Physics Education
The development of higher education is very rapid rise to the tight competition both public universities and private colleges. XYZ University realized to win the competition, required continuous quality improvement, including the quality of…
We present the second edition of a Best Practices Guide for academic departments and other institutions striving to create more inclusive environments for physicists and astronomers in the LGBT+ community. Our recommendations incorporate…
The CosmicWatch Desktop Muon Detector is a self-contained, hand-held cosmic ray muon detector that is valuable for astro/particle physics research applications and outreach. The material cost of each detector is under $100 and it takes a…
We report the results of statistical analysis performed on course grades for calculus-based introductory physics for data collected over a four-year period. We consider two important categories of scores: proctored (in-class proctored exams…
We profiled three aspects of MOOCs from the perspective of viewing behaviors, the most prominent and common ones of MOOC learning. They were learner classification, course attraction, teaching order and learning order. Based on viewing…
Evidence from the research literature indicates that both audience response systems (ARS) and guided inquiry worksheets (GIW) can lead to greater student engagement, learning, and equity in the STEM classroom. We compare the use of these…
Fundamental concepts of thermodynamics rely on abstract physical quantities such as energy, heat and entropy, which play an important role in the process of interpreting thermal phenomena and statistical mechanics. However, these quantities…
The quantum mechanical commutation relations, which are directly related to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, have a crucial importance for understanding the quantum mechanics of students. During undergraduate level courses, the…
Equations are about more than computing physical quantities or constructing formal models; they are also about understanding. The conceptual systems physicists use to think about nature are made from many different resources, formal and…
Perfect fractals are mathematical objects that, because they are generated by recursive processes, have self-similarity and infinite complexity. In particular, they also have a fractional dimension. Although several proposals for the study…
Measuring student learning is a complicated but necessary task for understanding the effectiveness of instruction and issues of equity in college STEM courses. Our investigation focused on the implications on claims about student learning…
We describe a simple experimental apparatus which allows one to observe the wave properties of light in a new way. This apparatus also makes possible to introduce and illustrate, in a very suggestive way, some fundamental principles of…
Light Polarization has many technological applications and its discovery was crucial to reveal the transverse nature of the electromagnetic waves. However, despite its fundamental and practical importance, in high school this property of…
Pencasts are videos of problem solving with narration by the problem solver. Pedagogically, students can create pencasts to illustrate their own problem solving to the instructor or to their peers. Pencasts have implications for teaching at…
For the last four years, the School of Physics at Georgia Tech have been preparing new Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) through a program that integrates pedagogy, physics content, and professional development strategies. Here we discuss…
Cognitive load theory (CLT) provides us guiding principles in the design of learning materials. CLT differentiates three different kinds of cognitive load -- intrinsic, extraneous and germane load. Intrinsic load is related to the learning…
In the present article the necessity of introducing the teaching of time from the first educative stages is defended through a didactic process in which a feedback is produced between its chronological dimension (perception and measuring of…
In this article we offer an analysis of the practical and theoretical paradigm of media education as a fundamental pedagogical model for the adequate development of the current methods of digital literacy. In a society dominated by the flow…
We investigate the utility of two qualitative measures of equity. Our data are videos of groups of first-generation and Deaf or hard-of-hearing students in a pre-matriculation university program designed to help them persist in STEM fields…
Expressing physics problems in the form of a mathematical model is one of the most important stages in the problem-solving process. Particularly in algebraic symbolization, understanding the meanings of signs and being able to manipulate…