The Science of Learning in Physics and Astronomy — PHYS 3500
Course Details for Fall 2025
University of North Georgia’s College of Science & Mathematics
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Course Instructor
| Dr. Sarah Formica (she/her) | email: sarah.formica@ung.edu |
| Office: Rogers 116A | Hours: MWF 10:00-11:00 |
| Virtual Office: Zoom link | Hours: T/F (by appointment) |
Office Hours
How to Book a Meeting
Respect for Diversity
I recognize that there is a vast untapped intellectual resource in all groups underrepresented in physics. For this reason, I am committed to making physics more accessible to everyone. It is my intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well served by this course, that students’ learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit. It is my intent to present materials and activities that are respectful of diversity: gender, sexuality, ability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, and culture. Your suggestions are encouraged and appreciated. Please let me know ways to improve the effectiveness of the course for you personally or for other students or student groups.
Course Catalog Description
The course is designed for students serving as Learning Assistants in the Department of Physics & Astronomy and who are interested in the science behind learning in physics and astronomy. This course will help students integrate educational theory, pedagogy, and practice. It will touch on theoretical issues in conceptual development, conceptual change, collaborative learning, and students’ conceptions of various topics in physics and astronomy, as well as practical issues encountered in facilitating learning, engaging in formative assessment, and responsive teaching. This is a seminar course where students are responsible for weekly readings, in-class discussions, reflections and projects which are coordinated with students’ Learning Assistant field experiences. (2 credit hours)
Learning Goals
This course is designed to support new LAs working with students and to:
- build knowledge about how people learn
- build community and relationships within our class and with your students
- foster the practice of listening and questioning; and eliciting and responding to student ideas
- build strategies for designing equitable and eective learning activities and environments
- engage students in eective group activity
Learning Assistants will:
- reflect on and develop their views on their own teaching and learning
- make connections to relevant education theory and literature and share this with their lead faculty member
- try out a variety of strategies in their learning teams and revise these strategies according to their experience
- listen to their students, make claims about their students’ ideas, and take action to address those
claims (formative assessment) - develop awareness of the intellectual, social, and cultural diversity of students and begin thinking about differentiated instruction
- discuss their roles and experiences working with students and faculty
Learning Assistants will develop skills to:
- synthesize classroom experiences with central ideas from education research
- explore the science of learning and apply that knowledge to the undergraduate physics/astronomy classroom
- analyze samples of student-assessment data to uncover students’ prior and/or intuitive knowledge in physics or astronomy
- apply research-based techniques in the undergraduate physics/astronomy classroom
- design and facilitate formative assessment activities
Weekly Assignments
Class Readings, Discussion and Participation: You are expected to contribute to class discussions, lead one or two class reading discussions, and come prepared each week with
- a provocative question
- something interesting you found in the article
- something you are confused about
The purpose of these discussions is to help all of us as individuals, and as a group, develop meaningful interpretations of the ideas found in the readings and to make connections to teaching experiences. You are expected to attend every class session and participate in the discussions and activities each week.
Weekly Teaching Reflections: You are expected to spend 3–6 hours per week working with undergraduate physics or astronomy students in collaborative, learner-centered environments. Using this experience as a guide, you will submit a teaching reflection electronically in D2L each week.
Training Sessions with Lead Faculty: Each week, you are responsible for meeting with the physics/astronomy course lead faculty member(s) and the other Learning Assistants in the department to plan and reflect on instruction and to discuss student achievement. You cannot pass this course if you fail to meet with your Lead Instructor each week (with allowances for necessary absences).
Semester-Long Projects – Choose ONE OPTION from below:
Educational Research and Instructional Interventions: This semester-long assignment is designed to help you apply what you are learning from the readings, discussions, and experiences working with students. You may choose to work individually or with a small team (2-3 people), and you will receive periodic written and verbal feedback from your pedagogy instructor throughout the semester.
1. Intervention/Tutorial to Help with Student Difficulties: You will design an instructional intervention that can help students work through a specific difficulty that you have observed. The product of this assignment will be something like a tutorial session, a recitation activity (or sequence of activities), a YouTube video, or some other media that can help students work through a difficulty you have noticed to be particularly common among students within a particular subject or concept. You will document your ideas in a project portfolio and you will receive periodic written and verbal feedback from your pedagogy instructor throughout the semester. You should also meet with the Lead Instructor of the course to trouble shoot and share/develop ideas. The product of this work will be a poster presentation that describes the questions, process, and outcomes of your semester-long project.
2. Insights into Student Ideas and Thinking or Classroom Contexts – Interviews: You will investigate student ideas about a concept of your choosing by conducting student interviews. You may work alone or in a small team (2-3 people) to identify the concept of interest, develop interview questions, conduct interviews, and analyze the results. You will document your ideas in a project portfolio and you will receive periodic written and verbal feedback from your pedagogy instructor throughout the semester. The product of this work will be a poster presentation that describes the questions, process, and outcomes of your semester-long project.
