Impact of informal physics programs on university student development: Creating a physicist

Rethman, Callie; Perry, Jonathan; Donaldson, Jonan Phillip; Choi, Daniel; Erukhimova, Tatiana

doi:10.1103/physrevphyseducres.17.020110

Cited by 18 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Finally, we highlight a recent study in physics education research supporting the development of skills in informal physics programs: namely, that students who participated in the development of K-12 outreach events reported increased development of "21st century career skills" like communication, network, and design [10]. This supports the hypothesis put forward by this work that such skills, and also the concept of 'physics identity', are often developed outside of standardized coursework.…”

Section: B Review Of Literaturesupporting

confidence: 77%

“…It was conducted on the Qualtrics platform I. Categories with fewer than ten (10) respondents were either combined with other categories (e.g., "Technician/Engineer" was combined with "Research Staff") or excluded from deeper correlations ("Community College", "For-Profit Institution", and "Other (e.g. CERN)") to avoid identification of respondents.…”

Section: Survey Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transforming U.S. Particle Physics Education: A Snowmass 2021 Study

Bitter,

Hansen,

Kravitz

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The pursuit of knowledge in particle physics requires constant learning. As new tools become available, new theories are developed, and physicists search for new answers with ever-evolving methods. However, it is the case that formal educational systems serve as the primary training grounds for particle physicists. Graduate school (and undergraduate school to a lesser extent) is where researchers learn most of the technical skills required for research, develop scientific problemsolving abilities, learn how to establish themselves in their field, and begin developing their career. It is unfortunate, then, that the skills gained by physicists during their formal education are often mismatched with the skills actually required for a successful career in physics. We performed a survey of the U.S. particle physics community to determine the missing elements of graduate and undergraduate education and to gauge how to bridge these gaps. In this contributed paper, part of the 2021-22 Snowmass Community Planning Exercise, we report the results of this survey. We also recommend several specific community actions to improve the quality of particle physics education; the "community" here refers to physics departments, national labs, professional societies, funding agencies, and individual physicists.

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Section: B Review Of Literaturesupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: Survey Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming U.S. Particle Physics Education: A Snowmass 2021 Study

Bitter,

Hansen,

Kravitz

et al. 2022

Preprint

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show abstract

“…For example, does participating in such efforts improve the participants' communication skills, allow them to explore new career interests, or provide some other benefit? While such studies are not new (e.g., [33][34][35][36][37]), focusing on additional programs with different audiences can provide a more complete picture of the benefits participants might receive.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using blogs to make peer-reviewed research more accessible

Young¹,

Lewis²,

Kerr³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Discipline-based education researchers produce knowledge that aims to help instructors improve student learning and educational outcomes. Yet, the information produced may not even reach the educators it is intended to influence. Prior work has found that instructors often face barriers to implementing practices in peer-reviewed literature. Some of these barriers are related to accessing the knowledge in the first place such as difficulty finding and understanding research and a lack of time to do so. To lower these barriers, we created an online blog, PERbites, that summarizes recent discipline-based education research in short posts that use plain language. Having covered nearly 100 papers to date, we conducted a survey to see if we were addressing the need we had originally set out to address. We posted a 23-item survey on our website and received 24 usable responses. The results suggested that readers do generally agree that we are meeting our original goals. Readers reported that our articles were easier to understand and used more plain language than a typical discipline-based education research (DBER) journal article. At the same time, readers thought that all the important information was still included. Finally, readers said that this approach helped them keep up with DBER studies and read about papers they otherwise would not have. However, most readers did not indicate they changed their teaching and research practice as a result of reading our blog. Our results suggest that alternative methods of sharing research (e.g., non-peer reviewed publications or conference talks) can be an effective method of connecting research with practitioners, and future work should consider how we as a community might build on these efforts to ensure education research can make meaningful changes in the classroom.

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“…Another way to build interest-based inclusion is through student groups and science outreach to the public (Hinko et al, 2016). Science outreach opportunities (or "informal programs") not only serve public scientific literacy by raising awareness at an early age, but informal programs also empower undergraduates (Rethman et al, 2021). When the Physics Group began a concerted informal program effort 10 years ago, most of the events were faculty-organized and led.…”

Section: Co-curricularmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The connection seems clear between the increase of majors and graduates overall (Figure 1) and the introduction of the first-year colloquium (Figure 4). An open award structure for physics excellence rewards the unique contributions and accomplishments of many who persevere in one of the most rigorous disciplines (Section 2.2), while early participation within many informal programs sponsored by the Physics Group helps to establish identity (Rethman et al, 2021). By continuing to keep the tributary entry broad, a student comes to the Junior Review event with a greater opportunity of successful STEM experiences.…”

Section: Leaky Pipelines and Delta Distributariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Programmatic innovations that accord with the retention of women in STEM careers

2023

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Gender representation in the physical sciences remains inequitable and continues to lag behind other fields. Even though there exists adequate documentation regarding programmatic postures, difficulties persist within the physics discipline. In this paper, we present innovative, programmatic elements over an 8-year period at an undergraduate, liberal arts, physics program. These elements were added in response to the following two questions: “What practices cultivate an increase of physics major numbers in an undergraduate, liberal arts setting?” and “What practices facilitate a depth of experience for individual physics graduates?” Some of these innovations aligned with published, “best practices” for undergraduate physics programs, while others were novel to the program's context. Within this 8-year period, alterations were separated into curricular and co-curricular elements. Innovations are described, and data are presented in 3-year timeframes before, during, and after their implementation. The number of total majors and graduates increased, including a 200% increase of women degree recipients compared to the previous 10 years. This boosted average graduation rates for women above the national average (30% > 20%). Moreover, women were retained within the undergraduate physics major at a higher percentage during this time period when compared to men in the program. Lastly, these women physics majors maintained careers in science advancement fields at a rate of 80±% after ≤ 5 years post-graduation. While this paper presents a singular case study, the purpose is two-fold: (a) to validate quantitatively the work of national physics organizations within the context of a liberal arts institution, and (b) to suggest that a multi-level approach is most efficacious when considering programmatic innovations.

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Impact of informal physics programs on university student development: Creating a physicist

Cited by 18 publications

References 43 publications

Transforming U.S. Particle Physics Education: A Snowmass 2021 Study

Transforming U.S. Particle Physics Education: A Snowmass 2021 Study

Using blogs to make peer-reviewed research more accessible

Programmatic innovations that accord with the retention of women in STEM careers

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