How practicing physicists learn physics

University of Massachusetts Boston Professor Arthur Eisenkraft believes that students learn math and science the way that practicing scientists and mathematicians do. They learn when something grabs their attention...when the content is relevant to their lives. They learn when we permit them to get their hands on the subject matter. In short, when we allow students to use all of their senses, they make sense of math and science.

Grabbing students' attention is vital. As the nation's economic base shifts increasingly toward technology, participation and achievement in science and mathematics particularly among minority students becomes increasingly important. Yet, we face the potential of a serious shortfall in the number of individuals entering these fields. All too often, usually around the middle school grades, many students, especially minority students, learn to dislike or fear science and mathematics.

Eisenkraft’s book, Quantoons, which won a 2006 Distinguished Achievement Award for Book Illustrations/Graphics from the Association of Educational Publishers, is a perfect illustration of his philosophy how to engage students. The book, published by the National Science Teachers Association, presents text by Eisenkraft and colleague Larry D. Kirkpatrick with images from internationally known illustrator Tomas Bunk.

The book was featured for six months in an exhibit at New York’s Hall of Science. The book celebrates collaboration between Eisenkraft and Kirkpatrick that began with Quantum magazine, which was published between 1989 and 2001. Their writings on physics were interpreted by Bunk, whose drawings have entertained millions of MAD magazine readers and fans of his “Garbage Pail Kids.”

“We wanted to bring challenging physics questions and their answers to a broad audience of children and adults. Tomas’s illustrations made our job that much easier,” said Eisenkraft, who created Quantum with the help of the science teachers association. “We wanted to break apart the myth that physics can’t be fun; that it is a remote subject.”

For example, a Quantoon that explores the classic physics problem of crossing a raging river and determining where you’ll land on the opposite shore is accompanied by a funny/sad metaphorical cartoon about traversing the river of life from birth to death.

Eisenkraft, UMass Boston’s Distinguished Professor of Science Education, directs the Center of Science and Math in Context. He is also a member of a team of professors and educators awarded a $12.5 million National Science Foundation Boston Science Partnership grant to re-shape science education in the Boston Public Schools.

Eisenkraft's book Active Physics (2005, It’s About Time Publishing) a text used by more than 100,000 students across the country as the backbone of a movement to revise the traditional order of science education – biology, then chemistry, then physics – to place physics at the forefront for students be they in rural, suburban or inner-city districts. The program is built on research results from studies in cognitive sciences, student assessment, student engagement, and problem-based learning. He has also authored Active Chemistry, his latest book.

A new learning model underlies Eisenkraft's work. He developed the 7E learning model to emphasize the increasing importance of eliciting prior understandings and the extending, or transfer, of concepts. The 5E learning cycle model requires instruction to include the following discrete elements: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. The proposed 7E model expands the engage element into two components—elicit and engage. Similarly, the 7E model expands the two stages of elaborate and evaluate into three components—elaborate, evaluate, and extend.

While text books offer a classical tool for educators, Eisenkraft said projects like the magazine and the illustrated book give him a chance to test new approaches aimed at getting students and teachers focused on physics.

“Projects like Quantum offer the opportunity to try to do things differently,” said Eisenkraft, who taught high school physics for 28 years and was honored as a Science Teacher of the Year. “Working with the Boston Public Schools, we are teaching the teachers of physics and science to do things differently too. We think students are going to benefit from the results.”

Eisenkraft is a member of the UMass Boston Science and Math Learning Research cluster. The goals are to investigate teaching and learning materials and methods and to apply findings to the improvement of curriculum, instruction, and learning in schools and universities.