Flattening the Curve

We quantify flattening the curve under the assumption of a soft quarantine in the spread of a contagious viral disease in a society. In particular, the maximum daily infection rate is expected to drop by twice the percentage drop in the virus reproduction number. The same percentage drop is expected for the maximum daily hospitalization or fatality rate. A formula for the expected maximum daily fatality rate is given

Impact of Reflective Writing and Labatorials on Student Understanding of Force and Motion in Introductory Physics

In this paper, we examine a way to deal with alternative student conceptions about force and motion in a university level introductory physics course. The course combines Reflective Writing, an activity that engages students in textual material metacognitively, and Labatorials, an in-class active learning intervention. Semi-structured interviews and student writing provide evidence of conceptual change

Combination of interventions can change students’ epistemological beliefs

This study was based on the hypothesis that students’ epistemological beliefs could become more expertlike with a combination of appropriate instructional activities: (i) preclass reading with metacognitive reflection, and (ii) in-class active learning that produces cognitive dissonance. This hypothesis was tested through a five-year study involving close to 1000 students at two institutions, in four physics courses. Using an experimental design, data from student interviews, writing product assessments, and the Discipline-Focused Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (DFEBQ) we demonstrate that the beliefs of novice science learners became more expertlike on 2 of the 4 DFEBQ factors. We conclude that a combination of an activity that gets students to examine textual material metacognitively (Reflective Writing) with one or more types of in-class active learning interventions can promote positive change in students’ epistemological beliefs

Implementing Reflective Writing in Combination with Labatorials

Students are often not familiar with the language of science and as a result they have great difficulty understanding scientific texts. Students tend to memorize the materials that they see in the textbook without thinking about their meaning, because they believe that language and words hold the knowledge and they need to use the same words and terms in order to show their understanding. Such students who think that knowledge in science is a body of settled facts that comes from authority take a passive role in learning and become a receiver of knowledge, while those who try to make sense of the science language and construct their own understanding by questioning the knowledge presented to them are more likely to develop reasoning and critical thinking skills. The hermeneutical approach that is the basis of “Reflective Writing” encourages students to question what is presented to them and moves them from receiving knowledge to constructing their own understanding. Reflective writing was used in combination with a new style of introductory physics labs called 'Labatorials' at Mount Royal University (MRU) and the impact of these pedagogical tools on student learning, and in particular on how students learn, was investigated and analyzed in this study. Interviews with students who completed the reflective writing assignments in the introductory physics labatorials as well as an analysis of students’ reflective writing assignments helped us find key aspects that make the reflective writing activity useful to the students. Interviews were also used to find out if Labatorials are helpful to the students. The disciplined-focused epistemological beliefs questionnaire (DFEBQ) developed by Hofer (2000) was used in this project to find out whether the combinations of reflective writing and labatorials can change students’ epistemology. With these related projects, we establish three main results. First, we identified the main aspects that make reflective writing an effective learning activity in introductory physics courses. Second, we have also made progress in characterizing the positive and negative aspects of labatorials. Third, we have analyzed the possible changes that the combination of reflective writing and labatorials can have on students’ beliefs about knowledge and learning

Views and Value of an Undergraduate General Education on Advancing Student Attitudes and Engagement

The enhancement of science literacy is a long-standing educational goal of liberal education programs. We conducted a mixed methods study to investigate undergraduate students’ attitudes towards science and engagement with science, with specific interests in students’ program (science vs. nonscience), level of study (junior: first and second year vs. senior: fourth year and higher), and changes over the duration of a single general education science literacy course (pre vs. post). Data were collected through an online questionnaire (n=272) and semi-structured interviews (n=8). We found that self-assessed science literacy was higher in students at the end of the course compared to at the beginning, in senior students compared to junior students, and for science students compared to nonscience students. Interest in learning about science topics was high overall, but did not increase over a single general education science literacy course or in senior compared to junior students. Belief in pseudoscience was also high overall, including in senior and science students, groups in which we expected pseudoscience belief to be lower. Views about science were generally favourable but were not improved by the science literacy course. This work highlights the need to align science curriculum with students’ interests while differentiating science from pseudoscience topics. Findings demonstrate the importance of engaging nonscience majors, who may have less intrinsic interest in science topics and can hold less favourable views about the value of science in their lives. As the last time when most students are formally exposed to science concepts and methods, undergraduate education is critical to promoting individual and societal science literacy