NEXUS/Physics: Rethinking Physics for Biology and Pre-­‐med Students Edward F. Redish1, Chris Bauer3, Karen Carleton1, Todd, Cooke1, Melanie Cooper4, Catherin Crouch5, Benjamin W. Dreyfus1, Benjamin D. Geller1, Julia Gouvea1,2, John Gianini1, Mike Klymkowsky6, Wolfgang Losert1, Kim Moore1, Joelle Presson1, VashV Sawtelle1, Katrina Thompson1, Chandra Turpen1, Royce Zia7 1 University of Maryland, College Park 2 University of California, Davis 3 University of New Hampshire 4 Michigan State University 5 Swarthmore University 6 University of Colorado 7 Virginia Tech Responding to a Call for Change A Team of Interdisciplinary Experts •  7 Physicists •  4 Biologists •  3 Biology EducaVon Specialists •  Biology students are becoming a significant proporVon of the service load of a physics department – enough that we should provide a course that meets their needs. •  Biologist are calling for [1][2] •  Redesign the physics for biologists course so that it has authenVc value for biology students – in both content and skill development [3][4][5] •  PosiVon the course within the biology curriculum Development Team •  Be`er development of scienVfic competencies •  More coherence among the disciplines • 
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•  Project NEXUS – A mulV-­‐university demonstraVon project created by HHMI to provide science courses for a biology major •  Physics (UMCP) •  Chemistry (Purdue) •  Math for Bio (UMBC) •  Capstone Synthesis (Miami U) 3 Physicists 4 Biologists 2 Chemists 3 EducaVon Specialists (Phys, Bio, Chem) -­‐C
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•  Assume will be taken in the second year •  Chem, Bio, and Calculus as prerequisites •  7 Physicists •  1 Biologist •  2 Chemistry EducaVon Researchers s ant
•  InnovaVve content focused on the need to support student learning •  View the development as an iteraVve process where research with student response to the curriculum informs what we do in the next iteraVon [6] •  Maintain criVcal components – quanVficaVon, mathemaVcal modeling, mechanism, mulVple representaVons and coherence (among others) O
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s Semester 1 Change of Topics from a TradiVonal Introductory Physics Class Goals for the Course Coherence-­‐seeking between Biology components of HW Assignments How Big is a Protein Math MoVon of a vesicle KinemaLcs Scaling a Worm Cat & Antelope Blood and Breath Moving through a cell /Listeria Dynamics Force Problems FricVon The DNA Problems spring Exam Review Wood-­‐
pecker Water coat force / DNA charge Arteries / Speed of blood PIP2 Exam 1 Dynamics Macro Moving a Para-­‐
mecium Electric forces: H bonding Electro-­‐
phoresis Exam Review None Bound States / Deeper Well Energy Exam 2 Cell Gas properVes & polarizaVon pressure (diffusion) Muscle Contract / Thermal-­‐
chemical Diffusion Thermodynamics Fluid flow Energy Skate Park in arteries Protein Unfolding Temp. RegulaVon Semester 2 Include atomic and molecular examples from the beginning Expand the treatment of thermodynamics Intro Thermo PE analogs Evap. for chem. Membrane rxns Fields and potenVals DNA Shielding Capacitance Exam Review in Nerve Cells Electricity How a Kinesin Random walk Membrane 1 Membrane 2 walks and entropy What’s “free” about free energy? Membrane model Exam 1 DNA SalVng Out Electric circuits VibraVons Fourier construcVon of wave shapes Waves Nernst equaVon Diatomic VibraVons Modeling Exam Review chromophores Light Pulses and SHO IntroducVon to opVcs Ex 2 Spectroscopy Light/ma`er interacVon Micro-­‐ scope DNA and photons The chemical reacVon of ATP hydrolysis is the primary source of energy in basic biological metabolic processes. Pusng in a small amount of energy allows one to break a phospate bond in ATP. That phosphate then bonds with the surrounding water, forming a strong bond and releasing usable energy. • 
