Collaboration is an integral part of physics curriculum and practice. In many higher education physics programs, laboratory courses are one of the most common places for students to regularly engage in teamwork to learn and solve problems. In fact, the AAPT recommendations for labs suggest that one of the goals for students in physics labs should be to develop “interpersonal communication skills" through “teamwork and collaboration." Our group is engaging in research to understand students’ teamwork experiences in labs in order to create productive teamwork environments. Our projects include looking at both socially-shared regulation of learning and how students take on team roles in various settings:
- Graduate level team project in quantum engineering
- Senior capstone with quantum industry partners
- Multi-week, open-ended projects in an advanced lab
- High-enrollment, introductory-level, course-based undergraduate research experience
- Multi-week, open-ended design project in an introductory physics lab for engineering majors
The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program supports university-based centers and institutes where the collective efforts of a larger group of individuals can enable transformational advances in the most promising research areas. The program is designed to foster major breakthroughs at the intellectual frontiers of physics by providing needed resources such as combinations of talents, skills, disciplines, and/or specialized infrastructure, not usually available to individual investigators or small groups, in an environment in which the collective efforts of the larger group can be shown to be seminal to promoting significant progress in the science and the education of students. PFCs also include creative, substantive activities aimed at enhancing education, broadening participation of traditionally underrepresented groups, and outreach to the scientific community and general public.