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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.

PERC SM20

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

labs

hands-on

virtual

simulation

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.

The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. The program featured plenary speakers, sessions, workshops and many special activities.

For more information please visit the 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting page at: https://www.aapt.org/Conferences/SM2020/index.cfm.


AAPT SM20

poster

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.

“Let’s just pretend”: Students' shifts in frames during a content-reinforcement lab

We have developed the Physics Inventory of Quantitative Literacy (PIQL) as a tool to measure students' quantitative literacy in the context of introductory physics topics. We present the results from various quantitative analyses used to establish the validity of both the individual items and the PIQL as a whole. We show how examining the results from classical test theory analyses, factor analysis, and item response curves informed decisions regarding the inclusion, removal, or modification of items. We also discuss how the choice to include multiple-choice/multiple-response items has informed both our choices for analyses and the interpretations of their results. We are confident that the most recent version of the PIQL is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring students' physics quantitative literacy in calculus-based introductory physics courses at our primary research site. More data are needed to establish its validity for use at other institutions and in other courses.

Toward a valid instrument for measuring physics quantitative literacy

Societal stereotypes and biases pertaining to who belongs in physics and who can excel in physics can impact motivational beliefs, e.g., of women and racial and ethnic minority students in physics courses. This study investigates how the learning environment predicts male and female students motivational beliefs including physics self-efficacy, interest, and identity at the end of year long (spanning two-semester) algebra-based introductory physics courses. These were courses at a large university in the US taken primarily by biological science majors many of whom are interested in health professions. Although women are not underrepresented in these physics courses, societal stereotypes and biases internalized by female students over their lifetime can still impact their motivational beliefs about physics. Our findings show gender gap in motivational beliefs favoring men. These findings can be useful to provide support and create an equitable and inclusive learning environment to help all students excel in these courses.

How the learning environment predicts male and female students motivational beliefs in algebra-based introductory physics

It is a given that not everyone who starts their Ph.D. in physics will complete it. That being said, there are people who have the great potential of being competent and able researchers that leave without the Ph.D. Using techniques from the Georgia Tech Center for Deliberate Innovation, based in developmental psychology and behavioral economics, we are working to see more clearly what might be getting in the way of competent, motivated students who fail to complete their Ph.D. This includes a focus on the advisor/advisee relationship.

Using Deliberate Innovation Methodologies to Enable Graduate Student Success

The United States is facing a critical shortage of grade 7-12 teachers in the STEM disciplines, particularly in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Faculty members play a major role in their students career choices, and faculty members perceptions of the profession may determine whether students choose to pursue teaching. To this end, we developed two surveys to measure student and faculty perceptions of grade 7-12 teaching. We found that both groups hold many incorrect beliefs about teaching careers. Furthermore, we found that faculty members believe they are quite supportive of future teachers, while students perceive that they are less supportive. Our findings highlight the need for both faculty members and students to be informed about the benefits of careers in grade 7-12 teaching. Additionally, our results suggest that faculty members should work to dispel their internal biases surrounding the teaching profession, which may inadvertently drive students away from grade 7-12 teaching.

College Faculty Support for Grade 7-12 Teaching Careers: Survey Results and Comparisons to Student Perceptions

As part of a larger study of exploring students' problem solving in small groups, we investigated how instructor influences students' epistemic framing in an upper-division electromagnetism class. We use the CAMP (Conceptual, Algorithmic, Mathematics, Physics) framework to investigate the dynamics of students' frames surrounding their interaction with the instructor, tracking frame triplets before, during and after instructor's intervention during the tutorial sessions. We present a case study of one such triplet (AP, CP, AP) by qualitatively analyzing students' interaction with instructor. Careful examination indicates that disagreements during the interaction necessitated the instructor to initiate conceptual discussion thereby causing a frame shift from an algorithmic to a conceptual frame.

Qualitative Analysis of Students’ Epistemic Framing Surrounding Instructor’s Interaction (PERC)

In our open-source model of a pandemic-resilient flipped lab course, students pose their own research questions and devise their own physics experiments. Their major instruments are an Arduino and electronic sensors which they choose from the wide and growing selection of inexpensive devices based on solid-state and MEMS technologies. Supported by the open-source software and other online resources of the Maker movement, students are empowered to design and conduct experiments at home at intermediate and advanced levels. Using flipped-lab methods, instructors devote contact hours to coaching students in refining research questions and analyzing and interpreting data, while students get continual practice in communicating their own evolving goals and latest results to their instructors and classmates. While our pilot course continued virtually unchanged in the switch to virtual classes, our students achievements show that these methods also bear consideration for inclusion even when all teaching activities can return to campus.

Open-inquiry experiments using sensors controlled by Arduinos in a pandemic-resilient lab course

We designed a rubric to assess free-response exam problems in order to compare thinking skills evidenced in exams in classes taught by different pedagogies. The rubric was designed based on Blooms taxonomy (revised version) [1-3]. The rubric was then used to code exam problems. We analyzed exams from different sections of the algebra-based physics course taught the same semester by the same instructor with different pedagogies. One section was inquiry-based and the other was taught traditionally. We discuss the instrument, present results and present plans for future research. The inquiry-based students demonstrated all of the thinking skills coded more often than the traditional students.

A Rubric for Assessing Thinking Skills in Free-Response Exam Problems

BEMA (Brief ElectroMagnetism Accessment) tests were conducted for undergraduate students in introductory electromagnetism courses at Texas A&M University (TAMU) from 2014 - 2017 to assess students performances. A total of 3480 students participated and more than 6000 test scores are collected. The present study used a part of the data to investigate the BEMA performance with these scores taken prior to and after the class using the statistical measures based on the classical test theory. Item difficulty index, item discrimination index, point biserial coefficients and so on obtained from the TAMU data agree with the results reported by various research groups in past, and showed the test is statistically reliable. Thus, it is confirmed that administering the BEMA test is beneficial for assessing students learning of undergraduate electromagnetism at university classes.

New measurements of BEMA performance based on classical test theory

We collaborated with our universitys office of institutional research to assess pedagogical changes in our calculus-based introductory physics courses using different sets of student data. We found that switching to a competency-based grading system in these classes reduced the drop/fail/withdrawal rates and course-associated grade penalties of under-represented minority, first generation, and female students. We separately performed a longitudinal study to identify how changing the curriculum of these physics courses affected student performance in downstream engineering courses. We found that increasing the calculus content in introductory physics correlated with higher grades earned in subsequent engineering courses, and that these downstream benefits were largest for students with lower math abilities. Taken together, these results demonstrate how instructors can use educational data sets to make improvements in their courses that specifically target improving the performance and retention of traditionally underserved populations.

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

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“Let’s just pretend”: Students' shifts in frames during a content-reinforcement lab

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

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