We describe a 4-yr project designing, teaching, and assessing an interdisciplinary algebra-based physics course for undergraduate biology students. We addressed the needs of this cohort through careful selection of topics and rich biological applications, while also attending to deeper pedagogical concerns (students’ conceptual understanding, epistemological stance, and ability to connect meaning and mathematics). The course provided biology/physics connections that students value, and their work indicated an ability to understand and integrate physics in biological contexts. We offer strategies, suggestions, and some cautionary tales for faculty contemplating or already engaged in similar endeavors.
REFERENCES
1.
O.
Blüh
, “Physics for the biologist
,” Am. J. Phys.
29
, 771
–776
(1961
);P.
Argos
, “General physics course for pre-medical students
,” Am. J. Phys.
41
, 1224
–1229
(1973
);W. G.
Buckman
, J. E.
Parks
, and T. P.
Cohill
, “An introductory physics and biophysics course for life science students
,” Am. J. Phys.
43
, 77
–80
(1975
);G.
Kortemeyer
, “The challenge of teaching introductory physics to premedical students
,” Phys. Teach.
45
, 552
–557
(2007
).2.
Committee on Undergraduate Biology Education to Prepare Research Scientists for the 21st Century
, Bio 2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists
(The National Academies Press
, Washington, DC
, 2003
).3.
AAMC-HHMI Committee
, Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians
(American Association of Medical Colleges
, Washington, DC
, 2009
).4.
The MCAT MR5 preliminary recommendations are available on the AAMC website at <https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/mr5/preliminary_recommendations/>.
5.
Vision and Change reports, presentations, and working group information from the 2009 meeting can be found at <http://visionandchange.org/>.
6.
Detailed examples can be found in the AAMC-HHMI report.
7.
A list of physics topics covered and a sample physics portion of the MCAT is available online at <https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/preparing/>.
8.
The OAT practice test can be found online at <https://www.ada.org/oat/index.html>. The Dental Admissions Test (DAT) does not have a physics component.
9.
A. Y.
Zheng
, J. K.
Lawhorn
, T.
Lumley
, and S.
Freeman
, “Application of Bloom’s taxonomy debunks the ‘MCAT Myth
,’” Science
319
, 414
–415
(2008
).10.
The MCAT exam includes passage questions that introduce physics phenomena or concepts that few students will have learned about in class, such as bremsstrahlung (the subject of the passage problem in the current practice test). These passages build on fundamental ideas such as probability and conservation of energy, thus allowing students to construct a working understanding of the new topic on the spot. Several of our students who took the exam confirmed that it probes comprehension rather than mere recall.
11.
C. H.
Crouch
, R.
Hilborn
, S. A.
Kane
, T.
McKay
, and M.
Reeves
, “Physics for future physicians and life scientists: A moment of opportunity
,” APS News
19
, 3
(2010
). IPLS course syllabi and working documents from the Fall 2009 IPLS conference can be found at <http://www.compadre.org/PSRC/items/detail.cfm?ID=9797>.12.
From one of our students on anonymous course feedback.
13.
D. K.
Gosser
, M. S.
Cracolice
, J. A.
Kampmeier
, V.
Roth
, V. S.
Strozak
, and P.
Varma-Neslon
, Peer-Led Team Learning: A Guidebook
(Prentice Hall
, Upper Saddle River, NJ
, 2001
).14.
J. D.
Bransford
, A. L.
Brown
, and R. R.
Cocking
, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School
(National Academies Press
, Washington, DC
, 2003
);J.
Handelsman
, S.
Miller
, and C.
Pfund
, Scientific Teaching
(Roberts and Co.
, New York
, 2007
);E. F.
Redish
, Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite
(John Wiley & Sons
, Hoboken, NJ
, 2003
);R. D.
Knight
, Five Easy Lessons: Strategies for Successful Physics Teaching
(Addison Wesley
, San Francisco, CA
, 2004
).15.
L. C.
McDermott
, “Millikan lecture 1990: What we teach and what is learned—Closing the gap
,” Am. J. Phys.
