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Agenda Preview

Posters

• Effective Practices for Integrating Computation in Undergraduate Physics

  • • Mapping the New AAPT Recommendations for Computational Physics into our Curriculum

    • BB01
    • Mon 07/24, 1:30PM - 2:00PM

    • by Marie Lopez del Puerto,, Marty Johnston, Gerry Ruch, Adam Green, Paul Ohmann

    • Type: Poster
    • For the past 15 years, the University of St. Thomas physics department hasbeen integrating computational physics throughout the undergraduate curriculum. We have incorporated real-world computational physics problems into upper-division physics courses, developed experiments that involve computational data collection and analysis for the sophomore-level experimental methods course, re-developed the sophomore-level modern physics course to serve as an introduction to computational physics, and established a new junior-level course that focuses exclusively on computational methods. By mapping our efforts to the suggested learning outcomes in the new AAPT Recommendations for Computational Physics in the Undergraduate Physics Curriculum, we assess our progress and find areas that we still need to address in our curriculum.

  • • Integrating Computation into Undergraduate Programs: Progress at Eastern Michigan University

    • BB02
    • Mon 07/24, 1:30PM - 2:00PM

    • by Ernest Behringer,, David Pawlowski, Marshall Thomsen

    • Type: Poster
    • The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Eastern Michigan University hasrecognized that computational physics knowledge and skills are essential for our undergraduate students. We have developed and piloted two computational physics courses that will be required for our undergraduate physics programs beginning in fall 2017. The first course covers foundational techniques and is required during the introductory course. The second course covers techniques applicable to the upper-level core courses and is a prerequisite for the required capstone project course. We will describe the context and the content of these courses and our ongoing efforts to integrate computation into our core courses as well as upper-level laboratory courses.

  • • Methods of Computational Physics at the University of St. Thomas

    • BB03
    • Mon 07/24, 1:30PM - 2:00PM
    • by Gerald Ruch,
    • Type: Poster
    • The University of St. Thomas Physics department has been working to integrate computational physics throughout our undergraduate physics curriculum. In addition to the inclusion of computational exercises in existing courses, we have created a standalone course titled Methods of Computational Physics. Rather than presenting a loosely coupled collection of computational techniques, our course strives to teach our students how to tackle a large scale computational problem. The numerical and computational techniques required to solve the problem are explored along the way and fit piece by piece into a larger software framework. In this way, the students learn not only the specific techniques but how to break a large problem into its component parts and how to create, maintain, and expand a large piece of scientific software.

  • • P^3 : A Practice Focused Learning Environment

    • BB04
    • Mon 07/24, 1:30PM - 2:00PM

    • by Paul Irving,, Michael Obsniuk, Marcos Caballero

    • Type: Poster
    • There has been an increased focus on the integration of practices into physics curricula, with a particular emphasis on integrating computation into the undergraduate curriculum of scientists and engineers. In this paper, we present a university-level, introductory physics course for science and engineering majors at Michigan State University (MSU) called P3 (Projects and Practices in Physics) that is centered around providing introductory physics students with the opportunity to appropriate various science and engineering practices. The P3 design integrates computation with analytical problem solving and is built upon a curriculum foundation of problem-based learning, the principles of constructive alignment and the theoretical framework of community of practice. The design includes an innovative approach to computational physics instruction, instructional scaffolds, and a unique approach to assessment that enables instructors to guide students in the development of the practices of a physicist. We present the very positive student related outcomes of the design gathered via attitudinal and conceptual inventories and research interviews of students’ reflecting on their experiences in the P3 classroom.

  • • Relaxation Method Modeling of Non-ideal Parallel Plate Capacitor

    • BB05
    • Mon 07/24, 1:30PM - 2:00PM
    • by Sean Bartz,
    • Type: Poster
    • This computational exercise is part of a lab activity for an upper-level majors course in electrodynamics. In the laboratory portion of the exercise, students take measurements that allow them to calculate the capacitance of a large parallel-plate capacitor of varying aspect ratio. In the computational part of the exercise, students learn to use the relaxation method to solve Laplace's equation for the potential of various systems. Using their results, they can compare to their measurements and the calculation for an idealized infinite capacitor. MATLAB software was used for the computational component. We will show results from the first implementation of this lab exercise and possible future improvements.

  • • Using Jupyter Notebooks and GitHub Classroom for Upper-Level Physics

    • BB09
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:00PM
    • by Marcos Caballero,
    • Type: Poster
    • Computation is a practice that is increasingly important for physics majors to learn. In addition, modern computational practice makes use of tools such as version control (i.e., GitHub). In this poster, we present a practical approach to using Jupyter notebooks and GitHub in an upper-level course for physics majors - a course in which few students have any prior experience in computation. Highlighted are the use of scaffolded Jupyter notebooks and GitHub classroom - a tool for distributing and collecting student work using git repositories.

  • • AAPT Recommendations for Computational Physics in the Undergraduate Physics Curriculum*

    • BB10
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:00PM
    • by Ernest Behringer,
    • Type: Poster
    • Because computation is ubiquitous in the practice of physics, curricula that are authentic to the discipline include opportunities to develop and practice computational skills in the context of constructing and testing models of physical phenomena. This is the basis for the 2011 AAPT statement on computational physics urging “every physics and astronomy department [to] provide its majors and potential majors with appropriate instruction in computational physics.” The AAPT Undergraduate Curriculum Task Force (UCTF) developed a set of recommendations for including computational physics skills and practices in the undergraduate physics curriculum, approved in October 2016, and these recommendations will be described briefly here. Information about current implementations of computational physics instruction will also be presented.

  • • Enhanced Undergraduate Physics Education Through Computation

    • BB11
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:00PM
    • by Kelly Roos,
    • Type: Poster
    • In this poster I will present examples of typical undergraduate physics topics that can be more effectively presented and learned in a computational mode, than with a purely analytical, non-computational approach.

  • • Enhancing Student Learning with Computational Modeling

    • BB12
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:00PM
    • by Jay Wang,
    • Type: Poster
    • Following the panel presentation we discuss problem-specific activities incomputational modeling that can be integrated into any physics course to engage students in the understanding of a given topic. We will describe how one can begin with simple problems like 1D free fall, compute it numerically and build a template. We can then add some realism and cromplexity into it such as by modeling air resistance, and turn it into 3D realistic projectile motion. With a general template in place, students can be guided through the same process to explore more advanced problems including damped harmonic oscillator, vibration and waves, interactions of charged particles and Rutherford scattering, route to thermal equilibrium, and quantum wave propagation, etc. The basic computational environment is Python in Jupyter, but the examples should be easily adaptable to other environments such as GlowScript and trinket. To try it in real time, please bring your own laptop with Python, Jupyter (and optionally VPython) installed with packages like Anaconda or Canopy. Please see http://www.faculty.umassd.edu/j.wang/ for examples and installation instruction.

  • • Computational Physics at Francis Marion University

    • BB13
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:00PM

    • by Jordan McDonnell,, Larry Engelhardt

    • Type: Poster
    • We overview the activities in computational physics at Francis Marion University. Our sequence of computational physics courses begins with an introduction to computational methods and their application to physical problems, and culminates with a variety of advanced methods including an introduction to high performance computing. We also highlight the use of computational methods in our other physics courses, including electricity and magnetism, statistical mechanics, and quantum mechanics.

• Labs/Apparatus

  • • Identifying Common Difficulties in Causal Reasoning: The Effects of Bias

    • PST2B01
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Lindsay Owens,, Kathy Koenig, Lei Bao

    • Type: Poster
    • Students in algebra-based physics laboratory classes take a pre- and post-test designed to measure their scientific reasoning abilities across multiple domains. Students typically show improvements in the domains of control variables and probability, but show little to no improvement in higher order reasoning skills, such as causal reasoning. This poster shows a positive correlation between student causal reasoning skills and their total reasoning score as measured by the iSTAR. In addition, this poster shows that all students, regardless of causal reasoning skill ability, demonstrated difficulty with causal reasoning when pre-existing biases were present. In order to identify difficulties associated with bias in causal reasoning, students answered a series of questions which addressed a commonly believed claim that red cars get more speeding tickets.

  • • Improving Scientific Reasoning Development in Elementary Physics Lab Students*

    • PST2B03
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Larry Bortner,, Kathleen Koenig, Lindsay Owens, Krista Wood, Lei Bao

    • Type: Poster
    • First semester physics lab curriculum has been developed at the Universityof Cincinnati to promote scientific thinking and its application. In concert with this, the Inquiry for Student Thinking and Reasoning (iSTAR) assessment has been developed to probe student abilities in scientific reasoning. This presentation will provide details on how the labs have resulted in significant improvement in one particular aspect of scientific reasoning, the control of variables (COV). However, this improvement occurs within the first four labs, suggesting that revisions to following labs could further impact student COV abilities. Data will be presented for how the scores of students broken up into post-iSTAR tertiles correlate with performance on the lab exam and second semester pre-assessments CSEM and LOCE.

  • • Measurement of the Speed of Sound in Various Liquids

    • PST2B05
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Bob Powell,, Ben Jenkins

    • Type: Poster
    • Iowa Doppler Products’ (IDP) instrumentation is designed to measure the speed of sound through a variety of media. This equipment has been used as the initial research project for undergraduate physics majors at the University of West Georgia. These students have studied the speed of sound in the following liquids: water, salt water containing various concentrations of sodium chloride, Coca Cola products, and water-antifreeze mixtures. Errors in the speed of sound in water were typically about 0.5%. Measurements of the speed of sound in other substances are being planned.

  • • Quantitative Exploration of Ohm's Law with Computer Fans

    • PST2B07
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Robert Ekey,, Brandon Mitchell, Andrea Edwards, Roy McCullough, William Reitz

    • Type: Poster
    • Recently, we demonstrated small computer fans are a suitable replacement of tungsten filament bulbs for qualitative analysis of simple circuits where the current is related to the rotational speed of the fan (Footnote 1). In this poster, we demonstrate that fans can be used for quantitative measurements as well. Ohm’s law can be verified from measurements of the voltage across and current through the fan, which exhibits a linear relationship enabling an effective resistance of the fan to be calculated. These can then be verified for series, parallel and combination circuits containing one or two fan models. Though the fan is a complex circuit element, these results demonstrate both the qualitative and quantitative benefits of using fans as an effective tool to teach simple circuits. As bulbs do not allow for these simplistic quantitative measurements, fans are arguably a suitable, if not better, replacement for light bulbs.

  • • Simulating Radioactive Decay with Dice

    • PST2B09
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Ian Bearden,, Louisa Uglebjerg

    • Type: Poster
    • Six-sided dice have long been used to simulate radioactive decay. One takes N_0 dice, rolls them and removes all those showing a given number leaving N_1 dice. This is repeated and the number of dice remaining in each step is plotted, giving a reasonable exponential decay curve. We have expanded this by including dice with different numbers of sides ( 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, 24). In addition to being catnip for the D&D set, an number of processes can be simulated since each of the various die types can represent and isotope with a different half life. One can also use the data generated to teach basic statistics needed for counting measurements as well as a discussion of differences between the dice generated data and a true exponential decay function. Finally, while all of these dice experiments can easily be done numerically, we argue that the physical interaction of the student with the apparatus removes the "black box" aspect of many simulations and allows students to directly see what is actually taking place.

  • • A Timbre Tutor For Music Students

    • PST2B11
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Gerald Ruch,, John Walker

    • Type: Poster
    • We present a tool for determining the difference between a "well played" note and a "poorly played" note on a musical instrument by measuring the timbre, that aspect of a sound sample separate from pitch or volume. In our subjective measure, warm tones are considered “good” and bright tones are considered “bad.” Warm versus bright is quantified by determining the fundamental frequency of the note and examining the harmonics. A note with many harmonics sounds bright while a note with few harmonics sounds warm. We have built a smartphone app that calculates the harmonic average of an incoming signal and presents the results in real time. This app can be used by a music student during solo practice sessions between lessons to develop good tone on their instrument.

  • • Using a Michelson Interferometer to Detect Sounds

    • PST2B13
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM
    • by Timothy Grove,
    • Type: Poster
    • We present a laser experiment for students beyond their first year in physics. This experiment not only gives students experience with laser interferometry, it also provides cross course learning (electronics) and play. The experiment is based upon a Michelson interferometer; a sound source vibrates one of its reflecting mirrors to produce a time changing signal. Usually the sound source is a radio connected to a small speaker, but students are free to play with other sound vibrating schemes. The interference fringes vibrate with frequencies similar to the sound source. A photodetector then detects the changing fringes and a simple computer program converts the photo signal into an audio file. Simple electronics circuits provide access to the radio signal sent to the sound speaker. Then by comparing the "true" radio signal with the signal recorded via the photodetector, we can analyze the performance of our sound recording system.

  • • X-ray Attenuation and CT Image Reconstruction Using Simple X-ray Device

    • PST2B15
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Haraldur Audunsson,, Thordur Helgason

    • Type: Poster
    • Part of our introduction to x-ray attenuation, computed tomography (CT), and its use in medical imaging, is done by using a simple x-ray device. A small object in the x-ray beam casts a shadow on a fluorescent screen, which is photographed by a common digital camera. Students ascertain to what extent components of the imaging system are linear, i.e. the x-ray lamp, the fluorescent screen and the camera, and use the photos to evaluate beam attenuation and beam hardening. A single slice CT through the small object is made by manually rotating it by a small angle and taking a photo of the fluorescent screen at each step, eventually forming a sinogram. Computations based on filtered back projection are used to reconstruct a single slice CT. The transparency of this set up and hands on brings out the underlying principles and reinforces practical skills.

  • • A Lab on Kepler’s Laws that Introduces Students to Python and Coding in General

    • PST2B17
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Glenda Denicolo,, Michael Zingale,

    • Type: Poster
    • Aligned with AAPT recommendations to incorporate computational physics into the curriculum, we prepared a coding exercise about the verification of Kepler’s laws and offered it to our second semester calculus-based physics students as an in-class laboratory activity. The exercise is coded in Python using Jupyter notebooks. The notebooks are placed in a github repository, and are deployed to the students via mybinder.org. Binder opens the notebooks in a browser for the students, avoiding the need to install any software. During the two- hour lab, students followed the instructions in the notebook, which gradually introduced them to Python commands, and explained the fourth order Runge-Kutta integration method applied to calculate orbits. Students are guided in gradual steps on how to add lines to the code, change initial conditions and run the integration for new orbits to collect data. The information collected is used to write a lab report on the verification of Kepler’s three laws.

  • • Designing Earthquakes for a Low-Cost Shake Table*

    • PST2B23
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Frederick Thomas,, Robert Chaney, Marta Gruesbeck

    • Type: Poster
    • A servo-powered shake table can be programmed to produce one-dimension scale versions of either real or user-designed earthquakes. Programmed using Excel-like algebraic functions, the table can replicate earthquakes with varying amplitudes (i.e., original Richter magnitude), different maximum accelerations (the primary basis for building codes), varying frequencies, alternative waveforms and more. In addition to teaching about the differences among displacement, velocity and acceleration, the table can assist in teaching about periodic and non-periodic motions. A sample two-part activity asks students to (1) design and build a structure that can withstand a Richter magnitude 5 earthquake, then (2) design a magnitude 4 earthquake to destroy the structure. Since the Arduino family board incorporates a micro SD card, the system can store and replay thousands of alternative motions. Plans for building the table are provided, along with an executable LabVIEW control program and the necessary sketch for implementation via a ChipKIT WF32 board.

  • • A Project-based Student Centered Approach to Second Semester Introductory Physics,

    • PST2B25
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Mark Masters,, Jacob Millspaw

    • Type: Poster
    • Our continuous improvement/attempts at innovation in the introductory courses have led us to the use of projects in the class and Lab. Laboratory requires the students to build calorimeters and these were subsequently used in circuit investigations to collect quantitative data about parallel and series circuits. The lecture portion of the class makes extensive use of short investigations and ILD’s. There are also a few projects in the class such as building a thermometer to determine absolute zero and a Stirling engine. These in class experiments engage the students in the material. The projects also force the students to build – for which we open our maker space – and demonstrate to engineering students that building something is not all following instructions.

  • • Helping Students Master Uncertainties in Measurements

    • PST2B02
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Scott Bonham,, Brian Luna, Kolton Jones

    • Type: Poster
    • Uncertainties are an important part of scientific measurement, but one with which many students struggle. We present a set of activities that we have implemented in introductory physics laboratory sessions to help students understand the concept, mechanics and importance of uncertainties. These activities seek to help students visualize the meaning of the standard deviation of the mean/standard error, give them practice calculating the standard error and propagating uncertainties through multiple calculations, and recognize the need for uncertainties in a “real life” application. For this, students measure parameters of a plastic “boat”, “cargo” it is to carry, and its “sea”, to calculate the maximum cargo—with uncertainties—that will not sink. We find that the full set of instructional interventions leads the majority of the students to consistently report the uncertainties of their measured and calculated values in their reports for most of the rest of the semester.

  • • Keeping Introductory Physics Laboratory From Being Mind Numbingly Boring – Part 2

    • PST2B04
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Jacob Millspaw,, Mark Masters

    • Type: Poster
    • In a previous poster (2015 Summer Meeting) we presented our preliminary work on making the first semester introductory physics laboratory more experiment focused. In this case, students were given goals to accomplish such as determine a model for static frictional forces. We have continued the evolution of the laboratories to include more explicit methods for determining models. But there are more significant projects, such as building a balance that is capable of measuring a 2-3 g mass with a precision of 10 mg. This project requires the students to think about the physics and apply what they know to come up with a solution for a difficult problem.

  • • Model-based Reasoning During Electronics and Optics Lab Activities: Instructor Perspectives

    • PST2B06
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Dimitri Dounas-Frazer,, Jacob Stanley, H. Lewandowski

    • Type: Poster
    • Conducting physics experiments requires constructing, using, and refining theoretical models and physical apparatuses, a nonlinear and recursive process we call "modeling." Developing proficiency with modeling was identified as an important learning outcome for undergraduate physics lab courses by both AAPT and faculty members at our home institution. Our long-term goal is to create educational materials that will support lab instructors to develop their students' modeling skills. To this end, we have previously studied students' approaches to completing experimental physics activities. However, instructor perspectives are also needed to build a comprehensive foundation for future development of useful and relevant educational materials. Accordingly, we interviewed more than 30 instructors about specific electronics and optics lab activities. Interviews focused on how those activities were designed to engage students in some aspects of modeling, but not others. We report results from this study and discuss implications for the development of objectives for modeling assessments.

  • • Raman Spectroscopy as a Bridge between Advanced and Research Laboratories

    • PST2B08
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Eugenii Donev,, Daniel Rosales, Ahsanul Kabir, Tyler Blankenship

    • Type: Poster
    • Raman spectroscopy is a versatile technique that ‘fingerprints’ materials according to the radiative transitions between their molecular vibronic states. The range of suitable samples is vast, and so are the scientific, engineering, and industrial applications. However, Raman instruments are not common in physics departments at small colleges. At Sewanee, we have introduced undergraduate physics majors to regular and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) through an iterative approach that connects the advanced laboratory course to the research activities of the faculty. Students built and optimized a Raman system as a semester-long research project, and then used electromagnetic simulations, nanolithography, and thin-film deposition as a summer research project to fabricate SERS-active substrates. These efforts paved the way for augmenting the advanced laboratory with Raman-related experiments, which in turn inspired a student to construct a micro-Raman system for measuring grains in rock and meteorite samples as a capstone research project.

  • • Improving a Systematic Lecture Demonstration for Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning Skill

    • PST2B12
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM
    • by Jun-ichiro Yasuda,
    • Type: Poster
    • We developed a lecture demonstration experiment to improve students’ scientific reasoning skills. In this experiment, students roll two objects (e.g. metal cylinder, ping-pong ball etc.) down a slope, compare their velocities, and study the factors that affect the motion of the objects. The goal given to the students is to predict the result of the experiment with a pipe and a spool. In order to make a certain prediction, students conduct preliminary experiments repeatedly with various objects. This practice has two features. First, students design the procedures of the experiments. Second, students conduct scientific reasoning with a worksheet. We evaluated students’ scientific reasoning skills with Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (CTSR). We found that through this practice the average CTSR score significantly increased (df = 91?p < .01?d > 0.4). Especially, the average score of hypothetical-deductive reasoning skill increased when students experienced falsification repeatedly.

  • • What Fraction of the Human Population Can Perceive Polarization?

    • PST2B14
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Scott Dudley,, Francesco Insulla, Hannah Milliman, Andre Catao, Mackenzie Winton

    • Type: Poster
    • Some people are able to perceive the polarization of light. The effect, known as Haidinger's Brush, results in them perceiving a faint fuzzy yellow and blue bowtie-cross when looking at polarized light. Here we determine whether subjects can see Haidinger's Brush by testing them with a polarized LCD screen, and estimate the fraction of the population that possess this ability.

  • • “Publishing and Reverse Game Play” Investigation

    • PST2B16
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM
    • by Timothy Grove,
    • Type: Poster
    • One of the recent changes we were obliged to make in our introductory physics courses was to address general education goals. Among these goals was a requirement regarding teaching “how the natural sciences generate knowledge.” To help meet this goal, we introduced reverse game play into the first laboratory investigation. In reverse game play, students try to determine the rules of a game by simply watching it being played. However, this, by itself, ignores the role of scientific publishing. To simulate the role of publication, students write their discoveries on a chalkboard for all to see. The lab instructor serves the role of journal editor and only allows testable and non-trivial information to be posted. Students can then challenge or build upon the information on the chalkboard. Poker chips are given/taken from student groups to mark their progress.

  • • A Low Cost Apparatus for Measuring the Speed of Light

    • PST2B18
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Ian Bearden,, Jan Oechsle,

    • Type: Poster
    • We have a developed a reasonably priced (around $150) apparatus for measuring the speed of light. This consists of two small electronics boards, a lucite beam splitter, a fresnel lens, and a retroreflector. The transmitter board has three LEDs (red, green, blue) which can be chosen as the light transmitter, as well as the circuitry to generate light pulses of 100ns every 0.5-2.microseconds (selectable in 500ns increments via jumper). The receiver board consists of a small detector and associate electronics. Using an oscilloscope to find the time difference between the driver signal of the transmitter board and the arrival time of the collected light, one can obtain results at least as accurate as those from commercial systems costing four to twenty times as much. The low cost allows for a duplication of setups which would otherwise be cost prohibitive for many schools and universities.

  • • A PSoC-based Linear Detector Array for a Spectrograph

    • PST2B20
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Mark Masters,, Jacob Millspaw

    • Type: Poster
    • Continuing our love affair with the Cypress PSoC mixed signal processor, we built a linear array detector for use in a spectrograph. The detector is a 128 pixel TSL1401 from AMS. The PSoC serves as the bridge to provide timing to the detector, to read in and digitize the signal from each pixel. We use analog to digital conversion at a rate of 1 MSample/second and 12-bit resolution. The PSoC can display the data on a graphical LCD, but also sends the data to computer via a USB port. The exposure time and averaging can be completed on the PSoC. Maximum data rate is over 6 kHz. A Python program provides the communication between the PSoC and the detector. This detection system is used in a simple spectrograph.

