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(LA) Integrating Climate, Energy, Sustainability in the Classroom and Beyond, Introductory Courses
7/13/2022 | 1:50 PM to 2:50 PM
Room: CC: Grand Gallery A
Moderator: / Co-Organizer:
Session Code: LA | Submitting Committee: / Co-Sponsoring Committee:
LA01 (01:50 to 02:00 PM) | Contributed | Place-Based Education: Situating Energy and Climate Change in Students' Communities
Presenting Author: Jessica Hernandez, University of Washington Bothell
Additional Author | Rachel Scherr, University of Washington Bothell
Additional Author | Molly German, Gridley Unified
Additional Author | Rey Horowitz , The Packer Collegiate Institute
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The field of physics education has struggled to create culturally based, responsive, and relevant curriculum to engage students of color. This may be partly due to the perception that physics is apolitical and acultural, despite many concepts being socio-politically situated in our current society. To the extent that physics maintains an acultural and apolitical stance, physics education cannot be place based, because the notion of place is politically and culturally situated to students’ environments. To bridge this gap, we worked with physics teachers in a yearlong professional learning community (PLC) to incorporate place-based education into their science curriculum. Place-based education teaches students to take care of their environments by situating potential actions they can take to support their local communities in addressing climate change impacts. In our two case studies, we describe how physics teachers situated the concepts of energy and climate change in students’ local environments.
LA02 (02:00 to 02:10 PM) | Contributed | CLIMATE SCIENCE FOR TEACHERS
Presenting Author: Frank Lock, Climate Reality Project
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This presentation will take a thermodynamic approach to presenting concepts about climate science. It is appropriate for presentations to teachers and is the basis for preparing presentations to students in grade six through 12. The presenter has numerous presentations appropriate for students in those grades and is willing to share them with teachers who wish to make climate science presentations to students.
The climate emergency is a great threat to the future of our culture. It is important that students be made aware of what needs to be done to insure their future.
The climate emergency is a great threat to the future of our culture. It is important that students be made aware of what needs to be done to insure their future.
LA03 (02:10 to 02:20 PM) | Contributed | Students' critical thinking skills in relation to climate change
Presenting Author: Magdalena Micoloi, TU Dresden
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Critical thinking is an important skill for students, particularly in the climate change debate. Students need to be able to distinguish between facts and misinformation. In order to access students’ critical thinking skills semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight students aiming to become future physics teachers as well as with five students from Saxonian high schools. The interviews were based on five competences of critical thinking defined by Halpern (verbal reasoning, argument analysis, hypothesis testing, likelihood and uncertainty, problem solving and decision making) as well as content knowledge about climate change (such as greenhouse effect, carbon cycle, etc.). All interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using the qualitative content analysis by Kuckartz. The results from the interviews form the base for the development of the test on critical thinking on climate change, as well as teaching materials to enhance critical thinking skills. The results from the interviews will be presented.
LA04 (02:20 to 02:30 PM) | Contributed | Exploration of Students’ Attitudes and Self-regulation in Two Instructional Modalities
Presenting Author: Bijaya Aryal, University of Minnesota Rochester
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We have designed an introductory algebra-based physics course using a two-staged instructional model emphasizing the application of physics learning. As a part of the assessment plan, we ask students to complete metacognitive activity of writing reflective descriptions of their learning processes, learning approaches, and strategies for course-related tasks. When we taught the course in a remote instruction modality, we adjusted without altering the instructional philosophy and key assessment components of the course. Our analysis has identified a trend relating to the quality of the student reflection as one of the predictors of their course performance. In this presentation, I will focus on the relationship between the qualities of students’ metacognitive reflection with the student's attitude toward physics learning measured using the CLASS survey. Additionally, I will present a comparative study revealing the impact of remote instructional modality on students’ self-regulation, self-awareness, and attitude towards physics learning.
LA05 (02:30 to 2:40 PM) | Contributed | Building Critical Thinking Skills in General Education Science Courses
Presenting Author: D. Blane Baker, William Jewell College
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Courses designed for non-science majors provide many opportunities for developing critical thinking skills. Such skills prepare students to thrive as workers in everchanging environments and as engaged citizens in society. To develop these skills in classroom settings, teachers must educate students on the importance of these skills and engage them in their practice. This talk provides an overview of how this can be done in general science courses. Particular attention is given to prompts given to students, students’ responses, and critiques of their work.
LA06 (02:40 to 02:50 PM) | Contributed | Assessing Students' Knowledge and Skills with 3 Dimensional Learning
Presenting Author: Paul Bergeron, Michigan State University
Additional Author | James T. Laverty, Kansas State University
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Three-Dimensional Learning (3DL) is a framework that provides tools to help highlight what we want our students to be able to do with their knowledge. This framework creates opportunities for students to learn physics in sways authentic to the practice of science by aligning course content along 3 Dimensions: Scientific Practices that encompass what scientists do to explore phenomena, Core Ideas that underpin our discipline's central concepts, and Crosscutting Concepts that provide the lenses for how we view phenomena. Research into 3DL has shown that implementing the framework provides substantial benefits to student learning, but does take effort. In this talk, I will present ways to approach 3DL and how use it to create assessment items. In particular, I will discuss how the3 Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol can be used to create new 3D physics assessment items.
LA07 (02:50 to 03:00 PM) | Contributed | Physics for Humans
Presenting Author: Randall Tagg, University of Colorado Denver
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First-year physics students studying mechanics and electrodynamics are introduced briefly to real-world applications of specific topics. Contemporary examples of actual innovations by physics students show that early development of a mindset to connect physics to human needs has powerful impact on individual student lives and on regional economies. A potential course bridging to the major would systematically work through major areas of human needs and aspirations to synthesize how multiple topics in physics are combined to solve specific and urgent problems. Twenty-four major categories span essentials like energy, food, and water, cover breakthroughs in health care, transportation, and manufacturing, and imaginatively find connections to sports, retail, and finance. Open problems can be introduced, inviting students to think of innovative solutions for the future.
(LA) Integrating Climate, Energy, Sustainability in the Classroom and Beyond, Introductory Courses
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