base of dissemination, involves creating supporting infrastructure and activities, studying and documenting the changes and adaptations necessary to make the curriculum work well at different institutions, assessing the impact of this curriculum on both students and faculty, and working on further improvements to the instructional materials used by students. Workshops and working group meetings will initially involve participants from the three institutions; in subsequent years teams from other interested institutions are participating.Intellectual Merit: Research and development in this project focuses on documenting and studying in detail the issues that arise, as well as carrying out the adaptation and customization necessary to implementing a reform curriculum at different large institutions. The project is also studying student learning in the context of this curriculum, and identifying and remedying deficiencies in the instructional materials themselves. Documenting the process of dissemination on this scale can inform future large-scale content reforms, both in physics or in other physical science and engineering disciplines. The existing body of research in physics education does not cover some of the central concepts and skills students in this new curriculum need to acquire, so that continued research on student learning is also important. The involvement of nationally known cognitive scientists brings important expertise and a different perspective to this research.Broader Impact: None of the previous attempts to reform the content and emphasis of the introductory university-level calculus-based physics course have achieved long-term and broad institutionalization, despite the excellence of the content of textbooks such as the Feynman Lectures and the Berkeley Physics series. The importance of contemporary concepts and models is even more marked now than it was in the past, because science and engineering students need this background to work on contemporary problems such as the design of new conducting materials; fast, high density data storage and retrieval; new communication technologies; nanoscience and nanotechnology; and computer modeling of extremely complex systems, including climate and geophysical phenomena. NC State, Purdue, and Georgia Tech are large and highly visible universities with strong science and engineering programs. Effective implementation of an innovative curriculum at these institutions can inspire other large institutions to consider similar reforms. Smaller institutions may not need to make use of all of the materials and structures developed by this project, but much of the work is producing materials and methods also useful in institutions in which teaching is done on a smaller scale.