While core undergraduate physics content hasn’t changed much in several decades, what we’ve uncovered about teaching and learning physics has! In this interactive session, we will explore lessons from decades of physics education research and the learning sciences, including the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE), the ICAP framework (how different study activities engage your thinking), and applied improv skills like "yes-and" for learning collaboratively. We will then practise how you can apply these insights and strategies to make your physics learning more time-efficient, more fun, and more useful beyond a university degree. Bring your playful curiosity and love of physics; bring the stress of everything you want to get done this week. You’ll leave with concrete strategies to try (and iterate upon, as we are scientists) with your next problem set or study group, so you can get more out of your limited time.
With twenty years of experience in innovative postsecondary instruction, Dr. Carolyn Sealfon’s mission is to foster decision making grounded in compassion and scientific reasoning. Dr. Sealfon has taught, or more, facilitated active learning at Minerva University, at Princeton University as Associate Director of Science Education, and at public universities in Ontario, Canada and Pennsylvania, USA. She adapts student-centred, research-based approaches to help learners develop transferable lifelong skills in ways that promote wellbeing and belonging, such as the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) developed by Dr. Eugenia Etkina et al. With CAP, she has served as Chair of the Division for Gender Equity in Physics. As a Fellow of the Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship 2.0, she is applying her background as a physics education research (PER) practitioner and Bayesian cosmologist to the learning sciences. She earned her PhD in physics and astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania and her BA in physics from Cornell University. She is also an alumna of the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center and a qigong instructor certified by the Wuwei Taichi School. She loves co-creativity and serves as program co-chair for the Cultivating Ensembles Conference.