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We encounter variables with little variation often in PER due to the demographics of physics and the questions we ask. For example, in course completion studies, most students will earn high enough grades to pass the course. Yet, little work has examined how to analyze such data. Therefore, we conducted a simulation study using logistic regression, penalized regression, and random forest. We systematically varied the fraction of positive outcomes, feature imbalances, and odds ratios. We find the algorithms treat features with the same odds ratios differently based on their imbalance and the outcome imbalance. While none of the algorithms solved the problem, some reduced the scale of the problem. Our results suggest that PER studies may contain false negatives when determining which variables are related to an outcome. We propose recommendations for researchers and then illustrate these by predicting which applicants will be admitted to a graduate physics program.

AAPT WM 21

Addressing Rare Outcomes in PER Quantitative Studies

graduate admissions

student outcomes

imbalanced data

machine learning

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technical paper

Course grades are concrete outcomes with real-world consequences for students. To what extent are grades, as they are currently awarded, consistent and fair? &nbsp;Higher Educational Institutions are sitting on vast amounts of data that can help us to gain more insight into these questions and perhaps lead us to more desired outcomes. I will discuss three data analytics projects we conducted. First, I will examine how student-level factors such ACT score and demographic group effect grades and exam vs. non-exam grade components. This will reveal demographic disparities. &nbsp;Next, by considering measures of prior preparation, such as ACT scores and prior course grade, I will apply the concept of differential prediction to examine the extent to which grading is consistent between sections, instructors, and semesters, and further examining how consistency between these groups extends to the demographic factors of gender and race. Areas of concern are found for all factors. &nbsp;

Consistency and Fairness in Introductory Physics Course Grades

Quant PER is a growing subdiscipline that shows promise in helping our students succeed. My research group has sprouted&nbsp;from this opportunity. I'll talk about building a functioning learning analytics lab, testing waters with exploratory statistics, moving into correlation data mining, and then proceeding onto predictive analytics. We've used maching learning to predict students overall class grade percentage to within about 6% average error, before they even start the class. Come see all the fun things the BoxSand Research Group at Oregon State University is doing.

The Growth of a Quant PER Group

Machine learning algorithms represent an exciting new class of quantitative methods to understand physics classes and students. Recent work has applied these algorithms to understand physics major retention to degree and the risk factors influencing success in introductory physics. This talk will explore the application of these algorithms to identify students most at risk of failure in introductory calculus-based physics. These predictions are complicated by the very unbalanced nature of the samples; most students do not fail physics. Machine learning algorithms&nbsp;will be explored in depth including&nbsp;decision trees and random forests. These will be applied to understand student risk both using institutional variables such as college GPA and within class variables such as homework grades with the goal of making accurate predictions early in the class. Limitations and data requirements for these algorithms as well as their accuracy for underrepresented populations will also be discussed.

Using Machine Learning to Identify At-Risk Students in Physics Classes

Hands-on experience is of utmost importance to physics laboratory experiences. Like most other schools and colleges, classes at Central Washington University had to adjust quickly to online-learning setups this past quarter. This new teaching style unfortunately pushed aside in-person interactive laboratory sessions that could have been used to supplement lecture-style videos that students watched as a part of their introductory medical physics seminar. Utilizing pre-measured data, videos, and photographs from a live clinical linear accelerator, the team at Northwest Medical Physics Center was able to create an online laboratory experience for real-time student engagement. In this presentation, the method of implementation of the lab will be discussed, along with goals for future expansion of the virtual medical physics lab program.

Virtual Medical Physics Undergraduate Laboratory Experience with Linear Accelerator Data

This educational research is about teaching electromagnetic interaction or rock formation. We use&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;papers showing the elementary electron-electron-photon&nbsp;Feynman diagrams or&nbsp; sentimentation -metamorphism-melting geo-diagrams. The individual papers could be rotated, inverted, and combined to provide diagrams for any electromagnetic interaction process or rock formation. Combining orientations of single paper ,we make combinations of three or more papers. &nbsp;Time is running vertically upward in every diagram. Given the opportunity to manipulate the papers, students became involved and rapidly developed understanding of&nbsp;electromagnetic interaction or rock formation. The students did strikingly better on the post-tests than the pre-tests.

