Discipline: Physics
Subcategory: STEM Science and Mathematics Education
Donald Walter - South Carolina State University
Co-Author(s): Jennifer Cash, Bryan Fogle, Richard Murphy, James Payne, Stephanie Phillips, Daniel Smith, and Reginald Williams, South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, SC
Our HBCU-UP Targeted Infusion Project (TIP) has brought together the faculty and administrators of a four-year HBCU and a nearby two-year, Predominately Black Institution (PBI) to “… form a successful physics partnership between South Carolina State University (SCSU) and Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College (OCtech) that will strengthen both programs and serve as a model of best practices for developing a STEM collaboration.” We report on our successes and challenges as we approach the fourth and final year of a project funded by the National Science Foundation. We note the institutionalization of some of the techniques, methods and products tested and accessed by this project as well as those that have not been as productive. OCtech has completely redesigned its two semesters of physics laboratory instruction under TIP, creating many new lab exercises and modifying others. Faculty members from both OCtech and SCSU are team-teaching the physics lecture and lab courses for the first time in the history of the two schools. With support from OCtech and TIP, an OCtech faculty member will receive the necessary coursework training to complete an M.S. degree in physics from another institution. The TIP collaboration will assist with this effort as the OCtech faculty member enrolls in two graduate physics education courses offered by SCSU that will include physics classroom teaching responsibilities. Training workshops have been conducted by OCtech faculty for SCSU faculty and students on topics that included LabVIEW, Project-based learning and alternative energy activities. SCSU has tested and incorporated Invention Instruction activities in the introductory physics lecture and lab courses. Additionally we have developed over 200 videos of short length on select math and physics topics that are viewed by the students prior to class as part of the “flipped” or “scrambled” method of instruction. These TIP videos are now a standard part of the calculus-based physics sequence and are being expanded into the algebra-based sophomore physics courses. A member of the SCSU education faculty is serving as the evaluator for the project and has five semesters of results measuring the effectiveness of the new methods of teaching. His assessment of the flipped instruction used a variety of techniques including pre- and post-testing, focus groups and individual student interviews. We discuss the evaluation results to date.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): Funding for this project has been provided by the National Science Foundation through award HRD-1332449.
Faculty Advisor: None Listed,