59
, 301
–315
(1991
).16.
17.
P.
Heller
, R.
Keith
, and S.
Anderson
, “Teaching problem solving through cooperative grouping. Part 1: Group versus individual problem solving
,” Am. J. Phys.
60
, 627
–636
(1992
). Their website has a library of context rich problems at <http://groups.physics.umn.edu/physed/Research/CRP/crintro.html>.18.
R. D.
Knight
, B.
Jones
, and S.
Field
, College Physics, A Strategic Approach
(Pearson, Addison Wesley
, San Francisco, CA
, 2007
).19.
E. F.
Redish
and D.
Hammer
, “Reinventing college physics for biologists: Explicating an epistemological curriculum
,” Am. J. Phys.
77
, 629
–642
(2009
).20.
Open source tutorials focused on helping students refine their intuitions, developed by Andrew Elby and Rachel Scherr, are available at <http://www2.physics.umd.edu/elby/CCLI/index.html>. This site also has annotated videos and instructor’s guides.
21.
M.
Wells
and D.
Hestenes
, “A modeling method for high school physics instruction
,” Am. J. Phys.
63
, 606
–619
(1995
).22.
J.
Vesenka
(in preparation).23.
A new IPLS textbook (published after we began our project) that does pay close attention to the needs of biologists is J. Newman, Physics of the Life Sciences (Springer, New York, NY, 2008). Another new text by Tim McKay is in preparation.
24.
See the working documents from the 2009 IPLS conference, Competency E3, Teaching IPLS Physics Content.
25.
See p. 37 in Bio2010 for a full list of recommended topics, which largely overlaps ours.
26.
Biologists are interested in motion in partial circles, e.g., joints moving in their normal range of motion. Objects moving in full circles with constant acceleration are almost non-existent in biology.
27.
Biologists tend to be interested in static torque questions, e.g., what forces must muscles exert to hold a specified weight. However, statics problems involving ladders against walls and hanging signs are less relevant.
28.
D.
Hammer
, “Two approaches to learning physics
,” Phys. Teach.
27
, 664
–670
(1989
).29.
J. B. S.
Haldane
, “On being the right size
,” in Possible Worlds and Other Essays
(Harper and Brothers
, New York
. 1928
);M.
Kleiber
, The Fire of Life: An Introduction to Animal Energetics
(John Wiley and Sons
, New York
, 1961
);T. A.
McMahon
and J. T.
Bonner
, On Size and Life
(Scientific American Library
, New York
, 1983
);C. J.
Pennycuick
, Newton Rules Biology: A Physical Approach to Biological Problems
(Oxford U.P.
, Oxford, UK
, 1992
);E. M.
Purcell
, “Life at low Reynolds number
,” Am. J. Phys.
45
, 3
–11
(1977
);S. A.
Wainwright
, W. D.
Biggs
, J. D.
Currey
, and J. M.
Gosline
, Mechanical Design in Organisms
(Edward Arnold Reprint
, London, UK; Princeton U.P., Princeton, NJ
, 1976
).30.
See Bio2010, p. 4.
31.
T.
Cooke
and J.
Redish
, University of Maryland, personal communication.32.
We used existing mathematical tutorials in MasteringPhysics and several written by our mathematics colleague Professor Gertrud Kraut.
33.
S. M.
Soucy McCrone
and T. S.
Martin
, “Formal proof in high school geometry: Student perceptions of structure, validity, and purpose
,” in Teaching and Learning Proof Across the Grades: A K-16 Perspective
, edited by D. A.
Stylianou
, M. L.
Blanton
, and E. J.
Knuth
(Routledge Taylor & Frances Group
, New York
, 2009
), pp. 204
–221
.34.
Our website is a repository for several kinds of curricular materials: lectures, peer instruction questions, annotated bibliographies, and problem collections. In addition, we include student work that connects biology and physics. <http://pubpages.unh.edu/dawnm/phyls.html>.
35.
See supplemental material at http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4733357 for curricular materials: lectures, peer instruction questions, annotated bibliographies, and problem collections.
