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The divergence theorem is an important mathematical tool used in many areas of physics, most notably, electricity and magnetism. Students have nominally encountered the divergence theorem in their math courses; however, its application in physics often differs meaningfully from its application in a pure math context. In this paper, we investigate physics students&#39; understanding and interpretation of the divergence theorem through written responses to a brief two-part prompt which was designed to elicit separate responses for students literal and qualitative interpretations of the divergence theorem. This differentiated between understanding the mathematical statement and being able to interpret its fundamental meaning. We found that students provided moderately successful literal interpretations but provided fewer meaningful qualitative interpretations. We also found that the ability to accurately translate the mathematical statement of the divergence theorem appeared to be a necessary, but not sufficient condition for being able to provide a meaningful interpretation.

PERC SM 20

Investigating Upper-Division Students&#39; Interpretations of the Divergence Theorem

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The divergence theorem is an important mathematical tool used in many areas of physics, most notably, electricity and magnetism. Students have nominally encountered the divergence theorem in their math courses; however, its application in physics often differs meaningfully from its application in a pure math context. In this paper, we investigate physics students' understanding and interpretation of the divergence theorem through written responses to a brief two-part prompt which was designed to elicit separate responses for students literal and qualitative interpretations of the divergence theorem. This differentiated between understanding the mathematical statement and being able to interpret its fundamental meaning. We found that students provided moderately successful literal interpretations but provided fewer meaningful qualitative interpretations. We also found that the ability to accurately translate the mathematical statement of the divergence theorem appeared to be a necessary, but not sufficient condition for being able to provide a meaningful interpretation.

Investigating Upper-Division Students' Interpretations of the Divergence Theorem

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?

The observed performance difference between women and men on assessments in physics---the ``gender gap''---is a significant and persistent inequity which has broad implications for the participation of women in physics. Research also shows that gender-based inequities extend to affective measures, such as self-efficacy. In this exploratory study, we report on gender disparities in self-efficacy and test anxiety and their relationship to assessment scores in our active-learning introductory physics course. Overall, gender-based differences in favour of men are observed in all our measures, with women having lower scores on measures associated with success (self-efficacy and assessment scores) and a higher score on a possibly detrimental affective factor (test anxiety). Using a multiple regression model-selection process to explore which measures may explain end-of-course Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and final exam scores, we find that the best fitting models include FCI pretest and self-efficacy as predictors, but do not include test anxiety.

Exploring the contributions of self-efficacy and test anxiety to gender differences in assessments

Increased emphasis has been given to students engagement with experimental data as reform efforts have continued to transform the landscape of introductory physics laboratory courses, resulting in greater opportunities for authentic scientific inquiry and student agency. As a result, students become the primary driving forces of their own experimentation, and the manner in which they engage with experimental data becomes more complex and nonlinear. This poster presents an illumination of the nuanced ways students enact various data-based actions when conducting physics experiments. We present a case-study of a group engaging in an inquiry-based physics laboratory to highlight the complex and iterative ways the group shifts between multiple data-based actions. Results show that students oftentimes shift between multiple data-based actions in short timescales and that these shifts can take place with implicit iterative patterns, even when the instructional setting is structured for a single experimental step.

Students’ dynamic engagement with experimental data in a physics laboratory setting

Nearly half of STEM majors in the United States express interest in becoming a grade 7-12 teacher, yet as a nation we face a shortage of qualified math and science teachers. Studies have found that misperceptions about grade 7-12 math and science teaching are impacting student career choices. As part of a nation-wide project, this work addresses faculty perceptions of grade 7-12 teaching because faculty play an important role in student career decisions. Additionally, understanding how faculty perceptions of grade 7-12 teaching differ may inform targeted efforts to change perceptions in the future. In this study, nearly 500 college STEM faculty members perceptions of grade 7-12 teaching were measured using a newly developed survey. Faculty perceptions were then compared based on department affiliation, position type, and gender. No significantly practical differences were found based on these demographics. Implications for STEM teacher recruitment are discussed.

Maybe we aren’t that different after all: Faculty perceptions of grade 7-12 teaching as a career

The Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation is commonly used to measure the conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics. Several studies have reported a substantial difference in pretest scores between men and women. This study examines the contribution of several prior preparation factors to explain the variance in pretest score and whether these factors explain gender differences in the pretest score. The study examined a large sample ($N=1060$) of students taking introductory calculus-based mechanics at the university level. Women outperformed men on most prior preparation and college achievement measures. No significant differences between men and women were found in high school physics taking patterns. Linear regression analysis showed only 23\% of the variance in FMCE pretest score could be explained using a linear combination of prior preparation variables. Controlling for these variables failed to explain the gender difference in pretest scores; conversely, the gender difference increased controlling for prior preparation.