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Being explicit about modeling and models System schema ExplicaVng the value of “toy models” Vision Include discussions of kineVc theory, diffusion, and randomness An Examples of New Content: Understanding Chemical Bond Energy [8] RepresentaVon translaVon Choosing when to make representaVons How representaVons display informaVon Building mathemaVcal competence: Thinking with mathemaVcs New Laboratories [7] Light Photosyn-­‐
thesis Biology-­‐linked Group Problem-­‐Solving Tasks Eliminate rotaVons, angular momentum and magneVsm • 
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Modeling Biology components of HW Assignments Polymer folding / EvoluVon •  Physics topics (“crossing chapters”) •  Physics, biology, and chemistry •  Physics and everyday knowledge (“feet on the ground”) Meta-­‐representaVonal competence Micro-­‐states Biology-­‐linked Group Problem-­‐Solving Tasks Enthalpy of simple molecules NEXUS/Physics: Using a Research & Design Approach to Build an Interdisciplinary Course •  Develop student research skills •  Focus on Sensemaking •  Focus on Experimental Design •  Focus on the Value of QuanVficaVon •  Convey a modern view of physics •  Use modern equipment and tools •  Foster interdisciplinary transfer •  “What biology do you learn from a physical measurement?” For more info: hNp://nexusphysics.umd.edu Biology students all know that “ATP is the currency of biological energy” but oten have a weak understanding of mechanism. Many think bonds “store” energy and release it when broken (“Piñata model”). We build the connecVon from basic physics concepts to help them understand chemical bonding and exothermic reacVons in a more effecVvely. Two students discussing the process of ATP hydrolysis (ATP + H2O  ADP + Pi) make the following comments:
Justin: “The O-P bond in ATP is called a ‘high-energy bond’ because the energy released when ATP
is hydrolyzed is large. That released energy can be used to do useful things in the body that require
energy, like making a muscle contract.”
Kim: “I thought chemical bonds like the O-P bond in ATP could be modeled
by a potential energy curve like this, where r is the distance between the O
and the P. If that’s the case, then breaking the O-P bond in ATP would require
me to input energy. I might not have to input much energy to break it, if that O-P
happens to be a weak bond, but shouldn’t I have to input at least some energy?”
How did Kim infer from the PE graph that breaking the O-P bond requires
an input of energy? Who’s right? Or can you reconcile their statements?
Exam essay ques+on References [1] NRC: Commi`ee on Undergraduate Biology EducaVon to Prepare Research ScienVsts for the 21st Century, Bio 2010: Transforming Undergraduate Educa8on for Future Research Biologists (Natl Academy Pr, 2003). [2] Scien8fic Founda8ons for Future Physicians: Report of the AAMC-­‐HHMI Commi`ee (AAMC/HHMI, 2009). [3] Watkins, Coffey, Redish, & Cooke, “Disciplinary AuthenVcity: Enriching the reform of introductory physics courses for life science students”, Phys. Rev. STPER, 8, 010112. [4] Meredith & Redish, ReinvenVng Physics for Life Science Majors, Physics Today 66 (2013) 38. [5] (authors of this poster) “NEXUS/Physics: An interdisciplinary repurposing of physics for biologists,” to be published in Am. J. Phys. (summer 2014) [6] Svoboda, Sawtelle, Geller, & Turpen, “A framework for analyzing interdisciplinary tasks: ImplicaVons for student learning and curricular design,” CBE-­‐LSE 12 (2013) 187. [7] Moore, Gianini, & Losert, “ Toward be`er physics labs for future biologists,” to be published in Am. J. Phys. (summer 2014) [8] Dreyfus, Geller, Gouvea, Sawtelle, Turpen & Redish, “Chemical energy in an introductory course for the life sciences,” Am. J. Phys. (2014) in press Acknowledgments This work is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE 0750616), NSF-­‐TUES DUE 11-­‐22818, and the HHMI NEXUS grant. Many thanks to the University of Maryland Physics EducaVon Research Group (PERG) and Biology EducaVon Research Group (BERG). Contact: [email protected]