3. Insights into Student Ideas and Thinking or Classroom Contexts – Student Work: In this project, you will analyze student written work, such as homework or exams, to investigate their ideas or problem-solving strategies related to a conceptual area of interest. You will collect and photocopy / scan samples of student work a few times throughout the semester (removing names to protect their identity). You may choose to analyze more work over time from a small group of the same students, finding how their ideas develop over the semester. Or you may choose to collect a larger set of work from the class focused on one or two points in the semester to analyze the breadth of students ideas represented. You will document your ideas in a project portfolio and you will receive periodic written and verbal feedback from your pedagogy instructor throughout the semester. The product of this work will be a poster presentation that describes the questions, process, and outcomes of your semester-long project.
4. Insights into Student Ideas and Thinking or Classroom Contexts – Observations: For this project, you will collect field notes from observations of small groups of students working together in order to analyze their ideas and/or problem-solving strategies. For instance, you might choose to sit among a group of students as they work through an entire tutorial session. You will need to develop a way to collect detailed observation notes and you will analyze data from observations of several groups of students. You will document your ideas in a project portfolio and you will receive periodic written and verbal feedback from your pedagogy instructor throughout the semester. The product of this work will be a poster presentation that describes the questions, process, and outcomes of your semester-long project.
5. Personal Developments of Your Beliefs about Teaching and Learning: You will develop a presentation that describes changes or the development of your beliefs about student learning and teaching. You will need to discuss what you thought initially about some aspect of teaching and learning, what you think now, and what specific experiences or readings led to your development. You will document your ideas in a project portfolio and you will receive periodic written and verbal feedback from your pedagogy instructor throughout the semester. The product of this work will be a poster presentation that describes the questions, process, and outcomes of your semester-long project.
Poster Presentation
You will develop a poster presentation that describes the questions, process, and outcomes of your semester-long project. This poster will first describe the difficulty or the research question you were trying to address, the methods and learning theory you used to address these difficulties and or research questions and your instructional product or research findings from this project. Finally, you will discuss
the relevance to physics or astronomy and to teaching and learning.
You will present your poster in a poster session scheduled for the last week of classes. The audience will be comprised of your peers and faculty from the Department of Physics & Astronomy
(Un)Grading
The grading system used in this course is probably vastly different from that of any other course you have taken. The grading system is actually not grading at all; it is even called ungrading or going gradeless by educators who implement it.
Research has informed us that descriptive feedback, rather than letter grades or scores, leads to higher learning gains and that using grades in an attempt to improve performance is not effective. There is evidence that grades encourage competition over cooperation, suppress creativity, foster a fear of failure, and reduce interest in learning. If you are curious, this review article discusses research related to grades: Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently).
Much of this is confirmed by other researchers like Carol Dweck, whose book Mindset introduced the world to the concept of growth mindset, and Daniel Pink, whose book Drive argued that extrinsic rewards and punishments actually stifle creativity, higher-order thinking, and intrinsic motivation.
It is my hope to engender the dispositions of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation in my students,
so I want to eliminate any practices that work against students developing them.
In this class, after you turn in work for an assignment, you will receive written and/or verbal feedback about what you did well and what you can do to improve. You will also reflect on your work and your learning goals each week. Throughout the semester, you will have opportunities to assess your own work, to make improvements in response to feedback, and to elicit and receive new feedback — all of which has been shown to aid students in becoming more engaged and effective learners.
Evidence Portfolio
To help you keep track of your progress and learning in this course, you will use an evidence portfolio. Here, you will provide evidence of your learning. You can discuss what you did and how it connects to your learning goals.
At the end of the course, you will have an organized body of work that you will use to determine your final grade for the course.
Final Course Grade
Your final grade in this course will be determined based on the skills you learn, the learning goals you achieve, and the competencies that you demonstrate. Throughout the course, you will develop a body of work that will help you to self-assess your learning and make an honest appraisal of your effort and progress in the course.
You will be afforded the agency to evaluate and examine your own learning and suggest your grade in the course.
At the end of the course, in place of a final exam, you will make a presentation to me where you will suggest your final grade, providing evidence from your body of work throughout the course for why you believe your suggested grade is fair. You have the choice of how to prepare and present this final grade presentation.
Final Presentation Options
(Choose one)
We can meet via Zoom for a final exit interview during which you will present an organized presentation with evidence to support your proposed final grade. I will provide feedback on your assessment and discuss your grade suggestion with you. Together, we will work toward an agreed upon grade, though I reserve the right to veto a suggested grade. This presentation must be no longer than 20 minutes.
You can prepare and record a 20-minute video presentation with evidence to support your proposed final grade and submit this video presentation to D2L. I reserve the right to veto a suggested grade.
You can propose your final grade in a paper that provides evidence from your body of work throughout the semester for why you believe your suggested grade is fair. This paper has a page limit of 3 pages, single spaced, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. This paper will be submitted to D2L. I reserve the right to veto a suggested grade.
Physics Education Research at UNG 