Physics Education
This work is basically about the general form of Newton's second law for variable mass problems. We develop a model for describing the motion of the one-dimensional oscillator with a variable mass within the framework of classroom physics.…
Constructed-response (CR) questions are a mainstay of introductory physics textbooks and exams. However, because of time, cost, and scoring reliability constraints associated with this format, CR questions are being increasingly replaced by…
We use a tablet to determine experimentally the dependencies of the magnetic field (B) on the electrical current and on the axial distance from a coil (z). Our data shows a good precision on the inverse cubic dependence of the magnetic…
Teaching the general theory of relativity to high school or undergraduate students must be based on an approach that is conceptual rather than mathematical. In this paper we present such an approach that requires no more than elementary…
We present a new model, and the validating experiments, that unveil the rich physics behind the flight of a conductive ring in the Thomson experiment, a physics veiled by the fast thrust that impels the ring. We uncover interesting features…
We report the conceptual inventory results of a large-scale assessment project at a large university. We studied an attempt at introducing materials and instructional methods informed by physics education research (PER-informed materials)…
In this paper we explore the theory of communities of practice in the context of a physics college course and in particular the classroom environment of an advanced laboratory. We introduce the idea of elements of a classroom community…
The increasing use of interactive learning strategies in Astro 101 classrooms has led some instructors to consider the usefulness of a textbook in such classes. These strategies provide students a learning modality very different from the…
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) require teachers to understand aspects of energy degradation and the second law of thermodynamics, including energy's availability and usefulness, changes in energy concentration, and the…
We show how to exploit instrumentation available in undergraduate student laboratories to build a simple vectorial bridge. In particular we take advantage from the possibility to read data from a digital oscilloscope with a personal…
We present an easily reproducible, open-source, sound card based experimental set-up to support transfer function measurement. Our system is able to visualize signals of mechanical and electrical resonances and their spectra in real time.…
In response to national calls to better align physics laboratory courses with the way physicists engage in research, we have developed an epistemology and expectations survey to assess how students perceive the nature of physics experiments…
With advocates like Sal Khan and Bill Gates, flipped classrooms are attracting an increasing amount of media and research attention. We had heard Khan's TED talk and were aware of the concept of inverted pedagogies in general. Yet, it…
The increased use of multiple-choice (MC) questions in introductory-level physics final exams is largely hindered by reservations about its ability to test the broad cognitive domain that is routinely accessed with typical…
This article presents the results of the first survey conducted in Belgium about the interest and knowledge in astronomy. Two samples were studied, the public at large (667 questionnaires) and students (2589 questionnaires), but the results…
We have developed a set of laboratories and hands on activities to accompany a new two-semester interdisciplinary physics course that has been successfully developed and tested in two small test classes of students at the University of…
As the frontiers of biology become increasingly interdisciplinary, the physics education community has engaged in ongoing efforts to make physics classes more relevant to life sciences majors. These efforts are complicated by the many…
We present results from a study that categorizes and assesses the quality of questions and explanations authored by students, in question repositories produced as part of the summative assessment in introductory physics courses over the…
Educational technology has attained significant importance as a mechanism for supporting experiential learning of science concepts. However, the growth of this mechanism is limited by the significant time and technical expertise needed to…
The Test of Understanding Graphs in Kinematics (TUG-K) is a multiple choice test developed by Beichner in 1994 to assess students' understanding of kinematics graphs. Many of the items on the TUG-K have strong distractor choices which…