May 11: This article has been edited to correct the names of the event organizers.
“Physics is a team sport.”
That wisdom comes straight from someone who has earned the biggest gold medal there is in thisvsport: Nobel physics laureate — and McMaster Engineering grad — Donna Strickland.
Working in a group and building on each other’s strengths offers unique opportunities to learn from one another, and is a crucial part of student success, Strickland told a McMaster audience this week.
She, along with fellow Nobel physics laureate Carl Wieman and trailblazing physics educators Shohini Ghose and Martin Williams, participated in a panel discussion on the future of physics education to close out the first McMaster Physics Education Research & Practice Symposium, held this week on campus.
Moderated by Physics and Astronomy professor Rob Cockcroft, the panel focused on innovation, evolution and changes in the teaching and learning of physics. The symposium was organized by assistant professors Eamonn Corrigan and Pat Clancy, associate professor Miranda Schmidt and instructional assistant Sara Cormier.
Nobel laureates Donna Strickland and Carl Wieman greet each other at the panel discussion.
Gee Whiz Labs
A lot has changed since they were students, the panellists acknowledged: Each outlined some of the dramatic changes they’ve seen in student engagement, technical advancement and the makeup of their classes.
But at the same time, some things remain the same: The sense of wonder that first hooked every physics student, coupled with a curiosity to learn why things work the way they do.
Educators just need to figure out how to create and assign learning materials that unlock curiosity in a new generation, Ghose said.
Everyone does come to physics with a sense of excitement, said Strickland, a professor at the University of Waterloo. Then, somewhere along the way, with classes and exams and notes, the fun of discovery and questioning can fade away.
“We need to put the fun back in physics,” Strickland said, drawing smiles from her fellow panellists.
She described the new “Gee Whiz Labs” she and her colleagues at the University of Waterloo are working on. The labs give undergraduates a chance to observe advanced physics principles first-hand, the kind they would otherwise only see in graduate school.
“It’s not even about trying to get the concepts, even about getting the tools. We don’t expect them to understand the physics,” she said.
“The point is to feel like an experimental physicist trying something for the first time, seeing it, and wondering why.”
The panellists spoke of changes good and bad in the field of physics education, and expressed optimism for the future. (Georgia Kirkos, McMaster University)
Wieman, a professor Emeritus at Stanford, also spoke of the need for more emphasis on experiment-driven learning. While it involves a larger amount of time and planning than strictly instructional classes, it opens up new vistas of understanding that change based on the backgrounds and experiences of the students involved.
That diversity of student perspectives is something educators need to incorporate into their labs and classrooms, said Ghose, a professor at Wilfried Laurier University. “I think we have to be very deliberate about who is in our classrooms and how we’re doing experiments to make sure that everybody has the kind of access and opportunity to do physics that they need.”
Questions of perspectives, ways of knowing and ethics are all important to the broader context of learning, she said, especially with the growing presence and use of Artificial Intelligence.
AI and student engagement
Instructors need to get up to speed on using and recognizing the use of AI tools, which have already had some unexpected effects on student engagement, said Williams, from the University of Guelph.
For one thing, with the availability of tools that summarize course content into flashcards, podcasts and digital notes, more students are trying to cram AI-collected materials in a hurry. But that leads to a more superficial understanding that ultimately does show up in their performance, he warned.
Students also interact noticeably less with instructors, he said. Where professors would once have hundreds of student stopping by as exams drew near, the number is down to just a few dozen as they instead turn to AI tools.
“It’s a serious omission in the feedback loop of learning, because [office hours is] where emphasis and clarity are,” he said.
And yet, the panellists agreed that they still feel optimistic about physics and education.
Wieman spoke of continued curiosity and growing interest in meeting student needs, evidenced by existence of events like this symposium, where like-minded educators can get together to find better ways to teach a new generation of learners.
“We instructors have access to tools now in our toolbox that were once unthinkable,” Williams said. “Technology is amazing.”