Tor Ole Odden from the Center for Computing in Science Education at UiO holds a guest lecture on how to use computation to engage students in creative research-like activities in physics courses.
Title: Teaching Physics Creatively using Computational Essays
Abstract: Physics is a creative discipline, but the ways we teach physics often don't reflect this creativity. Many students have to wait until late in their bachelors degree, or even well into a masters degree, before they are able to take creative ownership over their work. At the Center for Computing in Science Education, we have spent the last 6 years exploring how computation can help students to engage in creative research-like activities early in their physics careers. Using a teaching tool known as a computational essay, designed and developed at UiO, we have supported students in doing independent computational research projects and presenting them to their peers. We have also studied the effects of these experiences on their views of physics and development of physics computational literacy. In this talk, I will describe what computational essays are, how we have used them in our teaching, and what we have learned about the importance of creative work in becoming a physicist.