United States

In a previous study, we found that that students&#39; incoming preparation in physics--crudely measured by concept inventory prescores and math SAT or ACT scores--explains 34\% of the variation in Physics 1 final exam scores at [Redacted] University. In this study, to understand the variation in exam scores not explained by these measures of incoming preparation, we interviewed 34 students with weak preparation about their experiences in the course. We did not find there to be many different idiosyncratic issues they felt were important, but rather there were a set of practices and attitudes common to many students. Some of these practices, such as certain study habits, were surprisingly unrelated to student performance. Others, including certain types of collaborative interactions between students, were predictive of course performance after controlling for prior preparation. These results offer some guidance as to how instructors might improve the experience and performance of the less prepared students in Physics 1. These findings are for a small, relatively select sample, but we anticipate that many of the results will apply across a broader student population.

PERC SM 20

Hidden Variables: Predicting Student Performance in Introductory Physics

student preparation

introductory physics

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AAPT SM 21

In a previous study, we found that that students' incoming preparation in physics--crudely measured by concept inventory prescores and math SAT or ACT scores--explains 34\% of the variation in Physics 1 final exam scores at [Redacted] University. In this study, to understand the variation in exam scores not explained by these measures of incoming preparation, we interviewed 34 students with weak preparation about their experiences in the course. We did not find there to be many different idiosyncratic issues they felt were important, but rather there were a set of practices and attitudes common to many students. Some of these practices, such as certain study habits, were surprisingly unrelated to student performance. Others, including certain types of collaborative interactions between students, were predictive of course performance after controlling for prior preparation. These results offer some guidance as to how instructors might improve the experience and performance of the less prepared students in Physics 1. These findings are for a small, relatively select sample, but we anticipate that many of the results will apply across a broader student population.

poster

Join us in exploring emergent themes in PER as a scholarly endeavor and as a research community!  Since its inception, PER has served as a confluence of discipline, theory, research methodology, practice, and application.  How have these facets and the interplays among them been fruitful for physics education globally, regionally, locally, or otherwise?  And, how have our successes and interactions influenced the very nature of PER itself?
Following the lead of AAPT for the summer meeting, PERC 20/20 was virtual. Enjoy browsing the content.

Since its inception, PER has served as a confluence of discipline, theory, research methodology, practice, and application.  How have these facets and the interplays among them been fruitful for physics education globally, regionally, locally, or otherwise?  And, how have our successes and interactions influenced the very nature of PER itself?

This paper explores the remarkable success of one 7th grade student as she discovers foundational concepts of magnetism while engaging in an NGSS-aligned unit on modeling magnetism. Student success in modeling is of particular interest in the PER community, through understanding how students are able to create mechanistic models, we can reveal core practices which in turn can be used to inform instructional design. Here we examine one student who was able to synthesize the key concepts of magnetism: that a magnet is comprised of microscopic magnetic dipoles and that the orientation of these dipoles determines the orientation of the macroscopic polarity. We present significant excerpts of the progression of the modeling process in order to illustrate her iterative use of evidence to guide her reasoning, her use of prior knowledge, and the roles of teachers and peers.

A Case of Successful Learning about Magnetism through the Use of Evidence

The field of physics education research (PER) has principally grown up alongside the advancing technology of computing since the late 1950s. In this poster, I explore the developmental history of instructional technology in PER, showing how the shifts in theories of learning over the last 60+ years have influenced the digital tools that we use to teach and learn physics (and, perhaps, vice versa). I illustrate how, as the field of PER has moved from transmissionist models of teaching and learning to more socio-constructivist ones, so too has the PER community tended to move toward embracing digital technologies which support more active learning and collaboration.

The digital technologies of physics education research

"The Living Physics Portal* (www.livingphysicsportal.org) is a website dedicated to cultivating a community in which physics faculty teaching interdisciplinary physics courses can discuss problems of practice and share curricular content. Our research team is interested in understanding facultys evolving use of the Portal. In this effort, we have been exploring what forms of participation can be tracked and meaningfully interpreted from users actions. We have developed a model that categorizes particular actions on the Portal. The model of participation includes the following categories: Networking, Interpreting, Dialoguing, Collecting, Connecting, Creating, Remixing, and Viewing. In this poster, we will showcase our model of online participation and apply this model to thought experiments around particular personas evolving participation. 
*This work is supported by NSF #1624478 and #1624185."

Living Physics Portal: Designing analytics to map faculty s evolving participation

We examine patterns of students switching into and out of colleges, STEM/non-STEM fields, and majors within fields, examining the impact of both discipline and demographics. Our data include over fifteen years of student records, with over 22,000 students graduating with an identifiable degree. Restricting the analysis to graduates removes issues of readiness and retention, instead focusing on issues of environment and pathways. We find statistical significance in switching rates of students in colleges of engineering, computer science and applied science and paths" between colleges that students are more likely to follow as they switch majors. Correlation between persistence within a program and student demographics is strongest in STEM colleges of engineering, computing and applied science and non-STEM colleges of health science and liberal arts. Connections are seen between colleges of engineering and applied science and between biology (within the College of Science) and non-clinical health sciences.

