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| Poster Title: | NEXUS/Physics: Rethinking physics for biology and premed students |
|---|---|
| Abstract: | In response to increasing calls for the reform of the curriculum for life science majors and pre-medical students an interdisciplinary team has repurposed introductory physics for life scientists. The curriculum interacts strongly and supportively with introductory biology and chemistry courses taken by life sciences students, with the goal of helping students build general, multi-discipline scientific competencies. Our two-semester NEXUS/Physics course sequence is positioned as a second year course so students will have had some exposure to basic concepts in biology and chemistry. NEXUS/Physics stresses interdisciplinary examples and the content differs from traditional introductory physics to facilitate this. It extends the discussion of energy to include interatomic potentials and chemical reactions, the discussion of thermodynamics to include enthalpy and Gibbs free energy, and includes a serious discussion of random vs. coherent motion including diffusion. The development of instructional materials has been coordinated with careful education research. |
| Poster Category: | Course Structure: Innovations in pedagogy such as JiTT, Studio Physics, Flipped Classes, etc. Course Content: Innovations in topics, content order, interdisciplinary study, etc. Labs Education Research Biology/Life Science Applications |
| Poster File: | Download the Poster File |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Edward Redish University of Maryland Phone: 301-405-6120 |
| Co-Author(s) |
Chris Bauer3, Karen Carleton1, Todd, Cooke1, Melanie Cooper4, Catherin Crouch5, Benjamin W. Dreyfus1, Benjamin D. Geller1, Julia Gouvea1,2, John Gianini1, Mike Klymkowsky6, Wolfgang Losert1, Kim Moore1, Joelle Presson1, Vashti Sawtelle1, Katrina Thompson1, Chandra Turpen1, Royce Zia7 1 University of Maryland, College Park 2 University of California, Davis 3 University of New Hampshire 4 Michigan State University 5 Swarthmore University 6 University of Colorado 7 Virginia Tech |