What does the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation pretest measure?

Bright Club is a public-facing event where academics from every discipline use stand-up comedy to communicate their research. Bright Club Ireland has been running for five years, funded by Science Foundation Ireland, and incorporates comedic theatre approaches to empower speakers and build community. High production values, venues associated with comedy, and professional videos of Bright Club sets on YouTube have all contributed to the perception of Bright Club as high quality entertainment rather than traditional outreach. We have found that comedy is effective at breaking down traditional silos of knowledge, upending status hierarchies, and including audiences who might not feel comfortable going to a university campus or attending events with science in the name. Here we describe the Bright Club Ireland program, who attends these shows and why, and analyse impact of participation on speakers using Self-Determination Theory.

Bright Club: Using Stand-up Comedy for Informal Education

Writing is an important aspect of experimental physics. Physics laboratory classes typically engage students in scientific documentation and writing in the forms of lab notebooks, reports, or proposals. Instructors of these classes may have a variety of motivations for incorporating writing. We previously developed a framework for thinking about the role of writing in physics lab classes that lists and categorizes possible goals instructors may have for writing. Here, we use that framework as a research tool to investigate students' views about, and experiences with, writing in lab classes, and experimental physics more generally. We present results of an analysis of student responses to weekly reflection questions throughout one semester of an advanced lab class. The results suggest that students think about writing in a variety of ways, and that the context and framing of the course may impact student thinking about the purpose of writing.

Investigating students' views about the role of writing in physics lab classes

In physics lab groups, students experience a wide range of equitable and inequitable interactions. After observing videos of students collaborating in an introductory physics lab, we defined that an equitable group is one in which every students bids are heard by their peers. We developed a methodology to characterize different lab groups by tracking students bid exchanges and assessing their levels of inchargeness. The analysis of equitable and inequitable groups showed that lab groups where one student is in charge can be equitable, as long as each group members opinions are acknowledged. We also found that gender and inchargeness do not sufficiently predict the equity of student groups. Based on these results, we argue that students that are in charge use their inchargeness to make their groups either equitable or inequitable. Future work will explore whether additional variables interact with inchargeness to predict levels of equity in group work.

How do gender and inchargeness affect equity in lab group interactions?

Student assistants (SA), which includes graduate and undergraduate teaching/learning assistants, are pivotal to non-traditional physics instruction in large classrooms. Despite its effectiveness, little is known about how SA-student interactions promote students learning. How should SAs respond to students questions? What support should SAs provide or refrain? What makes a SA effective or ineffective? We are particularly interested in SAs questioning skills. We propose a coding scheme to scrutinize SA-student interactions. For analysis, we segment a SA video into vignettes based on different situations SAs encounter and define activities like guiding questions, probing questions, and imparting information. From the pattern of activities, we code a vignette as one of the 6 levels on the hierarchy of students accountability. The frequency of certain levels in multiple vignettes could suggest a SAs performed knowledge of questioning, which will be compared with SAs narrated knowledge measured by a written test of their questioning skills.

Scrutinize SA-student interaction in inquiry-oriented college physics courses

Students' self-efficacy, their confidence in their ability to complete a task, is a good predictor for student success and persistence. Previous research indicates that improvements in learning methods can enhance self-efficacy and that classroom dynamics allow for different self-efficacy opportunities that may impact students' self-efficacy. In this study, we analyzed interviews from 12 students enrolled in a flipped integral calculus course to understand their perceptions of self-efficacy and how these perceptions were affected by classroom dynamics and activities. We found three self-efficacy opportunities mentioned in the interviews: mastery experience, vicarious learning, and verbal persuasion. Preliminary findings reveal that experiences in previous math courses, particularly high school, impacted students' perceptions of their self-efficacy in math both positively and negatively, active learning activities increased students' confidence in their ability to do math from their perspective, and verbal persuasion increased students' confidence and was seen as helpful in learning.

Qualitative analysis of student perceptions of their self-efficacy

Pre-class reading is especially important for the active-learning classroom. Some strategies for encouraging students to prepare for class include quizzing students, replacing readings with videos, using a social-annotation platform, or asking students to generate a question from the reading. In this four-year study of introductory physics courses at a small liberal arts college in Utah (N=132), students were surveyed about the frequency of their textbook reading and the perceived value of the textbook for their learning. Students who were asked to generate a question completed more of the pre-class readings, but were not more likely to see the value of doing the readings. There is a correlation between how often students complete the readings and how valuable they find the textbook; this correlation is still present, but slightly smaller, for those students who were assigned to generate a question compared to those who were not.

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