Building a Sustainable Community in Life Science Physics Courses by Leveraging Student Course-Alumni Assistants

Introductory physics classes aimed at engineering and physics majors typically benefit from a student cohort that is closely aligned with the course materials and the scientific approach. Many of these students may have already interacted with or even met their instructors prior to enrolling. In contrast, introductory physics for the life sciences (IPLS) courses often serve students from a wide range of independent departments, who are generally unfamiliar with the class techniques and instructors. This lack of a cohesive community can impact class participation, make it harder for students to find peer support, and contribute to preconceptions about the subject's utility and learnability. Since enrollment in IPLS courses is primarily made up of juniors and seniors who often are more focused on building connections within their major, building a sense of community around a physics class may be even more challenging. To address this, we have implemented an undergraduate course-alumni assistant (UCA) program, which offers alumni of the course the opportunity to assist with class instruction the following year. A few months before the class begins, students from the previous enrollment cycle are contacted to gauge their interest in becoming UCAs for the next class. UCAs can sign up for paid work as graders of in-class participation assignments, serve as peer guides for study halls, or host study break events. The course instructors oversee and monitor the UCA program, but importantly, UCAs are considered part of the course instruction team and are presented as such to new students. Here, we describe the structure and details of the UCA program in our Princeton IPLS class and how it has evolved into a self-sustaining community within the life science departments. We believe that many elements of this model could also be beneficial if adopted in standard engineering and physics courses.