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Asking questions during class time is one form of participation not commonly employed by members of underrepresented groups in large enrollment college classrooms, even though the form of participation is highly conducive to student…
A simple model to help students see the connections between a physics course and their engineering major is described. "Bridging" had positive effects on performance, attitude, and motivation, as measured by grade analyses, surveys, and…
The ability to make decisions based on data, with its inherent uncertainties and variability, is a complex and vital skill in the modern world. The need for such quantitative critical thinking occurs in many different contexts, and while it…
Incorporating computer programming exercises into introductory physics is a delicate task that involves a number of choices that may have an effect on student learning. We present a "hybrid" approach that speaks to a number of common…
Quick U-building (QUB) is a method for short time measurement of energy performance of buildings, typically one night. It uses the indoor air temperature response to power delivered to the indoor air by electric heaters. This paper…
Physical units are fundamental to scientific computing. However, many finite element frameworks lack built-in support for dimensional analysis. In this work, we present a systematic framework for integrating physical units into the Unified…
This paper analytically investigates the optimal design of gamma degradation tests, including the number of test units, the number of inspections, and inspection times. We first derive optimal designs with periodic inspection times under…
We propose a novel computational method for unit commitment UC, which does not require linearized approximation and provides several orders of magnitude performance improvement over current state-of-the-art. The performance improvement is…
Students in introductory physics courses often rely on ineffective strategies, focusing on final answers rather than understanding underlying principles. Integrating scientific argumentation into problem-solving fosters critical thinking…
Studies examining gender differences in introductory physics show a consensus when it comes to a gender gap on conceptual assessments; however, the story is not as clear when it comes to differences in gendered performance on exams. This…
Studies have shown that standard lectures and instructional laboratory experiments are not effective at teaching interference and diffraction. In response, the author created an interactive computer program that simulates interference and…
At large institutions of higher education, students frequently have a choice whether to attend the introductory physics sequence asynchronously online, on-site in a traditional lecture-setting, or in a reformed studio setting. In this…
One-minute behavior change interventions might seem too brief to matter. Could something so short really help people build healthier routines? This work explores this question through two studies examining how ultra-brief prompts might…
As part of large-scale assessment project at Texas Tech University, we studied the effect of problem format on students responses to quiz questions. The same problem was written in multiple formats and administered as a quiz in the large…
We describe a method of automatic feedback provision for students learning programming and computational methods in Python. We have implemented, used and refined this system since 2009 for growing student numbers, and summarise the design…
While it is well known which curricular practices can improve student performance on measures of conceptual understanding, the sustaining of these practices and the role of faculty members in implementing these practices are less well…
Most prompt-optimization methods refine a single static template, making them ineffective in complex and dynamic user scenarios. Existing query-dependent approaches rely on unstable textual feedback or black-box reward models, providing…
Drawing appropriate diagrams is a useful problem solving heuristic that can transform a give problem into a representation that is easier to exploit for solving it. A major focus while helping introductory physics students learn problem…
Recent investigations have been carried out on critical analyses of beginning physics teachers confronted with questionable explanations. These studies raise the question of the choices made by teachers for their teaching once they have…
Recruiting and retaining highly qualified physics and physical science teachers is critical for maintaining America's global competitiveness. Unfortunately, only one third of the high school teachers in physics have a degree in physics and…