Student experiences in a computational physics lab through the lens of Physics Computational Literacy

TL;DR

This study explores upper division students' experiences in a computational physics lab, revealing how they develop computational literacy and the influence of individual and social factors on their learning processes.

Contribution

It introduces an analysis of student experiences in computational physics education using the framework of Physics Computational Literacy, highlighting individual and social learning dynamics.

Findings

Students make tradeoffs between different aspects of computational literacy.

Approaches to developing social computational literacy vary among students.

Unspoken assumptions influence how students develop computational skills.

Abstract

Computational physics is a key part of what it means to do physics in the twenty-first century. However, upper division computational physics remains a largely understudied area. We set out to understand the experiences of students in an upper division computational physics lab course. To that end we conducted semi-structured interviews with five students at the end of their second of three terms in the course sequence. We then analyzed these interviews utilizing the emerging framework of Physics Computational Literacy. We found that the way students express how they learn computational physics implies they are making tradeoffs between their development of the different aspects of computational literacy. Additionally, we found that how students approach developing social computational literacy varies across individuals, and is driven by unspoken assumptions.