  • • Assessing Technical and Practical Skills in Lab Courses

    • PST2B22
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM
    • by Patricia Allen,
    • Type: Poster
    • Some technical and practical skills described in “AAPT Recommendations forthe Undergraduate Laboratory Curriculum” include, but are not limited to: using measuring tools and apparatus, understanding limitations to tools/apparatus, trouble-shooting situations, and developing appropriate documentation. At Appalachian State University, multiple technical and practical skills are assessed during both Intermediate (sophomore/junior level) and Advanced (senior level) lab courses. Assessment methods used (including rubrics) together with how assessment results inform modifications to lab activities, will be presented and discussed.

  • • Evolution of Technical and Practical Skills Through Intermediate Lab Activities

    • PST2B24
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Patricia Allen,, Scott Thomas

    • Type: Poster
    • At Appalachian State University, physics majors are required to take both Intermediate (sophomore/junior level) and Advanced (senior level) labs to graduate. During Intermediate lab, students are initially guided through a series of activities to become familiar with measuring tools and techniques, as well as limitations associated with acquiring data. By the end of the semester, Intermediate students are expected to be independent when designing and completing lab activities. An overview of these activities will be presented, along with how activities have evolved over time and how students are evaluated. The overlap of lab skills/activities between the Intermediate and Advanced lab courses will be also be discussed, including future plans for the physics major program of study.

  • • A Small, Inexpensive Capacitive Force Sensor for Teaching Labs

    • PST2B26
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Ryan French,, Arthur Martin, Christopher Nakamura, John Potts, Matthew Vannette

    • Type: Poster
    • We present a pedagogically useful lab apparatus for teaching about capacitors that resulted from a simple interdisciplinary research effort. In fall of 2016 the authors began to design research to develop sensors for measuring forces exerted by Crayfish in agonistic (fighting) behavior. This is a problem of biological interest with a clear connection to physics. These efforts have resulted in the design of small (cm scale or below) capacitive force sensors that can be quickly made with cheap, readily accessible materials and that can measure compression forces up to 15 N. Elastic deformation of the sensor alters the capacitance reproducibly, allowing calibration with applied force. The importance of geometry will be presented. We present two measurement schemes: direct measurement via LCR meter and measurement via frequency shifts of an LC-Oscillator. The measurement schemes can be viewed from different perspectives to highlight physics appropriate for different audiences from high school to university.

• Lecture/Classroom

  • • How Do I Help Students Engage Productively (“buy in”) in Active Learning Classrooms?

    • PST1B01
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Stephanie Chasteen,, Andrew Boudreaux , Jonathan Gaffney

    • Type: Poster
    • If you’re incorporating active-learning strategies into your teaching, youmay find that students don’t automatically embrace this new learning approach. Students may just sit back and listen, waiting for their peers to answer. They may engage enthusiastically at first, but that exuberance wanes in the face of a busy semester. Students may even openly resist and complain (though this is somewhat rare). As instructors, we need to be mindful about how we structure the class structure and culture to make engagement feel safe and worthwhile. This poster will present results from a four-year project to document and disseminate what college STEM instructors do to generate student engagement, from the first day of class and beyond – and how these techniques align with research on student motivation and learning. Stop by and get ideas to use in the fall!*

  • • Two Stage Exams in the Modern Physics Classroom

    • PST1B03
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM
    • by Kristi Concannon,
    • Type: Poster
    • Pedagogical innovation and active-learning methodologies are incorporated into introductory-level courses more frequently than in upper-level courses. For several years, I have been incorporating two-stage exams into my introductory courses with reasonable success. The two-stage exam reinforces to students the premise that learning can and should take place throughout the entire semester, not just in compartmentalized chunks; hence, exams can both be an opportunity for students to demonstrate what they have learned and an opportunity for students to continue to increase their understanding of the course material. Recently, I began implementing two-stage exams in my sophomore-level Modern Physics course. In this poster, I will compare the effectiveness of the two-stage exam in the introductory and sophomore-level courses.

  • • Catholic University of Uruguay: Innovative Instructional Strategies in Mechanics

    • PST1B07
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Wilson Gonzalez,, Pablo Geille, Daniel Perciante, Marcos Sarasola, Rosina Perez

    • Type: Poster
    • The results of decades of research in physics teaching are starting to be integrated into even the most traditional classroom settings. This is the case of the Mechanics I class at Catholic University of Uruguay, the first course in the physics sequence for engineers. Strongly influenced by 20th century Western Europe, physics classes have been taught in a lecture style that is now slowly transitioning to more student-oriented classroom experiences with the integration of “concept-tests” and group assessments. The purpose of this session is to briefly describe how these innovative assessment strategies were implemented, to assess to what extent they were successful, and to suggest future avenues of inquiry.

  • • Developing Literacy in the 9th Grade Physics Classroom

    • PST1B09
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Austin Hauser,, Rachelle Klinger

    • Type: Poster
    • The development of literacy skills are often lost in the physics curriculum. At Herron High School, a public charter high school in Indianapolis, physics is taught as a first science course. Because of these two factors, we have gradually introduced literacy as an emphasis in our skills-based curriculum. We have developed materials, content, and instructional methods through close cooperation with our English and Social Studies departments. We will share our successes, challenges, and future goals for science literacy in physics, emphasizing examples of materials used in the curriculum.

  • • Identifying the Disciplinary Alignment of Student Ideas Using Textbook Analysis

    • PST1B02
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Mashood KK,, Vashti Sawtelle, Charles Anderson, Emily Scott, Sonia Underwood

    • Type: Poster
    • The emphasis on interdisciplinary thinking, both at the policy level and academia, has resulted in the development of new undergraduate science courses and curricula, but assessing interdisciplinary thinking remains challenging. An important consideration in this regard is to understand the extent to which students invoke different disciplines in their explanations about scientific phenomena. Literature review reveals that this process is often done by seeking opinion from content experts. We propose using student reflections and textbook analysis as two other possible modes for doing this. This poster discusses the process of textbook analysis, illustrating its advantages and limitations. Our data constitute student explanations of a set of everyday interdisciplinary phenomena such as the solidification of egg white on boiling. These phenomena were chosen such that they involve ideas from physics, chemistry and biology. Students were asked to explain them on the basis of what they have learned in different science courses.

  • • Using Art and Board Games to Understand Physical Concepts

    • PST1B04
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Matt Olmstead,
    • Type: Poster
    • I have implemented several lessons throughout our physics senior seminar class as an attempt to remind students of all they have learned. To do this, I wanted them to look at physics in a different way than they have in the past by using art and games. One of the games implemented involves all students drawing different ideas from physics while at the same time trying to determine what the others are drawing. For example, one round a student might be trying to draw general relativity (from a list including special relativity, gravity, Big Bang Theory, expansion of the universe, dark energy, and curvature of spacetime) while another students is drawing from a selection of physicists (including Einstein) and another student is drawing from ideas like Pauli-exclusion Principle, electron degeneracy pressure, etc. Distinguishing these similar concepts through student drawing requires focusing on aspects of physics from a different perspective.

  • • A Pedagogical Trek Through a Tunnel in the Earth

    • PST1B06
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Gerardo Giordano,, Thomas Concannon

    • Type: Poster
    • A classic problem that introductory physics students are faced with is determining how long it takes an object to fall through a pole-to-pole deep bore hole through the Earth. In the standard setup for this problem, the Earths density is considered to be constant, its rotation is ignored and friction of all types is neglected. It provides a robust end-of-semester exercise that brings together Newton’s Law of Gravitation, Newton’s Shell Theorem, and simple harmonic motion while introducing the differential equations as a means of relating physics ideas. In this project, we expand on that idea by first adding a constant frictional term changing the homogeneous differential equation to a nonhomogeneous differential equation and suggesting an interesting way to explore the resulting differential equation. We further relax the constant density requirement and provide a novel way to introduce students to numerical analysis of the more complicated situation.

  • • Deep Conceptual Thinking in High Needs Schools

    • PST1B08
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Bradley Gearhart,, Dan MacIsaac, Kathleen Falconer

    • Type: Poster
    • Over the past six years, I have worked in two high schools within the Buffalo Public School District in Buffalo, NY, that have been state-identified as "Priority," "Persistently Low Achieving," and even less flatteringly "Failing." Despite these labels, I have witnessed, and documented, students engaging in deep levels of conceptual development that goes unrecognized in typical high stakes end of year state assessments. In this poster I provide primary evidence supporting my claim that, despite severe under performance on state issued Regents Exams, students within these schools are able to develop conceptual understanding that rivals those seen with inservice science teachers learning similar material for the first time and students in high-achieving high schools. It is my goal to help dispel the belief that failing schools are failing to engage students in the act of thinking and offer alternative suggestions for under-performance on these assessments.

  • • Magnetic Domain Theater: An Interactive Classroom Activity

    • PST1B10
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Steven Sahyun,
    • Type: Poster
    • This poster will describe an easy-to-implement classroom activity used with pre-service elementary teachers in a studio-style Physics and Everyday Thinking (PET) course to enhance understanding about magnetic domains. In this activity, students are given a small sticky-note paper that is used as an analogy for magnetic poles and then arrange themselves to create a model of a nonmagnetic ferromagnetic material. Next, they rearrange themselves to create a magnetized object. This analogy also helps students understand why bar magnets are stronger at the ends rather than the center.

  • • Ways to Decrease those DFW's in General Physics I

    • PST1B05
    • Tue 07/25, 8:30PM - 9:15PM
    • by Karen Williams,
    • Type: Poster
    • I will describe what I do in my General Physics I course that might help you retain the students and decrease your D's, F's, and W's in the course. At my institution we are on probation if we do not have less than a 25% average in all of our courses for student F’s, W’s, AW’s. Some of these tips were given to me in different workshops. Some I tried and think they seem to help. Some things students told me helped. This is not a hardcore research poster with statistics as I am not sure I have data that far back to show change. This poster is a description of what might help you and your General Physics I (algebra based course) students since many faculty are penalized on annual evaluations when students drop or do poorly.

• Other Poster

  • • Engineering Design in a Physics Course for Future Elementary Teachers*

    • PST2C01
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Yuri Piedrahita,, Jeffrey Murray, N. Sanjay Rebello

    • Type: Poster
    • The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) and sciencestandards of many states emphasize meaningful integration of practices of engineering and engineering design in K-12 science instruction. Most current courses that prepare K-12 teachers do not include integrated experiences for learning science. We describe an instructional unit that integrates learning of electric circuits in the context of an engineering design challenge in a physics course for future elementary teachers. We will describe the underlying framework and challenges of implementation. We also discuss the impact on student learning and refinement of their design. This effort is part of an NSF-funded project integrating engineering design experiences across multiple courses for pre-service elementary teachers. The project supports of one of the central goals of the Center for Advancing the Teaching and Learning of STEM (CATALYST) at Purdue University to positively impact the integration of STEM teaching and learning in K-12 classrooms.

  • • Equity, Inclusion, and Cookies: Addressing Physics Climate Through Diversity Discussions

    • PST2C03
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM
    • by Katherine Rainey,
    • Type: Poster
    • It is well known that women and people of color are largely underrepresented in physics at all levels, from undergraduates to faculty. A large body of literature has investigated the cause of this low representation; some work points to a “chilly” climate and unwelcoming culture within physics that is discouraging to women and people of color. In an effort to improve the culture within their department, a committee within the CU Boulder physics department has created Equity, Inclusion, and Cookies (EIC), a series of facilitated discussions and presentations related to diversity in physics open to everyone in the department (undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff). Here, we describe the EIC events to date, present initial reactions to these events from attendees, and discuss our plans for developing the series in the future.

  • • Effect of Cognitive Exam Wrappers on Student Metacognition Self-Monitoring

    • PST2C02
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Patricia Soto,, Laura Aumen, Alexis Munchrath, Gintaras Duda

    • Type: Poster
    • An extensive body of work establishes the critical importance of metacognition and reflection in the learning process. This work describes the implementation of a metacognitive intervention, a cognitive exam wrapper, to spur student thinking about their learning, their strategies for learning, and prompt them to identify and modify unsuccessful strategies for learning. Exam wrappers have been well received by our students and have proven valuable both to the instructors and the students. In our study, we tested to what extent exam wrappers influence student study habits, exam performance, and metacognitive skills development. Our analysis suggests that cognitive exam wrappers are especially effective when students are confronted with unfamiliar pedagogical modalities. We discuss the strengths and challenges in the use of exam wrappers and propose guidelines for the implementation of the tool in the classroom.

  • • Effects of STEAM Program which Emphasizes Real World Phenomena

    • PST2C04
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM
    • by Eun Hee Kim,
    • Type: Poster
    • The purpose of this study is to develop a STEAM program and analyze the effectiveness of it based on the core-competence, which is introduced in the 2015 revised Korean National Science Curriculum. The importance of observation is emphasized in this program, especially on the real world phenomena. The program was taught to students in Seoul, Korea. Throughout the program, their behaviors were examined to analyze their improvement on core-competences. As a result, the STEAM program gave positive influence on developing the core-competence. Especially, their scientific communication ability showed large improvement. since they had long time to discuss the phenomena. In addition, by observing real world phenomena, students attitude towards science has changed positively and showed improvement in life-long and scientific-participation competence. Based on the positive effects of the program, it would give good influences on developing teaching strategy which can develop students’ core-competence.

• Physics Education Research

  • • Development and Growth of PhysPort

    • PST1E01
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Sarah McKagan,, Eleanor Sayre, Adrian Madsen, Lyle Barbato

    • Type: Poster
    • PhysPort.org is a website that supports physics faculty in using research-based teaching and assessment in their classrooms. PhysPort offers multiple resources including overviews of over 50 research-based teaching methods and over 80 research-based assessments, along with the Virtual New Faculty Workshop and the Periscope collection of video-based TA training and faculty professional development materials. It also includes Expert Recommendations with specific guidance on implementing research-based teaching and assessment, and the Data Explorer which provides instant analysis and visualization of research-based assessment results. PhysPort has been supported through multiple NSF grants since 2009. It has grown steadily since its launch in 2011 (when it was called the PER User's Guide), both in terms of the number and types of resources it offers, and the number of users. In this talk we will present an overview of the growth of resources available on PhysPort, along with data on the usage of the site.

  • • Exploring Student Communities in Group Exam Settings

    • PST1E03
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:25PM

    • by Steven Wolf,, Timothy Sault, Cody Blakeney, Hunter Close

    • Type: Poster
    • Collaboration is an integral part of science, and as our classrooms becomemore collaborative, so to can our assessments. Group exam data gives us a new kind of data about how our students relate to each other. Network analysis provides many tools for describing, visualizing, and analyzing student networks. In particular, we are interested in probing many different aspects of these communities. For example, how does network position relate to content knowledge? And can we track how ideas flow through a class?

  • • Exploring the Underlying Factors in Faculty - Learning Assistant Partnerships*

    • PST1E05
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Fidel Amezcua,, Felicia Davenport, Mel Sabella, Andrea Van Duzor

    • Type: Poster
    • An effective Learning Assistant (LA) Program can provide a variety of benefits for both LAs and faculty. A key component of the LA Program is the Faculty led weekly preparation sessions. Our previous work suggests that different types of partnerships can arise during these meetings. We leverage a combination of qualitative and quantitative data to better understand what types of skills faculty value and how this affects the formation of these partnerships. These qualitative and quantitative methods are used to gain insight into how these partnerships develop. Measures include LA and faculty reflections, videos of weekly preparation sessions, and interviews.

  • • Faculty Online Learning Communities: What Role Does Community Play?

    • PST1E07
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Alexandra Lau,, Melissa Dancy, Charles Henderson

    • Type: Poster
    • In 2015 we ran our first Faculty Online Learning Community (FOLC) to support new faculty in the year following their attendance at the Physics and Astronomy New Faculty Workshop (NFW). FOLC cohorts meet biweekly via a video conferencing program and connect between meetings using an asynchronous communication platform. Previous work shows that participants of the NFW face challenges in implementing techniques learned at the workshop when they return to their home institutions [1]. Our FOLCs are designed to create a support network among members as they navigate these challenges. This poster will describe our analysis of the role of community in our FOLCs. Data is drawn from post-interviews of members from our four completed cohorts. Emergent themes from our analysis will be highlighted.

  • • How Can We Shape Our Resources-Oriented Research to be Most Useful for University Physics Instructors?*

    • PST1E11
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Amy Robertson,, Lisa Goodhew, Paula Heron, Rachel Scherr

    • Type: Poster
    • Misconceptions research – including research that identifies common, incorrect student ideas – has had a substantive impact on university physics instruction. For example, misconceptions research has provided faculty with knowledge and tools to elicit, confront, and resolve particular misconceptions. This project takes up a different lens – a resources-oriented lens – which assumes that student ideas can be framed as the beginnings of physics understandings, and that instruction can build from these understandings toward instructional targets. In this data-intensive poster, we will share examples of resources that we have identified in students’ written responses to conceptual questions about forces. Our aim is to speak with physics instructors from a variety of institutions who may use the results of our research (e.g., the resources we identify) to inform their instruction, so that we can shape the substance and form of our future work to meet the needs and interest of our audience.

  • • How Students Use Far Analogies to Understand New Physics Concepts

    • PST1E13
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by AJ Richards,, David Brookes, Eugenia Etkina

    • Type: Poster
    • We have documented a small group of preservice physics teachers learning about how a solar cell functions and examined how they use analogical reasoning. In particular, we note how they devise far analogies (analogies to non-physics, everyday-life phenomena, described by Dunbar [1995]* as “long-distance analogies”) to “wrap up” a discussion of a certain topic and to demonstrate understanding or attempt to explain the situation to a groupmate who remains uncertain. These far analogies represent important “mileposts” in the conversation, as we observe that students almost always employ them only after they feel confident in their understanding of the concept. We will present several notable examples and discuss implications of their use in student reasoning about new physics ideas.

  • • Impact of Situational Factors on Student Attitudes in Introductory Physics

    • PST1E15
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Brian Zamarripa Roman,, Jacquelyn Chini

    • Type: Poster
    • Attitudinal assessments in physics have been developed to probe what students believe about physics and learning physics. Both pre-instruction assessment scores and the change in those scores as a result of instruction (gains) have been shown to be affected by factors such as student gender, previous experience with physics, and type of math required in the physics course. In this investigation, we examine the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey to determine the effect of situational factors on assessment scores and gains. The effects of situational factors such as income and parent college experience were tested through statistical analysis of scores gathered over five semesters of introductory physics courses.

  • • Improving Students' Understanding of Lock-in Amplifiers

    • PST1E17
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Seth DeVore,, Alexandre Gauthier, Jeremy Levy, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • A lock-in amplifier is a versatile instrument frequently used in physics research. However, many students struggle with the basic operating principles of a lock-in amplifier which can lead to a variety of difficulties. To improve students' understanding, we have developed and evaluated a research-based tutorial which utilizes a computer simulation of a lock-in amplifier. The tutorial is based on a field-tested approach in which students realize their difficulties after predicting the outcome of simulated experiments involving a lock-in amplifier and check their predictions using the simulated lock-in amplifier. Then, the tutorial guides and helps students develop a coherent understanding of the basics of a lock-in amplifier. The tutorial development involved interviews with physics faculty members and graduate students and iteration of many versions of the tutorial with professors and graduate students. The student difficulties and the development and assessment of the research-based tutorial are discussed. Supported by the NSF.

  • • Inequitable Physics: Developing Curricula to Emphasize a Need for Change

    • PST1E19
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Sierra Decker,, Abigail Daane

    • Type: Poster
    • In an introductory university physics course, we taught a unit about racial inequity, explicitly highlighting the glaring underrepresentation of people of color and women in the physics community. The weeklong equity unit emphasizes that while physics is often described as objective and uninfluenced by racial and cultural differences, in reality, both current and future physicists are affected by their personal experiences. The development and teaching of physics is impacted by the people who participate (or do not participate) in the community, yet this issue has been left out of most physics curricula. We provide a description of an equity unit appropriate for introductory university physics that aims to increase awareness of racial inequity and empower students to become agents of change.

  • • Instructor Approaches to Teaching Computation in Collaborative Physics Problem Solving

    • PST1E21
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Alanna Pawlak,, Paul Irving, Marcos Caballero

    • Type: Poster
    • An increasing emphasis is being placed on incorporating “authentic practices” into introductory physics courses, for example, through the inclusion of computational problems. Such problems can allow students to engage with the programming practices and numerical problem solving methods used by physicists. We conducted interviews with the instructors in a problem-based introductory mechanics course where students solved several computational problems. In these problems, students were provided minimally working programs in VPython that they had to modify in order to correctly model the physics of the situation in question. The instructors in this course come from a range of backgrounds, and include undergraduate learning assistants, graduate teaching assistants, and faculty from several subdisciplines of physics. We present preliminary analysis of these interviews suggesting that there are distinct ways that instructors may approach teaching computational problems in this environment.

  • • Investigating and Improving Introductory Physics Students’ Understanding of Coulomb’s Law and Gauss’s Law

    • PST1E23
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Chandralekha, Singh,, Jing Li

    • Type: Poster
    • We discuss an investigation of the difficulties that students in university introductory physics courses have with Coulomb’s law and Gauss’s law and how that research was used as a guide in the development and evaluation of a research-validated tutorials on these topics to help students learn these concepts better. The tutorials use a guided inquiry-based approach to learning and involved an iterative process of development and evaluation. We also compare student performance in classes in which students worked on the tutorials with other similar classes in which students only learned via traditional instruction. We find that students performed significantly better in classes in which the tutorials were used compared to when students learned the material via traditional lecture-based instruction. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

  • • Investigating Physics Self-Efficacy of Female African-American Students

    • PST1E27
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by CarriEve Horna,, AJ Richards

    • Type: Poster
    • In order to better understand the current levels of physics self-confidence of African-American female students, we administered an anonymous survey, composed of quantitative and qualitative responses, about the feelings these students have towards physics. These feelings are important, because they may well influence whether students consider and/or pursue physics as a viable career option. We will discuss the implications of this research for addressing the underrepresentation of African-American females in careers that utilize physics.

  • • Investigating the Effects of Learning Assistant - Supported Active Learning Environments

    • PST1E29
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Mary Nyaema,, Idaykis Rodriguez, Hagit Leshem, Laird Kramer, Oscar Diaz

    • Type: Poster
    • Our expanded multi-site study on active learning classrooms supported by Learning Assistants (LAs) aims to understand the connections between three classroom elements: the activity, student learning, and how LAs support the learning process in the classroom. At FIU, LAs are used in a variety of active learning settings, from large auditorium settings to studio classroom with movable tables. With an emphasis on the amount of time spent on active learning in class, we considered factors such as classroom activities, instructional practices, patterns of student engagement and student outcomes. Preliminary results show that LAs spend more time interacting with students in some classes, regardless of the classroom setting, while in other classrooms, LA-student interactions are mostly brief. We will discuss to what extent do activities and instructional practices contribute to student engagement and help them learn.

  • • Leveraging Students’ Intuitions: An Exploration of How Students’ Intuitive Ideas about Mechanical Waves Evolve

    • PST1E31
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Lisa Goodhew,, Amy Robertson, Paula Heron, Rachel Scherr

    • Type: Poster
    • In a resources-oriented perspective of student learning, students’ intuitive knowledge is viewed as consistent with scientists’ ideas in some contexts, and as a foundation for scientific understanding. Resources-oriented instruction seeks to refine and build upon students’ intuitive knowledge. We present case studies from exploratory interviews with university students in introductory physics classes. We track the progression of students’ ideas over the course of these interviews, examining how their intuitions evolve as they answer questions about mechanical waves. By looking closely at the ideas that students use to solve problems about waves and how these ideas progress, we aim to shed light on how these resources might be leveraged or built on during instruction.

