PERC 2016 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | Attitudes of Life Science Majors Towards Computational Modeling in Introductory Physics |
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| Abstract: | Biological and health care majors comprise one of the largest populations of students enrolled in physics courses each year. Because of this, there is a growing interest within the physics and biology communities to restructure the introductory physics courses for life science majors to better support the needs of these students. In this context, computational modeling could prove to be an accessible and compelling tool for exploring biologically and medically relevant phenomena within in the physics course. As a first step, we conducted an exploratory study to help us learn about life-science majors' attitudes towards programming. Our observations suggest that while these students held an apprehension towards programming, they appeared to be more receptive towards spreadsheets, suggesting that this tool could provide an accessible way to scaffold more rigorous computational modeling tasks in the classroom. |
| Abstract Type: | Contributed Poster Presentation |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Brandon Lunk Texas State University 749 Comanche St. Roy F. Mitte Bldg 3240 San Marcos, TX 78666 |
| Co-Author(s) and Co-Presenter(s) |
Robert Beichner, North Carolina State University |
Contributed Poster | |
| Contributed Poster: | Download the Contributed Poster |
