How We Can Help: The Rutgers Story

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How We Can Help The Rutgers Story
APS/AAPT Joint NY State Section Meeting Spring
2004 Recruiting and Retaining Underrepresented
Populations

• Suzanne White-Brahmia
• Eugenia Etkina

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Partial List of Contributors

• George Horton
• Brian Holton
• Suzanne White-Brahmia
• Eugenia Etkina
• Baki Brahmia
• Alan Van Heuvelen
• Plethora of hard working teaching assistants who
  cared so much that they actually changed their
  students lives

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Plugging the Pipeline

• Who is underrepresented?
• When they do come, why dont they stay?
• What can we do?

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Rutgers Initiative Part of a Bigger Picture

• Kean Act of 1968 created EOF in NJ in response
  to the rage of the Newark Riots
• EOF provides
• opportunities to those who might otherwise be
  unable to attend such institutions
• support that is entirely need-based
• 1/3 of EOF students are African American or
  Latino(a)

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EOF- Strengthening Our Success

• Strong links with EOF Directors in Engineering
  and in Health Sciences is essential to success of
  our program.
• Outside of class, EOF provides
• summer program
• tutorial assistance
• reduced course load
• extensive counseling services
• knowledge/caring regarding life circumstances of
  students

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Rutgers Gateway Program

• 1987 University offered 12 extra TA lines/340k
  in new special funding for the entire university
• in support of the institutional goal of
  increasing student retention, particularly among
  minority students, by concentrating on improving
  the competence and persistence of freshmen.

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Beginning of Gateway Physics

• Observations 1985-86
• Only 63 of incoming freshman engineering majors
  passed first year physics, 17 of whom received
  Ds
• Unsuccessful students disproportionately
  represented by females, African Americans and
  Latinos
• 1987 Gateway Prephysics course awarded 60k and
  1.3 TA lines from university

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Gateway Prephysics 87-89

• One semester, taken before Analytical Physics
• Remedial mathematics, some physics, based on
  Prelude to Physics, C. Swartz (Wiley 1983)
• prephysics structure replaced after just two
  years because
• Required extra year to obtain degree
• Stigma
• One semester too short to prepare for Analytical
  Physics

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What Puts Students At Risk of Failing Physics?

• Weak academic preparation
• Many African American/Latino/female students do
  not take the most challenging math and physics in
  HS (many dont get the opportunity)
• Low confidence level
• Physics is perceived as difficult
• Impostor syndrome
• Everyone but me understands
• Lack of community
• First level of help students use is their peers
• Unrealistic expectations
• Hope to pass with little effort

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Methods for Addressing At Risk Factors
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Essential Features of Extended Physics

• Group Work
• teams of 2-3
• evaluated on both group/indiv understanding
• Course Coordinator provides
• integration of all aspects of learning cycle
• continuity and cohesion amongst teaching staff
• advising/emotional support to students
• Assessment
• nontraditional exam format
• in each class meeting
• diverse
• Spiral Learning Structure
• each lecture followed by a small group meeting
  with hands-on collaborative activities
• Increased contact hours each week
• Extended courses meet twice as often as the
  regular counterpart

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Extended Physics Program -Timeline

• 1989 Extended Analytical Physics course created
  as an alternative to the Analytical Physics
  course for freshman engineers, difficulties
  included
• developing appropriate curriculum
• student needs were not well met by the frequent
  change-of-staff common in large universities
• 1992 University staff line secured for Director
  of Extended Physics Program
• 1993 Extended General Physics created
• 2000 Extended sections in 2nd year Analytical
  course created

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Extended Courses Offered
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Extended Analytical Physics

• Placement based on low math placement test scores
  (pre-calc)
• Some space available for students from regular
  course and sophomores
• 60 students are in EOF program
• Higher percentage of female, Latino/African
  American students than regular course
• Curriculum based on Investigative Science
  Learning Environment (ISLE-Etkina, Van Heuvelen)

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What is ISLE?