  • • Model-Based Inquiry for Teaching Atomic Structure, Quantization and Atomic Spectra

    • PST1E33
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Tugba Yuksel,, Lynn Bryan

    • Type: Poster
    • When learning abstract and complicated phenomena in physics, it is quite possible for students to develop non-normative conceptions or incoherent understandings. Researchers have made extensive efforts to analyze students’ understandings of various physical phenomena to inform the development of innovative methodologies. Cognitive research suggests that students’ models play an essential role in their understanding. Model-based inquiry is an instructional orientation to teaching and learning in which learners have an opportunity to generate, analyze, and/or use models in an inquiry-based learning environment. In this study, we attempted to monitor the evolution of students’ models during learning about atomic structure, quantization, and atomic spectra. Using case study approach, we analyzed the evolution of each student’s models while engaging with sequence of activities supported with physical, computer–based and mathematical models. The result showed students were able to increase the sophistication of their models and explanation and establish connections between different quantum phenomena.

  • • Novice Ideas about the Interaction of Two Electric Charges

    • PST1E37
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by David Maloney,, Catherine Harber

    • Type: Poster
    • We report on an investigation of how students in an introductory college physics course think about the interaction of two positively charged objects. The students were presented with a sequence of scenarios where various charges and insulating or conducting objects—either charged or electrically neutral—were placed between the two objects. For all scenarios students were asked how hard one of the objects pushed on the other in the new scenario compared to the base case. The results demonstrate that students think the interaction between two charges is altered by various factors. They describe these alterations as resulting from such things as “the force being blocked by the insulator” or “the charge cannot be transmitted by the insulator” or “the charge now has to push on the third charge as well so it doesn’t push as hard on the object”. We present the patterns found before and after instruction.

  • • Performance on In-class vs. Online Administration of Concept Inventories and Attitudinal Assessments

    • PST1E39
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Jayson Nissen,, Xochith Herrera, Manher Jariwala, Eleanor Close, Ben Van Dusen

    • Type: Poster
    • Measuring student growth and outcomes using concept inventories and affective surveys is a fundamental tool of physics education research. Historically this data has been collected using paper and pencil tests. However, the convenience of computer-based testing has led to many researchers and instructors administering research-based instruments using computers inside and outside of class. We used a stratified random sample of 1,645 students in three physics courses over two semesters to compare performance on concept inventories and affective surveys that were administered either in class as paper and pencil tests or online outside of class using the Learning About Student Supported Outcomes (LASSO) platform. We will discuss implications for these two methods of data collection for measuring changes in students’ knowledge and attitudes.

  • • Project BoxSand: What Do Students Do When I’m Not Looking

    • PST1E41
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM
    • by Kenneth Walsh,
    • Type: Poster
    • Most college handbooks say something along the lines of, students should expect to spend two to three hours per week outside of class studying, per credit hour. So over 60% of the time working is outside the eyes of instructors. Project BoxSand hopes to peer into that outside-of-class study. We scoured the web for the best open resources and created boxsand.org, a site with videos, open-source textbooks, simulations, examples, and more. Students are guided through the resources with a Daily Learning Guide (DLG) and each click is tracked. That data is correlated with performance in the class, FCI gains, and surveys. Do students watch pre-lecture videos before class, before a midterm, or ever and does this correlate to performance in the class? Does following the DLG or going “off-road” have any effect on student outcomes? I will discuss a data set that includes ~ 1 million data points from roughly 450 students.

  • • Semi-formal Modeling in Algodoo

    • PST1E43
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Elias Euler,, Bor Gregorcic

    • Type: Poster
    • Digital tools permeate our everyday lives and, when included alongside traditional laboratory equipment in physics learning environments, they have the potential to supplement the ways in which students interact with physics content. In this study we examine the affordances provided by Algodoo, a two-dimensional digital sandbox software that allows users to model physical phenomena, when it was used alongside a physical laboratory setup as small groups of students completed a physics task. We show how students utilise Algodoo as a ‘semi-formal’ domain in moving between the physical and formal domains while modeling. Additionally, we find that watching the choices students make in moving between these domains can provide additional insight into how students approach physics tasks.

  • • Smartphone-based Stereoscopic Virtual Reality in Introductory Physics

    • PST1E45
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Joseph Smith,*, Christopher Orban, Christopher Porter

    • Type: Poster
    • The use of virtual reality (VR) in instruction has been difficult due to high-cost headsets or “caves”, and the challenge of serving entire student populations with only a few such devices. This has changed with the advent of smartphone-based stereoscopic VR. Inexpensive cardboard headsets and smartphones already in students’ pockets are the only elements needed for VR learning. We have designed short VR training sessions and studied the utility of this training in the context of electric fields in an introductory physics course at the Ohio State University. The training sessions and cardboard headsets will be available at the poster session. We compare performance on pre-post tests among students trained using VR, those trained using a video of the VR content, and those trained using static 2D images as in a traditional text. We note types of questions where performance seems particularly affected by treatment type.

  • • Student Perception of NEXUS/Physics IPLS Labs--TA Retention Implications

    • PST1E47
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM
    • by Kimberly Moore,
    • Type: Poster
    • UMd-PERG’s NEXUS/Physics for Life Sciences laboratory curriculum, piloted in 2012-2013 in small test classes, has been implemented in large-enrollment environments at UMD from 2013-present. These labs address physical issues at biological scales using microscopy, image and video analysis, electrophoresis, and spectroscopy in an open, non-protocol-driven environment. This curriculum exposes students and TAs to new physics concepts pertinent to biological scales and contexts, new pedagogical approaches to student learning, and new technology for data acquisition and analysis. We have had over 50 TAs and over 1500 students complete these labs and this course. In this poster, we will provide a brief overview of what we have learned via student perception. We will discussion the acculturation of teaching assistants to this novel environment and make suggestions for sustainability. Primarily, we make a case for the importance of TA retention in the quality--and the student perception of quality--of the learning environment.

  • • Student’s Responses to Different Flipped Classroom Approaches

    • PST1E51
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Steven Wild,, Heather Yu

    • Type: Poster
    • The flipped classroom approach can be a great tool to enhance student learning and success. However, students' perceptions to flipped-classroom teaching greatly impact its effectiveness. End of semester surveys about types of pre-class assignments, lengths of videos, difficulty levels of pre-class quiz questions are conducted. Students' responses in multiple physics courses are collected. The results of these surveys will be presented.

  • • Students’ Scientific Reasoning Skills in Physics and Non-Physics Situations

    • PST1E53
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Bashirah Ibrahim,, Lin Ding

    • Type: Poster
    • Prior literature has shown that scientific reasoning, a key skill to cultivate among learners at all levels, is a predictor for student content learning. Our work draws on Kuhn’s framework which defines scientific reasoning as the conscious intent to seek additional and/or new information with the purpose of improving knowledge and understanding. This framework highlights theory-evidence coordination, an important cognitive process in science practices. Freshman science students, enrolled in an introductory physics course, participated in the study. They completed five open-ended reasoning questions, borrowed from published instruments. Three questions dealt with the topic of energy in the physics context and the other two questions were concerned with domain-general scenarios. We report on (i) the theories and evidence students generated, (ii) their reasons for choosing particular theory and evidence, and (iii) the way they coordinated theories with evidence in both the physics and the non-physics situations.

  • • Teachers’ Knowledge and Their Use of Representations During Energy Instruction.

    • PST1E55
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Robert Zisk,, Eugenia Etkina

    • Type: Poster
    • The knowledge teachers have for teaching a particular subject should be reflected in their instructional practice. In teaching of energy, representations are an important tool helping students analyze energy processes and related phenomena and create mathematical descriptions of these processes. This poster will describe three teachers’ understanding of the purpose and use of representations during energy instruction. It will also provide examples from the assignments and assessments that each teacher used during their unit on energy in mechanics to describe how their knowledge of representations is reflected in how they expect students to use such representations in the tasks that they design for instruction.

  • • Team-based Strategies for Improving STEM Instruction: Characteristics of Successful Teams*

    • PST1E57
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Alice Olmstead,, Charles Henderson, Andrea Beach

    • Type: Poster
    • Strategies for improving teaching in higher education have recently begun to shift the focus from individual instructors to the department-level. These department-level change initiatives frequently employ teams. However, literature that explores when teams are likely to be effective mechanisms for improving STEM instruction is limited, and a lack of shared knowledge will likely limit the success of these efforts. Our current work aims to address this shortcoming. In particular, we are synthesizing relevant literature from a variety of domains and considering how these research findings from other contexts could apply here. For example, what is known about the effect of team size on team performance? What types of people should be included on a team? We will use these results to interpret empirical data collected from leaders of team-based STEM change initiatives across the U.S.

  • • The Many Faces of Equity: A Systemic View of Learning Assistant Programs

    • PST1E59
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Ben Van Dusen, Jayson Nissen, Angelica De La Torre, Daniel Caravez, Nancy Caravez

    • Type: Poster
    • Creating equitable outcomes among students is a focus of many instructors and researchers. The term “equity”, however, lacks a single unifying definition within our field. In this investigation we examine three definitions of equity and the systemic impact of Learning Assistants (LAs) on each. To do this, we will leverage the statistical power of the Learning About Student Supported Outcomes (LASSO) platform to create Hierarchical Linear Models that include student concept inventory data, student demographics, and course level data from science classes across the country. Implications for the implementation of LA programs and for researchers investigating equity will be discussed.

  • • The Prevalence of Selected Buoyancy Alternate Conceptions in Two Colleges

    • PST1E61
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM
    • by DJ Wagner,
    • Type: Poster
    • While developing a taxonomy of alternate conceptions about buoyancy, we identified over 150 different alternate conceptions. To gauge how prevalent selected conceptions were in the college population, we designed questions to probe those conceptions and asked those questions of students at both the University of Washington and Grove City College. This poster will present on those results.

  • • Student Unit Vector Resources in Polar Coordinates*

    • PST1E63
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Marlene Vega,, Michael Loverude, Warren Christensen, Brian Farlow

    • Type: Poster
    • In upper-division physics courses students work with various coordinate systems, but research has shown that students are less comfortable with non-Cartesian systems. As part of an NSF-supported research and curriculum development project, we have studied student reasoning with coordinate systems and unit vectors across several upper-division physics courses. This study began with a difficulties framework, seeking to document what students were struggling with regarding plane polar coordinates and to address those difficulties to improve instruction. As the study evolved, we found a resources framework more suited to our data, and we instead aimed to identify and describe the resources used by students when answering physics questions regarding unit vectors in polar coordinates. In this presentation we will describe the evolution of our research questions as we probed the extent to which student responses were context dependent. We will present data from written responses and interviews of students in upper division physics courses at two universities.

  • • Eight Key Findings for Successful Propagation of Educational Innovations*

    • PST1E02
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Raina Khatri,, Charles Henderson

    • Type: Poster
    • Science education researchers have developed many new instructional strategies and materials, and these can be shown to improve student learning and retention. However, very few of them become widely used beyond their home institution. To address this, we have studied typical education development projects and successfully propagated projects through case studies and interviews with the project teams – through comparison, we have identified strengths behind the propagation activities of successful projects, resulting in eight key findings about how education developers currently think about propagation, and what they can do to emulate successful projects to increase the impact of their work.

  • • Exploring Students’ Disciplinary Reasoning About Sneezing

    • PST1E04
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Justin Gambrell,*, Vashti Sawtelle, Mashood , Sonia Underwood, Emily Scott

    • Type: Poster
    • On the road to knowing whether college students understand how the sciences are related, we must first understand how to characterize their knowledge based on the discipline. We interviewed students with a background of at least one introductory chemistry, biology, and physics class and asked them to reason about the phenomenon of sneezing as a transfer of disease. Using these interviews, we explored whether the concepts and ideas students were invoking were concepts found in the introductory science textbooks. In this presentation we discuss our work linking students’ scientific vocabulary with textbooks (both physical and electronic), and which ideas students commonly invoke. We use this data to make a claim about whether the knowledge students draw upon is related to the information in these introductory science textbooks. Our work shows that the concepts that students used in explaining sneezing were rarely found in the introductory chemistry or introductory physics textbooks.

  • • Factors Facilitating Children’s Engagement with Science Activities on Web-based Simulations about Magnetic Field*

    • PST1E06
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Youngseok Jhun,, Sooah Lee

    • Type: Poster
    • This study is to design an evaluating rubric for web-based science simulations in terms of contents, strategies and simulation formats to facilitate children’s engagement with science activities. We administered the rubric to 14 web-based simulations about magnets and magnetic field. Eight elementary teachers participated in the evaluation and described specific characteristics of each simulation according to the criteria. Based on the evaluation, we divided the simulations into two groups, excellent vs. normal groups. We analyzed strong points from the simulations in excellent group and weak points from the simulations in normal group according to the contents, learning strategies, screen format, and technical features. Implications for ways of how to use web-based science simulations effectively for children to engage with science inquiry activities in elementary level were discussed.

  • • High School Students’ Physics Course Credit Attainment in Texas

    • PST1E10
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Liang Zeng,, G. Poelzer

    • Type: Poster
    • Using Texas Public Education Information Management System data between 1997 and 2009, this study describes the trends in course credit attainment (CCA) and course registration of high school students in Physics, AP Physics B, AP Physics C, and IB Physics courses in Texas. Different from other studies, it focuses on CCA trends across ethnicities, gender, and those in or not in gifted programs. Furthermore, it investigates the gaps of CCA between Hispanic and White students within gifted or not in gifted programs and gender. In addition, the trends in course registration are investigated with respect to the proportion of male and female students across ethnicities. Significant trends in gap dynamics between Hispanic and white students suggest problems with Hispanic minority students in physics education in high schools in Texas, especially since the Hispanic student population is steadily increasing and already surpasses the white student population.

  • • How Seriously Do Students Take Assessment Tests?

    • PST1E12
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Michael Orleski,
    • Type: Poster
    • Physics Education Research (PER) often makes use of standardized tests such as the Force Concept Inventory. Those in PER seem to acknowledge that students do not take assessment tests seriously. The usual recommendation is to give some form of credit for taking the tests. To investigate the question of level of seriousness and effort in assessment tests a short survey was created. The survey was given to all students taking Physics Department courses at Misericordia University in the spring 2016 semester and the 2016-17 academic year. The results of the survey are presented in this poster.

  • • Identifying High Leverage Practices in Learning Assistant Implementations

    • PST1E14
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Daniel Caravez,, Jayson Nissen, Nancy Caravez, Angelica De La Torre, Ben Van Dusen

    • Type: Poster
    • The Learning Assistant (LA) model is designed to provide a platform to support a wide variety of classroom specific transformations. This investigation examines the impacts of LAs across implementations to identify discipline-specific high-leverage LA practices. To do this, we will leverage the statistical power of the Learning About Student Supported Outcomes (LASSO) platform to create Hierarchical Linear Models that include student concept inventory data, student demographics, and course level data from science classes across the country. Implications for the implementation of LA programs will be discussed.

  • • Improved Epistemology Through Discussions on Characteristics of Scientists

    • PST1E16
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Bradley McCoy,
    • Type: Poster
    • This quasi-experimental study examines changes in students’ epistemologiesduring a first university physics course using the EBAPS instrument. The course includes brief daily discussions of characteristics of scientists. We find that in courses including these daily discussions, students’ epistemologies do not undergo the degradation that is typical in a first physics course. This low-impact intervention may increase retention by decreasing the number of individual students with large negative changes in epistemology.

  • • Improving Texas School Comparison Groups via Modern Clustering Techniques

    • PST1E18
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Matthew Guthrie,, Michael Marder

    • Type: Poster
    • What are the primary factors that make one school similar to another? The Texas Education Agency utilizes the Euclidean distance between a small number of factors (e.g. total number of students and the percentage of students who qualify for free/reduced price lunch) to sort schools into comparison groups. While this is helpful in limited contexts, the factors currently used for this sorting are not the most effective set for that application and the sorting method is not well justified. Modern clustering techniques (such as network community detection) can help researchers identify the factors most strongly affecting outcomes, and these factors can then be used to define more meaningful comparison groups. This definition will ultimately allow for appropriate metrics of school performance. This poster will detail the application of community detection in the Texas high school system and the use of these communities for the identification of exemplary schools.

  • • Inquiry-based Learning in the Physics Classroom

    • PST1E20
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Yu Gu,
    • Type: Poster
    • Inquiry-based learning has been known to narrow the learning gap between students with different levels of background in the scientific fields. Physics, in particular, is challenging because it requires both mastery of concepts and mathematical skills and can benefit greatly from inquiry-based learning. We examine inquiry-based learning in algebra and physics-based introductory physics courses, and present the "mystery tube" as a useful tool for first-year student's learning of Newtonian mechanics.

  • • Investigating and Addressing Student Difficulties with Fundamental Goncepts in Degenerate Perturbation Theory

    • PST1E22
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Christof Keebaugh,, Emily Marshman, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • We discuss an investigation of student difficulties with degenerate perturbation theory (DPT) carried out in advanced quantum mechanics courses by administering free-response and multiple-choice questions and conducting individual interviews with students. We find that students share many common difficulties related to this topic. We used the difficulties found via research as resources to develop and evaluate a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) which strives to help students develop a functional understanding of DPT. We discuss the development of the DPT QuILT and its preliminary evaluation in the undergraduate and graduate courses. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

  • • Investigating Grading Beliefs and Practices of Graduate Student Teaching Assistants Using a Rubric

    • PST1E24
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Ryan Sayer,, Emily Marshman, Charles Henderson, Chandralekha Singh, Edit Yerushalmi

    • Type: Poster
    • Physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are often responsible for grading. Findings of physics education research (PER) suggest that instructors should use grading practices that place the burden of proof for explicating the problem-solving process on students to help them develop problem-solving skills and learn physics. However, TAs may not have learned effective grading practices and may hesitate to take off points if the final answer is correct but the problem-solving process is not explicated. This case study investigated whether TAs apply a PER-inspired grading rubric similar to PER experts and TAs’ stated pros and cons of using such a rubric. We also examined whether discussions within a TA professional development course about the benefits of using such a rubric helped TAs shift where they place the burden of proof. Analysis of TAs’ written responses, class discussions, and individual interviews suggest that a one-semester intervention was insufficient to change where the TAs placed the burden of proof. We thank the National Science Foundation for their support.

  • • Investigating Physics Faculty’s Reasoning About Equity in Undergraduate Physics Education

    • PST1E26
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Angela Little,, Chandra Turpen

    • Type: Poster
    • We report on a pilot interview study to investigate how junior physics faculty reason about equity in the undergraduate physics student experience. In these interviews, we asked faculty about their knowledge of student experiences with bias, discrimination, and hardship. Faculty were also invited to reflect on the fairness of various common classroom instructional practices. There was a wide range of faculty background and experience in considering equity-related topics. Some faculty described employing innovative strategies to make their classroom environments more inclusive. Other faculty noted struggles with connecting the dots between diversity and research-based instructional practices, despite being on-board with both. The insights gained through this study suggest ways to infuse discussions of inclusive pedagogical practices into professional development focused on research-based instructional strategies.

  • • Investigating Student Reasoning Chains Via Network Analysis*

    • PST1E28
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by J. Caleb Speirs,, MacKenzie Stetzer, Beth Lindsey, Eric Brewe

    • Type: Poster
    • Students are often asked to construct qualitative reasoning chains during scaffolded, research-based physics instruction. As part of an ongoing, multi-institutional effort to investigate and assess the development of student reasoning skills in physics, we have been designing tasks that probe the extent to which students can create and evaluate reasoning chains. We have recently reported on a novel online “chaining” task in which students are provided with correct reasoning elements (i.e., true statements about the physical situation as well as correct concepts and mathematical relationships) and are asked to assemble them into an argument that they can use to answer a specified physics problem. This poster will illustrate the role that network analysis techniques may play in extracting meaningful information about student reasoning from these chaining tasks.

  • • Learning Assessment in a 10-week Introductory Physics Course

    • PST1E30
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Yuehai Yang,, Steven Reed, Binod Nainabasti, David Brookes

    • Type: Poster
    • A challenge-reward assessment cycle is designed for a 10-week introductoryphysics course at Oregon Institute of Technology, in an effort to improve student learning of a more compacted physics curriculum. Student average learning gains measured by exam retaking are analyzed with multiple factors such as student centrality in an informal learning community, average study time, homework re-dos, and questioning frequency in class. The result of this analysis is useful to identify important factors that contribute to student success in a quarter system.

  • • Longitudinal Physics Self-Efficacy in Introductory STEM Students

    • PST1E32
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Rachel Henderson,, John Stewart, Seth Devore, Lynnette Michaluk

    • Type: Poster
    • Students’ self-efficacy within the general university environment has beenshown to play a major role in student success. In the current study, a modified version of the “Self-Efficacy for Learning and Performance” subscale of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire was used to measure introductory calculus-based physics students’ self-efficacy within the physics classroom. A total of five measurements of students’ physics self-efficacy were taken over the course within the fall 2016 semester. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) will be used to study the effects of physics self-efficacy on student outcomes: test averages and final grades. The effect of gender and first generation status will also be explored.

  • • Modeling Student Understanding of Period, Frequency, and Angular Frequency

    • PST1E34
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Nicholas Young,, Andrew Heckler

    • Type: Poster
    • Periodic behavior is a fundamental phenomenon in many physical systems; therefore, it is critical that students understand the concepts and relationships that underlie such behavior. Here, we used the context of the behavior of a simple harmonic oscillator to investigate students’ ability to determine the period, frequency, and angular frequency from various mathematical and graphical representations by administering a 36-item test to students in an introductory-calculus-based physics course. We found that students could be classified into one of four groups, according to the question types they mastered. These groups were hierarchically categorized based on the number and kind of relationships each student mastered. For example, we found only students who could correctly apply the period and frequency relationship could also correctly apply any angular frequency relationship. This hierarchical nature of student performance suggests instruction should focus on ensuring that students understand the period and frequency relationship before introducing angular frequency.

  • • Participation Rates of In-class vs. Online Administration of Concept Inventories and Attitudinal Assessments

    • PST1E38
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Xochith Herrera,, Manher Jariwala, Jayson Nissen, Eleanor Close, Ben Van Dusen

    • Type: Poster
    • We investigated differences in student participation rates between in-class and online administrations of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM), and the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS). 1,645 students from 3 introductory physics courses over two semesters were instructed to complete the CLASS and the concept inventory relevant to their course, either the FCI or the CSEM. We randomly assigned each student to take one of the instruments in class and the other instrument online using the Learning About STEM Student Outcomes (LASSO) platform at the beginning and end of the course. Results indicated large variation in participation rates across both test conditions (online vs. in class). We will discuss the implications for measuring changes in students’ knowledge and attitudes using the two different methods for administering the research instruments.

