Programming Skills and Computational Thinking in-Context: 6.0001 and 6.0002 taught in coordination with MIT's Physics GIRs (Year Two)

This proposal is for continued funding for the Experimental Study Group (ESG) to develop materials and teach experimental sections of 6.0001 and 6.0002 in tandem with MIT’s Physics GIRs. This pilot program, envisaged to extend over three years, consists of teaching ES.801 (8.01) paired with sections of 6.0001 (Python) in the fall term, and teaching ES.802 (8.02) paired with one section of 6.0002 (the continuation of 6.0001) in the spring term. Students enroll in both subjects and receive separate course grades for each subject. The first semester of this pilot is currently underway. We had planned for a single section of this 6.0001/8.01 pilot for this fall, but due to unexpectedly great student interest, we increased the offering to two sections to accommodate 20 first-year students (approximately 50% of students taking 8.01 in ESG). In this proposal we seek funds to continue the development of this initiative, specifically to develop materials for the paired offering of 6.0002 and 8.02, and for the teaching of pilot in both fall and spring terms of academic year 2022-2023. One product will be a library of problems that connect and combine basic computation in Python with basic concepts in the Physics GIRs.