Living Physics Portal CourseSource Writing working group
JOIN GROUPGROUP MEMBERS
Have you developed new research-based teaching activities and/or lessons for physics for life science students? Are you interested in working with a group of peers to contribute your lesson to the Living Physics Portal Vetted Library and and prepare your Lesson manuscript for submission to the journal CourseSource? The Living Physics Portal is partnering with CourseSource to offer a semester-long working group! Apply now to join us for the Spring 2025 Living Physics Portal CourseSource Writing working group.
To learn more and sign up, go to our brief (~10 minute) application page.
About the Living Physics Portal
The Living Physics Portal is an online environment for physics educators to find, share, and discuss free teaching materials for introductory physics for life sciences (IPLS). Registered users can contribute curricular resources and instructor resources to our Community Library and Vetted Library, including adaptations of others’ resources, and join our discussions. We accept all kinds of resources at all grain sizes, from a single activity to materials for a whole course. We encourage you to start by submitting a small activity to our Community Library. Once you get the hang of that, we invite you to contribute your polished materials to our Vetted Library to be reviewed by our editors.
About CourseSource
CourseSource is a peer-reviewed and open-access journal that publishes tested, evidence-based undergraduate activities. The articles include details in a format, style, and voice that supports replicability. Publishing activities in CourseSource provides authors with recognition of the creativity, experience, and time needed to develop effective classroom materials, while also supporting the dissemination of evidence-based teaching practices. Authors can list CourseSource articles in the peer-reviewed publication section of their curriculum vitae and use them as evidence for excellence in teaching.
Expectations
As a part of the Spring 2025 Living Physics Portal CourseSource Writing working group, members will participate in eight, biweekly virtual sessions to collaborate with and support others in the group and receive mentoring. Due to the peer-to-peer mentoring nature of the working group, we expect participants to be fully committed to writing, peer-reviewing, and attendance at each of the sessions throughout the term. The working group will support participants in first contributing to Living Physics Portal Community Library and Vetted Library, and then writing a Lesson article manuscript, section by section, to prepare for submission to CourseSource. You are welcome to participate regardless of whether you have previously contributed to the Living Physics Portal.
Dates & Location
Meetings will be held online every other Thursday from 3:30 – 5:00 pm Eastern Time. The kick-off will be held on January 23, 2025. The working group will continue to meet online every 2 weeks for 8 sessions throughout the Spring 2025 semester. Synchronous meetings will include ample opportunities for peer discussions and peer-editing. Asynchronous individual writing will take place between the synchronous bi-weekly meetings. Optional work sessions will also be scheduled between synchronous meetings at the same meeting time (Thursdays from 3:30 – 5:00 pm Eastern Time). Applications are due January 17, 2025. Accepted applicants will be notified by January 20, 2025. Space is limited to 16 participants.
Eligibility
The working group is open to instructors (including faculty, graduate students, and postdocs) who teach biology or physics to undergraduate students and are planning to publish an activity in CourseSource and the Living Physics Portal (or who have already published in the Living Physics Portal). Faculty from community colleges and minority-serving institutions (colleges and universities) are encouraged to apply.
To qualify, participants must: have a lesson/teaching activity that incorporates research-based teaching strategies for which they are ready to begin writing about, have taught the lesson/teaching activity at least once (all published Lesson articles are field-tested), be able to commit to attending the bi-weekly synchronous meetings, and be able to commit ~2–4 hours per week for individual writing and peer-editing in between most synchronous bi-weekly meetings.
Benefits
(a) Submission of your lesson to the Living Physics Portal and your Lesson article to CourseSource for publication. (b) Online support throughout the process of contributing your lesson and writing your Lesson manuscript from Living Physics Portal and CourseSource staff and working group peers. (c) A completion letter explaining the work you've done during the semester as a part of the working group will be provided. (d) CourseSource normally has a $400 publication fee to support maintenance as an open-access journal. Thanks to funding from the an AIP Venture Fund grant, all publication fees will be waived for workshop participants.