  • • Posing Your Own Question; Designing Your Own Investigation

    • PST1E40
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Danielle Bugge,, Eugenia Etkina

    • Type: Poster
    • Over the course of the 2016-2017 school year, high school students learnedphysics though the ISLE method and engaged in labs that focus on the development of student scientific abilities. Upon completion of mechanics, groups of students had to design experiments to pose their own questions that could be answered with the knowledge they had developed in the first half of the year. The students designed observational, testing, and application experiments. They then selected the scientific abilities that were most applicable to their experiment(s) and wrote a lab report detailing their findings. Based on last year’s investigations, we know that high school students are capable of achieving the same or greater proficiency than college students with the scientific abilities when they design experiments to answer questions posed by the teacher. How does this proficiency transfer when students are asked to design experiments to answer their own questions?

  • • Rethinking Identity: A Framework for Physics Identity that Considers Race

    • PST1E42
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Simone Hyater-Adams,, Claudia Fracchiolla, Noah Finkelstein, Kathleen Hinko

    • Type: Poster
    • Systemic and structural oppression within the physics field contribute to the identities and experiences of black physicists. This work adds to the theories of physics identity in order to explicitly incorporate the impacts of racial identity in the process of developing a physics identity. We operationalize the constructs of a physics identity framework in the context of a racial(ized) identity framework. We find that these two frameworks, when operationalized and used together, can elucidate important details in the stories of physicists in the context of their racial backgrounds. The future of this work will discuss broad themes in the experiences of black students, in order to categorize the causes that keep physics culture exclusive of black students specifically, as well as other marginalized populations.

  • • SIMBA and PUMBA: Surveys for Developing and Measuring Student Buy-in

    • PST1E44
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Matthew Wilcox,, Jacquelyn Chini

    • Type: Poster
    • Studio physics classes typically implement collaborative student-centered instructional techniques that students may not expect when they first come to class. The differences between student expectations and the reality of the studio class can lead to student resistance to these student-centered instructional techniques. Getting students to adjust their expectations to align with the instructional design may be the start of reducing student resistance. Further reduction in student resistance may come from efforts to get students to agree that the studio class format is the best way to learn physics. We refer to the appropriate expectations of and agreement with the class format as “buy-in”. We have developed a survey for instructors and another for students to determine successful methods for generating student buy-in. We report on the development of these surveys and how they will be used to determine the best methods for buy-in achievement.

  • • Student Difficulties with Determining Expectation Values in Quantum Mechanics

    • PST1E46
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Chandralekha Singh,, Emily Marshman

    • Type: Poster
    • The expectation value of an observable is an important concept in quantum mechanics. However, upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in physics have both conceptual and procedural difficulties when determining the expectation value of physical observables, especially when using Dirac notation. To investigate these difficulties, we administered free-response and multiple-choice questions and conducted individual interviews with students. Here, we discuss the analysis of data on student difficulties when determining the expectation value. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

  • • Student Understanding of Fourier Series*

    • PST1E48
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Mikayla Mays,, Michael Loverude

    • Type: Poster
    • Fourier analysis is an important technique for modeling physical systems across the physics curriculum. For this poster, we describe student responses to a variety of problems involving Fourier series, primarily in the context of an intermediate level course in mathematical methods (the so-called ‘Boas course’). Tasks center not on procedural knowledge but on conceptual understanding of Fourier series. Typical Fourier tasks present students with a periodic function and ask them to generate a series representation, identifying terms and their associated coefficients. Our tasks instead have asked students, for example, to predict which coefficients will be affected by changes in the periodic function, or to reverse the reasoning; given new coefficients, predict the associated function. Through student responses to these tasks we will highlight the productive, and not so productive, lines of reasoning students use when thinking about problems associated with Fourier series.

  • • Student Use of Angular Momentum Operators in Quantum Mechanics

    • PST1E50
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Chrystin Green,, Gina Passante

    • Type: Poster
    • This study focuses on how students use quantum mechanical operators, specifically operators relating to spin and orbital angular momentum, while taking upper-division quantum mechanics courses. Written exam data is collected and the ACER framework is used to analyze student use of operators in questions that involve commutation relations, expectation values, absolute values and the uncertainty in the angular momentum. We also look at student’s choice of representation to solve these problems. The results of this investigation will inform future curriculum.

  • • Students’ Approaches to Sequential and Simultaneous Synthesis Physics Problems

    • PST1E52
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Bashirah Ibrahim,, Lin Ding, Andrew Heckler, Ryan Badeau

    • Type: Poster
    • We explored how students tackle sequential and simultaneous synthesis problems. Synthesis problems are tasks combining two or more distinct concepts typically taught in different chapters and are broadly separated in the teaching time-line. Sequential problems describe chronologically occurring events, at different time-points, such that the pertinent concepts can be applied consecutively. Simultaneous problems describe concurrently occurring events, at one time-point, leading to the concurrent application of the pertinent concepts. From students’ written solutions and interviews we found that they were able to decompose the sequential tasks into a series of events following the chronological order. This largely facilitated their subsequent problem solving. In contrast, for the simultaneous problems, the students failed to dissect the problem into multiple components and instead treated the situation as a single event. Even after identifying multiple components, some were still uncertain about the connections between them leading to a representation of the actual situation.

  • • Studio Physics Through the Lens of Universal Design for Learning

    • PST1E54
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Jacquelyn Chini,, Westley James, Jillian Schreffler, Cherie Yestrebsky, Eleazar Vasquez, III

    • Type: Poster
    • While our community is placing increased emphasis on supporting diverse learners, students with disabilities are rarely in the foreground of these efforts. Students with disabilities now make up more than 10% of students pursuing postsecondary degrees. Our project explores university science courses making use of active learning strategies from the perspective of students with executive function disorders, which is common in several disability diagnoses. While active learning strategies, such as studio physics, have been shown to improve learning and retention for many students, it is unknown what strategies represent support for, or barriers to, particular learners in STEM programs. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework supporting instructors to design a learning experience that enables all learners to naturally engage with the course, reducing the need for accommodations and supporting learning by all students. In this talk, we explore studio physics courses through the lens of UDL.

  • • Teaching the Movability of Coordinate Systems: Discovering Disciplinary Affordances

    • PST1E56
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Trevor Volkwyn,*, John Airey, Bor Gregorcic, Filip Heijkenskjöld, Cedric Linder

    • Type: Poster
    • When students are introduced to coordinate systems in their physics textbooks these are usually oriented in the same manner (x increases to the right). There is a real danger then, that students see coordinate systems as fixed. However, as we know, movability is one of the main disciplinary affordances of coordinate systems. Students worked with an open-ended task to find the direction of Earth’s magnetic field. This was achieved by manipulating a measurement device (IOLab) so as to maximize the signal for one component of the field, whilst at the same time keeping the other two components at zero. In the process of completing this task, students came to experience themselves as holding a movable coordinate system. From this point they spontaneously offer elaborations about the usefulness of purposefully setting up coordinate systems for problem solving. In our terms, they have discovered one of the disciplinary affordances of coordinate systems.

  • • Text Mining LA Discussions in Physics Prep Sessions

    • PST1E58
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Steven Wolf,, Erica Clark, Eleanor Close

    • Type: Poster
    • Text-mining techniques have a long history in many disciplines, but there is a struggle to incorporate them into physics due to the ways that physicists embed mathematical equations into their speech. Text-mining algorithms do not have ready methods for identifying equations like "F_net=ma" or "K=1/2 m v^2". We propose a set of rules for including these speech patterns into text-mining applications, and apply these rules to a discussion of introductory physics in a Learning Assistant (LA) prep session. Once these rules have been applied, we will use visualization and quantitative techniques for exploring the themes in different LA groups' discussions.

  • • Introductory astronomy students' conceptual modules of lunar phases

    • PST1E62
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Rebecca Lindell, Adrienne Traxler

    • Type: Poster
    • Brewe, Bruun and Bearden developed Module Analysis of Multiple Choice Responses (MAMCR) methodology for using network analysis to uncover the underlying conceptual modules of student performance on multiple-choice assessments. The Lunar Phases Concept Inventory (LPCI) assesses students understanding of lunar phases across 8 separate dimensions of understanding based on the results of a detailed qualitative phenomenology of college students' understanding of lunar phases. Unlike many concept inventories, the LPCI has multiple items for each dimension of understanding and each response corresponds to either the scientifically correct answer or to an alternative idea uncovered from the qualitative investigation. In this study, we have combined MAMCR with the database of nearly 2000 LPCI pre-test results. We will report on the different conceptual modules of lunar phases and the relationship of these modules to previous qualitative research.

  • • Investigating Peer Interactions of Physics Students Working on Computational Coding

    • PST1E64
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Regino Dizon,, Terry-Ann Sneed, Raymond Zich, Rebecca Rosenblatt

    • Type: Poster
    • Video and voice data were recorded from two computational coding based labs done as part of an introductory modern physics course. Three small cube cameras, a larger camera with a microphone that could see the whole room, and four live scribe pens recording additional audio were used to record the activities. Several themes emerged from the videos. A major issue was how the time was spent (on task vs. off task, about physics vs. about computation, on general principles vs. solving a particular problem, working alone vs. together). Another major theme was the mood and engagement of students while working in these different areas and where or how patterns of communication were distinct from those seen for non-computational problem-solving activities. We will present these findings and discuss their implications for peer communication and learn in introductory computational physics courses.

• Physics Education Research II

  • • A New 1-Semester Approach to Physics for Life Science Majors

    • PST2D01
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Jason Puchalla,, Isabelle Augensen, Kasey Wagoner

    • Type: Poster
    • Nationwide, courses in physics for life science majors have undergone substantial changes in the past decade. A primary objective of these changes has been to increase life science “appeal” while not compromising on valuable learning goals. Achieving this objective is complicated by the need to serve students with a broad range of educational backgrounds (e.g. no background, AP credit, summer programs) and widely varying expectations (e.g. premedical preparation, course requirement for major, general interest in subject). Factors such as these coupled with ongoing modifications to medical school requirements have led us to investigate a survey-style, one-semester course intended to better meet the needs of students at Princeton University. Here we present the course structure, pedagogy and assessment results of the 2017 class offering. In this third offering, class enrollment reached capacity (45 + wait list) and included students from all life science departments.

  • • A Study on Online Learning Strategy and the Teaching-Learning Difficulties in Elementary School Science Class on the Chapter Titled “Magnet”

    • PST2D03
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Jiye Kim,, Youngseok Jhun

    • Type: Poster
    • The purpose of this study is to survey and analyze the degree and also reasons of difficulties experienced by teachers and students in elementary school science class during the chapter titled "magnet." This study also attempts to investigate deeply and make it clear that there are major online learning strategies learners use within an actual online learning environment. Thus, positive effects for both students and teachers are expected if tangible magnet experiment contents within actual online learning environment that can overcome problem contents of actual magnet experiment are utilized. Therefore, in this study, tangible magnet experiment contents optimized at online learning have been established. And through major online learning strategies, we have observed a class using tangible magnet experiment contents, and analyzed the learning effect, and potential of magnet experiment has discussed.

  • • Assessing the Implementation of Formative Feedback

    • PST2D07
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Ashleigh Leary,, Paul Irving, Danny Caballero

    • Type: Poster
    • Feedback is an essential part of student development, especially when it comes to working in groups and developing the skills that make group collaboration successful. Due to the increased emphasis on group-based learning and the appropriation of scientific practices, there is a greater importance placed on how an instructor delivers feedback. At MSU, in P^3, an introductory group based physics classroom, students are given feedback each week to encourage the development of scientific practices. The feedback focuses on highlighting positive and negative aspects of how their group is functioning and their individual contributions to the group. The negative elements work to notify students of what they need to work on and provide a strategy as to how, while the positive elements reassure the students of their strengths. This investigation examines the implementation of the positive/negative/strategy format by various instructors in the P^3 classroom.

  • • Attitudes of Pre-health Students Toward Reformed IPLS Course Materials*

    • PST2D09
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Elliot Mylott,, Caitlin Kepple, Warren Christensen, Ralf Widenhorn

    • Type: Poster
    • We developed modular multimedia educational material for a reformed pre-health focused IPLS course at Portland State University. The modules include videos of biomedical experts detailing the core physics behind devices in clinical use. Original text and online homework problems expand on the material presented by the biomedical experts. Our research on the course explored (1) whether students’ opinions on the relevance of physics to medicine was impacted by the biomedical focused physics instruction and (2) how that influenced their interest in physics. Shifts in attitudes were collected through student surveys in both the reformed IPLS course and a concurrent traditional course. Interviews from students in the IPLS course were used to elucidate responses from the surveys.

  • • BLiSS Physics: A Studio Physics Course for Life Science Students

    • PST2D11
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Vashti Sawtelle,, Katie Hinko

    • Type: Poster
    • Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences (IPLS) courses are gaining momentum in the physics education community, with the creation of multiple curricula for a variety of implementation strategies. At Michigan State University, we have designed an integrated lab-lecture (studio style) introductory physics course that meets the needs of life science students. Our design of this course focused on (1) connecting the disciplines of physics, biology, and chemistry through designing authentic tasks for students in collaboration with biophysicists, (2) incorporating computational simulations that model complex biological phenomenon, and (3) building positive relationships for life science students with physics. This poster will describe our overarching approach to the design of this course, share example curricular materials for manifesting these design goals in the classroom and describe some of the ongoing research on this course.

  • • Case Study: Teaching Method Improvements Measured by FCI

    • PST2D13
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Michael Dolan,, Richard Wright

    • Type: Poster
    • This Case Study analyzes the impact of five HS teaching methods listed below. It includes FCI scores to measure learning outcome improvements. 1. Pedagogie - Interactive engagement / Modeling Instruction 2. Assessment - Mastery / standard based grading 3. Classroom - Standing tables and rolling whiteboards (no desks or chairs) 4. Textbook - Customized course-pac (combines worksheets, labs, readings, and a graphing notebook) students add content. 5. Technology - Graphing (Logger Pro / Desmos); skills practice and assessment (Socratic Brain), document workflow (Google Classroom) The three-year study includes one hundred 10th grade students per year, learning introductory physics with three teachers and seven classes.

  • • Correlation between Physics Learning Attitude and Motivation of College Students

    • PST2D19
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Shihong Ma,, Siqi Wang

    • Type: Poster
    • In the past, physics education research only contained learning attitude, and did not involve learning motivation. In this paper, by using self-designed questionnaire, we investigate some students in Fudan University to study the correlation between attitude and motivation of physics learning, and give some suggestions for College Physics Teaching. It was found that there is a strong positive correlation relationship between college students' learning attitude and motivation. The both was significantly associated at the 0.01 level, the correlation coefficient of was 0.592.

  • • Developing and Validating a Conceptual Survey to Assess Student Understanding of Thermodynamic Processes and First and Second Laws

    • PST2D21
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Chandralekha Singh, Benjamin Brown

    • Type: Poster
    • We discuss the development and validation of a conceptual multiple-choice survey called the Survey of Thermodynamic Processes and First and Second Laws (STPFaSL) suitable for introductory physics courses. The survey was developed taking into account common student difficulties with these concepts in that the incorrect choices to the multiple-choice questions were designed based upon the common difficulties. After the development and validation of the survey, it was administered to introductory physics students in various classes in paper-pencil format before and after traditional lecture-based instruction in relevant concepts. We compared the performance of students on the survey in introductory physics courses before and after traditional lecture-based instruction in relevant concepts. We also administered the survey to upper-level undergraduates majoring in physics and PhD students to benchmark the survey and compared their performance with those of students in traditionally taught introductory physics courses for whom the survey is intended. We find that although the survey is focused on thermodynamics concepts covered in introductory courses, it is challenging even for advanced students.

  • • Do Post-lecture Quizzes Act as Motivating Factor for Students’ Success?

    • PST2D25
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Joshua Howell,, Binod Nainabasti

    • Type: Poster
    • Have you ever had experience in a classroom where some of your students were not paying attention? Thinking about the due date of another homework? Having private conversations with neighbors? Hiding and texting? The purpose of this paper is to report the results of an investigation on the impact of post-lecture quizzes on students’ level of attentiveness in classrooms and how quizzes scores associate with their success through the course. Daily classroom quizzes of three to five multiple-choice questions from six different introductory science classes, students’ self-reported data on how classroom quizzes motivated them to be more attentive, and students’ exam score in the courses have been utilized for the investigation. Our preliminary results suggest that when scores on post-lecture quizzes are included in the final grade then quizzes scores are more positively associated with their final exam score than when quizzes scores are considered only as extra credit for final grade.

  • • Effect of Supplementary Videos on Scientific Reasoning in a General-Physics Course

    • PST2D27
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Amber Sammons,, Jessica Tolmie, Terry-Ann Sneed, Reggie Dizon, Raymond Zich

    • Type: Poster
    • This study investigated the impact of an instructional reform on student scientific reasoning skills and general attitudes toward science. The intervention was administered via nine 5-7 minute videos during lab. Each video consisted of an explanation of its targeted concept, a hands-on demo with observations and YouTube clips highlighting the topic being discussed. While viewing the videos, students were required to answer specific questions testing their comprehension of the concepts and scientific reasoning being displayed. Students indicated they enjoyed the videos. Lawson’s Scientific Reasoning Test was administered to assess improvement in student scientific reasoning skills, and the CLASS was used to assess changes in student attitudes towards science. Pre- and post-test results are compared for a control semester and a semester with this new teaching method.

  • • Examining the Effects of Testwiseness Using the FCI and CSEM

    • PST2D29
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Seth DeVore,, John Stewart

    • Type: Poster
    • Testwiseness is generally defined as the set of cognitive strategies used by a student and intended to improve their score on a test regardless of the test’s subject matter. To improve our understanding of the potential effect size of several well-documented elements of testwiseness we analyze student performance on questions present in the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and Conceptual Survey on Electricity and Magnetism that contain distractors, the selection of which can be related to the use of testwiseness strategies. Additionally, we examine the effects of the position of a distractor on its likelihood to be selected in 5-option multiple choice questions. We further examine the potential effects of several elements of testwiseness on student scores by developing two modified versions of the FCI designed to include additional elements related to testwiseness. Details of the effect sizes of these various aspects of testwiseness will be discussed.

  • • Examining the Role of Insight in Student Reasoning*

    • PST2D31
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Cody Gette,, Mila Kryjevskaia

    • Type: Poster
    • Many students fail to arrive at a correct solution to a given problem eventhough they possess the required knowledge and skills to do so. We aim to identify cognitive mechanisms that may account for the observed reasoning patterns. In some cases, an unproductive heuristic representation of a problem may lead to a mental impasse. To break the impasse, the problem representation may need to be changed. This mental change to a more productive representation is known as “insight”. This switch often results in a fast, immediate solution (an “Aha!” moment). It does not stem from gaining additional knowledge and is rather due to a change in the reasoner's initial heuristic model. The relevance of insight to physics learning will be illustrated in multiple contexts. Instructional implications will be discussed.

  • • Experimentally based Mechanics Tutorials: Results for Students with Varying Preparation

    • PST2D33
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Laura Tucker,, Franklin Dollar

    • Type: Poster
    • The introductory Newtonian mechanics course is one of the largest barriersin an undergraduate physics program. The Washington Tutorials have been repeatedly shown to increase students' conceptual mechanics understanding. Building on this format in an effort to improve student performance, we reformed the two-hour weekly laboratory component of our large-enrollment introductory mechanics course with three primary goals: use hands-on experiments, encourage in-depth conceptual discussions, and tailor to students of varying preparation. With the implemented curriculum, we show conceptual gain results for student populations with different levels of incoming preparation. We also present data on student satisfaction in response to this approach.

  • • Theoretical Framework for Helping Students Engage with Self-Paced Learning Tools

    • PST2D37
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Emily Marshman,, Seth DeVore, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • As research-based, self-paced e-learning tools become increasingly available, a critical issue educators encounter is implementing strategies to ensure that all students engage with them as intended. Here, we first discuss the effectiveness of research-based e-learning tutorials as self-paced learning tools in large enrollment brick and mortar introductory physics courses and then propose a framework for helping students engage effectively with self-paced learning tools. Instructors encouraged the use of these self-paced tools in a self-paced learning environment by telling students that they would be helpful for solving the assigned homework problems and that the underlying physics principles in the tutorial problems would be similar to those in the in-class quizzes (which we call paired problems). We find that many students, who struggled in the courses in which these interactive e-learning tutorials were assigned as a self-study tool, performed poorly on the paired problems. In contrast, a majority of student volunteers in one-on-one implementation performed well on the paired problems. We propose a theoretical framework to help students with diverse prior preparations engage effectively with self-paced learning tools. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

  • • Understanding Measurement and Uncertainty in a Large Introductory Laboratory Course

    • PST2D39
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Benjamin Pollard,, Jacob Stanley, Robert Hobbs, Dimitri Dounas-Frazer, Heather Lewandowski

    • Type: Poster
    • Physics laboratory courses form an essential part of physics undergraduatecurricula. Learning goals for these classes often include the ability to interpret measurements and uncertainties. The Physics Measurement Questionnaire (PMQ) is an established open-response survey probing students’ understanding of measurement uncertainty. It classifies students' reasoning into point and set paradigms, with the set paradigm more aligned with expert reasoning. Point-like reasoning makes conclusions directly from individual data points, with deviations attributed to environmental factors or mistakes. In the context of a course transformation effort at the University of Colorado, we examine over 600 student responses to the PMQ both before and after instruction. We describe changes in students’ understanding and identify areas for future investigation.

  • • Understanding the Origins of Teachers' Resources for Accelerated Motion*

    • PST2D41
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Elijah Tabachnick,**, Peter Colesworthy, Michael Wittmann

    • Type: Poster
    • In the "speed model" of accelerated motion, the terms “speeding up” and “slowing down” are equated with positive and negative acceleration, respectively. As part of the Maine Physical Sciences Partnership, we have investigated middle school physical science teachers’ understanding of accelerated motion in the context of using vectors as a pictorial tool for kinematics and found a high prevalence of the speed model. Through observation of professional development activities, interviews, and surveys, we have found that the teachers consistently use the correct mathematical tools to talk about displacements and velocities, and correctly use vectors to represent displacements, velocities and accelerations. However, when interpreting the acceleration of an object, teachers often use the speed model, which contradicts their other work. We discuss this result and its possible origin, including the idea of subtraction (“minus”) from the magnitude being equated with the speed change (“negative”) in the acceleration.

  • • What Does Mathematical Sense-Making Look Like in Quantum Mechanics?

    • PST2D45
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Jessica Hoehn,, Julian Gifford, Erin Ronayne Sohr, Noah Finkelstein, Ayush Gupta

    • Type: Poster
    • Integrating mathematical formalism and conceptual understanding is an essential part of learning physics. However, it can be tempting, in physics learning and in instruction, to just “plug and chug” through the math and leave the sense-making for later, or to assume that meaning comes along for the ride with algorithmic proficiency. We focus on the domain of quantum mechanics and investigate how we can help students to engage in mathematical sense-making, broadly defined as seeking coherence between mathematical formalism and conceptual reasoning while manipulating mathematical systems (e.g. equations or graphs). In this interactive poster, we present preliminary curricular materials geared towards supporting mathematical sense-making in quantum mechanics, and seek input from members of the physics education community around both the content and approach for a mathematical sense-making rich quantum mechanics curriculum.

