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Physics 11A: General Physics: Mechanics | Alignment - Rubrics - Teamwork

Reflection on Instructional Change:

The practice I spent the most time on was aligning assessments with course outcomes. I rewrote 5 lab assignments to make them more engaging and to require different levels of engagement and thought from the ACUE list of action verbs for writing powerful learning outcomes. The goal was to include different levels at which students would have to work with in class. In order to do this, my group met weekly and discussed the goals for the class, as well as ways to include different skills in the assessments. While re-writing the labs, I ran them in near the original versions, and then made edits. After those edits were completed, I analyzed the new lab worksheets and which skills they tested. Students worked with the new draft versions of activities and were given an additional worksheet for the purposes of their own reflections and for feedback, in which they were asked about the more difficult and the more useful parts of the lab. One assessment which was given particular focus was the force project, in which students would create their own lab, run it, write it up and give a presentation. This project serves to complete the objective "Students will design and perform an experiment to test a hypothesis".

I found that students were much more likely to engage with each other and talk things out as groups. My students were getting less hung up on smaller details and more willing to experiment to try to get things done even when uncertain. This engagement was also reflected in a greater confidence to try multiple avenues of approach, instead of pausing while getting stuck. Student motivation also improved with more varied kinds of practice and clear expectations for grading. Student feedback from the force project brainstorming session, in which students were expected to come up with an experiment involving forces was positive. Quotes include:

"The brainstorming period was really helpful as we did not have to rush into a decision and we were able to discuss and evaluate our options"

"The most useful part of the lab was testing our experiment idea with the materials in class. This helps us refine our experiment and figure out what quantities we need to find"

"We found it really helpful that we could all bounce ideas off each other, so we found teamwork really useful"

"The most useful part of the lab was the rubric, it allows to see what it is we need".

I found the most valuable element was the physics intensive group meetings and activities. Those meetings are a great place to bounce ideas off of one another, trade feedback and discussing potential modifications for the parts of assessments that did or did not work. It was a comfortable and valuable space in which to work towards maximizing student engagement and highlight potential areas for improvement. These meetings were also consistently happening, which avoided a long delay in the middle of learning new methods.

I also found the ACUE downloadable reference pdfs to be particularly valuable. Having those resources on hand is really useful for when I am looking for ideas or attempting to recall detailed elements or the particulars of ideas from the ACUE course. Having a short, readable resource on hand has helped a great deal, and I anticipate it will be useful going into the future.

Lastly, the ACUE Practice and Reflect Written Assignments were valuable. I did not have many opportunities to revise course assignments or assessments during the period these were due, but I was in the in the process of revising some assignments in the course, and found it was a great tool to help me focus on the changes I wanted to make, and how to make those changes to improve the learning experience for students.

The biggest takeaway I got from the Observe and Analyze section was the value of keeping students engaged with an experiment as they work with the theory of the experiment. My lab worksheet for the session had students start with discussion and then move to exploring the experimental setup and then beginning the experiment. I got to see one of my colleagues share a video of students work in which the students were addressing some of the early questions about how the lab worked while using the lab equipment to test and compare their ideas. It looked like a very useful and helpful approach, which I had not considered enough because I was more focused on getting a variety of levels of engagement from students, without considering enough the value of having immediate experimental engagement, instead of theoretical engagement followed by experimental. I was happy with the feedback and discussion it generated, and it helped me refocus on seeing how the lab would proceed from a student perspective. It was also useful in putting this all together to articulate what my goals were and how I wanted to achieve them. I plan on using this takeaway to make further adjustments to lab and encourage greater engagement in the opening stages of a lab activity.

**Evidence of Instructional Change**
A screenshot of the learning objectives from a large project students do over the course of the semester	A screenshot from an assignment with two questions and a student response to each question	A screenshot of a rubric for a large project

Changes in Course Syllabus and Schedules:

Pre FLC - Syllabus and Schedule

11ALab-22S-Zora.docx

Post FLC - Syllabus and Schedule

11ALab-2228-Zora.docx

**Faculty Bio**
	Kay Zora is a lecturer in physics at Sacramento State. She received her MS in Physics at UC Davis and has been teaching since 2012. While studying high energy theory in graduate school she had plenty of opportunities to TA and lecture, and decided to pursue teaching as a career. She values teaching physics as an exercise in helping students learn how to critically approach problems and better understand the world around them.

**Program Sponsors**
	This work was supported by: National Science Foundation Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM Zone DUE 1832335 US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project Degree with a Purpose P031S210061 US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM4Equity P031C210012 *Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US Department of Education.