Living Physics Portal: Living Physics 1 - Introduction for students

Abstract: Life-science students often enter a physics class with experiences in other science classes that lead them to focus on memorization and heuristics. For them to break that pattern and develop the scientific thinking skills that physics can provide (especially thinking with fundamental principles and math), the class needs to be explicit about that shift. This introduction is important for introducing students to the value of deeper thinking, building understanding, modeling, and learning to be wary of recalled answers ("one-step thinking").

Resource Types: Student reading, Instructor supplement, Restricted access

Remote Learning Ready: This resource has been designed or adapted for use in remote learning.

Commercially available in:

TopHat

Authors:

Edward Redish (he/him)

University of Maryland, College Park

Ginny Redish

Self

NEXUS Physics

Living Physics Portal Team

TOPICS

Physics Topics:

None

Life Sciences Topics:

None

Chemistry Topics:

None

Math Topics:

None

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Living Physics - Vol. 1 > Living Physics 1 - Introduction for students

Living Physics 1 - Introduction for students

LP 1-Introduction for students.pdf

1.1 Introduction to the class.docx

1.2. Why should biologists study physics.docx

1.3. Why do we rely so much on modeling.docx

1.4. What do we mean by thinking deeply.docx

Figure sources_Chapter 1.docx

LP 1-Introduction for students.pdf

Page 1/1

INSTRUCTOR GUIDE

IMPLEMENTATION

Equipment required: No equipment needed

Basic implementation tips & tricks: The most important tip is to reward reasoning and not thoughtless recall throughout the course.

To do this, I often build on a text question, varying it into a similar-looking question using the same reasoning with a different answer on an in-class question, quiz, or exam. If students respond that “It’s a trick question”, that’s a clear signal they haven’t made the shift to understand what the course is trying to teach. You then need to refer back to this chapter, stressing the difference between memorization and deeper learning, and call out the danger of “one-step thinking.”

How does this resource fit into the flow of your course? I assign this reading for (or in) the first class. I discuss the issues in this chapter on the first day, telling students that we will work on these ideas and skills throughout the class — and it will affect strongly how they are evaluated.

However, since telling rarely suffices, throughout the class I give examples in lecture, quiz questions, homework and exam problems that require sense-making and deeper reasoning, rarely giving any questions for credit that can be solved by memorization or plug-and-chug with a memorized equation.

PEDAGOGY

Pedagogical approach: Peer Instruction / Think-Pair-Share; Collaborative problem-solving; Conceptually-oriented activities; Context-rich problems; SCALE-UP / studio / workshop physics; Modeling Instruction; Mathematically-focused activities

Skills / Competencies: Dimensional analysis; Functional dependence; Limiting cases; Multiple representations; Estimation; Intuition building; Building models; Evaluating models; Applying physical principles; Interdisciplinarity; Metacognitive skills

What insights or realizations do you hope students gain from this resource? Most importantly, we want students to learn to value reasoning physically, relying on fundamental principles, thinking about mechanism, and reasoning from multiple points of view — synthetically. Many students focus on memorizing answers and equations rather than sense-making.

This first chapter calls their attention to the shift of perspective we want them to make. Of particular importance is the last page (1.4), introducing the danger of “one-step thinking” — the error of simply calling on a remembered answer without reasoning it through.

Why is this resource useful to life sciences students? Both the medical community and the biological research community now stress the need for life science students to develop stronger scientific thinking skills. In addition, both groups have stressed the importance of learning mathematical reasoning.

These require the students to shift perspective from memorizing to sense-making. This chapter helps students see why this shift is so important for their careers. It also helps them see the value of modeling and deep thinking (sense-making).

DISCUSSION

SUBMISSION DETAILS

License: CC BY-NC-SA - Attribution, No Commercial uses and Share Alike. Derivative works must have the same license.

Last Edit Date: March 4, 2025