Friday 18 December 2015

ACDS first year teaching conference: science co-ordinators unite and cast aside your chains!

Hi Folks,


Most of you know the incomparable Liz Johnson and her work with the Australian Council of the Deans of ScienceTeaching and Learning group. Liz is leading a precipitation/coagulation/crosslinking of first year science and mathematics educators,  to articulate common issues and help guide the Deans in speaking with one voice regarding first year teaching and learning. In a nutshell, this is a wonderful chance to fix the pressing problems many of us would love to fix.

This flyer describes two workshops the ACDS  T&L mob are organising- please consider if you are able to come, If you would like to come, but have no funds, let me know. No promises, but we would like to gauge interest.

This is also  the inaugural message of the first year physics network we agreed to get going at the last AIP congress. I will be sharing the admin load with Chris Creagh, who will be providing much of the clear thinking (as you know, Chris is ace). Please forward this email to anyone who you think should get it- the more interested people involved, the better.

As usual, please email me directly with any issues. 

Cheers,

David.

David Hoxley
Lecturer
First Year Co-ordinator
Department of Physics
La Trobe University



Sunday 29 November 2015

The University of Queensland is recruiting a Physics learning designer

Message from Margaret Wegener:

I’m hoping that you can circulate/publish this job ad (attached) to the Physics Education Group. It’s for a learning designer with physics-y knowledge, in a project that some colleagues and I got institutional funding for.
 And if you know anyone who might be a suitable applicant, please pass it on. Regards,
Margaret.

Dr Margaret Wegener

PHYS1171 & PHYS3900 Course Co-ordinator
Physics Tutor Co-ordinator

Lecturer
Physics,
The University of Queensland, 4072,
Australia.
Office: Room 428, Physics Annexe
Phone: +61 7 3365 1244











Position Vacant - Learning Designer
Area: School of Mathematics and Physics, The University of Queensland
Salary: $72,045 p.a.
Work Type: Full Time/Part Time – Fixed Term
Location: St Lucia, Brisbane

The School of Mathematics and Physics
The School of Mathematics and Physics is a dynamic School within the Faculty of Science
at The University of Queensland. We are committed to excellence in learning, discovery
and engagement. The School's disciplines of mathematics, statistics and physics are
internationally recognised and members of its academic staff are leaders in their
respective fields. The School is also home to four ARC Centres of Excellence and
numerous other research groups.
Presently the School has approximately 100 academic staff. Undergraduate programs
offered include Bachelor of Science to honours level as well as double degrees, with
postgraduate coursework and research degrees also offered. Some 120 students are
presently enrolled in the School’s research higher degree program.
Information about the Faculty and the School may be accessed on the Faculty’s web site
at https://www.smp.uq.edu.au/

The role

The successful appointee will work on a University of Queensland Technology-Enhanced
Learning project to develop dynamic, interactive simulations to enhance student
learning. The project team aims to transform student learning experiences in
undergraduate physics and mathematics courses using open source online tools to
enhance preparation for in-class active learning. The role will involve supporting project
staff by developing relevant on-line simulations as well as creating and testing
associated teaching material.
The person
Applicants should possess qualifications in a relevant discipline such as mathematics,
physics, engineering or similar preferably with experience in tutoring/teaching at
university/school level. You should be comfortable with web-based technologies including
programming experience. A background in Javascript/HTML5/CSS would be
advantageous as would experience in the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Remuneration
This is a full-time or part-time, fixed term appointment for one year at HEW Level 6. The
remuneration package will be $72,045 p.a., plus employer superannuation contributions
of up to 17% (total package will be $84,293 p.a.).
Enquiries
To discuss this role please contact A/Prof Tim McIntyre on +61 7 3365 3423 or
t.mcintyre@uq.edu.au.
Applications should be sent to
A/Prof Tim McIntyre
School of Mathematics and Physics
The University of Queensland
Brisbane 4072
or e-mailed to
A/Prof Tim McIntyre t.mcintyre@uq.edu.au
Applications close Monday 14 December, 5pm




DUTY STATEMENT

Primary Purpose of Position
The learning designer will develop advanced web-based simulations supporting a number
of courses across mathematics and physics. This will include writing relevant code,
testing the simulation and making updates based on feedback from staff and students.
As well, the position will involve developing relevant teaching material including a
description of each simulation, activities to perform using each simulation and
assessment items.