Who Goes where: patterns in academic field switching of successful college graduates

Dirac notation is a compact and elegant notation taught to students in advanced quantum mechanics courses. However, students struggle to master Dirac notation and have difficulty translating between the Dirac notation and representations of the same quantum mechanical entity in different situations. We discuss an investigation of student difficulties with Dirac notation in the context of a three-dimensional vector space and the development, validation and evaluation of a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) that uses analogical reasoning to improve student understanding of this notation. The QuILT uses analogical reasoning and builds on students prior knowledge of three-dimensional vectors in the familiar context of introductory mechanics to help students build a coherent understanding of Dirac notation before transitioning to the quantum mechanical context. We summarize the development and validation of the QuILT and findings from the in-class evaluation.

Improving student understanding of Dirac notation by using analogical reasoning in the context of a three-dimensional vector space - Poster

Measurement uncertainty and experimental error are important concepts taught in undergraduate physics laboratories. Although student ideas about error and uncertainty in introductory classical mechanics lab experiments have been studied extensively, there is relatively limited research on student thinking about experimental measurement uncertainty in quantum mechanics. In this work, we used semi-structured interviews to study advanced physics students interpretations of fictitious data distributions from two common undergraduate laboratory experiments in quantum mechanics and one in classical mechanics. To analyze these interpretations, we developed a coding scheme that classifies student responses based on what factors they believe create uncertainty and differentiates between different types of uncertainty (e.g. imprecision, inaccuracy). We found that participants in our study expressed a variety of ideas about measurement uncertainty that varied with the context (classical/quantum) and the type of uncertainty.

Student reasoning about sources of experimental measurement uncertainty in quantum versus classical mechanics

We are continuing a nationwide effort to develop a systemic understanding of the landscape of informal physics using an organizational theory perspective. We have collected surveys and interviews with informal physics program facilitators, but this information is only from the perspective of the faculty or physics student leaders and does not tell us about the social dynamics within each program. Thus, to complement these data, we need to observe informal physics events as they occur. In this paper, we will discuss our strategy for visits to program sites to observe social interactions between program participants as well as programmatic details in action. We report on an initial site visit to a physics open house event, where we took field-notes and conducted interviews with participating personnel members. Here, we compare the types of data we are able to collect from site visits and interviews/surveys with lead program facilitators.

Perspectives on informal programs: How site visits can help us learn more

Interpretation of student behavior in online learning platforms based on log data is complicated by not being able to directly observe the learner. In this paper, we attempt to identify data patterns that signal either guessing on assessment problems or disengaging from the task for students while working through homework modules in an introductory physics class by contrasting data from the general student population with those who completed homework modules in controlled, observed environments. We found that abnormally short problem solving attempts that were previously modeled as a single guessing or answer copying behavior actually consisted of two different types of "guessing" behavior: rapid and strategic guessing. Both types were associated with lower levels of self-confidence, but had different distribution among proctored and unproctored student populations. More importantly, the fraction of rapid guessing increased significantly after campus closure due to COVID-19, but the fraction of strategic guessing remained constant.

A tale of two guessing strategies: interpreting the time students spend solving problems through online log data

Computer simulations for physics labs may be combined with hands-on lab equipment to boost student understanding and make labs more accessible. Hybrid labs of HTML5-based computer simulations and hands-on lab equipment for topics in mechanics were investigated in a large, algebra-based, studio physics course for life science students at a private, research-intensive institution. Computer simulations were combined with hands-on equipment and compared to traditional hands-on labs alone using an A/B testing protocol. Learning outcomes were measured for the specific topic of momentum conservation by comparing student scores on post-lab exercises, related quiz and exam questions, and a subset of questions on the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey (EMCS) administered before and after instruction for both groups. We present our findings of this study and discuss the larger implications of the use of simulations in physics education.

Student learning outcomes with hybrid computer simulations and hands-on labs (PERC)

With ongoing calls to engage students in science through physics lab instruction, understanding how students frame lab environments informs instructional approaches that promote students' productive engagement. To deliberately identify students' frames in a new lab environment, two students who were previously in experimentation physics labs were placed together during the first activity of a content-reinforcement lab. The students initially framed the activity as exploring the phenomena and developing investigations, similar to the previous semester. However, their frames rapidly shifted to filling out a worksheet as they watched their peers finishing the lab. These results demonstrate the speed at which students' frames can dramatically shift as they enter a new lab environment. As goals for lab instruction transition, attending to students frames throughout their undergraduate lab experiences will be vital for promoting positive learning experiences.

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Hidden Variables: Predicting Student Performance in Introductory Physics

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A Case of Successful Learning about Magnetism through the Use of Evidence

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