Introductory physics labs are a little different at Cornell. Instead of doing labs that demonstrate physics concepts they already know to be true, first-year physics students conduct experiments to discover answers for themselves. This approach, developed through eight years of active learning work at Cornell, emphasizes how experimental physics works and builds skills and understanding, said Natasha Holmes, the Ann S. Bowers Associate Professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. 

Experts see peer recognition as important to student success in physics, and a new study gives college-level physics instructors insight into how students perceive the message from their classmates that “you’re good at physics.”

If “femininity” and “physicist” cannot coexist even in Barbieland, how are we ever to support their coexistence in the real world, Natasha Holmes asks.

Natasha Holmes has been named Ann S. Bowers Associate Professor, and Kin Fai Mak is the inaugural Josephson Family Professor. These professorships are possible because of generous gifts from alumni, parents and friends. Those gifts allow the College to replace retiring faculty, recruit stellar new faculty and recognize and retain mid-career and senior faculty to provide leadership across the disciplines and in areas of strategic importance.

"Enter an education-focused position directly as a new faculty member, as did Natasha Holmes, a physics-education researcher at Cornell who studies the efficacy of laboratory courses. “There are more and more graduate students coming up the pipeline now,” says Holmes, another Wieman protégé."

A team led by Natasha Holmes, the Ann S. Bowers Assistant Professor, set out to interview and survey physics undergraduates to see what role their preferences play in the well-documented gender disparities in physics lab courses.