36.
S.
Vogel
, Comparative Biomechanics: Life’s Physical World
(Princeton U.P.
, Princeton, NJ
, 2003
);J. W.
Bradbury
and S. L.
Vehrencamp
, Principles of Animal Communication
(Sinauer Associates
, Sunderland, MA
, 1998
);M. W.
Denny
, Air and Water: The Biology and Physics of Life’s Media
(Princeton U.P.
, Princeton, NJ
, 1993
);S.
Vogel
, Vita Circuits: On Pumps, Pipes and the Workings of Circulatory Systems
(Oxford U.P.
, New York, NY
, 1992
);S.
Johnsen
, The Optics of Life: A Biologist’s Guide to Light in Nature
(Princeton U.P.
, Princeton, NJ
, 2012
).37.
Humanized Physics Project laboratories and activities can be found at <http://physics.doane.edu/hpp/>.
38.
S. A.
Kane
, Introduction to Physics in Modern Medicine
(Taylor and Francis
, London
, 2003
).39.
Two higher level physics texts with extensive biology applications are G. Benedek and
F.
Villars
, Physics with Illustrative Examples from Medicine and Biology
(AIP Press, Springer Verlag
, New York, NY
, 2000
);P.
Nelson
, Biological Physics: Energy, Information, Life
(W. H. Freeman and Company
, New York, NY
, 2008
).40.
W. K.
Adams
, K. K.
Perkins
, N. S.
Podolefsky
, M.
Dubson
, N. D.
Finkelstein
, and C. E.
Wieman
, “New instrument for measuring student beliefs about physics and learning physics: The Colorado learning attitudes about science survey
,” Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.
2
, 010101
(2006
).41.
K. K.
Perkins
, W. K.
Adams
, N. D.
Finkelstein
, S. J.
Pollock
, and C. E.
Wieman
, “Correlating student attitudes with student learning using the Colorado learning attitudes about science survey
,” in 2004 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings
, edited by J.
Marx
, P.
Heron
, and S.
Franklin
(AIP, Melville
, NY
, 2005
), Vol. 790, pp. 61
–64
.42.
A.
Elby
, “Helping physics students learn how to learn
,” Am. J. Phys.
69
, S54
–S64
(2001
).43.
R. K.
Thornton
and D. R.
Sokoloff
, “Assessing student learning of Newton’s laws: The force and motion conceptual evaluation and the evaluation of active learning laboratory and lecture curricula
,” Am. J. Phys.
66
, 338
–352
(1998
). We chose the FMCE over the better known force concept inventory (D. Hestenes, M. Wells, and G. Swackhamer, “Force concept inventory,” Phys. Teach. 30, 141–158 (1992)) because the FCI has many two-dimensional questions (e.g., projectile motion and circular motion) that we did not emphasize (see Table I).44.
R. J.
Beichner
, “Testing student interpretation of kinematic graphs
,” Am. J. Phys.
62
, 750
–762
(1994
).45.
R. K.
Thornton
, D.
Kuhl
, K.
Cummings
, and J.
Marx
, “Comparing the force and motion conceptual evaluation and the force concept inventory
,” Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.
5
, 010105
(2009
).46.
Work by D. J. Wagner on developing a fluids assessment, which is more closely linked to needs of biology students, is available online at <http://proceedings.aip.org/resource/2/apcpcs/1179/1/289_1?isAuthorized=no.>.
47.
A summary of the IPLS FAll 2009 working group on the need for different assessment is located on the IPLS wiki at <http://www.phys.gwu.edu/iplswiki/index.php/Assessment>.
48.
T. S.
Kemp
, “The concept of correlated progression as the basis of a model for the evolutionary origin of major new taxa
,” Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. B
274
, 1667
–1673
(2007
).© 2012 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2012
American Association of Physics Teachers
AAPT members receive access to the American Journal of Physics and The Physics Teacher as a member benefit. To learn more about this member benefit and becoming an AAPT member, visit the Joining AAPT page.
