BLiSS Physics: A Studio Physics Course for Life Science Students

Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences (IPLS) courses are gaining momentum in the physics education community, with the creation of multiple curricula for a variety of implementation strategies. At Michigan State University, we have designed an integrated lab-lecture (studio style) introductory physics course that meets the needs of life science students. Our design of this course focused on (1) connecting the disciplines of physics, biology, and chemistry through designing authentic tasks for students in collaboration with biophysicists, (2) incorporating computational simulations that model complex biological phenomenon, and (3) building positive relationships for life science students with physics. This poster will describe our overarching approach to the design of this course, share example curricular materials for manifesting these design goals in the classroom and describe some of the ongoing research on this course.