  Physics can be seen as a conceptual approach to scientific problems, a method
for discovery, but teaching this aspect of our discipline can be a challenge.
We report on a first-time remote teaching experience for a computational
physics third-year physics laboratory class taught in the first part of the
2020 COVID-19 pandemic (March-May 2020). To convey a ``physics of data"
approach to data analysis and data-driven physical modeling we used
interdisciplinary data sources, with an openended ``COVID-19 data challenge"
project as the core of the course. COVID-19 epidemiological data provided an
ideal setting for motivating the students to deal with complex problems, where
there is no unique or preconceived solution. Our results indicate that such
problems yield qualitatively different improvements compared to close-ended
projects, as well as point to critical aspects in using these problems as a
teaching strategy. By breaking the students' expectations of unidirectionality,
remote teaching provided unexpected opportunities to promote active work and
active learning.