Duties
Duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to
Simulation development
• Develop computer code in an agreed computer language to simulate mathematics
and/or physics principles for use by students
• Adapt or update existing computer-based simulations in consultation with
academic staff
• Test existing computer-based simulations to evaluate their effectiveness for use
as part of the project
• In consultation with academic staff, develop appropriate teaching material to
support on-line computer simulations

Organisational Relationships
The position will report to the project team leader, A/Prof Tim McIntyre.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Essential
• A university degree in Mathematics, Physics, Engineering or similar
• High level computer competency including experience with web-based
technologies including programming
• A proven ability to work independently and meet timelines
• Excellent interpersonal skills (including written and verbal communication)

Desirable
• Experience with programming in Javascript/HTML5/CSS
• Tutoring/teaching experience at school or university level
• Familiarity with scholarship of teaching and learning

The University of Queensland is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion

Monday 12 October 2015

Dead tree and Online Quizzes: Better together?




HatTip to the awesome David Wilson (Chem, La Trobe):

I thought you might be interested in the following content published on the ACS Web Editions Platform:
 Pencil–Paper Learning Should Be Combined with Online Homework Software David B. Smithrud and Allan R. Pinhas J. Chem. Educ., Article ASAP
DOI: 10.1021/ed500594g
Publication Date (Web): October 12, 2015 Copyright © 2015, American Chemical Society http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed500594g 


Sunday 11 October 2015

Differences between physics discipline research and physics education research.......

NatureJournals: How scientists fool themselves – and how they can stop

Humans are remarkably good at self-deception. But growing concern about reproducibility is driving many researchers to seek ways to fight their own worst instincts.

Nature | 07 October 2015 | 10.1038/526182a


http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/526182a


Physics education for the Home Schooled

The home schooling community is growing. Many parents have good reasons for not sending their kids to school- for example, when they have a chronic, serious illness:

 Missing School | Keeping Seriously Sick Kids Connected

In other cases, they may simply live too far away:
School of the Air
http://www.assoa.nt.edu.au/



Home Education Association (HEA) 
http://www.hea.edu.au/

More controversially, some parents whose kids have Autism spectrum disorders choose to home school. 

http://www.amaze.org.au/uploads/2013/12/Amaze-Info-Sheet-Schooling-Options-for-Children-with-ASD-rev-Dec-2013.pdf


How do homeschooled kids go with learning phyiscs? For example, how could they do experiments? Is this something the AIP should be supporting? 

Let me know your thoughts.

Recent articles about the 'leaky STEM pipeline'


"​Star Wars​"​ posters and cheesy T.V. shows can do real-world damage.






The Atlantic: Thin Ice: Stereotype Threat and Black College Students - 


Thursday 1 October 2015

Leadership booklets

 PPhillipsKPA  are a management consultancy which specializes in education and training. They made an interesting presentation at the Australian Council of the Deans of Science Teaching and Learning Conference, and have a range of publications about leadership in teaching and learning and research which may be very useful for academics trying to balance everything.

ETMST - are you involved?

Hi Folks,

there is a well-funded push from the chief scientist to get academics of Education and Science to work together to help better prepare science teachers to hit the classroom running. The umbrella Acronym is ETMST, and the Victorian node is ReMSTEP . There is a lot of interesting activity linking scientists, schools,  and pre-service teachers.

If you are looking for support and ideas for your educational projects, have a look and consider how you might involve pre-service teachers- especially  if you are at one of the funded universities (La Trobe, Melbourne, Deakin or Monash in Victoria). The ETMST link above will put you in touch with the equivalents in your state.




Curriculum mapping tools

There are a number of curriculum mapping tools being made so that people can check that their  Learning Outcomes are actually assessed. Here are a few that I found-has anyone got any more ?

National Academic Standards Statement for agriculture curriculum mapping tool

Deakin Nutritional Sciences curriculum mapping tool


Curtin Tools for comprehensive course review



Consider publishing in IJISME......

If you are not sure where to publish your educational story, then IJISME might be the go. There are regular special issues, and the editing team is friendly and supportive (including the awesome Stephanie Beames). The latest special issue is 'The link between tertiary science and employability'.

Wednesday 30 September 2015

UNSW physics of everyday things online unit- awesome!

UNSW has created an online unit where students do experiments at home. It looks...aswesome. It's organised by theme, and each theme has instructional movies, featuring the powerhouse director of first year teaching at UNSW physics, Elizabeth Angstmann


All the instructional movies are available online for everyone- nice.





Tuesday 29 September 2015

ACSME Discipline Day 2015: Is credit for feedback a smart move? Discuss......

[Edit: updated to include link to sadler paper]

Hi folks,

We are an intimate gathering this year, so I propose that we keep proceedings informal but focussed. If anyone has any agenda items they would like to discuss, please email me, text me or pull me aside at the conference. I humbly offer the following as a discussion point:

Credit for formative assessment: a path to mediocrity?

