Related papers: Student understanding of electric and magnetic fie…
Although researchers have extensively studied student conceptions of radioactivity, the conceptions held by pre-service teachers on this subject are largely absent from the literature. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of…
This paper introduces a theory about the role of language in learning physics. The theory is developed in the context of physics students' and physicists' talking and writing about the subject of quantum mechanics. We found that physicists'…
The lecture "Atomistic Materials Modeling" is a core qualification of the master program "materials science" at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). Within the lecture, various modern methods for atomistic materials modeling are…
A clinical study was performed comparing the efficacy of multimedia learning modules with traditional textbooks for the first few topics of a calculus based introductory electricity and magnetism course. Students were randomly assigned to…
Group work is becoming increasingly common in introductory physics classrooms. Understanding how students engage in these group learning environments is important for designing and facilitating productive learning opportunities for…
The behavior of an atom in a molecule, liquid or solid is governed by the force it experiences. If the dependence of this vectorial force on the atomic chemical environment can be $learned$ efficiently with high-fidelity from benchmark…
Computer-aided design of molecules has the potential to disrupt the field of drug and material discovery. Machine learning, and deep learning, in particular, have been topics where the field has been developing at a rapid pace.…
This work examines student meaning-making in undergraduate physics problem-solving. We use a social semiotic perspective to sketch a theoretical framework. The social semiotic approach focuses on all types of meaning-making practices that…
The spontaneous organization of particles at the boundary between two fluids is a common occurrence. Scientists have extensively investigated various internal and external factors to manipulate and guide these self-assembly processes. This…
Students with disabilities are enrolling in postsecondary education in increasing numbers and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at steady rates since the early 1990s. Specifically, in 2014, the National Center on…
A thoughtless treatment of Maxwell's equations can lead to the interpretation of the existence of a causal relationship between their different terms and, therefore, that an electric field that varies in time generates a magnetic one and…
We suggest one redefinition of common clusters of questions used to analyze student responses on the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE). Our goal is to move beyond the expert/novice analysis of student learning based on…
Quantum materials hold immense promises for future applications due to their intriguing electronic, magnetic, thermal, and mechanical properties that often arise from a complex interplay between microscopic degrees of freedom. Important…
The traditional approach to studying student understanding presents a question and uses the student answers to make inferences about their knowledge. However, this method does not capture the range of possible alternative ideas available to…
Student learning in upper division thermal physics has not been studied to the same extent as in other courses like electromagnetism and quantum mechanics. Studies addressing reasoning and learning at the graduate level are even more…
In addition to being the core quantity in density functional theory, the charge density can be used in many tertiary analyses in materials sciences from bonding to assigning charge to specific atoms. The charge density is data-rich since it…
Embedded clusters, which are embedded in bulk materials and different from the surroundings in structures, should be common in materials. This paper studies resonance of such clusters. This work is stimulated by a recent experimental…
We report on the development of students' ideas of probability and probability density in a University of Maine laboratory-based general education physics course called Intuitive Quantum Physics. Students in the course are generally math…
We discuss the development of a research-based conceptual multiple-choice survey related to magnetism. We also discuss the use of the survey to investigate gender differences in students' difficulties with concepts related to magnetism. We…
We discuss an investigation exploring students' difficulties with equations involving resistance, capacitance and inductance. We find that introductory physics students have great difficulty understanding, e.g., how the resistance of an…