Students' reasoning about interdisciplinarity

Geller, Benjamin D.; Dreyfus, Benjamin W.; Sawtelle, Vashti; Svoboda, Julia; Turpen, Chandra; Redish, Edward F.

doi:10.1063/1.4789673

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…(Gregor's and other students' views on the relationships between the disciplines are explored further in Ref. [58].) When Gregor says "scale," he is not talking about physical scale, but about whether we are looking at the breaking of a bond on its own (which requires an input of energy) or the ATP hydrolysis reaction as a whole (which releases energy).…”

Section: B Interview Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ reasoning about “high-energy bonds” and ATP: A vision of interdisciplinary education

Dreyfus

Sawtelle

Turpen

et al. 2014

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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As interdisciplinary courses are developed, instructors and researchers have to grapple with questions of how students should make connections across disciplines. We explore the issue of interdisciplinary reconciliation (IDR): how students reconcile seemingly contradictory ideas from different disciplines. While IDR has elements in common with other frameworks for the reconciliation of ideas across contexts, it differs in that each disciplinary idea is considered canonically correct within its own discipline. The setting for the research is an introductory physics course for biology majors that seeks to build greater interdisciplinary coherence and therefore includes biologically relevant topics such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and chemical bond energy. In our case-study data, students grapple with the apparent contradiction between the energy released when the phosphate bond in ATP is broken and the idea that an energy input is required to break a bond. We see students justifying context-dependent modeling choices, showing nuance in articulating how system choices may be related to disciplinary problems of interest. This represents a desired end point of IDR, in which students can build coherent connections between concepts from different disciplines while understanding each concept in its own disciplinary context. Our case study also illustrates elements of the instructional environment that play roles in the process of IDR.

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Section: B Interview Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ reasoning about “high-energy bonds” and ATP: A vision of interdisciplinary education

Dreyfus

Sawtelle

Turpen

et al. 2014

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…(Gregor's and other students' views on the relationships between the disciplines are explored further in another paper. [8]) In this case, he is not talking about physical scale, but about whether we are looking at the breaking of a bond on its own (which requires an input of energy) or the ATP hydrolysis reaction as a whole (which releases energy).…”

Section: "Because I Guess Like In Biology It's Not As Important To Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students' interdisciplinary reasoning about "high-energy bonds" and ATP

Dreyfus

Geller

Sawtelle

et al. 2013

AIP Conference Proceedings

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Abstract. Students' sometimes contradictory ideas about ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and the nature of chemical bonds have been studied in the biology and chemistry education literatures, but these topics are rarely part of the introductory physics curriculum. We present qualitative data from an introductory physics course for undergraduate biology majors that seeks to build greater interdisciplinary coherence and therefore includes these topics. In these data, students grapple with the apparent contradiction between the energy released when the phosphate bond in ATP is broken and the idea that an energy input is required to break a bond. We see that students' perceptions of how each scientific discipline bounds the system of interest can influence how they justify their reasoning about a topic that crosses disciplines. This has consequences for a vision of interdisciplinary education that respects disciplinary perspectives while bringing them into interaction in ways that demonstrate consistency amongst the perspectives.

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Introductory Physics for Life Sciences: Preparing and Engaging Students through Authentic Interdisciplinary Connections

Crouch

Geller

2023

The International Handbook of Physics Education Research: Learning Physics

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We review the history, design principles, development, associated theoretical frameworks, and assessment of the group of curricula known as Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences (IPLS)—introductory physics courses designed for life science majors and pre-health students. IPLS courses were introduced in response to calls from the life science and medical community for improved physical sciences training for undergraduates in their fields, and the primary goal of such courses is to make meaningful connections between physics and the life sciences. Although much more assessment is needed, the work that has been done documents success toward the core goals of (1) helping students value physics as a meaningful component of understanding the life sciences, (2) developing students' abilities to use physics to analyze and model biological phenomena, and (3) developing students' interdisciplinary identity and sense of competence with physics. We also identify future work needed, ranging from further evaluation of student work and motivation to the development of appropriate assessments for topics not traditionally covered in the introductory course. We describe how this work contributes to the broader DBER enterprise, such as in the development of tools to evaluate interdisciplinary learning.

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Students' reasoning about interdisciplinarity

Cited by 5 publications

References 4 publications

Students’ reasoning about “high-energy bonds” and ATP: A vision of interdisciplinary education

Students’ reasoning about “high-energy bonds” and ATP: A vision of interdisciplinary education

Students' interdisciplinary reasoning about "high-energy bonds" and ATP

Introductory Physics for Life Sciences: Preparing and Engaging Students through Authentic Interdisciplinary Connections

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