Noah Finkelstein
UC Boulder
Physics Education in the Age of AI
Location: 1080 Physics Research Building
Faculty Host: Geraldine Cochran
Abstract: Higher education is in the midst of rapid transformation, facing great opportunities to improve access and impact, and commensurate threats around these same goals. Generative artificial intelligence—praised as a cure-all by some and feared as an existential threat by others—is one of the forces driving change. To engage with these emerging tools productively, we must connect strategic vision with practical action guided by scholarship. Drawing on decades of theoretical and experimental research in physics education, technology use, and the design of learning environments, this talk examines evidence-based strategies for how we can shape physics teaching and learning in an era of accelerating technological innovation.
Bio: Noah Finkelstein is a Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. He serves as a PI of the Physics Education Research (PER) group and was a founding co-Director Center for STEM Learning, which has served as one of eight national demonstration sites for the Association of American Universities’ (AAU) STEM Education Initiative. He co-directs the national Network of STEM Education Centers.
Finkelstein’s research focuses on studying the conditions that support students’ interest and ability in physics – developing models of context. In parallel, he conducts research on how educational transformations get taken up, spread, and sustained. These research projects range from the specifics of student learning particular concepts, to the departmental and institutional scales of sustainable educational transformation. His research has resulted in over 150 publications.
He is increasingly involved in education policy. He has testified before the US Congress on STEM education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He serves on many national boards including the Board of Trustees for the Higher Learning Commission, is a Technical Advisor to the AAU, sits on the National Academies’ Roundtable on STEM education, and very involved in the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ efforts in STEM education. He has chaired both the American Physical Society’s Committee on Education and PER Topical Group. He is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Presidential Teaching Scholar and the inaugural Timmerhaus Teaching Ambassador for the University of Colorado system.
