March 12, 2026 Issue #57

SPOTLIGHT is the OPTYCs monthly newsletter. It brings you OPTYCs activity updates, highlights from recent publications related to physics education, and news & resources for Two-Year colleges.

Announcements 

You can find a list of upcoming events and of the recordings of past events on the OPTYCs calendar.

During the 2025-2026 academic year, we are offering a series of presentation-discussion-workshops to share some of the many research-validated assessment instruments used in the physics education community. Join us to learn how you can use these instruments to inform your teaching, to assess your students' learning, and to contribute to a wider body of knowledge about physics students at two-year colleges.

Upcoming events

• Astronomy Labs 2026   March 14, 2026 from 1:00pm - 3:00pm EDT

  In this workshop, I will share the lab activities and capstone projects I designed under a grant funded by NASA SCoPE, in collaboration with the NASA SCi-ACT teams of Universe of Learning (UoL) and the NASA Community College Network (NCCN). These include: galaxy visualization, the Hubble constant derivation and ladder methods, and light curves generation using photometric image analysis. Facilitator: Mojgan Haghanikar (Chicago City Colleges)

• DIRECT 2026 March 20, 2026 from 3:00pm - 4:00pm EDT
  Determining and Interpreting Resistive Electric Circuits Concepts Test (DIRECT). Description forthcoming. Facilitator: Paula Engelhardt (Tennessee Tech University)

• Pivot Interactives 2026 March 27, 2026 from 3:00pm - 4:30pm EDT
  Pivot Interactives is an online experiment platform for physics and astronomy education. Instructors can choose to use the built-in labs, modify from the community library, or create their own using Pivot’s analysis tools (such as measurement options, video tracking, and collaborative notebooks). In this workshop, participants will experience some examples from physics and astronomy classes, and see how they can build their own lab curriculum.
  Facilitators: Todd Leif (Creighton Prep) and Glenda Denicolo (Suffolk County CC).

• iSTAR 2026  April 17, 2026 from 3:00pm - 4:00pm EDT 
  Inquiry in Scientific Thinking, Analytics, and Reasoning (iSTAR). Description forthcoming. Facilitators:  

  Krista Wood (University of Cincinnati - Blue Ash College) and Kathy Koenig (University of Cincinnati)

• Launch Student Experiments with NASA May 30, 2026 from 12:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
  Learn about entry level space missions open to community college teams, how to get started, and funding options! Teresa will share a brief history of how the NASA Program came to be at College of the Canyons, the initial steps that led to her first student team payload in 2016 and how her NASA program has grown. You will also learn about 3 NASA missions in which she participates each year. Facilitator: Teresa Ciardi (College of the Canyons).

Recent events

Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) - February 20, 2026

Unistellar Citizen Science Workflow Workshop (2026-Feb-28)

Unistellar Citizen Science Asteroid Workflow

The second learning principle discussed in How Learning Works: 8 Research-based Principles for Smart Teaching (by Marsha C. Lovett, Michael W. Bridges, Michele DiPietro, Susan A. Ambrose, Marie K. Norman; Jossey-Bass) refers to prior knowledge: “Students’ prior knowledge can help or hinder learning.” Many pedagogical references I have perused refer to eliciting students’ prior knowledge as a way to connect new to existing knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking, a connection that must be made for long-term learning to occur. However, the authors are explicit in the potential impediments prior knowledge can impose, if that knowledge structure is incomplete or is inappropriate for your context. The authors also remind us that knowing what, knowing when, and knowing how are all different kinds of knowledge. When we are assessing students, it is vital that we are clear in ourselves which knowledge and what context we are testing.  

Various strategies are presented to apply the principle of students’ prior knowledge. For example, the authors recommend connecting with colleagues in pre-requisite courses to learn not only the content your students should have, but also how context and notation can differ across disciplines. Strategies to elicit appropriate prior knowledge include students creating concept maps, seeking patterns in student errors, and having students make predictions prior to the presenting of new material. It is also useful to be explicit about disciplinary conventions, to show where analogies break down, and to provide ‘rules of thumb’ for students when they first encounter new content.

How to Support Transfer Students in Physics(AIP Report)

• More than one-third of transfer students do not complete their bachelor’s degree within six years of transferring to a four-year institution, underscoring the need to understand the barriers that delay or prevent degree completion.
• Transfer students in physics reported experiencing challenges in transferring course credits, registering for courses, getting access to advising, and forming a sense of belonging at their new department.
• Physics departments can support transfer students in several ways, such as creating transfer programs with local two-year colleges and ensuring transfer students meet with an advisor during their first semester. A full list of recommendations is at the end of this report.

Tech Talks Episode 8: Building Thinking Classrooms with AI

• The American Association of Physics Teachers 
• Committee on Physics in Two-Year Colleges (AAPT area committee)
• Join the TYC Google group: Send an email to tycphysics@googlegroups.com
• PhysPort Recommendations about teaching methods, assessment, and results from PER
• PER Central A resource collection for physics education researchers 
• Physics Review Physics Education Research Fully open access journal for PER 
• arXiv Physics education The arXiv repository for physics education papers
• AIP Statistical Research Center Data on education, careers, and diversity in physics, astronomy and other physical sciences

optycs.aapt.org