Innovating Physics Education: The Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) Approach and Mastering Physics Strategies for Success
Discover how to engage physics students in active, inquiry-based learning that mirrors scientific practice via the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) with author Eugenia Etkina.
Eugenia Etkina, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University
Scott Hildreth, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Chabot College
Join author Eugenia Etkina for an inspiring webinar as she discusses the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE), the pedagogical approach that sits at the heart of her text College Physics: Explore and Apply and its supplementary resources. This framework is designed to promote active, inquiry-based learning and only facilitates content mastery but also enables students to become expert problem solvers who design and evaluate their own experiments, communicate effectively, and, most importantly, view physics as a process based on evidence rather than a set of rules from a textbook. Through group work, experiments, non-traditional physics problems, and real-world applications, the ISLE philosophy engages students in learning physics by doing physics.
About the speakers
Eugenia Etkina, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University
Eugenia Etkina is a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She holds a PhD in physics education from Moscow State Pedagogical University and has more than 35 years experience teaching physics. She is a recipient of 2014 Millikan Medal awarded to educators who made significant contributions to teaching physics, and a fellow of the AAPT. Professor Etkina designed and now coordinates one of the largest programs in physics teacher preparation in the United States, conducts professional development for high school and university physics instructors, and participates in reforms to the undergraduate physics courses. In 1993 she developed a system in which students learn physics using processes that mirror scientific practice. That system, called Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) serves as the basis for this textbook. Since 2000, Professors Etkina has conducted over 100 workshops for physics instructors and co-authored the first edition of College Physics and the Active Learning Guide. Professor Etkina is a dedicated teacher and an active researcher who has published over 60 peer-refereed articles.
Scott Hildreth, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Chabot College
Scott Hildreth is Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Chabot College in Hayward, California, where he taught for 35 years, and served for more than 25 years as department chair. He developed one of the first fully online classes in Astronomy in 1995, and has been an active user and evaluator of Mastering Physics and Astronomy from their inception. Scott was named in 2021 as one of the first Community College Faculty in the country invited to participate as a NASA Airborne Astronomy Ambassador for SOFIA, and has worked with NASA to develop lab activities using data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. He curates resources for teaching in NASA’s Community College Network project managed by SETI, and his current research interests include LIGO and the continued development and evaluation of online teaching and learning resources.