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、积极的、基于学习的物理课程是为了响应生命科学和医学专业协会的呼吁而开发的，这些协会呼吁开设物理入门课程，帮助学生将物理科学应用于生命科学。由于最近已经开发了一些这样的课程，并且全国每年大约有30万本科生毕业于生命科学和卫生专业，因此了解这些物理课程是否以及如何支持学生所选择的领域是很重要的。本研究项目的目标是解决两个问题：(1)与没有学过物理或传统物理入门的同龄人相比，生命科学入门物理的学生在以后的生物课程中是否表现出更强的利用物理能力的能力？如果是，以什么方式？(2)与同龄人相比，IPLS的学生是否认为物理与他们的生物和化学课程更相关和更有联系？如果是，以什么方式？这项纵向研究将分析学生的访谈、调查和学生在中级和高级生物学课程中的书面作业。从这些数据中，本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课程是否以及如何以不同于传统物理课程的方式支持他们。由于这样的纵向研究以前没有做过，这个项目很重要，因为它为未来的大规模评估奠定了基础。此外，该项目将开发与物理相关的中级和高级生物学任务，这些任务将分发给教学和进一步的研究。

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.