Assessment in our physics units usually consists of formative assessment where students apply their new knowledge (e.g. problem sets) and summative assessment where they can demonstrate their level of proficiency (e.g. an exam). Many university science courses (e.g. at La Trobe) adopt the principles of constructive alignment [1], where the course assessment is driven by the learning outcomes. In this model, everything the students are required to do should be assessed so that feedback can be given and signals sent about the relative importance of different elements.

While assigning credit to formative assessment does focus the learning design and enforce timely feedback, it also provides an opportunity for students to accumulate marks ‘along the way’. It can be difficult to set an appropriate marking scheme that rewards students for effort and makes allowances for the journey towards mastery and yet provides solid feedback about what standards are ultimately acceptable. This can lead to the situation where students get, say, 60% throughout the unit, only to fail because of poor performance on the final exam. It also becomes possible for students to compensate for poor summative performance by accumulating formative marks; they pass the unit, but have not at any stage demonstrated mastery of the material.

Royce Sadler has written about the subtleties of feedback [2,3], and warns that students may not be able to access feedback for improvement in the ways we assume. He spoke to the Australian Council of the Deans of Science at their annual Teaching and Learning conference this year, and provoked the attendees by proposing that formative feedback be decoupled from the final grade in a unit.

What do you think?

I will lead/moderate a discussion on this topic, and see if we can arrive at a set of conclusions that we can disseminate to the rest of the Physics Education Network. So, please try to read the attached, and come with a position!

See you there.

Cheers,

David.





Sunday 30 August 2015

Errors and Uncertainties, and Statistics in general

As part of the new VCE study design, I've been discussing how we teach high school students to handle errors and uncertainties, in particular terminology like:
random vs systematic
errors vs uncertainties

And, how many significant figures are we allowed to quote errors to?

Tuesday 18 August 2015

Work Integrated Learning is the next Big Thing

Work Integrated Learning (WIL)is about to become huge- the chief scientists and the current PM are both behind it. Expect to hear more and more about WIL from your Deans of science or equivalent.

The office of the chief scientist has released a report which may very influential, making a case for more work-integrated learning and some suggestions on how to do it.

UTS have an interesting approach to Work Integrated Learning getting their students to test stuff in partnership with CHOICE consumer magazine.


Wednesday 15 July 2015

ACSME Discipline Day theme suggestions?

The ACSME physics discipline day will  be held on Friday 2 October 2015 from 12:30pm-3:30pm at Murdoch University. We've left the theme open for now, but we should make sure we choose one soon so we can organise speakers.

What's your pressing issue?

d.hoxley@latrobe.edu.au

AIP Congress 2016

It's probably a good time to start thinking about AIP congress 2016. What do you want from the teaching and learning side? Are you able to submit a paper? If not, why not? Do you need help? Do you need money to help with travel/registration? Are you willing to review submissions? Let me know, and I'll liase with Margaret Wegener and Craig Savage.

d.hoxley@latrobe.edu.au

Undergraduates and research labs- does it work? Is it worth it?

Programmes at California State University address the challenges of bringing undergraduates into research labs (see Nature 518 , 127 – 128 ; 10.1038/nj7537-127a 2015 ). The students are then better equipped for admission to the top professional training programmes in the United States and worldwide.
Nature | 11 March 2015 | 10.1038/519158c
Read article
Sent via NatureJournals for iPhone
** Disclaimer **
Nature Publishing Group is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect NPG's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.





Let's start a thread on undergrads (and/or schoolkids) in research labs. Does it work? Let me know at d.hoxley@latrobe.edu.au


Tuesday 14 July 2015

Overseas students in MSc by coursework

Does anyone have any experience with overseas masters students? A few members of PEG have reported increased applications, and are unsure what the issues involved are. Anyone got any experience? Email me at d.hoxley@latrobe.edu.au. 

ReMSTEP- 'reconceptualising' teacher training


It seems that many people agree that secondary school teachers need a bit of help in transmitting the love of science that involvement in research can inspire- the ReMSTEP project is trying to capture some of that smoke in a bottle. It has the interesting secondary aim of getting tertiary academics in education and science working together- a suprosingly rare event in many universities.

Do you work with your university's department/school/faculty/college of education? If so, how does it go? If not, why not? Email me at d.hoxley@latrobe.edu.au- I'm interested in your stories.

Monday 23 March 2015

ASELL are seeking a project officer:


Hello All,

We are seeking a candidate to manage ASELL Schools, please see advertisement.  Could you please circulate this widely.  I have requested for the close date to be within a month.  Candidates can contact me directly for a chat as well.


Many thanks

Manju