Group Members - John R. Thompson
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John R. Thompson, PhD Associate Professor of Physics Cooperating Associate Professor of Education 223 Bennett Hall Office Phone: (207) 581-1030 |
John earned a B.S. in physics in 1990 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, a Master’s in physics from Brown University in 1992, and a Ph.D. in physics from Brown in 1998. His doctoral dissertation was in the area of surface physics. John started working in PER in the fall of 1997 as a postdoctoral research associate with the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA). From 2000-2002, John was a faculty member at Grand Valley State University, in Grand Rapids, MI. He’s been part of the Physics Education Research Laboratory since 2002.
John’s research interests include empirical investigations of student understanding of thermal and statistical physics at the advanced undergraduate level. He is PI on a grant project working with colleagues at UMaine and across the country conducting research and developing curricular materials in this area. This work has led to a related interest in the application of mathematics concepts in physics, especially in thermal and statistical physics.
His other major interest is the understanding of teaching and learning in physics by current and future teachers, especially the interplay between specialized content knowledge and knowledge of student ideas.
As cooperating faculty at the Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE Center), John is a co-PI in the Maine Physical Sciences Partnership, a regional collaboration to improve physical science learning and teaching in grades 6-9, as well as reform of university science courses and increased recruitment of science teachers from STEM majors.
Webpage at the Department of Physics and Astronomy
Recent Publications
J.R. Thompson, W.M. Christensen, and M.C. Wittmann, “Preparing future teachers to anticipate student difficulties in physics in a graduate-level course in physics, pedagogy, and education research,” accepted for publication in Physical Review Special Topics – Physics Education Research 7, 010108 (2011).
T. M. Wemyss, R. R. Bajracharya, J. R. Thompson, and J. F. Wagner, “Student understanding of integration in the context and notation of thermodynamics: Concepts, representations, and transfer,” submitted to Proceedings of the 14th Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (Mathematical Association of America, 2011).
T.I. Smith, J.R. Thompson and D.B. Mountcastle, “Addressing Student Difficulties with Statistical Mechanics: The Boltzmann Factor,” in 2010 Physics Education Research Conference, M. Sabella, C. Singh, N.S. Rebello, eds., AIP Conference Proceedings 1289, 305-308 (2010).