  • • Design and Assessment of the Electron Gas Model

    • PST2D47
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Jan-Philipp Burde,, Thomas Wilhelm

    • Type: Poster
    • Research has shown that most students do not succeed in developing a robust understanding of voltage or potential. Instead students tend to reason exclusively with current and resistance when analyzing electric circuits. The idea of the electron gas model is to give students a strong qualitative conception of the electric potential by comparing it with air pressure. Voltage as electric pressure difference is then introduced as the causal agent of current propulsion just as air pressure differences are the cause of air flow (e.g. bicycle tires). Similarly, the concept of electric resistance is introduced in analogy to a dense fabric cushion impeding the airflow. The teaching concept has proven to be effective in a study with more than 700 students based on a pre-test-post-test-control-group-design. The poster will illustrate key ideas of the concept and highlight key findings of the multiple-choice diagnostic assessment.

  • • Distinguishing Between Total Force and Net Force – Students’ Embodied Simulations

    • PST2D49
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Philip Southey,, Saalih Allie

    • Type: Poster
    • “Two forces are applied to a box. Force 1 has a magnitude of 4 N and acts East, while force 2 has a magnitude of 4 N and acts West. What is the total force applied to the box?” The two most common answers to this question are 0 N (correct) and 8 N (incorrect). We shall argue that one of the reasons students answer this question incorrectly is because of the word “total.” The terms “net force,” “resultant force,” and “total force” are used interchangeably in physics textbooks. However, we have found evidence to suggest that students readily distinguish between the notions of “total force” and “net force” (or “resultant force”). One of the ways they draw this distinction is by creating two different simulations (ala Barsalou); one which focuses on the “felt experience” of the box, and the other which focuses on the box’s resultant motion.

  • • Characterizing Active Learning Tasks in University Science Classrooms

    • PST2D51
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Leanne Doughty,, Robert Talbot, Laurel Hartley, Amreen Nasim, Paul Le

    • Type: Poster
    • There is strong evidence that the implementation of active learning in undergraduate science courses can lead to increased student conceptual understanding and course achievement, but we still do not know what specific characteristics of active learning contribute the most to student success. Our work examines the tasks that students are asked to engage with during active learning, with the ultimate goal being to look at the relationship between different task characteristics and different student level outcomes (e.g., concept inventory gains, course achievement, retention, and persistence). To this end, we are working to characterize the active learning tasks that students engage with in the classroom with respect to authenticity, cognitive depth, and alignment with course objectives and assessment measures. We will present our characterization of the tasks we have collected from introductory physics, chemistry and biology courses, and discuss the relationship between these different characteristics and student level outcomes.

  • • Using PhET Simulations to Teach Students How to Create Meaningful Contrasting Cases

    • PST2D53
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Jonathan Massey-Allard,, Joss Ives, Ido Roll

    • Type: Poster
    • Recent work on inquiry activities in open-ended physics virtual labs (suchas PhET simulations) suggest that students that create contrasting experiments in a deliberate fashion achieve better learning outcomes [1]. This is particularly interesting considering that the process of explaining different contrasting instances of a physics phenomenon (so-called “contrasting cases”) have been shown to help students achieve a more profound understanding of the underlying structure behind the phenomenon [2]. This leads to the question of whether or not such a compare and contrast approach in the context of a virtual lab can be taught in a classroom setting. Here, we discuss an approach whereby students learn to create their own contrasting cases through a series of short learning by teaching activities based on different PhET simulations.

  • • The Structure and Method of Planning in Group Work

    • PST2D55
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Alyssa Waterson,, Paul Irving, Marcos Caballero

    • Type: Poster
    • This research is dedicated to identifying and properly structuring the waythat groups in group-based learning can effectively plan through complex physics problems. With the growing field of group based learning environments, instructors of these classes are beginning to give formative feedback to the students, allowing them to develop physics based practices. One of the most difficult areas of group work is the planning stage – students not only need to know what the problem is asking for: they also need to make connections between the goal and the given information, they need to make representations that fit the problem’s description, and they need to know how to sanction their time properly. These are few among many aspects that facilitators have to acknowledge and adapt to addressing when helping their students develop. The research presented here explores the structure of planning and its manifestation in class.

  • • A Novel Approach for Using Programming Exercises in Electromagnetism Coursework

    • PST2D02
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Chris Orban,, Chris Porter, Richelle Teeling-Smith, Joseph Smith, Nash Brecht

    • Type: Poster
    • While there exists a significant number of web interactives for introductory physics, students are almost never shown the computer code that generates these interactives even when the physics parts of these programs are relatively simple. Building off of a set of carefully designed classical mechanics programming exercises that were constructed with this goal in mind, we present a series of electromagnetism programming exercises in a browser-based framework called p5.js. Importantly, this framework can be used to highlight the physics aspects of an interactive simulation code while obscuring other details. This approach allows absolute beginner programmers to gain experience in modifying and running the program without becoming overwhelmed. We plan to probe the impact on student conceptual learning using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment and other questions. We invite collaborators and teachers to adopt this framework in their high school or early undergraduate classes.

  • • Addressing Student Ideas about Coordinate Systems in the Upper Division

    • PST2D04
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Brian Farlow,, Warren Christensen, Marlene Vega, Michael Loverude

    • Type: Poster
    • As part of a broader study on student thinking about mathematics in the undergraduate physics curriculum, we have developed instructional materials intended to promote productive student thinking about non-Cartesian unit and position vectors. Previous work has identified ideas that undergraduate physics students bring to bear while attempting to solve non-Cartesian coordinate system problems: resources for unit vectors, resources connecting polar vector elements to Cartesian vector elements, and the orthogonality of basis vectors in various coordinate systems. In previous studies, these resources are not always used productively, so these instructional materials seek to explicitly guide students to do so. We report on the development and pilot testing of this intervention among junior/senior-level undergraduate students.

  • • Analysis of Student Engagement with the Pulsar Search Collaboratory

    • PST2D06
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Cabot Zabriskie,, Kathryn Williamson, John Stewart

    • Type: Poster
    • The Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC) is a project designed to inspire high school students to consider STEM careers by providing them with the opportunity to conduct actual scientific work analyzing radio astronomy data to discover pulsars. The activities of this project are conducted at multiple schools across the country and coordinated through a central web presence. In order to better understand how students are interfacing with the project, the students were given pre and post surveys as well as several “mini-surveys” to complete throughout their time in the program. Analysis of these surveys in addition to their website usage and pulsar scoring patterns was conducted to provide understand the relation of engagement in the program with development of STEM career intentions.

  • • Belongingness, Student Anxiety, and Student Performance

    • PST2D10
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM
    • by Todd Zimmerman,
    • Type: Poster
    • A belongingness activity was implemented in introductory-level math and physics courses. In our investigation, we gave students a series of quotes from previous students about how they coped with not feeling like they belonged and then asked the current students to write a short description of how they are dealing with their feelings of belonging in their course. We looked at whether this intervention had an impact on student anxieties associated with the class and their sense of belongingness. We also looked at how the belongingness intervention affected student performance in the classes. We will discuss our initial findings and future directions.

  • • Building Success; Designing for Growth in DATA Lab*

    • PST2D12
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by William Martinez,, Marcos Caballero

    • Type: Poster
    • Since the development of the AAPT Recommendations for the Undergraduate Physics Laboratory Curriculum, curriculum design in laboratory courses has been increasingly focused on developing experimental skills and practices. Although many laboratory transformations share the same goal, the structures and supports within the course differ vastly. A newly transformed introductory physics lab curriculum at Michigan State University, Design, Analysis, Tools, and Apprenticeship (DATA) Lab, has been designed to emphasize growth in a student’s experimental skills. In this poster, specific course structures that provide opportunities and support leading to students success will be highlighted.

  • • Catalyzing Sustained Transformations in a Large Enrollment Introductory Electromagnetism Course

    • PST2D14
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Charles Ruggieri,, Suzanne White Brahmia

    • Type: Poster
    • Large enrollment physics courses for engineers at Rutgers include many components, with teams of faculty responsible for content. Course administrators change every few years and often modify materials based on their experiences, degrading improvements from a given year after few iterations[1]. To address these issues, we initiated the Measurable Learning Objectives Project, which has informed the transformation of a large enrollment calculus-based electricity and magnetism course. Faculty and PER researchers collaborated to construct measurable objectives based on published goals from several sources[2-4] and coupled objectives to a form of assessment. We categorized topics from the prior year’s course and extracted weekly learning objectives, used existing assessments to evaluate if the component satisfies the objectives, and used the results to influence modifications of content emphasis and method. We address learning objective development and collaborative efforts to improve course materials.

  • • Characterizing Practices and Resources for Inclusive Physics Learning Environments*

    • PST2D16
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Laura Wood,, Amy Robertson

    • Type: Poster
    • Fostering inclusive physics learning environments is an important aspect of improving physics culture and teaching. In this project, we interviewed physics faculty who are actively working to make their classrooms and departments more inclusive. We characterized the inclusive practices these faculty described and the resources – e.g., the knowledge, dispositions, commitments, etc. – that fuel or support them. This talk will give examples of these resources and practices for inclusive physics learning, illustrating both the breadth and richness of resources physics faculty are using and the ways in which those resources are enacted in teaching strategies and departmental actions.

  • • Comparison of Student Interaction Patterns with and Without Learning Assistants

    • PST2D18
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Jiwon Lee,, Jinwoo Mo, Jungbog Kim

    • Type: Poster
    • This study investigated observed differences in the interaction patterns of students in peer discussions according to the involvement of learning assistants. It examined further the effect of such differences on the mental models of students. Two separate classes consisting of 30 students each, and each class equally divided into 10 teams, were conducted utilizing peer discussions. One class had learning assistants while the other has none. After the collection and analysis of the recordings of the discussion process and three types of test results, pre-, post-, and delayed-test, it was revealed that the group with learning assistants mainly consented when the answers of peers were the same.

  • • Developing and Evaluating a Tutorial on the Double-Slit Experiment

    • PST2D20
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Ryan Sayer,, Alexandru Maries, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • Learning quantum mechanics is challenging, even for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students. Interactive tutorials that build on students’ prior knowledge can be useful tools to enhance student learning. We have been investigating student difficulties with the quantum mechanics pertaining to the double-slit experiment in various situations. Here we discuss the development and evaluation of a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) which makes use of an interactive simulation to improve student understanding. We summarize common difficulties and discuss the extent to which the QuILT is effective in addressing them in two types of physics courses. We thank the National Science Foundation for their support.

  • • Developing Items for Physics Identity Survey Applied to Laboratory Settings

    • PST2D22
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Kelsey Funkhouser,, Vashti Sawtelle, Marcos Caballero

    • Type: Poster
    • There is an abundance of work showing that students generally do not have positive views of physics, or see themselves as part of physics. Physics lecture courses can make those views even worse. One tool for improving student experiences is to engage students in authentic science practices. Laboratory courses are intended to be an opportunity for students to engage in activities that reflect the practices of a physicist. We are developing a survey that can be used to systematically determine students’ views toward physics and where they position themselves with respect to physics (physics identity). Using the communities of practice framework, we are designing a study to measure how students’ physics identities are affected by physics laboratory courses. We will be presenting on the development of items for the survey through student interviews and classroom observations.

  • • Do Assessments Engage Students in Scientific Practices?

    • PST2D24
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Katherine Ventura,, James Laverty

    • Type: Poster
    • Recent national reports have elevated learning how to do physics to the same level as learning the concepts of physics. "Scientific practices" are designed to shift the focus of physics education to a student's ability to do science in addition to their content knowledge. Assessing these practices is important in determining if we, as educators, are facilitating the student's ability to engage in the process of science. The recently released Three-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP) was developed to characterize assessment tasks that have the potential to elicit evidence that students have learned scientific practices. We are developing tasks aligning with scientific practices. We will interview students working on those tasks using a think-aloud protocol and analyze the interviews to find evidence that students are (or are not) engaging in scientific practices. This observation will inform how well we are able to assess the scientific practices we want students to learn.

  • • Effect of Presentation Language on Uncertainty Comprehension and Attitudes

    • PST2D26
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM
    • by Michelle Milne,
    • Type: Poster
    • Measurement uncertainty concepts were presented to two first-semester introductory physics laboratory sections in different languages. Uncertainty concepts were presented to one section couched in standard uncertainty of measurement language while the concepts were presented to the other section couched in terms of certainty of measurement language. To gauge the effect of the two variations of presentation, student assignments were scored for mastery of uncertainty concepts and students filled out a Likert attitude survey at several points during and after the semester. No significant difference in abilities was found between the two populations, but there was a difference in the evolution of attitudes towards uncertainty between the two populations, with the “certainty” language population showing a decrease in agreement with expert attitudes.

  • • Energy Quantization: Student Understanding of Quantum Mechanics in Chemistry

    • PST2D28
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Adam Quaal,, Misael Calleja, Gina Passante

    • Type: Poster
    • While undergraduate physics students encounter quantum mechanics (QM) topics towards the end of their introductory courses, introductory chemistry courses often teach QM concepts earlier in the context of electron orbitals and transitions. Student understanding of atomic energy levels is of particular interest from a physics education perspective, as this concept can provide a bridge from general chemistry to an upper-division physics QM course. In this work, we analyze student responses to QM assessment items given during an introductory general chemistry course. Specifically, we focus on the concepts of energy levels and quantization, as well as the relationship between energy level diagrams and atomic spectra.

  • • Examining the Role of Context in Student Reasoning*

    • PST2D30
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Mila Kryjevskaia,, Cody Gette, J. Caleb Speirs, MacKenzie Stetzer

    • Type: Poster
    • As part of an ongoing investigation of student reasoning, we have been developing and refining methodologies that allow for the identification of specific factors that tend to enhance or suppress student reasoning abilities. This poster focuses on the role of context in student reasoning. Sets of isomorphic questions were developed in multiple contexts (e.g., rotational kinematics and capacitance). Each question in the set requires students to apply the same line of reasoning in order to arrive at a correct answer. The identified reasoning patterns appear to be largely context dependent. In particular, students were more likely to abandon formal lines of reasoning in favor of more intuitively appealing arguments in some contexts, but not in others. Data from multiple question sets will be presented and instructional implications will be discussed.

  • • Expanding the PICUP Community of Practice

    • PST2D32
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Paul Irving,, Marcos Caballero

    • Type: Poster
    • The mission of the Partnership for Integration of Computation into Undergraduate Physics (PICUP) is to expand the role of computation in the undergraduate physics curriculum. A major effort to facilitate this expansion is the PICUP Faculty Development Workshop (FDW), which functions in a similar way to the New Faculty Workshop. FDW invitees engage and learn about educational practices associated with integrating computation into their curriculum designs. With this focus on community building and engagement in the legitimate peripheral practices of the PICUP community, we have developed a project that applies the communities of practice framework to understand how the PICUP community develops over time. Presented in this poster are the initial stages of this work which contrasts the perceptions and experiences of attendees of the PICUP workshop (peripheral members of the community) with those of the central members of the PICUP community (workshop organizers).

  • • Exploring Student Communities in Group Exam Settings

    • PST2D34
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Steven Wolf,, Timothy Sault, Cody Blakeney, Hunter Close

    • Type: Poster
    • Collaboration is an integral part of science, and as our classrooms becomemore collaborative, so to can our assessments. Group exam data gives us a new kind of data about how our students relate to each other. Network analysis provides many tools for describing, visualizing, and analyzing student networks. In particular, we are interested in probing many different aspects of these communities. For example, how does network position relate to content knowledge? And can we track how ideas flow through a class?

  • • The Physics Lab Inventory of Critical Thinking

    • PST2D36
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Katherine Quinn,, Natasha Holmes, Carl Wieman

    • Type: Poster
    • In this poster, we will present the Physics Lab Inventory for Critical thinking (PLIC), a closed-response assessment to evaluate physics lab courses. It is aimed to assess the efficacy of lab courses at developing critical thinking as related to making sense of experiments, data, variability, and models. We will present the assessment motivation, development and validation, and preliminary results.

  • • Towards Defining Productivity in Informal Physics Education Programs

    • PST2D38
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Michael Bennett,*, Claudia Fracchiolla, Kathleen Hinko, Brett Fiedler, Noah Finkelstein

    • Type: Poster
    • Informal education programs provide a unique opportunity to study student learning, since participating students are usually involved by choice and because the activities that students engage in are largely of their own choosing. Students may additionally come into the program with different objectives and conceptions of the program’s purpose, which may manifest in their behavior. In PISEC (Partnerships for Informal Science Education in the Community), a CU Boulder-affiliated informal physics education program, students in grades K-8 meet once per week with CU mentors to engage in hands-on physics activities in an afterschool setting. PISEC provides opportunities to observe students in practice and to study both stated and enacted student objectives. We observed students over a semester and conducted end-of-semester interviews to obtain data on their behavior and stated objectives in PISEC. We discuss preliminary findings and note instances where students’ actions and reflections appear to be in coordination or discoordination.

  • • Understanding Student Perceptions of Computational Physics Problems in Introductory Mechanics

    • PST2D40
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Nathaniel Hawkins,, Marcos Caballero, Paul Irving

    • Type: Poster
    • Projects and Practices in Physics ("P-Cubed") is a transformed, first-yearintroductory mechanics course offered at Michigan State University. The focus of the course is concept-based group learning implemented through solving analytic problems and computational modeling problems using the programming language VPython. Interviews with students from P-Cubed were conducted to explore the variation of students' perceptions of the utility of solving computational Physics problems as it relates to their learning of Physics. A phenomenographic method is being used to develop categories of student experience with computational Physics problems. The focus of this presentation is to display interview data and discuss the recurring themes we have seen in these interviews.

  • • Using Eye Tracking to Differentiate Student Difficulties Reasoning with Data

    • PST2D42
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Raymond Zich,, Rebecca Rosenblatt

    • Type: Poster
    • Findings from a past project studying students in algebra-based physics courses indicate significant issues working with graphed and pictured data. Students overuse reasoning schemes that work for one cause – one effect data but do not work for multiple causes. Students make incorrect claims like, “If variable A is unchanged and variable B does change than variable A must not affect variable B.” In this study, we use eye tracking data to investigate students’ attention to the variables in the graphs and pictures. We observe different student gaze patterns on questions answered incorrectly vs. correctly. This demonstrates that control-of-variables (and not just logical reasoning) affects student skills with data interpretation. In addition, we present other results. For example, students who are correct show relatively more time (as a percentage of each persons’ gaze time) attending to the legend in a graph, the unchanged – i.e. controlled for – variable, and the effect variable.

  • • Vector Angular Displacement

    • PST2D44
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by William Dittrich,, Leonid Minkin, Robert Drosd, Alexander Shapavolov

    • Type: Poster
    • A new way to teach rotational dynamics whereby angular displacement is correctly defined as a free axial vector is described in this poster. This method of teaching rotation greatly improves rotational theory in that it makes rotational and translational pedagogy completely symmetrical and consistent with one another.

  • • Why Pop Culture May be Important for Learning Physics

    • PST2D46
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Kathleen Hinko,, Claudia Fracchiolla

    • Type: Poster
    • Student engagement is critical to learning, especially in environments designed to encourage student agency. We investigate student engagement in an after-school physics program for K-12 students facilitated by students from the University of Colorado Boulder. Using an activity theory framework, we analyze videos from the interactions of children in small groups during afterschool sessions. Through activity theory analysis we are able to identify group dynamics that contribute to or hinder individual student engagement in informal learning environments. We present data from student groups that seem to facilitators to struggle to stay “on task”. However, we find that students’ social engagement with peers is not binary with their scientific engagement with the activities. Rather, these dual ways of engaging can support students’ objectives in the program. We also find that through mediation, differences between these dimensions (social vs science engagement) can realign the activity systems so that participants can productively participate.

  • • Examining Student Attitudes via the Math Attitude and Expectations Survey

    • PST2D48
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Deborah Hemingway,, Mark Eichenlaub, Edward Redish

    • Type: Poster
    • The Math Attitude and Expectations Survey (MAX) is one of two novel assessment surveys developed as part of a mixed-methods exploratory project that seeks to understand and overcome the barriers that students face when using math in science. The MAX is a 30-question Likert-scale survey that focuses on student attitudes towards using mathematics in a reformed Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences (IPLS) course, part of the National Experiment in Undergraduate Education (NEXUS/Physics) project. Survey development and results are discussed with specific attention given to students' attitudes towards math and physics, opinions about interdisciplinarity, and the usefulness of physics in academic settings as well as in professional biological research and modern medicine settings. We also utilized the outcomes of the second novel assessment survey, the Mathematical Epistemic Games Survey (MEGS), to gain further insight into and compare results of this survey across multiple institutions.

  • • Gateways ND: Investigating Student Perceptions of Office Hours*

    • PST2D50
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Alistair McInerny,, Mila Kryjevskaia, Jared Ladbury, Paul Kelter

    • Type: Poster
    • As part of a campus-wide initiative to improve teaching and learning at North Dakota State University, we are investigating student and faculty use and perceptions of office hours. We apply the Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework for the development of a survey designed to gain insights into students’ intentions to utilize office hours. We examine three factors that may impact student intentions: attitudes towards office hours, norms regarding office hours, and control beliefs about office hours. Analysis of more than 400 survey responses indicates that student intentions are primarily linked to student attitudes towards office hours, while no significant link is identified between intentions, norms, and control beliefs.

  • • Psychometric analysis of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) gender fairness

    • PST2D52
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Rebecca Lindell, John Stewart, Adrienne Traxler, Alexis Papak, Gay Stewart

    • Type: Poster
    • To investigate the well-documented difference between male and female students’ performance on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), we studied samples from four different universities’ calculus-based physics mechanics courses. Unlike most previous psychometric studies of the FCI, we separated the female from the male students, as the male students outnumbered female students 4:1 for each sample. Using classical and modern test theory, we found that more than half the test items are poorly functioning in terms of difficulty or discrimination measures, and five items have anomalously high difficulty for female students across samples. Notably, most of these items were not flagged when the dataset was aggregated across genders. In addition, we examined item bias utilizing Differential Item Functioning and identified a total of eight biased items, with six items biased toward men and two items toward women. Eliminating the poorly functioning/ biased items substantially reduces the gender difference in scores.

  • • Attitudes in Introductory Physics for Life Science and Engineering Students

    • PST2D54
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Max Franklin,, Catherine Crouch, Benjamin Geller

    • Type: Poster
    • We report analysis of CLASS responses, self-efficacy survey responses, andcourse performance for first-year engineering students in introductory physics. Students completed surveys both at the beginning and end of each semester. We examine the relationship between these responses, performance, and student demographics, to determine whether differences are observed between different demographic groups in initial self-efficacy or attitudes, and whether different groups undergo different changes during instruction. We compare our results to previous findings from analyzing equivalent data for life science students.

• Post-deadine Posters

  • • Development of an Interactive Tutorial on Quantum Key Distribution*

    • PST3A01
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM

    • by Seth DeVore,, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • We describe the development of a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) on quantum key distribution, a context that involves a practical application of quantum mechanics. The QuILT helps upper-level undergraduate students learn quantum mechanics using a simple two-state system and was developed based upon the findings of cognitive research and physics education research. One protocol used in the QuILT involves generating a random shared key over a public channel for encrypting and decrypting information using single photons with non-orthogonal polarization states, and another protocol makes use of two entangled spin-½ particles. The QuILT uses a guided approach and focuses on helping students build links between the formalism and conceptual aspects of quantum physics without compromising the technical content. We also discuss findings from a preliminary in-class evaluation.

