Physics Commons^™

An Item Response Curves Analysis Of The Force Concept Inventory, Gary A. Morris, Nathan Harshman, Lee Branum-Martin, Eric Mazur, Taha Mzoughi, Stephen D. Baker

Faculty and Research Publications

Several years ago, we introduced the idea of item response curves (IRC), a simplistic form of item response theory (IRT), to the physics education research community as a way to examine item performance on diagnostic instruments such as the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). We noted that a full-blown analysis using IRT would be a next logical step, which several authors have since taken. In this paper, we show that our simple approach not only yields similar conclusions in the analysis of the performance of items on the FCI to the more sophisticated and complex IRT analyses but also permits additional …

Student-Teacher Interactions For Bringing Out Student Ideas About Energy, Benedikt W. Harrer, Michael Wittmann, Rachel Scherr

Faculty Publications

Modern middle school science curricula use group activities to help students express their thinking and enable them to work together like scientists. We are studying rural 8th grade science classrooms using materials on energy. Even after spending several months with the same curriculum on other physics topics, students' engagement in group activities seems to be restricted to creating lists of words that are associated with energy. Though research suggests that children have rich and potentially valuable ideas about energy, our students don't seem to spontaneously use and express their ideas in the classroom. Only within or after certain interactions with …

Hrc Enews — 2012 Summer, Megan M. Iudice

Publications (HRC)

This issue contains staff accomplishments and announcements, event listings, and a "new faces" listing for new staff, affiliates, and researchers.

Hrc Enews — 2012 Spring, Megan M. Iudice

Publications (HRC)

This issue contains staff accomplishments and announcements, event listings, and a "new faces" listing for new staff, affiliates, and researchers.

Following Student Gaze Patterns In Physical Science Lectures, David Rosengrant, Doug Hearrington, Kerriann Alvarado, Danielle Keeble

Faculty and Research Publications

This study investigates the gaze patterns of undergraduate college students attending a lecture-based physical science class to better understand the relationships between gaze and focus patterns and student attention during class. The investigators used a new eye-tracking product; Tobii Glasses. The glasses eliminate the need for subjects to focus on a computer screen or carry around a backpack-sized recording device, thus giving an investigator the ability to study a broader range of research questions. This investigation includes what students focus on in the classroom (i.e. demonstrations, instructor, notes, board work, and presentations) during a normal lecture, what diverts attention away …

Investigating Student Communities With Network Analysis Of Interactions In A Physics Learning Center, Eric Brewe, Laird Kramer, Vashti Sawtelle

Department of Teaching and Learning

Developing a sense of community among students is one of the three pillars of an overall reform effort to increase participation in physics, and the sciences more broadly, at Florida International University. The emergence of a research and learning community, embedded within a course reform effort, has contributed to increased recruitment and retention of physics majors. We utilize social network analysis to quantify interactions in Florida International University’s Physics Learning Center (PLC) that support the development of academic and social integration. The tools of social network analysis allow us to visualize and quantify student interactions and characterize the roles of …

Hrc Enews — 2012 Winter, Megan M. Iudice

Publications (HRC)

This issue contains staff accomplishments and announcements, event listings, and a "new faces" listing for new staff, affiliates, and researchers.

The Effect Of Participating In Continuing Optometric Education: A Pilot Study, Claire E. Mcdonnell, Martina Crehan

Other

Purpose: To determine whether participation in two different post graduate optometry workshops resulted in a change in practice for the participants, in their subsequent practice.

Methods: 38 optometrists, who had attended a continuing professional development (CPD) workshop on punctal plugs and lacrimal syringing, were surveyed by email and telephone, between four and thirteen months post workshop, to ascertain if they had made a change to their practice. A second group of 32 optometrists, who had attended a continuing education and training (CET) workshop on binocular vision, were surveyed by email, telephone and postal mail between six and nine months post …

Elements Of Proximal Formative Assessment In Learners’ Discourse About Energy, Benedikt W. Harrer, Rachel E. Scherr, Michael C. Wittmann, Hunter G. Close, Brian W. Frank

Faculty Publications

Proximal formative assessment, the just-in-time elicitation of students' ideas that informs ongoing instruction, is usually associated with the instructor in a formal classroom setting. However, the elicitation, assessment, and subsequent instruction that characterize proximal formative assessment are also seen in discourse among peers. We present a case in which secondary teachers in a professional development course at SPU are discussing energy flow in refrigerators. In this episode, a peer is invited to share her thinking (elicitation). Her idea that refrigerators move heat from a relatively cold compartment to a hotter environment is inappropriately judged as incorrect (assessment). The "instruction" (peer …

Ua94/6/9 Student / Alumni Personal Papers Wku Lena Annis, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Lena Annis. Series includes term papers and subject notebooks for English, Mathematics, Geography and Education. Also included are Class of 1931 reunion materials.

Which Accelerates Faster A Falling Ball Or A Porsche?, James D. Rall, Wathiq Abdul-Razzaq

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

An introductory physics experiment has been developed to address the issues seen in conventional physics lab classes including assumption verification, technological dependencies, and real world motivation for the experiment. The experiment has little technology dependence and compares the acceleration due to gravity by using position versus time graphs and the kinematic equation. The students are then asked to compare the acceleration they found to the one of a Porsche car which they seem surprised when they learn about it. This experiment may contribute significantly to the understanding of the concept of acceleration and the appreciation for the force of gravity.

Response To Griffiths, Matthew S. Leifer

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

"First of all, I would like to thank Prof. Griffith for his comments. The exchange has reminded me of the series of letters that appeared in Physics Today following the publication of an article by Chandralekha Singh, Mario Belloni, and Wolfgang Christian on improving the teaching of undergraduate quantum mechanics (see http://ptonline.aip.org/ journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_60/iss_3/8_1.shtml). In those responses, both Griffiths and Travis Norsen argued that students’ understanding of quantum mechanics would be vastly improved if they were taught more about the foundations of quantum theory, and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. The thing is, Griffiths argued vociferously that this should be …