• National Advisory Committee Members:
  David Griffiths, Bruce Mason, Harriet Pollatsek (Skype), John Thompson (Skype), Joseph Wagner
• PIs: Tevian Dray, Corinne Manogue, Emily van Zee
• Evaluator: Liz Gire
• Other Senior Personnel: David Roundy
• Postdocs: Mary Bridget Kustusch, Justyna Zwolak
• Graduate Students: Leonard Cerny, Emily Smith
• Undergraduate Students:
  Amanda Abbott, Novela Auparay, Mike Goldtrap, Grant Sherer, Andy Svesko

All day: David G, Bruce, Joe, Corinne, Tevian, Liz, Mary Bridget.

STRANDS

Proposal

Notes from the Advisory Board

The products of the paradigms project are impressive. However, there are challenges to wide-spread adoption.

The advisory board has hope for the use of the Wiki and ComPADRE for dissemination. The Bridges Book needs to be more focused for one or two audiences for better use.

Because large scale adoption is unlikely due to the large-scale change in the curriculum, the focus on small scale activities and sequences is correct. This should help focus some of the research questions and the development of the wiki and other dissemination activities.

• What further research on E&M should we do?

• Leonard Cerny, Geometric reasoning in an active-engagement upper-division E&M classroom, Ph.D. dissertation, 2012.
• Justyna P. Zwolak, Mary Bridget Kustusch and Corinne A. Manogue,Re-thinking the Rubric for Grading the CUE: The Superposition Principle, 2013 Physics Education Research Conference, Portland, OR (submitted).
• Elizabeth Gire and Edward Price, arrowsasanchors.pdf, Physical Review Special Topics Physics Education Research (submitted).
• Mike

Comments from the Advisory Board

The research question regarding the activity of the students and “thinking like a physicist” seemed to be vague for this point in the project. These are big and difficult questions. (John Thompson)

Are there more quantitative measures for the questions being studied?

There is a lot of information regarding pedagogical changes that have rich data to be explored. This is a positive aspect of the project.

The group needs a better structure for the direction of the research questions and looking for productive outcomes. The research questions have moved beyond the initial proposal. This is not a negative, but it should be clear where the project is going.

• How should we pursue evaluation of adoption

• 2011 External Evaluation
• Add a brief statement about who will be adopting in the fall: MBK, EP?, others?

• What further narratives should we write?
• How can we best use/advertise the narratives as a resource for the teaching community?
• How can we best use/advertise the narratives as a resource for the research community?

• Paradigms Narratives
• Emily van Zee & Corinne A. Manogue, Documenting and Interpreting Ways to Engage Students in “Thinking Like a Physicist”, 2010 Physics Education Research Conference, Portland, OR: AIP Conference Proceedings, 1289, 61–64 (2010). pdf
• Emily H. van Zee, Corinne A. Manogue, David Roundy, Elizabeth Gire, Mary Bridget Kustusch, and Novela Auparay, Purpose, Preparation, and Power of Narratives, 2013 Physics Education Research Conference, Portland, OR.
• Novela Auparay, Emily H. van Zee, Mary Bridget Kustusch, and Corinne A. Manogue,Affordances of Small White Board Questions (SWBQs) for Increasing Interactivity in Upper-Division Physics, 2013 Physics Education Research Conference, Portland, OR.

Notes from the Advisory Board

These have potential to increase interest. They meet requests that are received from faculty.

Information about how these can be useful for faculty will be important for adoption.

There may be a small audience for the full narratives, mostly those interested in change. Research can be done on how to be format and present these.

• Interlude course homepage
• Energy and Entropy course homepage
• Partial Derivative Games in Thermodynamics: A Cognitive Task Analysis (Draft of a paper that will be submitted to Phys. Rev. ST - PER)

Comments from the Advisory Board

There is some very interesting work going on here. There is a potential for a lot of research for both Math and Physics. This is an excellent example of a “Bridge”.

Help for people to use this, including an article in the TPT would help with adoption.

• Advisory Committee takes undergrads to lunch

• What further materials are needed on the wiki?
• How can we make the wiki easier to navigate?
• How can we improve the look/feel of the wiki? Is this important?

• You are on the wiki, please explore

Comments from the Advisory Board

Textbook connections

Revised navigation, so that it's clear what's important for important users.

More images and “Features” to highlight best material.

Evaluator should work on web usability testing.

There is a need to publish project-all articles. Current overall articles are about 10 years old.

The fact that there are so many materials on the wiki is a good problem to have.

• How should we organize the Paradigms presence on ComPADRE?

• Paradigms project listing on comPADRE
• Paradigms E&M activity listing on comPADRE
• Sample E&M activity description on comPADRE
• Paradigms project listing PER User's guide

• How can we best advertise the existence of the book?
• How can we best advertise the unique approaches of the book?
• What further sections should we write for the book?
• How can we make the book easier to navigate?
• How can we improve the look/feel of the book? Is this important?

• The Bridge Book (online textbook)

Our online textbook, The Geometry of Vector Calculus, covers multivariable and vector calculus, as well as electro- and magnetostatics. It combines novel content (emphasis on $d\rr$; potentials before fields) with novel pedadogy (hyperlinked text with multiple tables of contents). It has been used successfully as the primary textbook in both second-year mathematics courses and third-year physics courses.

Comments from Advisory Board

The vector calculus book has some challenges in trying to meet a large range of needs. There should be a focus on one to three audiences, and provide an interface with better capabilities (search, cross-linking, chapter pages, etc.) for those particular audiences.

The book can be linked to open educational resource collections (Examples to be given)

(Note: should there be effort to obtain more usage by Math faculty?)