MSU researchers receive NSF grant to study mathematical sensemaking in science

The Partnership for Integration of Computation into Undergraduate Physics (PICUP) has been awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program. This grant will support efforts to integrate computational methods into undergraduate physics education nationwide.

Building on previous NSF-funded projects, PICUP aims to create a robust community of computational physics educators and developers from a significant number of bachelor-granting departments and two-year colleges across the United States.

Enhancing Physics Education

The project will focus on three key objectives:

1. Curriculum Improvement: Implementing the American Physical Society (APS) and American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) curricular recommendations to enrich physics education through a supportive community-building effort.

2. Resource Development: Expanding the PICUP Resources Archive and Exercise Sets Collection into widely-used resources that will significantly impact undergraduate physics curricula nationwide.

3. Assessment and Research: Developing research-driven, valid, and reliable assessment tasks for computational physics learning goals and investigating student learning outcomes in various contexts.

Building a Thriving Community

Since its inception, PICUP has engaged nearly 200 faculty members through workshops and a community communication network. Over 600 physics faculty members have utilized PICUP-developed course materials. This new project will further develop this enthusiastic foundation to foster a larger and more diverse community of effective computational physics educators.

Impact and Inclusivity

The project aims to profoundly impact physics teaching and learning across the country by supporting faculty from diverse institutions, including historically marginalized backgrounds. The research on student learning will inform teaching practices and develop assessment tasks for widespread use in computational physics education. This NSF IUSE grant will enable PICUP to lower barriers for faculty integrating computation into their courses, leading to broader and deeper adoption of computational methods in undergraduate physics education.

For more information, please visit gopicup.org or contact Danny Caballero.