Challenges and opportunities for informal physics learning in the COVID era

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted every aspect of academic activity, including the informal education and public engagement efforts of physics departments and institutions. As part of a large-scale national survey of the landscape of informal physics education programs, we have conducted a...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Michael B. Bennett, Kathleen A. Hinko, Dena Izadi
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: American Physical Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/30501c876d634fb797a445b3d755befe
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted every aspect of academic activity, including the informal education and public engagement efforts of physics departments and institutions. As part of a large-scale national survey of the landscape of informal physics education programs, we have conducted a series of short interviews with directors and facilitators for a variety of programs in order to create a snapshot of whether and how programs have been able to adapt to the challenges and risks of the pandemic. Broadly, we find that programs are struggling to maintain any activity at all, and that those programs still in operation have relied largely on the efforts of individual director or facilitators to make substantial adaptations. Additionally, we find that those programs that have been most successful in maintaining activity benefit from strong, ongoing institutional support; we present the findings of this study both to complement existing research on formal spaces and to advocate for the continued support of informal physics education, which continues to play a crucial role in connecting departments to the public.