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
To Address Recommended methods are
Low Confidence Impostor Syndrome Lack of Community Group work Continuous feedback Ample availability of staff
Weak Academic preparation Emphasis on concepts and scientific reasoning Abstraction proceeded by hands-on experimentation
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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
Students Regular Course Alternate Path
Engineering Majors Analytical Physics I Analytical Physics II Extended Analytical Physics I Analytical Physics II Extended Recitations
Pre-Med, Science, Computer Science majors General Physics Extended General Physics
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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