  • • Beyond Pure Data Acquisition: Smartphone Experiments With "Phyphox"

    • PST3A03
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM

    • by Sebastian Staacks, Simon Hütz, Heidrun Heinke, Christoph Stampfer

    • Type: Poster
    • The free app "phyphox" (Android and iOS, see http://phyphox.org) is a set of tools using the sensors in common smartphones for physics experiments. Instead of just offering simple data acquisition, this app can do integrated data analysis and allows to view the results on any second device (laptop PC, tablet, a second smartphone etc.) during the measurement - even when the phone itself is not accessible. This way, students can see the outcome of an experiment and the influence of their actions live while conducting the experiment. Additionally, any experiment-specific analysis can be customized and changed through an open file format to adjust the app to your needs and the skills of your students. The poster will be presented by the developer of the app who is looking forward to give technical advice, discuss new experiment ideas and exchange actual teaching experiences.

  • • Discussion Method and Educational Effect in Physics Mechanics Lectures

    • PST3A05
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM

    • by Taku Nakamura,, Kazuma Aoki

    • Type: Poster
    • In this research, we practiced with three different teaching methods in the class of mechanics of university first grader, and compared the effect. Practice 1 is lectures based on group work and inquiry activities, practice 2 is lectures based on workshop and peer instruction, practice 3 is lectures based on teacher's demonstration experiments using experimental animation. In each practice, the method of discussion is greatly different. In practice 1, learners freely discuss how to explore activities. In practice 2, learners discuss the concept of each theme for 2 minutes. In practice 3, the learners first discuss the concept of the theme in pairs, then discuss in a group of four people, and finally discuss the class as a whole. The effect of each lectures were evaluated using the normalized gain of Force Concept Inventory. Practice 3 which repeats discussion on the same theme has the best result.

  • • Postural Control: A Study of One-Legged Stance

    • PST3A07
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM

    • by Matthew Semak,, Taylor McMillan, Jeremiah Schwartz, Gary Heise

    • Type: Poster
    • We investigate certain characteristics of human unipedal balance control. Data were collected via a force plate for individuals attempting to maintain upright posture using their dominant and non-dominant legs (with eyes open). The force and jerk concerning the center-of-pressure for each foot has been examined using, among other methods, power spectral and detrended fluctuation analyses. For the sake of space, this poster will focus on results for the jerk associated with the dynamics of the subjects’ dominant legs. Both the lateral and longitudinal components of the jerk display (what may be) oscillatory behavior on long time scales. On short time scales, the longitudinal component of the jerk shows persistent correlations which can be modeled by fractional Gaussian noise, while the lateral component appears to lack strong temporal correlations. Moreover, we attempt to distinguish behavior associated with the dominant leg’s dynamics from that of the non-dominant using sample entropy estimates.

  • • Correlation Between First Exam Scores and Ffinal Grades

    • PST3A09
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM
    • by Sandra Doty,
    • Type: Poster
    • In a study by Jensen and Barron published in the Journal of College Teaching, a significant correlation was found between first exam scores and the final course grade for introductory biology courses. This study explores the relationship between student performance on the first exam, final exam, and final course grade in the introductory algebra- and calculus-based physics course at regional campus and liberal arts institutions.

  • • Modeling Bacterial Swimming of Helical Flagella

    • PST3A11
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM

    • by Philip Lockett,, Grant Giesbrecht, Bruce Rodenborn

    • Type: Poster
    • Our experiment models the locomotion of bacteria using a macroscopic robotic swimmer. Our swimmer has a motor that drives a helical flagellum similar in shape to those present in many prokaryotic organisms. In order for our swimmer to behave like a bacterium, a dimensionless parameter, the Reynolds number, must be kept the same. Since bacteria are much smaller than our robot, we compensate by using a highly viscous fluid. A bacterium swimming in water is like our robot swimming in corn syrup! The presence of nearby boundaries has significant effects on the swimming of microorganisms. We have developed a system to precisely control the distance from the flagellum to the wall and have made measurements of forces and torques near the boundary.

  • • Systematic Development of Skills in Open-Ended Labs

    • PST3A13
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM
    • by Inkeri Kontro,
    • Type: Poster
    • The intermediate laboratory courses at the University of Helsinki were reformed to collaborative, open-ended problem solving labs. The result was a self-contained laboratory course that consists of a weekly instruction workshop, calculation exercises that support the laboratory exercises, and laboratory assignments. The biweekly changing laboratory assignments give students a chance to change their strategy or redo measurements after preliminary data-analysis. The focus is on skills, e.g. building or choosing measurement devices for a particular problem, data-analysis skills and choosing research questions. Each laboratory assignment is focused on two learning goals. Skills are built up systematically. This requires multiples of the same equipment to be available, which in turn means the equipment must be affordable. In this poster we present our laboratory works and the students’ attainment to learning goals.

  • • Experiences from Implementing IPLS Lab Activities

    • PST3A15
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM

    • by Jeremy Hohertz,, Shon Gilliam

    • Type: Poster
    • Elon University transitioned the algebra-based introductory physics laboratory activities to an IPLS curriculum during the 2015-2016 academic year. We present some logistical details of the implementation, student and instructor perceptions of the new curriculum, changes made for the 2016-2017 academic year, and planned changes for the 2017-2018 academic year.

  • • Grading and Motivation: Case Study of an Ongoing Struggle

    • PST3A23
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM
    • by Ralph Tadday,
    • Type: Poster
    • Do you struggle finding enough time to grade your students' work and give meaningful feedback? Are you the idealist that believes that your grading effort matters to students learning, and your feedback is valued and actually makes a difference? I do, and therefore I found/find myself spending a weeks worth of work every week grading my students work. Three years ago I started changing my grading system motivated by discussion with colleagues at the community college and Universities, and influenced by reading about “Specifications Grading” (Linda B. Nilson, Stylus 2015). As expected my grading time decreased, the interaction with students intensified. Many of the interactions are physics related, a significant number of interactions were purely grade related. Unexpectedly also the interaction with colleagues and administrators increased. A critical review is presented.

  • • Standards-based Grading: Assessing What Students Can Do

    • PST3A25
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM
    • by Katrina Black,
    • Type: Poster
    • Standards-based grading systems assign grades based on student mastery of course objectives rather than a percentage of points earned on each particular assessment. In spring 2017, I implemented standards-based grading in an algebra-based introductory physics course for technology majors. I discuss how I chose my standards and grading scale, how standards-based grading affected the culture of the course, and changes in final grade distribution and FMCE gains compared to previous semesters.

  • • Uncertainty: Student Attitudes and Proficiencies

    • PST3A27
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM
    • by Michelle Milne,
    • Type: Poster
    • Students in a calculus-based, introductory physics class primarily taken by non-physics majors were sorted into two groups. The groups were taught uncertainty using two different presentation methods throughout the semester: One method emphasized the uncertainty (the lack of knowledge) about the experimental measurements or results while the other emphasized the certainty of the measurement or results. The students’ lab reports were rated for proficiency with uncertainty concepts throughout the semester and the students’ attitudes towards uncertainty concepts were collected using a Likert attitude survey taken at several points during the semester and once at the end of the next semester. No significant difference was found in either competency or attitudes between the two groups. Both groups improved in proficiency over the course of the semester.

  • • Computer Visualization of Image Fields in Multi-lens Systems

    • PST3A29
    • Wed 07/26, 3:30PM - 4:15PM
    • by James Kelly,
    • Type: Poster
    • While traditional lens diagrams effectively illustrate how a single objectplane is focused in a single image plane, they can leave gaps in understanding when relied upon as the sole method of illustration for optical instruments. I will display a method for computer visualization of image structures in single and multi-lens systems that provides intuition about optical systems in ways that lens diagrams do not. Entire fields of objects and images are simultaneously visualized, directly displaying the necessary distortion of objects with both lateral and axial extents. It can display the often misunderstood effect of lens apertures of any eye position on the image field, and provides a more robust understanding of optical instrument design principles. The method is appropriate for a first encounter with optics as a follow-on to lens diagram constructions.

  • • Demonstration of Heart Model for Ultrasound Imaging

    • PST3A04
    • Wed 07/26, 4:15PM - 5:00PM

    • by Karen Williams,, Brian Scott

    • Type: Poster
    • With my input about our present equipment, a former student of mine designed a better, far cheaper, and more durable yet simple heart model for ultrasound imaging than was sold to us. I will demonstrate how the heart model functions and share the parts list and laboratory information to those interested. Local high school teachers intend to have their students use Vernier motion detectors to obtain data in the absence of an echoscope.

  • • How Might We Help Our Students Become Leaders?*

    • PST3A10
    • Wed 07/26, 4:15PM - 5:00PM

    • by Vincent Kuo,, Pat Kohl, Mark Lusk, Leslie Light, Yosef Allam

    • Type: Poster
    • This presentation will describe the current status of our recent attempts to reform pedagogy and content in several courses at Mines, both horizontally in the common core as well as vertically in the physics major. Starting from motivation, this presentation will include our philosophy, methods, and implementations in the various courses to create a more coherent effort to facilitate leadership and group dynamics development in our students. Courses in the common core include Introductory Physics I & II, Calculus III, Differential Equations, and EPICS I (Engineering Practices - Interdisciplinary Core Sequence). Physics major courses include Analog Electronics, Digital Circuits, Classical Mechanics, Intermediate E&M, and Advanced E&M. The presentation will also discuss our plans on the longitudinal tracking of our students.

  • • Students’ Explanations of Physics Problem Scenarios After Performing an inquiry-based Experiment in Two-Dimensional Motion

    • PST3A12
    • Wed 07/26, 4:15PM - 5:00PM

    • by Edgar Corpuz,, Ma. Aileen Corpuz, Brenda Ramirez

    • Type: Poster
    • This research investigates students’ explanations of physical phenomena presented as problem scenarios after performing discovery-based physics experiments. In this presentation, we will document the categories of explanations that students use in making sense of situations requiring them to apply concepts of two-dimensional motion. Our preliminary results show that most students do not readily apply the concept/physical principle learned in the experiment in making sense of problem scenarios designed as applications of the said experiment.

  • • Network Analysis of IMPRESS Summer Program

    • PST3A14
    • Wed 07/26, 4:15PM - 5:00PM
    • by Katarzyna Pomian,
    • Type: Poster
    • We are exploring the impact of collaborations between students, both in small groups and in the larger class setting. We are also interested in understanding how the interactions change over the course of a two-week summer program. The context for our study is the summer IMPRESS (Integrating Metacognitive Practice and Research to Ensure Student Success) program at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology). The IMPRESS program works with first generation students and deaf and hard-of-hearing students in helping them to develop metacognitive and self-assessment tools. These are students that are incoming freshman to the STEM fields at RIT. We apply social network analysis (SNA) to collected video data of the entire two-week period. This method of analysis gives us a way to describe the IMPRESS students’ collaboration quantitatively and visually to answer our research questions. This is an approach for studying individual student’s integration into a group as well as dynamics of the group. We are also looking at how the on-topic and off-topic conversations may contribute to the larger networking of the students involved in the program.

  • • Examination of the Level of Inquiry in Introductory Physics Laboratories

    • PST3A16
    • Wed 07/26, 4:15PM - 5:00PM

    • by Zeynep Topdemir,, Ebru Oncul, Brian Thoms

    • Type: Poster
    • Inquiry-based experiments are common in K-12 education, but unfortunately,there are less common in undergraduate education. Also, it is not clear in the literature what kind of activities should be counted as inquiry-based. The aim of this study is to develop a rubric to characterize and specify the level of inquiry in introductory undergraduate physics labs. We have used this rubric to determine the level of inquiry in introductory physics laboratories at Georgia State University. Also, this rubric has been used to characterize the level of inquiry of some published research-based introductory physics labs. Preliminary results will be presented. We will also show how traditional labs can be converted into inquiry-based labs.

  • • Approaches to Assisting Elementary Education Majors with Lunar Concepts

    • PST3A18
    • Wed 07/26, 4:15PM - 5:00PM
    • by Matthew Perkins Coppola,
    • Type: Poster
    • In order to prepare the next generation of elementary school teachers to teach astronomy concepts, specific activities are included in their science methods course that use modeling practices to address common misconceptions and alternative conceptions. Accessible materials and electronic simulations are used in sequence to build conceptual models of how the moon progresses through its phases and why lunar eclipses are not a monthly event. This poster documents my efforts toward this task.

  • • Electrolysis of Salt Water and Batteries

    • PST3A20
    • Wed 07/26, 4:15PM - 5:00PM
    • by Tracey DeLaney,
    • Type: Poster
    • This is a lab exercise used in our Physical Science for Teachers class. Our goal is to provide the elementary education students with ideas that they can use in their own classrooms some day. The materials are cheap and easy to make or acquire. The first experiment uses pencils, salt water, and a 9-volt battery to drive electrolysis. The graphite in the pencils serves as the electrodes. The second experiment uses copper, zinc, and aluminum electrodes to make batteries with Coke (or lemons) as the electrolyte. The electrodes for the battery can be nails or flashing cut into strips. The students use multimeters to take voltage and amperage readings in each experiment. For the battery experiment, the students must calculate the number of cells they need to light up an LED.

  • • The Solar Eclipse and the Detection of Atmospheric Muons

    • PST3A26
    • Wed 07/26, 4:15PM - 5:00PM

    • by Matthew Semak,, Josh Fender, John Ringler, Justin Morse

    • Type: Poster
    • For this project, we have constructed a device for the detection of cosmicray muons as a function of altitude. The detector is part of a self-contained autonomous payload that is carried up to altitude aboard a weather balloon. The payload contains a plastic scintillator coupled with a silicon photomultiplier and two Geiger counters. All three are connected to a coincidence circuit, making up the muon detection system. This system, along with various other sensors including an internal temperature sensor and altimeter, are controlled by an onboard Arduino Mega microcontroller. A launch in July 2017 will serve as a test flight for the payload and baseline data will be collected. These data will be compared to those collected during a similar flight at the time of the solar eclipse in August 2017 to determine if there is a measurable difference between the data sets.

  • • A Simple Laser Microphone

    • PST3A28
    • Wed 07/26, 4:15PM - 5:00PM
    • by Jorge Salas
    • Type: Poster
    • A simple microphone can be built using a laser, a phototransistor, earphones and some additional electronics. This microphone has been used by the author as a fun and interactive demonstration to introduce students into topics such as lasers, optoelectronic sensors, amplification, filtering, mechanical oscillations, resonance, feedback and others. The device is inexpensive and easy to build, and yet has good sensitivity. The demonstration can be tailored to broad audiences, from children up to college students.

  • • TAPIR (Teaching Activities for Physics Inclusion Resources): Enhancing Diversity in Introductory Physics

    • PST3A30
    • Wed 07/26, 4:15PM - 5:00PM

    • by Kobi Bhattacharyya,, Brooks Thomas, Barbara Whitten

    • Type: Poster
    • Even among STEM disciplines, physics stands out as unusually white- and male-dominated. AIP reports that only 14% of physics faculty are women, and 6% are underrepresented minorities. Rachel Ivie of AIP has studied the pipeline for women in physics, and has identified the transition from high school to college as the most important “leak point” for women. We are approaching this problem by addressing inclusiveness in the calculus-based introductory physics course, the gateway to the undergraduate physics major. While most physics books have a plethora of problems at the end of each chapter, they are focused on contexts like sports and the military, which are not of particular interest to women or students of color, and send the message that physics is not for them. Many young faculty who are interested in diversity would like to present a broader variety of contexts. But, pressed for time, they too often fall back on already prepared topics. We are preparing a database of materials (coloradocollege.website/tapir) that illustrate the concepts of introductory physics, but in different contexts that we intend will interest a broader range of students. These might include problems, in-class activities, test problems, paper and discussion topics. We intend these materials for use in the calculus-based physics class, but they will be adaptable to algebra-based and high school classes as well. By making these available to faculty at Colorado College and elsewhere, we hope to encourage women and students of color to major in physics, and eventually increase the diversity of the physics community.

• Pre-college/Informal and Outreach

  • • Physics in the Park: Light and Colors Experiments for Children

    • PST1A01
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Katemari Rosa,, Roberta Smania-Marques, Julio Cesar Nascimento, Heloisa Almeida, Maria Ruthe Gomes

    • Type: Poster
    • In this presentation, we share our experience developing and implementing outreach activities addressing colors and light phenomena for children ages 4 to 10 years old, in Campina Grande, a Northeastern state of Paraiba, Brazil. The experiments were divided by level of difficulty targeting two age groups, children 4 to 6 and 7 to 10. Activities were held both in classrooms for each age group, and in a central public park, open for children of all ages. Our presence in the park got the attention of many families who engaged with a variety of experiments; adults, youth, and children actively explored, made questions, and shared their explanatory models for the phenomena they experienced. Classroom activities were also very engaging but somewhat more structured, due to the physical space. Finally, not surprisingly, experiments that required a darker environment were found to harder to be performed in the park but easier in classrooms.

  • • The MSU Science Theatre Upper Peninsula Trip

    • PST1A03
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM
    • by Patrick Morgan,
    • Type: Poster
    • Science Theatre is a nonprofit student outreach group at Michigan State University. Since 1992 they have coordinated with schools across the state of Michigan to visit and present in classrooms, at school assemblies, and for science nights or science fairs. In 2011, Science Theatre conducted the first annual Science Theatre Upper Peninsula Trip, or STUP Trip. This event, which happens during the MSU spring break, is when they visit as many of the Upper Peninsula schools as they are able to in a single week to perform full school assemblies. The STUP trip has grown in size over the years, with the 2017 event expected to visit over 40 schools in 20 different cities. This poster session will speak at length on how this event was started, how it has continued to expand and grow, and the important tips and lessons learned along the way.

  • • Composing Music to Illustrate Concepts in Fractals and Chaos*

    • PST1A07
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Timothy McCaskey,, Luis Nasser

    • Type: Poster
    • At Columbia College Chicago, we are interested in physics courses that encourage students to use artistic forms to illustrate their understanding of material. Our current "Physics for Filmmakers" course does this with a final film project. In that vein, and in the interest of adding new subject matter and artistic forms to our teaching arsenal, we have worked on a music composition project inspired by the introductory mathematics of fractals, chaos, and cellular automata. Our hope is that this work will act as a model for creative student projects in these subject areas. This poster will show how simple fractal patterns and computational exercises can be translated into choices of chord progression, rhythm, melody, and song structure. We will also use the poster to link to recordings of some of our compositions.

  • • Evaluating Physics and Astronomy Day: Measures for Determining Program Success

    • PST1A09
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Kathleen Hinko,, Sonny Ly

    • Type: Poster
    • Getting children interested and excited about physics is often a main objective of university departmental outreach efforts. In an effort to expose children to the science of physics, Michigan State University has teamed up with a local science center, Impression 5, to host a Physics and Astronomy (PA) Day. During this annual event, guests have the chance to interact in person with physicists and take part in hands-on physics activities in a museum environment. In this work, we test several methodological approaches for embedding formative and summative assessment into the structure of PA Day. We focus on evaluating PA Day's success in delivering physics content that challenges guests to explore, ask questions, and formulate their own answers. We also evaluate PA Day's effectiveness in making guests excited about science. Our findings will be used to improve future PA Days and may be broadly applicable to similar one-time events.

  • • The Chi Sci Scholars Program: Developing Supportive, Inclusive, Activities for Chemistry and Physics Majors*

    • PST1A02
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Felicia Davenport,, Fidel Amezcua, Nicolette Sanders, Kristy Mardis, Mel Sabella

    • Type: Poster
    • Ensuring that all students who want to pursue degrees and careers in science can do so is an important goal of a number of equity programs in college STEM throughout the United States. The CSU Chi Sci Scholars (CSS) program began in 2014 as a result of a grant from the National Science Foundation S-STEM Program and builds on the specific strengths and needs of our population on the southside of Chicago. The overarching goal of CSU's CSS Program are to increase the number of students receiving degrees in Chemistry and Physics by building science identity, creating a supportive cohort of peers, and providing financial support. Because of the population we serve at CSU, an implicit goal of the CSU S-STEM Program is increasing the number of underrepresented students entering the Physical Sciences. This poster presents some of the activities we engage in as part of the Chi Sci Scholars.

  • • The NBI IKEA DIY Cloud Chamber

    • PST1A04
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Ian Bearden,, Axel Boisen, Marta Mrozowska

    • Type: Poster
    • As part of our outreach to secondary schools via our Ungdomslaboratoriet (Youth Lab), we have developed a DIY cloud chamber built almost exclusively of items available in the IKEA catalog. In fact, using these items, some isopropyl alcohol and dry ice, one can build a strikingly effective cloud chamber capable of showing atmospheric muons in roughly an hour. After this one time time investment, setup from storage container to viewing muons takes 20-30 minutes depending on the dexterity of the assembler. In this poster, we will show how to build the chamber as well as experiences using these chambers with secondary school students and teachers as well as using them in a laboratory exercise for upper level undergraduate students to view atmospheric muons as well as alpha and beta particles from a TIG thorium doped welding rod. The chamber will also be demonstrated in the poster session if there is room enough and it is possible to obtain dry ice.

  • • Bringing AP Physics to Underserved High School Populations

    • PST1A06
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Mark Greenman,
    • Type: Poster
    • Boston University is in the second year of a pilot program, Project Accelerate, partnering with 11 high schools in Massachusetts and West Virginia to bring a College Board approved Advanced Placement® Physics Small Private Online Course to schools not offering this opportunity to students. Project Accelerate students (1) outperformed peer groups in traditional AP Physics classrooms on the College Board AP Physics exam, and (2) were more inclined to engage in additional Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programs than they were prior to participating in Project Accelerate. This poster will highlight the project research questions, methodology, implementation strategy, and pilot year outcomes. Project Accelerate offers a replicable solution to a significant problem of too few underserved high school students having access to high-quality physics education, resulting in these students being ill prepared to enter STEM careers and STEM programs in college.

  • • Engaging the Public Through an Interactive Astronomy Outreach Program

    • PST1A08
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Kristen Thompson,
    • Type: Poster
    • The growing technology sector of the U.S. economy in an increasingly complex world has made it more important than ever for students to gather information, think critically, and solve problems. These skills are often acquired through the study of STEM disciplines. In an effort to inspire students and the public in the Charlotte, NC, area to take an interest in STEM-related fields, the Physics Department at Davidson College has recently developed an interactive astronomy community engagement program. This program is composed of off-campus events that bring STEM programming to K-12 children, on-campus public star parties, and a day-long astronomy fair called Davidson Space Day. This presentation will illustrate the implementation of each of these components of our outreach program, present an evaluation of their success, and describe future goals and lessons learned thus far. This outreach program was made possible through funding from the NC Space Grant Consortium.

  • • Brazilian Children's Spontaneous Reasoning About Light and Its Phenomena

    • PST1A10
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Miriã Alcântara,, Luzia Mota, Isabelle Priscilla Lima, Sérgio Luis Santos, Josileide Oliveira

    • Type: Poster
    • The goal of this work is to present the results of an exploratory researchcarried out with Brazilian children, ages 7 to 10 years old, with and without visual impairment, about their spontaneous reasoning on light and its phenomena. The methodology mobilized children to explore simple sensory experiences with emitting and non-emitting light objects. Then, children were asked to talk about their conceptions about the nature of light, its emitting sources, its characteristics, and its interaction with objects. The research was conducted individually and in focus groups. The results indicate that children, both with and without visual impairments, have spontaneous conceptions that allow them to explain everyday phenomena related to light. However, these conceptions, for the most part, differ from scientific explanations.