• Students learn physics using strategies to
  construct their knowledge similar to those used
  by physicists.
• Strategies include
• Making observations and discovering patterns
• Developing and testing models
• Applying models
• Methods used by students
• construct and use multiple representations of
  physical processes
• design investigations
• constantly reflect on knowledge construction
• solve multipart problems

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ISLE in Extended Analytical Physics
                     
Recitation Hands-On Activities for Chapter n
-Developing Model -Testing Model  
Recitation HW due for Chapter n -Application
Problems  

• Lecture Activities
• -Testing Model w/ Experiments and Problems
• -Application of
• Model

 
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Group Projects Oral Presentation

• Replaces one midterm exam
• Groups of 2-3 design one cycle on a topic of
  choice
• Cycle includes
• observational experiments,
• mathematical model,
• testing experiments,
• and data analysis
• Assessment
• 30 arranging meetings with TAs, showing up to
  meetings prepared
• 10 rating of performance in group by the other
  group members
• 60 quality of work and presentation

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Oral Presentations
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Engineering Physics Options
2nd Year Electromagnetism, Optics, Modern Physics
1st Year Mechanics, Waves, and Thermodynamics
Extended Analytical Physics (EAP I) 3 credits
per semester
Extended Analytical Physics II (AP II) 3 credits
per semester
Analytical Physics (AP I) 2 credits per semester
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But

• Extended students experienced a difficult
  transition to the traditional second year physics
  course.

In response to a petition created by the EAP I
students, Extended sections of AP II were created
in 2000.
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Comparison of StructureExtended and Regular
Sections of AP II
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Course Grades for AP II Fall '99
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Course Grades for AP II Fall 2000
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Abandoners are...
students who started attending classes, sometime
during the term stopped attending class and did
not take the final exam.
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Completion of AP II by EAP Ibefore vs after
Creation of Extended Recitations
77 complete
93 complete
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Abandoners AP II 99 vs 00by Ethnicity and
Gender
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Final Exam Score Distribution for AP II 2000
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Do We Help With Retention?

• Coordinators of both Extended courses were 2004
  EOF Champions
• awarded by State of NJ Commission of Higher
  Education Equal Opportunity Fund Board of
  Directors, for having developed new approaches
  that have had a significant impact on EOF
  students.

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What We Can Do

• On Individual Level (courses)
• Model professional practices in a nurturing
  environment
• On Departmental Level
• Evaluate student performance and look at
  subgroups of underrepresented students
• On an Institutional Level
• Know who your EOF Directors are (or
  EOF-equivalent) and communicate with them

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To reach students whose educational backgrounds
vary significantly, offer a variety of meaningful
learning and assessment opportunities as part of
the course structure.

• It is not how smart you are but how you are
  smart.
• - Howard Gardner

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Publications About Extended Physics and ISLE

• B.L. Holton, and G.K. Horton, The Rutgers
  Physics Learning Center Reforming the physics
  course for first-year engineering and science
  students, Phys. Teach. 34(3), 138-143 (1996).
• E. Etkina, et. al., Lessons learned a case
  study of an integrated way of teaching
  introductory physics to at-risk students of
  Rutgers University. Am. J. Phys. 67(9), 810-818
  (1999).
• S. Brahmia, and E. Etkina, Turning students on
  to science, Journal of College Science
  Teaching, 31(3), 183-188 (2001).
• S. Brahmia, and E. Etkina, Emphasizing Social
  Aspects of Learning to Foster Success of Students
  At- Risk, Proceedings of the 2001 Physics
  Education Research Conference. Rochester, NY.
• Etkina, E. Van Heuvelen, A. (2001). 
  Investigative Science Learning Environment Using
  the processes of science and cognitive strategies
  to learn physics. Proceedings of the 2001 Physics
  Education Research Conference. Rochester, NY,
  17-21.
• Submitted for publication to AJP S. Brahmia et.
  al. Plugging the Leaky Pipeline A Practical
  Approach to Promoting Success of At-Risk Students
  in a Large-Lecture Physics Course for Engineering
  Majors