Cargando…

From F = ma to Flying Squirrels: Curricular Change in an Introductory Physics Course

We present outcomes from curricular changes made to an introductory calculus-based physics course whose audience is primarily life sciences majors, the majority of whom plan to pursue postbaccalaureate studies in medical and scientific fields. During the 2011–2012 academic year, we implemented a Phy...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: O’Shea, Brian, Terry, Laura, Benenson, Walter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Cell Biology 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3671650/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23737630
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.12-08-0127
_version_ 1782272012728664064
author O’Shea, Brian
Terry, Laura
Benenson, Walter
author_facet O’Shea, Brian
Terry, Laura
Benenson, Walter
author_sort O’Shea, Brian
collection PubMed
description We present outcomes from curricular changes made to an introductory calculus-based physics course whose audience is primarily life sciences majors, the majority of whom plan to pursue postbaccalaureate studies in medical and scientific fields. During the 2011–2012 academic year, we implemented a Physics of the Life Sciences curriculum centered on a draft textbook that takes a novel approach to teaching physics to life sciences majors. In addition, substantial revisions were made to the homework and hands-on components of the course to emphasize the relationship between physics and the life sciences and to help the students learn to apply physical intuition to life sciences–oriented problems. Student learning and attitudinal outcomes were assessed both quantitatively, using standard physics education research instruments, and qualitatively, using student surveys and a series of postsemester interviews. Students experienced high conceptual learning gains, comparable to other active learning–based physics courses. Qualitatively, a substantial fraction of interviewed students reported an increased interest in physics relative to the beginning of the semester. Furthermore, more than half of students self-reported that they could now relate physics topics to their majors and future careers, with interviewed subjects demonstrating a high level of ability to come up with examples of how physics affects living organisms and how it helped them to better understand content presented in courses in their major.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3671650
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2013
publisher American Society for Cell Biology
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-36716502013-06-04 From F = ma to Flying Squirrels: Curricular Change in an Introductory Physics Course O’Shea, Brian Terry, Laura Benenson, Walter CBE Life Sci Educ Articles We present outcomes from curricular changes made to an introductory calculus-based physics course whose audience is primarily life sciences majors, the majority of whom plan to pursue postbaccalaureate studies in medical and scientific fields. During the 2011–2012 academic year, we implemented a Physics of the Life Sciences curriculum centered on a draft textbook that takes a novel approach to teaching physics to life sciences majors. In addition, substantial revisions were made to the homework and hands-on components of the course to emphasize the relationship between physics and the life sciences and to help the students learn to apply physical intuition to life sciences–oriented problems. Student learning and attitudinal outcomes were assessed both quantitatively, using standard physics education research instruments, and qualitatively, using student surveys and a series of postsemester interviews. Students experienced high conceptual learning gains, comparable to other active learning–based physics courses. Qualitatively, a substantial fraction of interviewed students reported an increased interest in physics relative to the beginning of the semester. Furthermore, more than half of students self-reported that they could now relate physics topics to their majors and future careers, with interviewed subjects demonstrating a high level of ability to come up with examples of how physics affects living organisms and how it helped them to better understand content presented in courses in their major. American Society for Cell Biology 2013 /pmc/articles/PMC3671650/ /pubmed/23737630 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.12-08-0127 Text en © 2013 B. O’Shea et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2013 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0). “ASCB®,” “The American Society for Cell Biology®,” and “Molecular Biology of the Cell®” are registered trademarks of The American Society of Cell Biology.
spellingShingle Articles
O’Shea, Brian
Terry, Laura
Benenson, Walter
From F = ma to Flying Squirrels: Curricular Change in an Introductory Physics Course
title From F = ma to Flying Squirrels: Curricular Change in an Introductory Physics Course
title_full From F = ma to Flying Squirrels: Curricular Change in an Introductory Physics Course
title_fullStr From F = ma to Flying Squirrels: Curricular Change in an Introductory Physics Course
title_full_unstemmed From F = ma to Flying Squirrels: Curricular Change in an Introductory Physics Course
title_short From F = ma to Flying Squirrels: Curricular Change in an Introductory Physics Course
title_sort from f = ma to flying squirrels: curricular change in an introductory physics course
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3671650/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23737630
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.12-08-0127
work_keys_str_mv AT osheabrian fromfmatoflyingsquirrelscurricularchangeinanintroductoryphysicscourse
AT terrylaura fromfmatoflyingsquirrelscurricularchangeinanintroductoryphysicscourse
AT benensonwalter fromfmatoflyingsquirrelscurricularchangeinanintroductoryphysicscourse