Physics Education Research Laboratory

On Nov 22, Casey successfully defended her masters thesis entitled “Answer-Seeking and Idea-Constructing During Collaborative Active-Learning Activities in a Physics Laboratory.” The work used video from the PHY 105 class, “Intuitive Quantum Physics,” and involved interaction analysis methods while building on past work by Scherr and Hammer. Congrats, Casey!

Check out our publication blog, where you can find records of our newest publications by Jeff Hawkins (working with Michael Wittmann, John Thompson, alum Ellie Sayre, and Brian Frank) and Trevor Smith (working with John Thompson and Don Mountcastle).

Padraic Springuel successfully defended his dissertation, “Applying Cluster Analysis To Physics Education Research Data,” on Tuesday, December 5.  Congratulations to the new Dr. Springuel!

Katrina Black successfully defended her dissertation, “Multiple Perspectives on Student Solutions to Air Resistance Problems,” on Monday, August 23.  Congratulations to the new Dr. Black! Dr. Black is currently working as a postdoctoral research associate for the Maine Center for STEM Education Research, primarily researching curricular materials and resources for the Maine Physical Sciences Partnership […]

PhysTEC has created a video on what it means to be a physics teacher. It’s worth sharing:

Katrina Black will be defending her Ph.D. dissertation on Monday, August 23, at 2 pm, in Bennett Hall room 102. Multiple Perspectives on Student Solutions to Air Resistance Problems Physics Education Research uses multiple theoretical perspectives to describe student reasoning and behavior. I use two common lenses, difficulties and knowledge pieces, to examine the methods […]

A copy of Brian Frank’s peer-reviewed ICLS conference proceedings paper has been posted online at arxiv.org. Multiple Conceptual Coherences in the Speed Tutorial: Micro-processes of Local Stability Brian W. Frank Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2010) – Volume 1, Full Papers, pp.873-881 Researchers working within knowledge-in-pieces traditions have often […]

A copy of Michael Wittmann’s peer-reviewed ICLS conference proceedings paper has been posted online at arxiv.org. Using conceptual blending to describe emergent meaning in wave propagation Michael C. Wittmann arxiv.org Students in interviews on a wave physics topic give answers through embodied actions which connect their understanding of the physics to other common experiences. When […]