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Texas Tech - Feb 6, 2018 How might physics education research help facilitate the computational revolution in education? Danny Caballero r t m e a n p t e o D f P y m h y o s n i c o s r t a s n A d

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How might physics education research help facilitate the computational revolution in education?

Danny Caballero

D e p a r t m e n t
  • f
P h y s i c s a n d A s t r
  • n
  • m
y

Texas Tech - Feb 6, 2018

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Mentor Faculty


Danny Caballero
 Katie Hinko
 Paul Irving
 Vashti Sawtelle

Postdocs/Scientists


Angie Little
 Daryl McPadden

perl.pa.msu.edu

Undergraduates


Jacqueline Bumler
 Justin Gambrell
 Abby Green
 Kristy Griswold
 Nat Hawkins
 Bridget Humphrey
 Helena Narowski
 Dan Oleynik
 Ashleigh Leary
 Matt Ring
 Alec Shrode
 Alyssa Waterson

Graduate Students


Kelsey Funkhouser 
 Paul Hamerski
 May Lee (TE)
 Abhilash Nair
 Mike Obsniuk
 Alanna Pawlak
 Brean Prefontaine
 Laura Wood
 Nick Young
 John Aiken (UiO) 
 Odd Petter Sand (UiO)

Collaborating Faculty


David Stroupe (TE)
 Brian O’Shea
 Stuart Tessmer
 Niral Shah (TE)
 Anders Malthe-Sørenssen (UiO)
 Christine Lindstrøm (UiO)

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What has computation done for physics?

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Higgs detected!

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Black hole Merger Ringdown!

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The Work of Modern Science T h e

  • r

y Experiment Computation

Computation 
 is how 
 modern science 
 is done.

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What has changed in physics education?

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1860s-1880s

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1900s-1910s

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1950s-1960s

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1970s-1980s

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2000s-2010s

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What has (really) changed in physics education?

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Physics Education Research

TTU MSU

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Physics Education Research studies:

  • student learning and engagement
  • pedagogical and curricular impacts
  • recruitment and retention of students
  • diversity and inclusivity in physics
  • faculty practice and decision making
  • departmental culture and climate
  • national landscapes surrounding physics
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0.15 0.3 0.45 0.6 0.08 0.16 0.24 0.32 0.4 0.48 0.56 0.64 0.72

Fraction of new physics learned Fraction of
 Courses

Hake, Am. J. Phys., 66, 64 (1998)

traditional
 lecture

Physics Education Research
 Standard Model

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0.15 0.3 0.45 0.6 0.08 0.16 0.24 0.32 0.4 0.48 0.56 0.64 0.72

traditional
 lecture

Fraction of new physics learned Fraction of
 Courses

Hake, Am. J. Phys., 66, 64 (1998)

interactive
 engagement

Physics Education Research
 Standard Model

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The Work of Modern Science T h e

  • r

y Experiment Computation

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Physics education requires a computational education

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Michielson and De Raedt, 2012

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Ad2u(x) dx2 = −Bu(x)

V0 V1

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Where do Bachelor’s grads in physics go?

46% 54%

Graduate Study Workforce

2013 & 2014 Graduates, AIP

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What are Bachelor’s graduates doing?

25% 75%

STEM Non-STEM

2013 & 2014 Graduates, AIP

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Ok, so how do we integrate computation into physics courses?

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Colleges & Universities Physics Department Physics Course Class Meeting Class Activity Specific
 Task

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What do we study?

  • What is the national landscape surrounding computational integration

in physics courses?

  • How do faculty come into the community of those teaching with

computation?

  • How are courses designed to incorporate computation given

departmental resources and constraints?

  • What kind of understanding of computation do students develop in

classical mechanics?

  • What knowledge and strategies do students use when constructing a

shooting method model for energy eigenstates?

  • How do students understand a specific line of code 


(e.g., VN[i,j]=(V[i-1,j]+V[i+1,j]+beta**2*(V[i,j-1]+V[i,j+1]))/denom)?

Sample Research Questions at decreasing “scales”:

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Atlanta, GA

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MINIMALLY 
 WORKING 
 PROGRAM

Weatherford, PhD Thesis, 2011

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Students solving the Geosynchronous Orbit

Note: video is sped up a bit.

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AFTER

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Caballero, Kohlmyer, Schatz, PRST-PER 8, 020106 (2012)

How proficient are they? New Model: Central Force
 Assign initial conditions
 Compute force
 Update velocity

  • approx. 1300 students
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% of Students 25 50 75 100 Correct Code One or More Errors

35.8 64.2 49 51 35.7 64.3

Sem 1 Sem 2 Sem 3

How’d they do?

Caballero, Kohlmyer, Schatz, PRST-PER 8, 020106 (2012)

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Two raters “grade” codes using rubric 
 High Inter-rater Reliability 91% Reduce data complexity
 Search for similarity using Cluster Analysis

Finding Commonalities in Students’ Erroneous Programs

Caballero, Kohlmyer, Schatz, PRST-PER 8, 020106 (2012)

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80% of students in 5 clusters

Dominant Error % Sign Error in Force Calculation 34.6 Running Code; Error in Initial Conditions 19.8 Net Force as Scalar 13.3 Raised Separation Vector to Power 7.6 Force Calculated Outside Loop 7.1

*Can we separate physics errors from syntactic ones?

Dominant Errors are Not Syntactic*

Caballero, Kohlmyer, Schatz, PRST-PER 8, 020106 (2012)

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Physics Knowledge and Practices Mathematics Knowledge and Practices Computation Knowledge and Practices

Computational Modeling in Physics?