• Preparing the Community for the August 21st Solar Eclipse

  • • Common Struggles in Understanding Eclipses: Research and Tools from Temple/AAPT

    • BF09
    • Fri 07/14, 2:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Ramon Lopez,, Bradley Ambrose, Janelle Bailey, Ximena Cid, Shannon Willoughby

    • Type: Poster
    • Temple University, in coordination with the AAPT as a part of the NASA Heliophysics Education Consortium, has built a task force to develop astronomy and heliophysics resources for introductory and advanced astronomy and physics learning in higher education institutions (including for pre-service teacher education programs). Outcomes of research will be shared, including student performance on a pre/post eclipse concept survey, concept questions, lab activities, lecture tutorials, and homework assignments. See aapt.org/resources/eclipse2017 for access to the resources developed by this team.

  • • Modern Eddington Experiment

    • BF03
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:30PM
    • by William Dittrich,
    • Type: Poster
    • The modern Eddington experiment will be performed during the August 21 2017 eclipse. This poster describes the new method used to drastically improve the accuracy of this historic experiment.

  • • Preparing Ada Oklahoma for the 2017 Solar Eclipse

    • BF04
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:30PM
    • by Carl Rutledge,
    • Type: Poster
    • Plans for preparing East Central University and the Ada, Oklahoma, community for the 2017 solar eclipse will be presented. Experiences in viewing solar eclipses in Perry, Florida, in 1970 and Cap Chat, Quebec, Canada, in 1972 will also be described.

  • • Stratospheric Temperature Changes Monitored During A Solar Eclipse Using Balloons

    • BF05
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Kaye Smith,, James Flaten, Erick Agrimson

    • Type: Poster
    • St. Catherine University and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have studied the thermal wake effect of an ascending high altitude balloon (HAB). A thermal wake occurs when a HAB influences and changes the surrounding ambient atmospheric temperature of the air through which it passes. During daytime flights, the thermal wake is warmer than the surrounding air but during nighttime flights there is an opposite effect, a cooling of the atmosphere surrounding the balloon. We have developed a “wake boom” to characterize the magnitude and extent of the thermal wake below an ascending balloon. The solar obscuration during the total solar eclipse of 8/21/2017 will provide a unique opportunity to monitor temperature changes of the stratosphere within and outside the wake, as solar heating effects will be mitigated for a short time. Temperature measurements will be collected during stratospheric flights with weather balloons before, during, and after the eclipse event.

  • • The Citadel Observes Solar Eclipse Leaving the North American Continent

    • BF06
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Joel Berlinghieri,, Patrick Briggs, Russell Hilleke, Mikhail Agrest, Jim Near

    • Type: Poster
    • The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, will host student and communityinformational seminars and workshops during the week before the North American Solar Eclipse visits our area as it passes out to sea. Observations, recordings, and environmental measurements will be made at three sites: The Citadel campus in downtown Charleston, The Citadel Beach House on the Isle of Palms (northeast of the campus), and just south of McClellanville at a point near maximum totality. In addition to our college students, faculty, and staff and in cooperation with the Charleston County School District, safe viewing will be provided for area students and the general public.

  • • Regener-Pfotzer Maximum Changes Occurring During a Total Solar Eclipse

    • BF07
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Erick Agrimson,, Gordon McIntosh, James Flaten, Kaye Smith

    • Type: Poster
    • The University of Minnesota, Morris and St. Catherine University have usedGeiger counters to study the cosmic ray flux during high altitude balloon (HAB) flights. We have measured the omnidirectional cosmic ray flux, plus coincidences between pairs of Geiger counters mounted both vertically and horizontally. Pressure, temperature, and 3D location of balloon payloads are also logged. The “horizontal coincidence” flux indicates the presence of cosmic ray showers, with multiple particles generated from one initial interaction. All fluxes grow with increasing altitude until the Regener-Pfotzer (RP) maximum. These fluxes provide a means to study the structure of cosmic ray air showers as a function of altitude. The total solar eclipse of 8/21/2017 will provide a unique opportunity to see how changes in the (RP) maximum and ionization rates are influenced by temporary solar obscuration. Flux measurements will be collected before, during, and after the eclipse event.

  • • Celebrating The 2017 Eclipse With Anyone Who Will Listen

    • BF08
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Richard Gelderman,, Theo Wellington

    • Type: Poster
    • Western Kentucky University’s football stadium will host 20,000 K-12 students for the 2017 August 21 total solar eclipse. That is the first day of class for WKU, and all of the students, staff, and faculty are invited to join a massive party in the middle of our beautiful campus. The day before the eclipse a community-based science festival will take place in downtown Bowling Green, culminating with a show at the local minor league ballpark demonstrating the science of fireworks. All of this required intensive efforts at communicating with government officials, media representatives, school administrators, civic organizations, and the general public.

  • • Experience the 2017 Eclipse Across America Through NASA's Eyes

    • BF10
    • Mon 07/24, 2:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Carolyn Ng,, Louis Mayo, Alex Young, Sten Odenwald, Troy Cline

    • Type: Poster
    • Join NASA and millions in the U.S. and around the world in observing the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse. This presentation will discuss NASA's plans for the 2017 eclipse, highlighting some programs, resources, and citizen science activities that will engage and educate many across the country and beyond. NASA will offer unique observations of this celestial event from the ground to space. Additionally, there are do-it-yourself (DIY) science, lunar and math challenges, art projects, Makerspace ideas, and various activities for learners of all ages. Education resources and tool kits may be useful for education and public engagement. Find out what events are happening in your neighborhood, and plan your own eclipse parties with resources and activities. Last but not the least, experience the eclipse on August 21 and learn more through NASA broadcast programming that will include telescopic views from multiple locations, simple measurements, and live and taped interviews.

• SPS Undergraduate Research and Outreach Poster Session

  • • Influence of a Grounding Strip Conductor Plate on Uniform Electric Field and its Numerical Simulation

    • SPS01
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM
    • by Hui Zhong,
    • Type: Poster
    • The influence of a grounding strip conductor plate on uniform electric field is studied by conformal "mapping and reset function method" and electric potential distribution and electric field intensity distribution are obtained. Furthermore the distribution of electric field is numerical simulated by using the software MATLAB.

  • • Magnetic Dynamics of Iron-based Superconductors

    • SPS02
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM
    • by Zhenxiong Xie,
    • Type: Poster
    • Since high-Tc superconductors were found in 1986, iron-based superconductors are practical in material science because they have higher superconducting transition temperature, larger coherence length and smaller anisotropy comparing with copper oxide superconductors. Near the instability of the antiferromagnetic order, iron-based superconductors display high-Tc superconductivity. Therefore, the magnetic structures in the parent compounds have been studied deeply. This study reports single magneton excitation and double magnetons excitation of various magnetic structures in iron-based superconductors. The effect of itinerant electron on local magnetic moment and magnetic excitation is also described.

  • • On the Falling of a Rigid Body

    • SPS03
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM
    • by Jiale Cheng,
    • Type: Poster
    • In this paper, we analyze the falling process of a rigid rod with non-uniform weight distribution. The horizontal movement of the bottom and the falling time on the rough surface is studied theoretically and experimentally. We find that the rod with certain weight distribution can display a perking phenomenon at its bottom. Our experimental results coincide with our theory very well.

  • • On the Force Between the Magnet and the Steel Plate

    • SPS04
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM
    • by Youyou Bian,
    • Type: Poster
    • There is a popular believe that the force between the magnet and the steelplate is always a repulsive force. However, we can derive theoretically that when the magnet approach the steel plate slowly, there will be a repulsive force between them. An experiment is made to verify the theory. During the experiment process, an obvious experimental phenomenon can be observed in a certain area.

  • • On the Hot Water Fountain

    • SPS05
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM
    • by Junji Hou,
    • Type: Poster
    • Partially filled with hot water and covered by the mouth of the pipe, a pipette can eject water column on the tip, which is a so-called hot water fountain. By using the Bernoulli equation, we analyzed the max jetting height of the fountain. We found that the max height of the fountain first increased and then decreased along with the increase of water absorption and the max height of the fountain increased as the temperature increased. And our experimental results coincide with our theory perfectly.

  • • Stretching an Elastic Loop: Crease and Pop Out

    • SPS06
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM

    • by Yinghui Li,, Wenhan Xu

    • Type: Poster
    • When introduced a loop and pulled from the both sides, ribbons with different center line spacing will show three kinds of shape transitions, crease, pop out, and helicoid. In this paper, we mainly focus on the crease-pop out transition. We design an experiment to measure the relationship between thickness and critical value of center line spacing. Our experimental results reveal a power function between these two quantities, which coincides with the elastic model perfectly. Moreover, effects of temperature and ribbon structure on the critical value are also studied qualitatively.

  • • Tests and Analysis of Photomultiplier Tube

    • SPS07
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM

    • by Tian Xie,, Yixin Xu, Danyuan Zhuo, Dexin Li

    • Type: Poster
    • With the rapid progress of scintillation detectors, photomultiplier tube (PMT) as an indispensable part of detectors need to be studied more thoroughly. In our experiment, using LED, high voltage supply module and oscillation, PMT is tested and its properties like dark current are measured. Finally experiment data is compared with theoretical value to decide whether experimented PMT is in good state and can be used in further research.

  • • The Effect of iPad-Based Curriculum on Pre-Service Teachers' Content Knowledge and Technology Self-Efficacy

    • SPS08
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM

    • by Matthew Conway,, Deepika Menon, Meera Chandrasekhar, Dorina Kosztin

    • Type: Poster
    • As mobile technologies continue to become increasingly popular, education programs are implementing tools such as iPads, smart phones, etc., into their curriculums. This shift towards technology-based curriculums demands that pre-service teachers become efficient in these modes of teaching, however, it seems many of them do not have the confidence or experience to do so. This lack of confidence highlights the importance of college preparation for preservice teachers in regards to technology and its integration in the classroom. Exploring Physics is an innovative iPad-based curriculum with an array of tools to assist both the teaching and learning of science. Our study focuses on whether exposing pre-service teachers to Exploring Physics over a semester long physics content course 1) increases overall physics content knowledge, 2) increases self-efficacy for technology integration, and 3) if there is a correlation between changes in content knowledge and changes in technology self-efficacy.

  • • Use of Popular Media in Teaching Introductory Physics

    • SPS09
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM

    • by Matthew Hezseltine,, Kent Price

    • Type: Poster
    • Can popular media be used in as a tool to improve the teaching of introductory physics? Through this research, popular television shows and movies (especially the Big Bang Theory) were reviewed for mentions and examples that could be used in a classroom. A lesson on Newton's second law based on scenes from the movie Superman and the television show the Big Bang Theory was developed and tested. Results from this and a traditional lesson are being analyzed and will be presented.

  • • Aerodynamic Properties of Badminton Shuttlecocks Lacking Partial Feathers

    • SPS10
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM

    • by Ge Yan, rui yuan, yiling ma

    • Type: Poster
    • Affected by feathers, badminton always show unique properties during its flight. In this article, we study the trajectory, the rotation, the coefficient between rotational velocity and translational speed and some other properties of a badminton shuttlecock that lacks parts of its feathers. We design an experiment to measure the relationship between the translational speed and the rotational velocity with certain number of feathers. Our experimental results perfectly coincide with our theory.

  • • Analyzing Buoyancy Lab Modalities

    • SPS11
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM

    • by Emily Raker,, Dyan Jones

    • Type: Poster
    • Classifying the needs of students within the laboratory can be masked by the different deliveries of lab material, and has been shown to affect student learning. Many have proposed different hypotheses on how the delivery of lab material has affected student learning in both positive and negative ways. Existing research differs from what is presented here by means of delivery modes. Students were first asked a few conceptual questions about buoyancy to obtain a baseline. Buoyancy content was then presented to students in the lab setting, but by means of different forms: traditional hands-on, computer aided, or computer simulation. After the completion of the lab, students were asked a series of questions to see if knowledge has been obtained. Being able to effectively identify the needs of the students will allow instructors to use the laboratory setting most effectively to increase student learning.

  • • Application of Neural Networks on Numerical Simulation of CMB

    • SPS12
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM
    • by Siqi Dong,
    • Type: Poster
    • Numerical simulation is usually used to predict the cosmic phenomena undervarious models, and compared with astronomical observations. However, numerical simulation involving cosmology is always of high requirement for computer’s operation ability, therefore we use the neural network as the "database" of a large-scale numerical simulation -- using the outcomes of the numerical simulation of a model on a super computer for training the neural network, so as to obtain the database -- input relevant constants and the corresponding numerical simulation outcomes can be obtained. In the case of CMB, a numerical simulation software calculating the energy spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, CAMB, is used to obtain data and train the neural network. Then the calculation of the trained neural network is compared and evaluated.

  • • Behind Quantum Mechanics

    • SPS13
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM
    • by Xing Guo,
    • Type: Poster
    • there

  • • Elementary Teachers Recognize and Support Sophisticated Energy Learning

    • SPS14
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM

    • by Sierra Decker,, Eric Bolander, Jocelyn Ferriera, Lane Seeley, Abigail Daane

    • Type: Poster
    • Focus on Energy (FOE) is a research and development project that aims to provide elementary students with opportunities for sophisticated science reasoning in the context of energy. FOE is a collaborative effort between researchers and teachers in Seattle and Boston. The project’s goal is to develop and use particular curricula and formative assessment resources to support elementary teachers in creating substantive and engaging energy learning opportunities for their students. This support is provided in various forms: intensive professional development during the summer, possible activities and supplies to use in their classrooms, and professional development in person and online during the school year. We have developed several forms of assessment to identify growth in teachers' content knowledge, knowledge of student ideas, and pedagogical content knowledge. In this presentation, we share some preliminary results that showcase the teachers’ work in thinking about energy and instruction.

  • • Exploring Physics Understanding of Urban English Language Learners??

    • SPS15
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM
    • by Alanna Blanchard,
    • Type: Poster
    • The purpose of this study is to explore factors influencing ESL student comprehension of physics concepts. ESL students are one of the fastest growing populations in K-12 education in the United States and best practices for content area teachers in addressing the needs of this population is an increasingly important research topic. This project was performed at the Quality of Life Learning Center in Erie, PA. Participants include a refugee based population of students in grades 10-12 attending the center. Data were gathered in both interview questionnaire and video form. Students attended classes after school taught by the researcher. These classes were followed by semi-structured interviews with the student’s aimed at illuminating the specific aspects of lessons and teaching techniques that improve conceptual understanding of key physics content topics from the lessons. Class assessment results was also analyzed to compare conceptual understanding across different teaching techniques.

  • • What Does “Virtual” Mean in the Virtual Displacement?

    • SPS16
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM
    • by Jixuan Hou,
    • Type: Poster
    • Virtual displacement is an important physical concept in physics. For exaggerating the role of the "non-reality in applications of the virtual displacement" we analyze how the virtual displacement is applied which can be divided into three steps: 1) for a given physical problem?the definition of virtual displacement of a variable is introduced; 2) the variation of a mathematical function along the change of the virtual displacement is given, which is not necessarily compatible with physics principles; 3) with imposing physical conditions on the mathematical function--the physics consequence is resulted.

  • • Implementing a Student Driven First-Year Mentoring Program

    • SPS17
    • Sun 07/23, 8:00PM - 10:00PM

    • by Patrick Carroll,, Sara Zanfardino, Jennifer Blue

    • Type: Poster
    • Many educational researchers in STEM fields strive to improve undergraduate retention while simultaneously improving quality of education. Last year at Miami University, 0.39% of all Bachelor degrees awarded were in physics, which is 24% lower than the national average of 0.51%. Many factors influence a student’s decision to continue pursuing a degree in physics after their first year of study. It was hypothesized that some major contributors to the decision-making process included misconceptions first-year students have regarding job opportunities post-graduation and feelings of isolation throughout the first two years of fulfilling degree requirements due to the nature of the course scheduling (i.e. there is little to no collaboration between underclassmen and upperclassmen or graduate students in freshman and sophomore academic courses). A mentor program, organized by upperclassmen and graduate student volunteers, was examined to determine its effect on these hypothesized factors and apprehensions.

• Teacher Training/Enhancement

  • • Graduate Teaching Assistants Use Different Criteria when Grading Introductory Physics vs. Quantum Mechanics Problems

    • PST2A01
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Emily Marshman,, Ryan Sayer, Charles Henderson, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • At large research universities, physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs)are often responsible for grading in courses at all levels. Given that grading can play a crucial role in student learning, it is important to understand how physics TAs grade student solutions. This study was designed to investigate whether physics graduate TAs grade students in introductory physics and quantum mechanics using different criteria and if so, why they may be inclined to do so. To investigate possible discrepancies in TAs’ grading approaches in courses at different levels, we implemented a sequence of instructional activities in a TA professional development course which asked TAs to grade student solutions of introductory physics and upper-level quantum mechanics problems and explain why, if at all, their grading approaches were different or similar in the two contexts. We analyzed the differences in TAs’ grading approaches in the two contexts and discuss the reasons they provided for the differences in their grading approaches in introductory physics and quantum mechanics in individual interviews, class discussions, and written responses. We find that there are differences in these two contexts and a majority of the TAs were significantly stricter in grading in quantum mechanics. Unlike the introductory physics context, in quantum mechanics, they penalized students for not showing evidence of understanding. The findings of this study have implications for the professional development of the TAs.

  • • Next Gen PET FOLC: An Online Faculty Community*

    • PST2A03
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM
    • by Edward Price,
    • Type: Poster
    • Participation in a professional community can help faculty improve their instruction, conduct classroom research, and study student thinking. The Next Generation Physical Science and Everyday Thinking Faculty Online Learning Community (Next Gen PET FOLC) is a community of faculty teaching physics or physical science courses for preservice elementary teachers using the Next Gen PET curricular materials. The community includes i) experts who can provide long-term support and promote reflection, ii) an internal structure of faculty clusters, and iii) supporting tools such as curricular materials and communication platforms. Participating faculty develop expertise through collaboration and knowledge generation. By providing structure and support, together with these high-quality, flexible curricular materials, Next Gen PET FOLC supports faculty development and far-reaching, sustainable educational transformation. This poster will describe the Next Gen PET FOLC, faculty activities, and initial outcomes.

  • • Sparking Curiosity: Physical Science for Elementary Teachers

    • PST2A05
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Wendy Adams,, Heather Taffe, Ansel Foxley, Kui Chen, Adrianne Larson

    • Type: Poster
    • PhysTEC support has allowed three new faculty members to adopt our research-based curriculum in the Physical Science Concepts for Elementary Teachers course at the University of Northern Colorado. This curriculum frames the material in contexts that students are personally interested in and uses several different interactive engagement techniques including Peer Instruction, Just in Time Teaching, and devotes nearly half the instructional time to hands on activities appropriate for the elementary classroom. In this poster we will share pre/post conceptual data as well as CLASS results for the course before and after this new curriculum. The new instructors are showing student normalized learning gains between 64% and 76% and their students’ personal interest in physics, as measured by the CLASS, increases between 6% and 22% as compared to decreasing by 13% when taught traditionally.

  • • A STEM Integration Program for K-12 Teachers*

    • PST2A07
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Jennifer Docktor,, Gubbi Sudhakaran, Jerry Redman, Josh Hertel, Mike LeDocq

    • Type: Poster
    • The "iTEAMS" project at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse provides professional development (PD) in Integrating Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics with Science to in-service middle school and high school teachers from high-needs school districts during summer institutes and ongoing weekend workshops. The PD is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and is designed to include engineering and robotics projects. We will summarize activities and findings from the first year of the PD and describe future plans.

  • • Exploring One Aspect of Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Physics Instructors and Teaching Assistants* Using the Force Concept Inventory*

    • PST2A09
    • Tue 07/25, 5:00PM - 5:45PM

    • by Alexandru Maries,, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) has been widely used to assess student understanding of introductory mechanics concepts by a variety of educators and physics education researchers. One reason for this extensive use is that many of the items on the FCI have strong distractor choices that correspond to students’ alternate conceptions in mechanics. Instruction is unlikely to be effective if instructors do not know the common alternate conceptions of introductory physics students and explicitly take into account students’ initial knowledge state in their instructional design. Here, we discuss research involving the FCI to evaluate one aspect of the pedagogical content knowledge of both instructors and teaching assistants (TAs): knowledge of introductory student difficulties related to mechanics as they are revealed by the FCI. We used the FCI to design a task for instructors and TAs that would provide information about their knowledge of common student difficulties and used FCI pre-test and post-test data from a large population (~900) of introductory physics students to assess this aspect of pedagogical content knowledge of physics instructors and TAs. We find that while both physics instructors and TAs, on average, performed better than random guessing at identifying introductory students’ difficulties with FCI content, they did not identify many common difficulties that introductory physics students have, even after traditional instruction. Moreover, the ability to correctly identify students’ difficulties was not correlated with the teaching experience of the physics instructors or the background of the TAs. *Work supported by the National Science Foundation

  • • Infusing Argumentation in an Integrated Unit for Future Elementary Teachers

    • PST2A02
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Carina Rebello,, Yuri Piedrahita Uruena, Chandan Dasgupta, N. Sanjay Rebello

    • Type: Poster
    • The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) and sciencestandards of many states emphasize meaningful integration of practices of engineering and engineering design in K-12 science instruction. Scientific argumentation has been highlighted in NGSS as one of the key science and engineering practices. Most current courses that prepare K-12 teachers do not include integrated experiences and/or argumentation for learning science. We describe an integrated instructional unit that infuses argumentation while learning heat transfer in the context of an engineering design challenge in a physics course for future elementary teachers. We will describe the underlying framework and challenges of implementation. We also discuss the impact on student learning and refinement of their design. The project supports of one of the central goals of the Center for Advancing the Teaching and Learning of STEM (CATALYST) at Purdue University to positively impact the integration of STEM teaching and learning in K-12 classrooms.

  • • Next Gen PET: An NGSS-Aligned Curriculum for Preservice Elementary Teachers

    • PST2A04
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM
    • by Fred Goldberg,
    • Type: Poster
    • Next Generation Physical Science and Everyday Thinking (Next Gen PET) (1) is a research-based, guided inquiry curriculum for preservice and inservice elementary teachers, designed to provide students with learning experiences aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. Versions are available for either small or large enrollments, and covering either physics or physical science content. An extensive online instructor's guide (2) includes student and instructor materials, homework activities, videos of experiments and demonstrations, classroom video clips of student interactions, test banks, etc. An associated online faculty learning community (3) provides an opportunity for faculty to collaboratively improve their instruction, study student thinking and conduct classroom-based research using the Next Gen PET curriculum. This poster will describe the curriculum, instructor resources, student learning outcomes, and online faculty community.

  • • A Pre-service Teacher Education Project: Developing and Teaching IOLab Activities

    • PST2A06
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Rebecca Rosenblatt,, Raymond Zich

    • Type: Poster
    • This study investigated the impact of a new lab design project on pre-service teacher preparation. Students enrolled in Illinois State University’s junior level physics technology and teaching course completed a five-week lab design project. This project had them build a lab that would teach Newton’s laws using IOLab technology. The project guided the pre-service teachers through the major steps of curriculum design and culminated in their teaching the labs they created in a general education physics course. We will present a brief summary of TPACK and the basic education theory behind this project, the development stages for the project, the difficulties encountered in implementing this class project, summaries of the labs created by the pre-service teachers, the learning gains and survey results from the general education students who did the labs, and reflections on the project as a whole for teacher preparation.

