K-State Workshop

Integrating Computational Activities into Physics Courses

(with mostly Python flavoring)

Kansas State University Department of Physics, April 27, 2019

Larry Engelhardt Francis Marion U.

Kelly RoosBradley U.

Brett DePaolaKansas State U.

Mick O’SheaKansas State U.

The Case for Integrating Computation

• AAPT Statement on Computational Physicshttps://www.aapt.org/Resources/policy/Statement-on-Computational-Physics.cfm

• Report of the Joint APS/AAPT Task Force onUndergraduate Physics Programs

http://www.compadre.org/jtupp/

• AAPT Recommendations for Computational Physics in the Undergraduate Physics Curriculum

https://www.aapt.org/Resources/upload/AAPT_UCTF_CompPhysReport_final_B.pdf

(Integrating = computational approach as important as non-computational mathematics)

The Case for Integrating Computation

Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royalat the 2017 APS April Meeting

https://www.facebook.com/apsphysics/videos/10155166016167952

gopicup.org

•

https://www.compadre.org/osp/

•

https://demonstrations.wolfram.com/

•

https://www.mathworks.com/examples/

•

https://phet.colorado.edu/

Some Existing Computational Materials Repositories

Why another repository of educational physics stuff?

• Adaptable

• Peer-reviewed

• Computing Platform-agnostic

• Computational Activities (Exercises) tied to specific learning goals

What’s special about the PICUP Collection?

Spreadsheets-the Lost Art

Originally Published: 1991

Benefits of Spreadsheets (like Excel)

- Used everywhere - Free- Available

- Visually build algorithms- Good transition to programming languages

- Visual one-to-one correspondence with components of a programming language

- Students do not fear the spreadsheet- More functionality than you might expect

- Control panel- Slider bars anyone?- Million iterations

• Guided Activities• build model together in class with students in Excel• students’ mission is to produce a correct XXXXX version• students have a working model (Excel)• students know what the results are and how to assess accuracy• eventually (after 3 or 4 GA’s) students go directly to XXXXX

without my guiding them via Excel

• Benefits • gets students into XXXXX confidently so they know if their code is

doing what its expected to do (Excel is the “pseudocode guide”)

• avoids having the students code from scratch at the beginning when they’re just learning how to program something for the first time

The RoosExcel XXXXX* Method

(aka “Living Pseudocode” Approach)

* XXXXX = Python, MATLAB, or whatever you want your students to use

Benefits to Integrating Computation into the

Undergraduate Curriculum

• Students develop skills that are necessary in private sector jobs and in graduate school1.

• Computational homework and projects that are more closely connected to how professional physicists engage with their own work, excite students, and might help retain [physics] majors by providing enjoyable experiences2.

- Allow open-ended questions.- Foment creative thinking.- Encourage collaboration.

1. AIP Statistical Research Center, “Report on Physics Bachelors,” Focus On, June 2015.

2. Caballero, M.D. & Pollock, S.J. Am. J. Phys. 82 (3), March 2014.

• Enhance content coverage with little or no loss.

• Enhance conceptual understanding by allowing students to play around in "parameter space" and to visualize system behavior.

Other Benefits

Dancy and Henderson* have listed the most salient barriers to changes in Physics

instruction:

• Student Resistance

• Time Structure

• Departmental Norms

• Expectations of Content Coverage

• Lack of Instructor Time

* Dancy, M. & Henderson, C. Barriers and Promises in STEM Reform, Commissioned Paper for National

Academies of Science Workshop on Linking Evidence and Promising Practices in STEM Undergraduate

Education, Washington, DC, Oct 13-14, 2008.

Challenges

A. Replicated results in computation context*:

• Student Resistance: [students] are rejecting learning something new, and activities they think

do not belong in a physics class.

• Time Structure: semesters are the same fixed length.

• Expectations of Content Coverage: was not as prevalent in the context of computation.

• Time of Instructors: The time of instructors is still valuable and the things that preoccupy

them are still the same (e.g. large teaching loads and research).

B. New systemic forces for computation context:

• Lack of Instructor Knowledge:

- Lack of experience with coding.

- Do not know how to design activities for students that are just learning.

• Accessible Platform: Choosing a platform.

*Ashleigh Leary, Paul W. Irving, Marcos D. Caballero, “The difficulties associated with integrating

computation into undergraduate physics,” PERC 2018 Conference Proceedings,

https://www.compadre.org/PER/items/detail.cfm?ID=14812

Post Workshop Support

In-person• Week-long Summer Faculty Development Workshop – July 8-14, 2019 @ UW River Falls

https://www.compadre.org/PICUP/events/

• Half-Day Workshops at National Meetings (AAPT, APS)

• Weekend Workshops - Greater Chicagoland Workshop in late September - More to materialize in other population centers, hopefully near you!

• ALPhA/PICUP Hybrid Laboratory/Computation Immersionshttps://www.advlab.org/immersions.htmlhttps://www.compadre.org/PICUP/events/

Virtual• PICUP Repositories @ www.gopicup.org

• gopicup.slack.com

• Synchronous Meetings (online webinars)