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Boulder, CO

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East Lansing, MI

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East Lansing, MI

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Porcupine Mountains, UP, MI

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How might students approach computational problems?

w/ Obsniuk & Irving

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+ =

Interactive 
 Computational 
 Instruction
 in Physics

pcubed.pa.msu.edu
 Irving, Obsniuk, & Caballero, EJP (2017)

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Sample project

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What do students do when the code doesn’t work?!

w/ Obsniuk & Irving

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AFTER

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The group finds a “bug.”

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The group begins “debugging.”

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“Debugging” leads the group to doing physics.

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A case study in debugging

Recognition Resolution

Debugging Less Strategic More Strategic

“…there’s no good reason for it to be moving in that direction…” “Final momentum equals initial momentum plus net force times delta t. True?” “Oh, wait…oh god.” “Did you change it?” “Maybe, that’s the problem. That we don’t have the initial momentum correct.”

Obsniuk, Irving, Caballero, PERC 2015

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Fgrav = -G*mSatellite*mEarth*Satellite.pos/(mag(Satellite.pos)**3) Obsniuk, PhD Thesis (in progress)

~ Fgrav = −GmsatMEarth r2 ˆ r

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How do students construct the direction vector?

w/ Obsniuk & Irving

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Obsniuk, PhD Thesis (in progress)

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Shelley: But ummm wait, hold on, remember this? The uniform circular is equal to the gravity is equal to the net? So we could just do what you did, except instead

  • f using the uniform circular motion equation we use that

gravity equation [points to equation]. Joe: Yeah... Chuck: Okay, yeah, that sounds good.

Fgrav = mSatellite*vSatellite**2/mag(Satellite.pos) Fgrav = G*mEarth*msat/R**2

Fgrav = msatv2

sat

R Fgrav = GMEarthmsat R2

Obsniuk, PhD Thesis (in progress)

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Chuck: How do we, okay, how do we define a direction? Cody: I don't know... Chuck: Isn't the direction like, okay, so here I'm gonna give like four points on a circle [drawing on whiteboard] so this is the center , and this is a b c and d. Isn't it always just the position vector of a, so ummm what is it, like satellite dot position minus position dot Earth, and then you can divide that by magnitude?

dir = sat.pos/mag(sat.pos) Fnet = -G*m1*m2*dir/R**2

~ Fgrav = −GmsatMEarth r2 ˆ r

Obsniuk, PhD Thesis (in progress)

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  • L. Vygotsky, Mind in society (1978)
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How are students taught computation?

w/ Chonacky, Hilborn, & Merner

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Surveying the state and implications of computational physics instruction

  • Distribute a survey of faculty to investigate the

current state of computational physics instruction

  • Draw implications for efforts to bolster

computational instruction

  • Track changes to the state over time

  • Sample: 357 departments; 1296 faculty
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Do you have experience teaching computation?

Caballero, https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.07701

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In which courses is computation taught?

Caballero, https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.07701

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Prevalence of formal programs

Caballero, https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.07701

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Prevalence of Instruction

Caballero, https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.07701

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Take-Aways

  • A majority of faculty report having experience

teaching undergraduate students computation

  • Computational instruction is more prevalent than in

the past1

  • We are lacking formal computational physics

programs

  • There is a need to explore interactive methods and

assessment techniques for computation

1Chonacky and Winch, Am. J. Phys., 2008

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Can we learn something more from this data?

w/ Young, Allen, Aiken

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Breiman, Leo. "Random forests." Machine learning 45.1 (2001): 5-32.

Let’s get weird…

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Do you have experience teaching computation?

Yes No

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Validation against sequestered data

Young, Allen, Aiken, Caballero, in prep

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Important Features

Young, Allen, Aiken, Caballero, in prep

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Do you have experience teaching computation?

Young, Allen, Aiken, Caballero, in prep

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Do you have experience teaching computation?

Young, Allen, Aiken, Caballero, in prep

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Do you have experience teaching computation?

Young, Allen, Aiken, Caballero, in prep

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Concerns

  • More false classifications when data is biased
  • Solution: Bootstrap when training
  • Most important features tend to have more “degrees
  • f freedom”
  • Solution: Alter training algorithm
  • Results tied to specific algorithm?
  • Solution: Apply several ML techniques
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Other Projects

  • How do students debug a program with a visually wrong result? (Oleynik, MSU undergrad)
  • How do bioscience students approach modeling predator-prey relationships with computation?

(Sand, UiO PhD student)

  • What are instructors ideas and approaches to teaching computation in an introductory

classroom? (Pawlak, MSU PhD student)

  • How do instructor’s ideas relate to their enacted teaching practice when teaching computation in

intro physics? (Leary, MSU undergrad)

  • What features are predictive of the ways faculty teach computation? (Allen, MSU undergrad)
  • What features are predictive of the degree to which faculty teach computation? (Young, MSU PhD

student)

  • How can computation be used to understand students’ paths in science? (Aiken, UiO PhD

student)

  • How do faculty come into the community of computational physics teachers? (w/ Irving, MSU

faculty)

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–April 11, 2017

The MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy voted unanimously in favor of all majors to learn computational physics.*

D e p a r t m e n t

  • f

P h y s i c s a n d A s t r

  • n
  • m

y

*Computational science pre-req for major (immediate) + integration of computation in mandatory courses (next 5 yrs.)

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PER can help support and facilitate the coming computational revolution

  • Research with students
  • Research on activities, pedagogy, curricula
  • Research with faculty
  • Research with departments & larger systems
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Thank you!
 Questions?

caballero@pa.msu.edu 
 perl.pa.msu.edu gopicup.org

Research has been generously supported by MSU’s CREATE for STEM and College of Natural Science as well as the National Science Foundation (DUE-0942076, DUE-1431775, DUE-1504786, DUE-1524128, & DRL-1741575), the National Research Council of Norway, NORKUT, and the Thon Foundation.