Physics Education Research Laboratory

At the end of this month, Michael Wittmann and Brian Frank will be attending the International Conference on the Learning Sciences in Chicago, IL. Michael will be presenting on “Using conceptual blending to describe emergent meaning in wave propagation” in Crystal Ballroom, Salon 12, as part of a session held between 5:00 and 6:30 on […]

There are two interdisciplinary conferences taking place on campus in June 2010.  First is Transforming Research in STEM Education (TRUSE), co-organized by John Thompson.  TRUSE is a research conference for researchers in undergraduate physics, mathematics, and chemistry education, with the intention to foster and support interdisciplinary research projects.   The second is Integrating Science and Mathematics […]

We have been remiss in sharing evidence of our publications here. Hayes and Wittmann on the use of signs in mechanics problem solving, April 2010 in The Physics Teacher. Springuel, Wittmann, and Thompson with Erratum: Applying clustering to statistical analysis of student reasoning about two-dimensional kinematics [Phys Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 020107 (2007)], […]

Trevor ended group meeting today with a poem, shared with all of you, below: Publish or Perish Writing a paper: what a time! Copying’s easy, but it’s also a crime. Making up thoughts is elusively hard, Especially when others are ready to discard The work that you’ve done in favor of better: Poetics worthy of […]

It’s National Poetry Writing Month, and we at UMaine PERL have decided to engage, each in our own way. As I sat to write the question I remembered his suggestion, And I thought of what he mentioned ere the meeting was adjourned: “This,” he said was of great import, to which I promptly did retort, […]

It’s National Poetry Writing Month, and we at UMaine PERL have decided to engage, each in our own way. Here’s a poem Trevor wrote on his work: The student could answer the question, but he humored us and suffered the lesson. And near to the end, he said to his friend, “Look, it’s the origin […]

For 30 years, the University of Maine has been hosting an annual meeting that brings together physics and physical science teachers from throughout the state of Maine. We’ve always enjoyed hearing from teachers about what they’re interested in, and we’re always happy to facilitate teachers meeting each other and hanging out and talking shop. If […]

The UMaine PERL is pleased to be hosting Corinne Manogue and Tevian Dray, from Oregon State University.  They are the architects of two major curricular reform/overhaul projects:  Paradigms in Physics and the Vector Calculus Bridge project. Their interests are in exploring the way mathematics is taught and used in physics and physical sciences.  We are […]

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