Collaborative Research: Measuring Learning and Improving Teaching of the Physics of Fluids in Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences

本项目旨在通过提高生物系学生对物理概念的掌握，服务于国家利益。每年有超过10万名学生从大学毕业，获得生物科学学位，其中许多人继续成为医生和其他卫生专业人员。大多数生物科学专业的学生都选修了物理学入门课程，作为他们学位课程的一部分，或者作为进入研究生院或专业学校的先决条件。这门课通常是他们在大学里唯一的一门物理课程，通常是针对生物专业学生的一门特殊的物理入门课。因此，这门课程为他们提供了最重要的机会，让他们了解物理是如何限制和实现生命的。虽然这些生命科学物理学入门课程已经成为国家重大改革努力的目标，但还需要更多的改进。这个项目将解决一个特定的需要领域：静态和动态流体的研究。流体对生命至关重要，理解流体对生命科学专业的学生至关重要。生物学家和卫生专业人员都提到了学生理解流体物理学的必要性。然而，这些主题并不总是包括在IPLS课程中或教授得很好。为了帮助物理教师设计更有效的流体教学方法，该项目将开发并试点测试流体概念评估（FCE），这将使教师能够评估其教学的有效性，并衡量学生对概念的理解。在开发该评估工具的同时，研究人员还将开发辅助工具，以帮助IPLS教师更好地教授流体物理。研究人员将在该项目中从事两项互补的工作。首先，他们将开发一个FCE的初步版本，使用一个新颖的过程，不仅在涵盖的内容上，而且在遵循心理测量方法上，从不同的学生群体中收集数据，并产生几种形式的概念评估。FCE将完全由两层测试项目组成，第一层是一个选择题，第二层是一个选择题，要求考生解释他们选择第一个问题答案的原因。利用拉希分析，研究人员将创造出几种相同规模的仪器。这些变化是为了解决概念评价不能同时作为前测和后测的问题，因为有些问题对前测来说太难了，而另一些问题对后测来说太容易了。不同表格的可用性也将解决一些主题不包括在不同的IPLS课程中的问题。总之，发展进程的目的是增加概念评价的严谨性和灵活性。其次，调查人员将与IPLS教师进行调查和虚拟讨论，以了解他们如何看待教学液体的难度和价值。有了这些信息，调查人员的目标是建立支持和传播活动，以满足教员的需要。按照建议，这些资源应增加液体被纳入IPLS课程的可能性。该合作项目涉及新罕布什尔大学（奖励DUE-2021273）、美国物理教师协会（奖励DUE-2021059）、新英格兰大学（奖励DUE-2021261）和北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校（奖励DUE-2021224）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 biology students' mastery of physics concepts. More than 100,000 students graduate from college each year with degrees in the biological sciences, and many of them go on to become physicians and other health professionals. Most of these biological sciences majors take an introductory physics course as part of their degree program or as a prerequisite for admission to a graduate or professional school. This course is usually the only physics course they take in college and it is often a special introductory physics class targeted to biology majors. As a result, this course provides their most significant opportunity to understand how physics constrains and enables life. Although these Introductory Physics for Life Sciences (IPLS) courses have been the target of significant national reform efforts, more improvements are needed. This project will address a specific area of need: the study of static and dynamic fluids. Fluids are essential to life and understanding fluids is essential to life science students. The need for students to understand the physics of fluids has been cited by biologists and health professionals alike. However, these topics are not always included or taught well in IPLS courses. To help physics instructors design more effective approaches to teaching fluids, this project will develop and pilot-test a Fluids Conceptual Evaluation (FCE), which will allow instructors to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and measure students' understanding of the concepts. While developing this assessment tool, the investigators will also develop supports to help IPLS instructors teach the physics of fluids well.The investigators will pursue two complementary lines of work in the project. First, they will develop a preliminary version of the FCE, using a process that is novel not only in the content covered but also in following psychometric methodologies, in gathering data from a diverse set of students, and in producing several forms of the conceptual evaluation. The FCE will consist entirely of two-tier test items, where the first tier consists of a multiple-choice conceptual question and the second tier consists of a multiple-choice question asking test-takers to explain the reason they chose the answer they did for the first question. Using Rasch analysis, the investigators will create several forms of the instrument that are on the same scale. These variations are intended to address the concern that conceptual evaluations do not function well as both a pre-test and a post-test, since some questions are too hard for the pre-test and others are too easy for the post-test. The availability of different forms will also address the concern that some topics are not included in different IPLS courses. In summary, the development process is designed to increase the rigor and flexibility of conceptual evaluations. Second, the investigators will conduct surveys and virtual discussions with IPLS instructors to develop insights about how they perceive the difficulty and value of teaching fluids. With that information, the investigators aim to build supports and dissemination activities to meet instructors' needs. Those resources should increase the likelihood that fluids will be included in IPLS courses, as recommended. This collaborative project involves investigators at the University of New Hampshire (Award DUE-2021273), the American Association of Physics Teachers (Award DUE-2021059), the University of New England (Award DUE-2021261), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Award DUE-2021224). This 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.