Month: July 2017
STEMcoding partners with the ASPIRE physics program for high school girls
In June 2017 and again in August 2017, STEMcoding partnered with the ASPIRE physics camp for high school girls led by OSU Prof. Amy Connolly. As one of the main tasks of the camp, participants worked through the first few programming activities from the STEMcoding project. Many of the students chose to spend more time on the programming activities when given extra project time!
Great youtube video on the importance of coding integration in schools!
We couldn’t help but share this perspective from a teacher on the need to integrate coding into essentially all the subjects in schools. Coding is not an obscure thing any more. It’s an indispensable tool for everyone!
Paper on electromagnetism programming activities posted to arXiv!
The second of two papers on the STEMcoding exercises has been posted to arXiv.org
A novel approach for using programming exercises in electromagnetism coursework
This paper is being submitted to the peer-reviewed, national Physics Education Research Conference that is being held in Cincinnati later in July 2017.
To check out the exercises described in the paper go to this link:
Happy coding!
First STEMcoding paper posted to arXiv!
The STEMcoding project has a serious research component. The first paper was posted to arXiv in January 2017, but recently we received permission from the IRB to include student data (N = 85) from the Marion campus (which makes it a much, much better paper!). Here is the link to the paper (including the student data):
A Game-Centered Interactive Approach for Using Programming Exercises in Introductory Physics
Importantly, the student data shows that even for a classes with a high percentage of absolute beginner programmers, students do not find the exercises to be overly difficult. This result is encouraging for using this content in high school level physics!
The paper has been submitted for peer review, which will take a month or more to complete.
Physics Exercises and Solutions posted to PICUP!
All of the physics exercises and solutions have been posted to compadre.org/PICUP which is home to the largest initiative by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) to integrate computer science into physics! To find the exercises, search on “high school” content. Teachers should send the organizers an e-mail to access the solutions.
We are excited to partner with the PICUP collaboration!
You can also go to go.osu.edu/physics_coding to work on the exercises, but teachers won’t be able to find the solutions there.