Tag: 132

Website update on educational resources

There has been a significant website update on our educational resources. All the stuff formerly under “Other Projects” has been split into Free and Open Educational Resources and Self-Efficacy and Attitudes Study.

Under Free and Open Educational Resources, you can find out about our work developing free-to-students textbooks for Physics 131 and 132. There is also a library of the 3-D models that are being used in Physics 132 to increase accessibility and provide multiple means of representation.

Have a look! Maybe these can be useful for your own courses!


Brokk’s reflections on AAPT Summer Meeting 2018

During my AAPT SM18 experience, I focused on presentations and posters from three main areas in which I have deep personal interest: IPLS/curriculum development, diversity/equity in physics, and self-efficacy/attitudes. In addition, I attended several sessions related to areas of interest for our department, specifically on integrating computation through the curriculum. In this post, I will synthesize and reflect on my take-aways from the conference. I saw a lot of good talks. As such, this post is somewhat long.

Continue reading Brokk’s reflections on AAPT Summer Meeting 2018

UMass-Amherst Goes to AAPT SM18!

Jake Shechter presenting at AAPT SM18
Jake Shechter presenting at AAPT SM18

Brokk Toggerson, Chris Ertl, David Nguyen, and Jake Shechter are currently presenting their work at the AAPT Summer 2018 Meeting in Washington, DC.

Chris Ertl, is presenting on the fully-online labs he has been developing for the online versions of Physics 131 and 132.

Brokk Toggerson is presenting a poster on Physics 131, a poster on P132, and a presentation on P390T.

Jake Shecter is presenting on Physics 691 on Graduate TA Training and Professionalization.

Introductory Physics for Life Sciences (IPLS) as a Diversity Course?

Is there a sense in which IPLS courses like Phys 131 and 132 here at UMass, are courses with diversity as a central component? A recent meeting of my Teaching for Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity Fellowship which had Including Aspects of Identity in Course Design as the theme, got me thinking about this question.

Continue reading Introductory Physics for Life Sciences (IPLS) as a Diversity Course?