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Connecting Self-Efficacy And Views About Nature Of Science In Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina Quan, Andrew Elby
Connecting Self-Efficacy And Views About Nature Of Science In Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina Quan, Andrew Elby
Faculty Publications
Undergraduate research can support students’ more central participation in physics. We analyze markers of two coupled shifts in participation: changes in students’ views about the nature of science coupled to shifts in self-efficacy toward physics research. Students in the study worked with faculty and graduate student mentors on research projects while also participating in a seminar where they learned about research and reflected on their experiences. In classroom discussions and in clinical interviews, students described gaining more nuanced views about the nature of science, specifically related to who can participate in research and what participation in research looks like. This …
Attending To Scientific Practices Within Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina Quan, Chandra Turpen, Andrew Elby
Attending To Scientific Practices Within Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina Quan, Chandra Turpen, Andrew Elby
Faculty Publications
Ford (2015) argues for viewing "scientific practice" not as a list of particular skills, but rather, as "sets of regularities of behaviors and social interactions" among scientists. This conceptualization of scientific practices foregrounds how they 1) meaningfully connect to one another, 2) are purposefully employed in their ability to explain nature and 3) prospectively adapt based on critique. While Ford focused on practices in K-12 classrooms, we apply this framework to understand how undergraduate physics majors do or do not make progress toward more central participation in physics research experiences. Using video from interviews with students and research mentors, and …
Energy Tracking Diagrams, Rachel Scherr, Benedikt Harrer, Hunter Close, Abigail Daane, Lezlie Dewater, Amy Robertson, Lane Seeley, Stamatis Vokos
Energy Tracking Diagrams, Rachel Scherr, Benedikt Harrer, Hunter Close, Abigail Daane, Lezlie Dewater, Amy Robertson, Lane Seeley, Stamatis Vokos
Faculty Publications
Energy is a crosscutting concept in science and features prominently in national science education documents. In the Next Generation Science Standards, the primary conceptual learning goal is for learners to conserve energy as they track the transfers and transformations of energy within, into, or out of the system of interest in complex physical processes. As part of tracking energy transfers among objects, learners should (i) distinguish energy from matter, including recognizing that energy flow does not uniformly align with the movement of matter, and should (ii) identify specific mechanisms by which energy is transferred among objects, such as mechanical work …