Physics Education
The ability to construct, use, and revise models is a crucial experimental physics skill. Many existing frameworks describe modeling in science education at introductory levels. However, most have limited applicability to the context of…
The Georgia Tech blended introductory calculus-based mechanics course emphasizes scientific communication as one of its learning goals, and to that end, we gave our students a series of four peer-evaluation assignments intended to develop…
In the Fall of 2013, Georgia Tech offered a 'flipped' calculus-based introductory mechanics class as an alternative to the traditional large-enrollment lecture class. This class flipped instruction by introducing new material outside of the…
Physics Education Research frequently investigates what students studying physics do on small time scales (e.g. single courses, observations within single courses), or post-education time scales (e.g., what jobs do physics majors get?) but…
One of the objectives of the undergraduate physics curriculum is for students to become aware of the connections between the fundamental principles of classical physics and their personal experience. Nonetheless, numerous studies have shown…
We propose discussions and hands-on activities for GCSE and A-level students, covering a fundamental aspect of nuclear physics: the concept of bond and the energy released (absorbed) when a bond is created (broken). This is the first of the…
By precisely monitoring the "ticks" of Nature's most precise clocks (millisecond pulsars), scientists are trying to detect the "ripples in spacetime" (gravitational waves) produced by the inspirals of supermassive black holes in the centers…
This article details the impact arising from a sustained public-engagement activity with sixth-form students (16- to 17-year-olds) across two further education colleges during 2012/13. Measuring the impact of public engagement is…
This paper describes a cost effective and safe device to perform realistic experiments about the physics of radioactivity in classrooms. It can be used to study both $\alpha-$ and $\beta-$radioactivity as well as $\gamma-$emitters and shows…
In order to guide teaching practices in Initial and Primary Education (IPE) level, it seems fundamental to start with an epistemological and didactic analysis of the programmatic content of the Knowledge of Nature area in the curriculum…
Angular momentum is taught in every classical mechanics course. It is a difficult topic with misconceptions commonly forming significant barriers to student success. My intention in writing this paper is to combat some of the most common…
Many Physics Education Researchers have discussed the positive correlation between students' incoming mathematics skills and performance in their physics classes. Thus, in order to strengthen their performance gains in their physics…
We establish an instructive experiment to investigate the minimum time curve traveled by a small billiard ball rolling in a grooved track under gravity. Our intention is to popularize the concept of \textit{minimum time curve} anew, and to…
Across almost all scientific disciplines, the instruments that record our experimental data and the methods required for storage and data analysis are rapidly increasing in complexity. This gives rise to the need for scientific communities…
Recent studies have shown that not only primary school students but also their future teachers reach science courses with pre-constructed and consistent models of the world surrounding them. These ideas include many misconceptions which…
As large-scale international collaborations become the standard for astronomy research, a wealth of opportunities have emerged to create innovative education and public outreach (EPO) programming. In the past two decades, large…
This article is devoted to methods of construction and study of stochastic models based on Monte Carlo method. A model of Brownian motion, the construction and processing which brings to a world of random numbers and mathematical…
A self-training scheme geared at inducing students to improve their skills through independent homework is presented. The motivation is to identify an inexpensive, yet effective tool for raising the competence level of students in the…
My ten-week Massive Open Online Course "Statistical Mechanics: Algorithms and Computations", in early 2014, focused on subjects such as Monte Carlo sampling, molecular dynamics, transition phases in hard-sphere liquids, simulated annealing,…
Discussion forums provide a channel for students to engage with peers and course material outside of class, accessible even to commuter and non-traditional populations. As such, forums can build classroom community as well as aid learning,…