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Diagrams are ubiquitous in physics, especially in physics education and physics problem solving. Students might generate diagrams to orient themselves to a scenario, to organize information to aid in solving a problem, or as a tool of communication to demonstrate their understanding of a physical scenario. By asking 19 undergraduate and graduate physics majors to solve a number of multiple-choice physics problems (with no prompting regarding diagrams), and then explicitly asking them to generate diagrams of similar physical scenarios, we are able to compare elements of diagramming that students do spontaneously to aid in problem solving with those that they produce when the diagram is requested as an artifact for communication. We found that different types of physical contexts impacted how critical accurate diagrams are to getting the correct answer, and we explore implications for teaching and research.

PERC SM 20

Comparing Unprompted and Prompted Student-generated Diagrams - Poster

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AAPT SM 21

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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?

A choose-your-own-adventure online assessment has been developed to measure the process of modeling undertaken by students when asked to measure the Earths gravitational constant, g, using a simple pendulum. This activity forms part of the Modeling Assessment for Physics Laboratory Experiments (MAPLE), which is being developed to assess upper-division students proficiency in modeling. The role of the pendulum activity is to serve as a pre-test assessment with apparatus that students are likely to be familiar. Using an initial sample of student data from a development phase of the assessment, we show that the pendulum activity is able to discriminate between a range of student processes that are relevant to understanding student engagement with modeling as a scientific tool.

Capturing modeling pathways using the Modeling Assessment for Physics Laboratory Experiments

We report on an exploratory study in which we investigate the factor structure of an in-development survey on student experiences during group exams and subsequently examine how these factors can be modelled using performance and self-reported performance measures, while focusing on the role of group familiarity because it is a measure that we could influence with interventions.

Exploratory Factor Analysis of a survey on group-exam experiences and subsequent investigation of the role of group familiarity

University outreach efforts are typically undertaken by students, who are often familiar with formal pedagogical methods; there is comparatively little systematic study, however, of the techniques they employ in informal spaces. A 2016 study took a critical step toward addressing this discrepancy, observing volunteer pedagogy in an outreach program and developing a modes of pedagogy framework for characterizing their techniques. In this work, we extend that model, attending more nearly to the factors that influence volunteers' choice of pedagogy in a CU Boulder-based physics outreach program. In addition to corroborating the findings of the 2016 work, we find that instructors may blend traits and techniques from multiple modes simultaneously and that their large-scale objectives can affect their implementation of the modes as well. We thus construct a more comprehensive framework that more readily lends itself to the task of equipping volunteer instructors to teach effectively in informal settings.

Toward a Comprehensive Characterization of Pedagogy in Informal Physics Learning Spaces

Providing students with opportunities to develop models in the introductory physics lab is made difficult by the dearth of physical phenomena that are both accessible to students at the introductory level and aren't easily found with a google search. In response to this difficulty, we have developed a set of laboratory activities that leverage the unique affordances of virtual reality to provide a learning opportunity in which introductory physics students engage in the authentic practice of physics model development for a novel phenomenon. We present preliminary evidence of expert-like modeling behaviors, both in the context of hypothesis generation and in the context of modeling a measurement tool, as well as suggestions how virtual reality labs can be engineered to target other laboratory learning outcomes. Further, we discuss difficulties associated with this approach to curriculum design and ways they might be mitigated.

Leveraging virtual reality for student development of force models in the introductory lab

During the Spring 2020 semester, classes at a medium-sized regional rural university transitioned from face-to-face (FTF) to fully online instruction following Spring Break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learning assistants teaching in STEM disciplines experienced difficulties during this transition unique to our student population consisting of many nontraditional and first generation students living in rural areas. We conducted a phenomenological study about these LAs experiences using a Community of Practice (CoP) theory lens. Through interviews with 10 LAs, novel conversations about moving from FTF courses to a virtual setting emerged. In response to the interruptions of the CoP, LAs discussed their new learning opportunities. In this paper, we highlight the opportunities and challenges as encountered by the LAs. Considerations and concerns for instructors with similar student populations are presented.

The transition to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic at a regional, rural university: The experience of learning assistants

Student difficulties with fluid statics and dynamics concepts often persist with conventional instruction. A curriculum was developed using a simulation to improve student understanding of fluid statics and dynamics taught in an introductory algebra-based physics courses for life science students. Screen capture videos were made of students completing a 20-minute guided inquiry tutorial that used the PhET simulation Fluid Pressure and Flow. These videos were studied using qualitative thematic analysis to identify common actions and patterns of actions as students worked through the curriculum. Patterns observed from this analysis are compared and contrasted with the patterns made by experts working with the simulation. Additionally, pre- and post-activity assessments of student knowledge of fluid speed and pressure in pipes were made. These data were examined to establish what connections exist between actions made while working with the simulation and changes in students conceptual understanding of fluids.

Thematic analysis of the PhET simulation "Fluid Pressure and Flow"

We present the results of a survey of 220 faculty members at selective liberal arts colleges who teach introductory STEM courses. The survey was designed to learn how these faculty support student quantitative skills development in their introductory courses and what high-school quantitative skills are the most challenging for their incoming introductory students. In particular, we wanted to identify the skills that students struggled with across different disciplines in order to explore the possibility of developing shared online modules to support student quantitative skills review and practice in many different introductory STEM courses. Five priority topic areas emerged -- graphs and tables, descriptive statistics, exponents/logarithms, intercepts/slopes of lines, and confidence intervals/standard error -- although there were significant disciplinary differences.

Supporting student quantitative skills across introductory STEM courses: faculty approaches and perceived needs

Physics education researchers sometimes conduct research on physics faculty change; we also write about faculty when we do research on implementing reforms in physics classrooms, or when we talk about how faculty affect students understanding. This study classifies mentions of physics faculty in PERC and PhysRev-PER journals in order to study implicit frameworks used by the PER community when viewing and writing about faculty. Furthermore, mentions are categorized to give a sense of what aspects of instructors are most often commented upon. While no overall tendency towards positive or negative mentions was found, in the category of faculty beliefs, mentions were significantly negative, while in the category of faculty goals, mentions were significantly positive. We report this as a starting point for PER researchers to analyze the way we view and talk about other faculty.

Physics education research's implicit views of physics faculty

"In a society characterized by STEM sciences the knowledge about Nature of Science (NOS) is deemed an important part of students education.
Although there are a couple of studies about students beliefs about NOS available in some states in Germany, due to the differing school curricula in each state generalizations are to be avoided. Therefore, we have conducted a study which explores the development of lower high school students conceptions of NOS during one school year in the state of Hesse (N=101). For this study parts of an existing questionnaire of NOS were combined with aspects of the control-of-variables-strategy and five of the six original scales could be confirmed. On the poster we will present the methods and instruments as well as an overview of our results."

Do Hessian High Schools Foster Understanding of Nature of Science? (PERC)

Problematizing is a physics practice involving the articulation of a gap in understanding into a clear question or problem. Inquiry-based labs may be conducive to problematizing behaviors, as students often collect data that do not agree with simplified models or their intuitive predictions. In this study, we analyzed video of students performing a lab in which they find the acceleration of an object in flight to be different from what the presented models predict. We aimed to identify the various activities that groups engaged in upon recognizing this inconsistency. Common problematizing behaviors included explicit discussions of physics concepts, proposing a new experiment or calculation, and checking experimental calculations. We found that each group's sequence and duration of behaviors was quite unique, highlighting a diversity of approaches taken to address this inconsistency.

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Comparing Unprompted and Prompted Student-generated Diagrams - Poster

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