Design and Implementation of Interdisciplinary STEM Instruction: Teaching Programming by Computational Physics

Yu Tzu Lin*, Ming Tsan Wang, Cheng Chih Wu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study designs and implements interdisciplinary STEM instruction by adopting modelling-based physics programming, and explores its effectiveness on learning. A quasi-experimental study was conducted. The experimental group wrote programs to solve physics problems by following the modelling process, while the control group solved general problems without specific guidance. The findings show that the STEM group performed better on both programming and physics achievements, and had higher self-efficacy on modelling. The STEM group benefited from the modelling-based instruction and could formulate the problems to a more effective representation for problem solving (abstraction), and also could transfer the solution to more accurate code (coding), both of which contributed to programming ability. Through the modelling process for physics simulation, physics programming also improved students’ understanding of difficult physics concepts.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)77-91
Number of pages15
JournalAsia-Pacific Education Researcher
Volume28
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019 Feb 15

Keywords

  • Computational physics
  • Programming instruction
  • STEM instruction

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

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