Iterative improvements and interdisciplinary integration for the next course iteration¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The authors' forward-looking recommendations for improving the reformed course: supplement the draft textbook with additional practice problems, develop additional multi-part homework problems exploring "the physical principles behind specific living systems," develop appropriate laboratory exercises since current labs are relatively standard, and formally integrate the physics sequence into the BRAID program linking chemistry and biology courses. They judge the interdisciplinary integration to have the most potential for students' long-term success.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Faculty and college administration support
• time to develop new problems and laboratory exercises

Constraints¶

• Adoption barriers include physicist discomfort with life science topics and the investment required to rethink hands-on components

Target Learners¶

• undergraduate life science majors in introductory physics

Target Learning Goals¶

• applying multiple conceptual lenses to interdisciplinary problems
• extended project work connecting disciplines

Related Strategies¶

• Develop bridging techniques linking cognitive strategies to content knowledge areas
• Extend the curriculum with student-built interferometer projects and a Bayesian parameter-estimation unit

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• O'Shea, B., Terry, L., & Benenson, W. (2013). From F=ma to Flying Squirrels: Curricular Change in an Introductory Physics Course. CBE-Life Science Education (accepted). https://www.lifescied.org