Teaching Physics with Hands-on Diagrams

2020 has seen a release of multiple exciting new results in gravitational wave science! In this session, we will review these latest discoveries that have opened new windows into understanding the universe. Then we will introduce teachers to activities that can be used in the classroom, both remote and in-person, to introduce secondary science students to some of the major concepts related to understanding and detecting gravitational waves, including the new results! Detectors such as LIGO and Virgo will be examined, as well as the use of Multimessenger Astronomy.

Gravitational Wave Science for the Secondary Classroom: Discoveries and Activities

&nbsp;Virtual or simulating experiments are developed and introduced by many organizations to enrich physics experiments within and beyond classrooms. Yet in the rural areas where resources are limits both physics experiment instruments and internet connection, teachers find it difficult to integrate experiments into classroom teaching activities. &nbsp;We analyzed the roles and current situations of simulating experiments in high school physics teaching in China. Evaluated several current running physics experiment simulation software packages. We found PhET is suitable for redeveloping and integrating into an off-line running package, which will benefit experiment teaching in rural areas where internet coverage is poor. The paper presents the approaches of redeveloping. For the sake of generality, we use Java language and HTML language for programming, and use HTML5 technique to integrate the experiments into an off-line running package. Successful on-the-site running shows the feasibility and applicability of redeveloping PhET simulation experiment for physics experiment teaching.

Re-development in Physics Experiment Teaching Using Simulation Based on PhET

Partnerships between our professional organizations and manufacturers are making it much more affordable to bring spatial light modulators (SLMs) into undergraduates' hands. SLMs are one way to shape light, in space or in time, making possible programmable dynamic holograms that actually have corporeal substance, and can play a role in&nbsp;faster-than-light imaging, as&nbsp;well as the use of&nbsp;entangled photon pairs (which cannot really be described as individual particles), such that the photons incident upon the detecting camera have never interacted with the object successfully imaged&nbsp;(which is&nbsp;called "ghost imaging," in reference to Einstein's concern over "spooky action at a distance"); this "spooky" result is achieved by exploiting&nbsp; correlations &nbsp;that are required by conservation of energy &amp; momentum. —&nbsp;Observed phenomena of these sorts prompt students to revise their mental model of what a "particle" is!

Shaping Light in Time and Space

A drinking bird (DB) also known as dunking bird or dipping bird is an interesting and amusing toy, swinging back-and-forth like a simple pendulum.&nbsp; But the drinking bird is an excellent experimental toy for thermodynamics in physics.&nbsp; The field of thermodynamics explains about mechanism of work, heat and energy, temperature, pressure and volume.&nbsp; These quantities are working in everywhere in nature, our daily life, engineering technologies, etc., and a drinking bird is often called a heat engine.&nbsp; It changes heat flows into work very efficiently. So, the drinking bird makes a perfect experimental device for understanding theory of heat and energy (thermodynamics).&nbsp; DB’s mechanical and thermomechanical motion can explain theories and laws of thermodynamics and irreversible thermodynamics.

Mechanism of a Water Drinking Bird, Thermodynamics and Irreversible Thermodynamics

Many concepts in physics involve abstract ideas that require learners to imagine invisible causes, while interpreting the concrete effects and integrating seemingly ambiguous representations (ERs). The difficulty of this parallel processing often results in learners developing misconceptions and lacking the skills to communicate about these concepts effectively. This paper describes a study that used an augmented reality program (Magna-AR) to help learners see abstract magnetic fields within a real-world environment using the internal magnetic field sensor within mobile devices. Learners were asked to use Magna-AR to construct 3D visualizations of magnetic fields of the Earth and around other smaller magnets. Learners were also asked to draw 2D visualizations of magnetic fields and to identify the connections between various ERs of magnetic fields. A selected subset of the learners also participated in follow-up interviews. Preliminary analyses of these data will be discussed.

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