Related papers: Student-created physics problems as an independent…
Student learning of sound waves can be helped through the creation of group-learning classroom materials whose development and design rely on explicit investigations into student understanding. We describe reasoning in terms of sets of…
Iterative peer grading activities may keep students engaged during in-class project presentations. Effective methods for collecting and aggregating peer assessment data are essential. Students tend to grade projects favorably. So, while…
One attribute of experts is that they are likely to learn from their own mistakes. Experts are unlikely to make the same mistakes when asked to solve a problem a second time, especially if they had access to a correct solution. Here, we…
Pencasts are videos of problem solving with narration by the problem solver. Pedagogically, students can create pencasts to illustrate their own problem solving to the instructor or to their peers. Pencasts have implications for teaching at…
Physics in Films is an alternative version of the physical science course offered to non-science majors at the University of Central Florida. The course uses the popularity of Hollywood films to generate interest in science and to engage…
Despite the recognition that reflection is an essential part of problem solving, it is often not emphasized in upper-division physics courses. In this paper, we discuss homework corrections (HWCs) as a pedagogical tool to motivate…
Teamwork assessments often result in a single final product, for which all team members receive a single mark regardless of their contribution to the team project. In order to respond to feedback from students in terms of fair marking of…
This study investigates differences in student participation rates between in-class and online administrations of research-based assessments. A sample of 1,310 students from 25 sections of 3 different introductory physics courses over two…
Web-based systems for assessment or homework are commonly used in many different domains. Several studies show that these systems can have positive effects on learning outcomes. Many research efforts also have made these systems quite…
An earlier investigation found that the performance of advanced students in a quantum mechanics course did not automatically improve from midterm to final exam on identical problems even when they were provided the correct solutions and…
We examine the relationship between homework completion and exam performance for students having different physics aptitudes for five different semesters of an introductory electricity and magnetism course. In our analysis, we plot exam…
We describe a project-based physics lab, which we proposed to third-year university students. Theses labs are based on new open-source low-cost equipment (Arduino microcontrollers and compatible sensors). Students are given complete…
In this paper, we present a new task that investigates how people interact with and make judgments about towers of blocks. In Experiment~1, participants in the lab solved a series of problems in which they had to re-configure three blocks…
We present a model for competency-based grading for calculus-based introductory physics that encourages students to obtain proficiency with all course content. By allowing students to continually improve their proficiency with skills and…
High-stakes assessments, such the Graduate Records Examination, have transitioned from paper to computer administration. Low-stakes Research-Based Assessments (RBAs), such as the Force Concept Inventory, have only recently begun this…
The paper "Evaluation of Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey" [1] proposes a new, much shorter, version of the CLASS based on standard factor analysis. In this comment we explain why we believe the analysis that is used is…
Traditional synchronous STEM assessments face growing challenges including accessibility barriers, security concerns from resource-sharing platforms, and limited comparability across institutions. We present a framework for generating and…
Problem solving is central to physics instruction. Results from Physics Education Research (PER), however, demonstrate that traditional ways of teaching with problem solving are inefficient and ineffective for promoting true physics…
The objective of physics laboratory training is to develop, in students, a variety of important cognitive and psycho-motor abilities related to experimental physics. These include conceptual understanding, procedural understanding,…
In this paper we put forth a model for physics course reform that uniquely uses proven, research-based active learning strategies to help students improve their physics knowledge and problem-solving skills. In this study, we compared the…