Physics Education
Favorable outcomes from ongoing research at the University of Colorado Boulder on student learning in junior-level electrostatics (E&M I) have led us to extend this work to upper-division electrodynamics (E&M II). We describe here our…
We describe and discuss an experimental set-up which allows undergraduate and graduate students to view and study magnetic levitation on a type-I superconductor. The demonstration can be repeated many times using one readily available 25…
As part of a comprehensive effort to transform our undergraduate physics laboratories and evaluate the impacts of these efforts, we have developed the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS). The…
Utilizing the integral expression of Coulomb's Law to determine the electric potential from a continuous charge distribution is a canonical exercise in Electricity and Magnetism (E&M). In this study, we use both think-aloud interviews and…
At the University of Colorado Boulder, as part of our broader efforts to transform middle- and upper-division physics courses, we research students' difficulties with particular concepts, methods, and tools in classical mechanics,…
Research in student knowledge and learning of science has typically focused on explaining conceptual change. Recent research, however, documents the great degree to which student thinking is dynamic and context-sensitive, implicitly calling…
In the 1960s, Tanzanian student Erasto Mpemba and his teacher published an article with the title "Cool" in the journal Physics Education (Mpemba, E. B. - Osborne, D. G.: Cool?. In: Physics Education, vol.4, 1969, pp. 172-175.). In this…
Sports are a popular and effective way to illustrate physics principles. Baseball in particular presents a number of opportunities to motivate student interest and teach concepts. Several articles have appeared in this journal on this…
A simple visual representation of Minkowski spacetime appropriate for a student with a background in geometry and algebra is presented. Minkowski spacetime can be modeled with a Euclidean 4-space to yield accurate visualizations as…
Google Earth is a huge source of interesting illustrations of various natural phenomena. It can represent a valuable tool for science education, not only for teaching geography and geology, but also physics. Here we suggest that Google…
We have established a program aimed to the development of small computer applications and web applets to be used for educational purposes and to teach gravitational waves physics and technology, and for the general gravitational wave…
We describe an experiment in superconductivity suitable for an advanced undergraduate laboratory. Point-contact spectroscopy is performed by measuring the differential conductance between an electrochemically etched gold tip and a 100-nm…
We have found that non-STEM majors taking either a conceptual physics or astronomy course at two regional comprehensive institutions score significantly lower pre-instruction on the Lawson's Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (LCTSR) in…
The Physics Education Group at the University of Washington is examining the extent to which students are able to use graphs of potential energy vs. position to infer kinematic and dynamic quantities for a system. The findings indicate that…
The perspectives of introductory classical physics students can often negatively influence how those students later interpret quantum phenomena when taking an introductory course in modern physics. A detailed exploration of student…
A common learning goal for modern physics instructors is for students to recognize a difference between the experimental uncertainty of classical physics and the fundamental uncertainty of quantum mechanics. Our prior work has shown that…
We provide a simple approach for the evaluation of inverse integral transforms that does not require any knowledge of complex analysis. The central idea behind the method is to reduce the inverse transform to the solution of an ordinary…
We use the theories of identity statuses and communities of practice to describe three different case studies of students finding their paths through undergraduate physics and developing a physics subject-specific identity. Each case study…
In this meta-analysis, we synthesize the results of 24 studies using the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) and the Maryland Physics Expectations Survey (MPEX) to answer several questions: (1) How does physics…
This report discusses our experience in implementing nontraditional teaching approach of General Physics and Calculus courses at Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea. We endeavour to improve the students' learning skills both inside and…