Educational Transformation at a Critical Time:why us and why now -- the promises of disciplinary engagement

COFFEE_KLATCH · Invited

Abstract

Significant, perhaps unprecedented, attention is being paid to the needs for transformation within the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at the undergraduate level. This talk examines how higher education STEM disciplines, and physics departments in particular, are positioned to contribute to these discussions. I will review the growth of our own program in physics education research (PER) at CU-Boulder. This work develops a new theoretical line of inquiry in physics education research through experimental work at the individual, the course, and the departmental scales. I present samples of these scales reviewing: how we can build on work at the introductory level to transform our upper division courses (E/M and advanced laboratories), studies of how our environments do and do not support women in physics, and time permitting, an examination of what the data say about teaching physics through a massively open online course (MOOC).

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Authors

  • Scott D. Bergesen

    Santa Fe Institute, Arizona State University, Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Brigham Young University Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley University, Dixie State College, Advisor, Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Laboratory, Colorado College, United States Air Force Academy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Utah State University, Brigham Young University - Idaho, Utah State University- Logan, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Humboldt State University, UC Santa Cruz, Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles, Arizona State Univ, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, National Jewish Health, Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Physics, New Mexico State University, U. S. Air Force Academy, Brigham Young Univ - Provo, University of New South Wales, University of Texas, University of Warwick, University of Louisiana, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602, USA., Center for Materials Genomics, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Ca, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina., Brigham Young University -- Provo, Utah, General Atomics -- San Diego, California, Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia, Department of Physics, Arizona State University, UC Riverside, UMASS, STScI, NOAO, UT Austin, Texas A&M, Arizona State Univeristy, New Mexico State Univ, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Colorado State Univ, Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Colorado School of Mines, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, The Peac Institute of Multiscale Modeling, UNSW Canberra