General Physics Colloquium and A.D. White Professor-at-Large, Professor Carl Wieman (Stanford University)

Title:  “Teaching Students to Think like Physicists”

Host:  Peter Lepage (Dept. of Physics)

Abstract: I will discuss the two educational challenges that many physicists must confront if the field is to continue to thrive.  First, how can we best train advanced students to become skilled physicists, and second, how can we effectively introduce the broad population of introductory students to the joys and value of physicist thinking.  My group’s studies of expert problem-solving by scientists has provided insights for how to achieve both these goals.  We have identified a set of 29 specific decisions that frame the process by which successful physicists and other scientists solve authentic problems in their fields.  I will present how to provide practice and feedback in making these decisions to develop advanced students into skilled physicists. I will also discuss how structuring an introductory college physics course around solving real-world problems following a template based on a subset of these problem-solving decisions allowed more students to succeed, regardless of their prior physics background.

Biography: Carl Wieman is a Professor of Physics and Education at Stanford University. Wieman has conducted extensive experimental research in atomic physics (Nobel Prize in physics, 2001) and university science and engineering education (Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year, 2004). He founded PhET, which provides online interactive simulations that are used 100 million times/year to learn science, and published a book, Improving How Universities Teach Science: Lessons from the Science Education Initiative (2017). He is currently studying expertise and problem-solving in science and engineering disciplines, and how this can be better measured and taught. Most recently, he was awarded the 2020 Yidan International Prize for Education Research.