Physics Education
We present a programmatic study of physicists' and astronomers' attitudes toward education and public outreach (EPO) using 131 survey responses from members of the Dark Energy Survey. We find a disparity between the types of EPO activities…
In April 2019, Aycock et al. published "Sexual harassment reported by undergraduate female physicists" in Phys. Rev. PER. Their main finding is that 3/4 of undergraduate women in physics in the U.S. report experiencing sexual harassment.…
This theoretical paper introduces a new way to view and characterize teaching and learning astronomy. It describes a framework, based on results from empirical data, analyzed through standard qualitative research methodology, in which a…
Instructors in introductory physics courses often use labs and demonstrations to reinforce that the physics equations introduced in lectures and textbooks describe what actually happens in the real world. The surface features and…
The use of Data Retrieval Tests (DRTs), as an alternative to physics laboratory notebook marking, is discussed. The implementation of a Moodle-based, on-line DRT for 1st year physics students is described. The advantages of using such a…
Physics education researchers have developed many evidence-based instructional strategies to enhance physics students' conceptual learning. These strategies have historically been tested using assessments such as the Force Concept Inventory…
To help faculty use research-based materials in a more significant way, we learn about their perceived needs and desires and use this information to suggest ways for the Physics Education Research community to address these needs. When…
There are a plethora of concept inventories in physics available for faculty to use, but it is not always clear exactly why you would use these tests, or how you should administer them and interpret the results. These multiple-choice…
A ball on a stick is a common and simple activity for teaching the phases of the Moon. This activity, like many others in physics and astronomy, gives students a perspective they otherwise could only imagine. For Moon phases, a third person…
We investigated the intersectional nature of race/racism and gender/sexism in broad scale inequities in physics student learning using a critical quantitative intersectionality. To provide transparency and create a nuanced picture of…
This paper demonstrates a variation on the classic Kundt's tube experiment for measuring the speed of sound. The speed of sound in air is measured using a smartphone and a cardboard tube, making the experiment very economical in terms of…
This Resource Letter provides a guide to research-based assessment instruments (RBAIs) for physics and astronomy classes, but goes beyond physics and astronomy topics to include: attitudes and beliefs about physics, epistemologies and…
Physics education research has used quantitative modeling techniques to explore learning, affect, and other aspects of physics education. However, these studies have rarely examined the predictive output of the models, instead focusing on…
Calls for reform to instructional labs means many instructors and departments are facing the daunting task of identifying goals for their introductory lab courses. Fortunately, the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) released a…
Upper-division physics students spend much of their time solving problems. In addition to their basic skills and background, their epistemic framing can form an important part of their ability to learn physics from these problems.…
In its most general form, a `secret objective' is any inconsistency between the experimental reality and the information provided to students prior to starting work on an experiment. Students are challenged to identify the secret objectives…
It is a well-studied notion that women are under-represented in the physical sciences, with a "leaky pipeline" metaphor describing how the number of women decreases at higher levels in academia[1,2]. It is unclear, however, where the major…
These few pages briefly present the way in which Activity Theory has been adopted for several years now by French researchers in didactics of mathematics and has been adapted to study the learning of school mathematics in relation with the…
It can be a challenge to come up with simple demonstrations of circular motion and conservation of energy. One such demonstration consists of a large exercise ball, off of which a small solid or hollow ball is rolled. The small balls are…
We have studied the impact of incoming preparation and demographic variables on student performance on the final exam in physics 1, the standard introductory, calculus-based mechanics course This was done at three different institutions…