  • • Closing the STEM Skills Gap with Guitars

    • PST2A08
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Debbie French,, Sean Hauze, Tom Singer, Richard French, Doug Hunt

    • Type: Poster
    • Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs are expectedto grow at a rate of three times that of STEM jobs, resulting in a deficit of 3 million STEM graduates by 2018. Approximately two-thirds of manufacturing companies report a shortage of workers with 21st century STEM skills. This deficit of qualified workers is known as the skills gap. Additionally, teachers are being called upon to implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) which incorporate science and engineering practices in the K12 science curriculum. This preliminary quantitative study with supporting qualitative data explored K16 STEM teachers’ perceptions of their own STEM skills and the skills they are incorporating in their classes before and after a week-long professional development opportunity using the manufacture of an electric guitar as a vehicle to teach STEM. Particular emphasis will be placed on STEM skills within high school physics courses.

  • • Exploring One Aspect of Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Teaching Assistants Using the Test of Understanding Graphs in Kinematics*

    • PST2A10
    • Tue 07/25, 5:45PM - 6:30PM

    • by Alexandru Maries,, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • The Test of Understanding Graphs in Kinematics (TUG-K) is a multiple choice test developed by Beichner in 1994 to assess students’ understanding of kinematics graphs. Many of the items on the TUG-K have strong distractor choices which correspond to students’ common difficulties with kinematics graphs. We evaluate one aspect of the pedagogical content knowledge of first year physics graduate students enrolled in a teaching assistant (TA) training course related to topics covered in the TUG-K. We used the TUG-K to design a task forTAs that would provide information about their knowledge of common student difficulties and used the TA data and the data from Beichner’s original paper for introductory physics students (which was collected from over 500 college and high-school students) to assess this aspect of the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of the graduate students, i.e., knowledge of student difficulties related to kinematics graphs as they are revealed by the TUG-K. We find that, although the graduate students, on average, performed better than random guessing at identifying introductory student difficulties on the TUG-K, they did not identify many common difficulties that introductory students have with graphs in kinematics. In addition, we find that the ability of graduate students to identify the difficulties of introductory students is context dependent and that discussions among the graduate students improved their understanding of student difficulties related to kinematics graphs. Moreover, we find that the ability of American graduate students in identifying common student difficulties is comparable with that of foreign graduate students.

• Technologies

  • • iPad Video Projects in Introductory Physics Courses

    • PST1D01
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Dan MacIsaac,, Andrew Roberts, David Roberts, Brad Gearhart, Kathleen Falconer

    • Type: Poster
    • We present and discuss the use of short for-credit iPad video projects in introductory physics classes for freshman non-majors and HS physics students. We present guidelines for instructors and students, common video tools and techniques, classroom management strategies, grading and lessons learned.

  • • Position and Velocity vs. Time Graphs with Arduino

    • PST1D03
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM
    • by Nathan Quarderer,
    • Type: Poster
    • In response to recent pushes for integration of STEM (technology, engineering, and mathematics) into the science curriculum, coupled with growing momentum behind the ‘maker’ movement, I have been inspired to re-think the way I approach activities in my introductory physics classroom. The widely available Arduino microcontroller provides an inexpensive means of infusing traditional physics lessons with a hint of STEM, giving students the opportunity to build their own data acquisition devices. I will demonstrate one example of how I’m using these ideas with my classes, during a unit on one-dimensional motion. Students build and program a motion detector, and then use it to obtain information about how their position, and velocities change with time. These data are exported from Arduino, and represented graphically using Excel. While this may take longer than traditional techniques reliant on the use of commercially available equipment, the time spent data wrangling has proven to be beneficial.

  • • We Want YOU for PICUP*

    • PST1D05
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Larry Engelhardt,, Marie Lopez del Puerto, Marcos Caballero, Norman Chonacky, Robert Hilborn

    • Type: Poster
    • There are exciting opportunities for you available from “PICUP” (the “Partnership for Integration of Computation into Undergraduate Physics”). These opportunities include week-long workshops during the summer, single-day workshops at national AAPT and APS meetings, and editable curricular materials that can be downloaded from the PICUP Collection of the ComPADRE Digital Library: www.compadre.org/PICUP. Do you already integrates computation into your courses? If so, you should submit your materials for publication in the PICUP Collection, which gives you the opportunity to both (1) contribute to the broader physics community, and (2) get some peer-reviewed publications in the process!

  • • Cycling Through R&D: Testing Usability of Next Generation Computer Coaches

    • PST1D09
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Emily Smith,, Evan Frodermann, Ken Heller, Leon Hsu, Jie Yang

    • Type: Poster
    • Problem solving is an important component of introductory physics. Using the internet to provide on-demand coaching for students taking this challenging course seems obvious, however, the development of such problem solving coaches is complicated. The C3PO project uses the well-established Deming R&D process to iteratively develop coaches in stages moving continuously between laboratory prototype and in situ testing. This poster focuses on in situ usability testing at two large research universities. Such testing is also in progress at a two-year college and a state university. This work was partially supported by NSF DUE-1504649 and a University of Minnesota Learning Innovations Grant.

  • • Using LASSO to Improve Your Teaching and Support Your Research

    • PST1D11
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Nancy Caravez,, Jayson Nissen, Angelica De La Torre, Daniel Caravez, Ben Van Dusen

    • Type: Poster
    • The Learning About Student Supported Outcomes (LASSO) platform is designedto support instructors and researchers interested in improving student learning. LASSO is an online tool (learningassistantalliance.org) that hosts, administers, scores, and analyzes a range of research-tested assessments across the STEM disciplines. For faculty, it provides a free and easy way to assess student learning without requiring class time or analytical effort. For researchers, it provides an easy method for collecting of data across classes and institutions. User feedback is always appreciated as new features continue to be developed and refined to better meet faculty needs.

  • • Peer Instruction Through Video Homework Assignments

    • PST1D02
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Artur Tsobanjan,
    • Type: Poster
    • Physics instructors are always looking for ways to actively engage students in and out of the classroom, as well as to provide them with opportunities to instruct each other. Assigning video presentations of solutions to problems as homework has helped me accomplish both goals in several college-level courses I have taught. This poster summarizes the implementation, results, and student responses to my use of this instructional tool. It also provides suggestions for other instructors wishing to use the same technique in their classroom.

  • • Using Two Simulation Tools to Teach Concepts in Introductory Astronomy

    • PST1D04
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Pamela Maher,, Janelle Bailey

    • Type: Poster
    • This poster describes design-based research examining affordances and constraints of two simulation tools for use in introductory college astronomy courses. We seek to understand the variety of experiences students have using two tools: a virtual reality headset and a motion sensor device used to manipulate a lunar flyby. The sample size of this mixed methods study is N = 65 participants drawn from two semesters of classes at a two year college. Each participant engaged in a treatment manipulating a lunar flyby using a virtual reality headset in the virtual reality laboratory and then manipulating a lunar flyby using a motion sensor device in the college planetarium. Data collected in post-treatment questionnaires using Likert-type scales and mini-interviews in focus group settings is are currently being analyzed for salient themes using horizontalization informed by a theoretical framework of phenomenography to identify the variety of participant experiences.

  • • A Workshop on Programming Sensors with Python

    • PST1D06
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Glenda Denicolo,, Michael Zingale

    • Type: Poster
    • During fall 2016 we implemented a pilot workshop at SCCC to train studentson programming sensors using the computer language Python. Our goal was to focus on the graphical interpretation of the data collected by the sensors, therefore we chose Python (in Jupyter notebooks) because it offers advantages for visualization of data over other languages. The sensors were controlled by an Arduino, which interpreted the code in Python via a StandardFirmata protocol. The workshop was free, and open to students of all disciplines during four weeks during common hour. The 20 participants learned basic aspect of Python, Arduino, and circuitry. Students worked with sensor for light, sound, pulse, and soil moisture. We plan to offer it again fall 2017, add more sensors to the list, expand the workshop schedule, and include group projects.

  • • Customizing Computer Coaches to Align with My Preferred Pedagogy

    • PST1D08
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Andrew Pawl,
    • Type: Poster
    • Since 2010 I have been struggling to get my students to use a structured approach to problem solving in mechanics: the “System, Interactions, Model” or “S.I.M.” strategy. One of the greatest difficulties is the fact that standard web-based homework systems are usually too limited to teach or even reinforce structured problem solving behavior among students. When I learned about the “C3PO” customizable computer coach software system developed in 2014 by the University of Minnesota Physics Education Research group*, I felt I had finally found a system that could be adapted to teach the SIM approach. Beginning in fall 2016 I have deployed 5 tailored computer coaches as part of the homework in my introductory mechanics courses. I will present what I learned from the process of customizing these coaches and how they have affected the performance of my students.

  • • HTML5 Simulations and a Virtual Lab on Radioactive Decay for Introductory Courses

    • PST1D10
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Steven Sahyun,
    • Type: Poster
    • This poster describes four HTML5 simulations and one virtual laboratory that have been created and made accessible on the Internet. Two of the simulations are Newton’s second law and Centripetal Force, and are regularly used to enhance instruction in a Physics and Everyday Thinking (PET) course. Two additional simulations* provide examples of relativity: a Minkowski space-time diagram that is used in an introductory physics course and a simulation on Lorentz contraction and time dilation that is used in a conceptual survey course called From Einstein to Star Trek. In addition, this poster will describe a virtual laboratory using streaming video and acquired decay data from several neutron-activated materials as well as video examples of other radioactive materials.

  • • OpenStax Tutor for College Physics

    • PST1D12
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Chadwick Young,
    • Type: Poster
    • OpenStax, a provider of open-source college textbooks, will soon roll out its Tutor system. OpenStax Tutor is an online education software designed to provide good pedagogical practices and help students to achieve mastery. I present my experience from piloting the software in a 100-student, algebra-based college physics course for life-science students.

• The Use of IOLab for Introductory Laboratory Reform

  • • Interference-Diffraction with the IOLAB

    • EF04
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Stephen Mecca,, Seth Ashman, Liam Reilly

    • Type: Poster
    • So many of the lessons of a traditional General Physics lab can be accomplished with experiments designed around the IOLAB. Yet some experiments, such as E-field mapping and physical optics, remain elusive challenges for the IOLAB. This station will demonstrate the use of the IOLAB for a simple interference/diffraction experiment of the type often carried out in a traditional General Physics lab. The lab is one of many being planned for a pilot project, known as Lab Without a Lab (LWL).

  • • Investigating Impulse and Momentum with the IOLab

    • EF05
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Shawn Weatherford,, Robert DeSerio

    • Type: Poster
    • Students enrolled in the University of Florida Online program complete a 100% online version of the first semester algebra-based introductory physics course incorporating hands-on remote data collection and analysis labs using the iOLab cart and software. Six of the 10 labs designed for this lab course utilize the data acquisition capabilities of the iOLab cart. This poster station demonstrates one of these lab activities, an investigation of the Impulse and Momentum Principle. Students connect different attachments to the onboard force sensor to collect data for impact forces while the embedded wheel sensor collects data for the cart's dynamics. Additionally, the poster will analyze student responses to questions posed using the iOLab software’s built-in lesson player and the asynchronous conversations within student groups using the course LMS.

  • • Investigating the Buoyant Force and Density Using the IOLab Device

    • EF06
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM
    • by Eric Mandell,
    • Type: Poster
    • Through the use of the IOLab Device, students are able to measure the weight of an object in air and the apparent weight of the same object, when immersed in another fluid. This allows for the determination of the buoyant force on the object, when submerged in the other fluid, as well as the object's volume and average density. Students are able to quickly apply this technique to discover the volume and average density of any object, and even use their results to determine the density of an unknown fluid. Through these investigations, students achieve a better understanding of the properties that lead to an object floating or sinking within a fluid, are better able to reflect on other class activities involving the buoyant force, and have worked with a procedure that can determine the volume and average density of any object.

  • • IOLab as a Versatile Platform for Prototype Development

    • EF07
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Yuan Yuan,, Min Ji, Yanyan Wen, Gan Qing, Yongkang Le

    • Type: Poster
    • Under strain, biomaterials exhibits viscoelasticity: at constant strain, the extension changes with time. Approaches developed for the measurement of Young’s modulus are no more applicable for the characterization of such behavior. Equipped with a variety of sensors for most quantities interested in physics lab courses, IOLab turns to be a versatile platform for prototype development. Here we report on the development of a teaching lab appropriate for the demonstration, as well as quantitative measurement, of the viscoelasticity in biomaterials, taking hair as the sample.

  • • IOLab Investigations Beyond Mechanics: Equipotential Lines & Lung Function Tests

    • EF08
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Abhilash Nair,, Vashti Sawtelle

    • Type: Poster
    • We present two IOLab investigations that utilize the expansion header pinsto take advantage of the IOLab's analog output and input. In one investigation, we demonstrate how two IOLab devices can be used as a battery and a voltmeter to conduct an investigation of equipotential lines. We show how an equipotential lines lab can be done inexpensively with non-technical off-the-shelf parts you would find in everyday-life. A second investigation uses a simple spirometer design to enable the IOLab to function as a biomedical device and conduct lung function tests. Many life-science students in the physics classroom have an interest in health professions, this activity builds on that interest by providing students an opportunity to interface with biomedical technology. We discuss how devices like the IOLab combined with simple designs can increase access to exciting and complex physics investigations.

  • • Kirchoff's Laws Using IOLab*

    • EF09
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Anthony Bassante,, Nicole Cronin, Thomas Hemmick, Aneta Iordanova, Chris Zangler-Scaduto

    • Type: Poster
    • Stony Brook University uses IOLab devices to provide an "online" or "at home" physics laboratory experience. This lab station will demonstrate the Kirchoff’s Laws lab that we developed. Students use a “kit” of small parts enabling the full suite of labs to be performed. For this lab, they require a small breadboard, hookup wire, a battery pack holding 3 AAA cells, and precision resistors including 4.7 kOhm, 10 kOhm, and 1 Ohm. The IOLab serves as a source of ~3.3 Volts and the battery pack as ~4.5 Volts. The circuit is wired once, placing 1 Ohm resistors in each leg where a current measurement is required. The “High Gain” input measures a differential voltage across 1 Ohm in the range +/- 1 mV (interpreted as +/- 1 mA). Current direction and value measurements are taken in pairs (reversing the leads) compensating for any offsets.

  • • The IOLab and Magnetic Field – Magnetic North Versus Actual Direction

    • EF12
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Trevor Volkwyn,*, John Airey, Bor Gregorcic, Filip Heijkenskjöld, Cedric Linder

    • Type: Poster
    • Most students will be familiar with the compass as a tool that points north. However, the compass only shows us one component—the terrestrial projection—of the Earth’s magnetic field. In contrast, the IOLab potentially gives students access to the actual direction of the field. We have designed an open-ended task in which pairs of students use the IOLab to determine the actual direction of the Earth’s magnetic field in a laboratory classroom. Without any prior instruction or step-by-step procedure to follow, students simultaneously coordinate a set of resources: speech (in groups; and with facilitator), interpretation of graphical readouts, physical manipulation of the IOLab and proprioception. By coordinating the resources available, the students in our study can be seen to quickly come to a moment of disciplinary insight, where they realize the true direction of the magnetic field.

  • • Using Resonance to Measure the Speed of Sound with IOLab*

    • EF14
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Thomas Hemmick,, Anthony Bassante, Nicole Cronin, Aneta Iordanova, Chris Zangler-Scaduto

    • Type: Poster
    • Stony Brook University uses IOLab devices to provide an "online" or "at home" physics laboratory experience. During the 2016 academic year, we taught a pilot class with 20 experiments. Starting in summer 2017, we will offer the IOLab based alternative to all SBU students. This lab station will demonstrate the speed of sound lab that we developed using a single IOLab device. The lab is simple. Students create a short tube using household materials (e.g. rolled up paper) and place the tube next to the IOLab microphone input. At the far end of the tube, they insert "ear buds" driven by their computer. A "tone generator" web site creates a frequency ramp that the students record. The data exhibits multiple maxima, the frequencies of which yield not only the tube’s fundamental, but coupled with the tube’s length produce an accurate measurement of the speed of sound.

  • • An Online Lab Section with IOLab and Remotely Operated Experiments

    • EF15
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Takashi Sato, Jillian Lang

    • Type: Poster
    • We report on a pilot offering of an online lab section of PHYS 1100, a one-semester preparatory level, algebra-based course with separate classroom and lab components at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada. During the winter 2017 semester, one lab section was designated “online,” which students took in conjunction with a regular, on-campus class. The lab activities consist of seven experiments based on the IOLab and two experiments that are remotely operated through the internet, using the RWSL facility in partnership with North Island College. Topics parallel those in the on-campus labs. Each lab is preceded by a pre-lab assignment designed to equip students with theory, orientation, and analysis tools required for the experiment. Student lab reports are heavily guided early in the semester but become progressively freer in format, with a corresponding progression in student expectations. Student outcomes and lessons learned for continued implementation will be discussed.

  • • An Online Standing Wave Lab Using the iOLab Device

    • EF16
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Nicole Cronin,, Thomas Hemmick, Anthony Bassante, Aneta Iordanova, Christopher Zangler-Scaduto

    • Type: Poster
    • At Stony Brook University, there has been an increased push in the development of online courses. For the past three years, the introductory physics lecture course has been successfully implemented online, but students are still required to physically be on campus for labs. With the help of the iOLab device developed at the University of Illinois, there is an effort to change this. A total of 20 labs were produced for both semesters of the two-course lab sequence, with a total of eight being unique to Stony Brook. A pilot class, with 30-40 students, was held for both lab courses, and was assessed through student surveys, focus groups and lab quizzes. Here, we specifically report on a standing wave lab using the iOLab device, motors, strings, and battery packs. By changing the tension in the string, students can change the number of nodes of the standing wave pattern. By reading out the tension in the string using the force probe for at least three different harmonics, students can find the frequency at which the motor vibrates. They can also use the Fast Fourier Transform function to find this frequency, which will enable the students to compare the two values. This lab not only enables students to better picture standing wave patterns, but it allows them to utilize and manipulate many equations pertaining to waves on a string and specifically standing waves.

  • • Benchmarking IOLab Against Other Sensors

    • EF17
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Ian Bearden,, Kristian á Brúnni, Alexander Tøt

    • Type: Poster
    • As part of an undergraduate research project, a group of our students (co-authors on this poster) have compared the IOLab to other sensors on the market. The comparisons include not only subjective measures such as perceived ease of use, but also detailed comparisons of resolutions and dynamic ranges of the various on board sensors. We will present the results of this project as well as demonstrate some of the testing procedures.

  • • Investigating Fluids with the IOLab

    • EF18
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Rebecca Lindell,, James Vesenka

    • Type: Poster
    • The wide range of sensors available on IOLab avail themselves to numerous fluid statics and dynamics guided-inquiry investigations. These activities are specifically catered to the large introductory physics for the life sciences (IPLS) audience. A suite of fluids activities has been designed for face-to-face as well as online/remote instruction that includes an inexpensive kit and common household items to supplement the IOLab data collection abilities. The guided inquiry approach is based on modeling instruction in which students investigate dependencies between measureable quantities such as force, pressure, position, and time in order to develop foundational fluids principles. Activities include the investigation of buoyancy, basic definition of pressure, ideal gas laws, hydrostatic and dynamic pressure.

  • • Rocking and Rolling the IOLab with an Easy Modification

    • EF19
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Katherine Ansell,, Mats Selen

    • Type: Poster
    • The IOLab device naturally lends itself to the study of many different topics in mechanics, but it is difficult to devise ways to use it to study rotational dynamics. By a fortunate coincidence, we have found an easy and inexpensive method to modify the device so it can roll about its y axis. In this session, we will show our modified IOLab setup and present a rotational dynamics experiment that we have used in our introductory laboratory classroom. We will also highlight interesting ways students can investigate the physics of this experimental system.

  • • LRC Circuit Resonance Inspected with the IOlab

    • EF20
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Christopher Zangler-Scaduto, Thomas Hemmick, Nicole Cronin, Anthony Bassante, Aneta Iordanova

    • Type: Poster
    • In this lab students drive a LRC circuit using a ramp frequency provided by a website and a pair of earbuds. The students construct multiple LC combinations (Series, Parallel, etc) to produce multiple resonant frequencies. The final plot is an expected frequency vs measured frequency. Students are guided through this process by instructional videos embedded in the IOLab interface. Students build the described circuit on their breadboard and measure the voltage as the frequency changes.

  • • LRC Resonance Measured Using IOLab*

    • EF21
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM

    • by Chris Zangler-Scaduto,, Anthony Bassante, Nicole Cronin, Thomas Hemmick, Aneta Iordanova

    • Type: Poster
    • Stony Brook University uses IOLab devices to provide an "online" or "at home" physics laboratory experience. This lab station will demonstrate the LRC Circuit lab that we developed. The digitization rate of the IOLab voltage input (100 Hz) is a bit slow for an AC lab, but the microphone input is not (4800 Hz). Using a 3.5mm jack extension cord and breadboard-compatible jacks, students intercept the audio output of their computer on a breadboard. Introducing LC in series with their ear buds makes a resonant RLC circuit with the ear buds taking the role of R. The circuit is driven by a frequency ramp defined by a web-based “tone generator”. Students to measure the resonant frequency for several choices of C, verifying not only the resonant condition, but also the formula for series and parallel equivalent capacitances.

  • • Using IOLab for Online Courses

    • EF22
    • Tue 07/25, 1:30PM - 3:30PM
    • by Christopher Ertl,
    • Type: Poster
    • I present my experience using IOLab devices with a first semester (Mechanics) online introductory physics course with lab. Students were given the option to do lab experiments with their IOLab devices at home or in a weekly in-person lab session. All students used IOLab devices for their experiments. I will perform demonstrations of some of my most successful lab experiments involving kinematics, friction, and torque. The poster portion will include example data collected by students, survey results of student satisfaction, and the plan to implement IOLab devices into a second semester introductory physics course with lab (Electricity & Magnetism).

• Upper Division and Graduate

  • • Web Apps for Wave Functions, Spins, and Entanglement

    • PST1C06
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15AM - 10:00PM
    • by Daniel Schroeder,
    • Type: Poster
    • As quantum pedagogy forges in new directions and Java applets fade into history, there is a growing need for modern web apps--written in HTML5 and JavaScript for use on both personal computers and mobile devices--to help students perform numerical calculations and visualize quantum phenomena. This poster will highlight new apps for building wave functions as superpositions of basis states; animating wave functions in one and two dimensions with color hues to represent phase; simulating two-particle interactions to show entangled wave functions; and linking simulated Stern-Gerlach devices to study incompatibility and interference in spin systems.

  • • Investigating Transfer of Learning in an Upper-Level Quantum Mechanics Course*

    • PST1C01
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Alexandru Maries,, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • Transfer of learning from one context to another is considered a hallmark of expertise. Physics education research has often found that students have great difficulty transferring learning from one context to another. We examine upper-level and graduate students’ facility with questions about the interference pattern in the double-slit experiment with single photons and polarizers in various orientations placed in front of one or both slits. Answering these questions correctly in the context of the double-slit experiment requires transferring learning about concepts from the context of a tutorial on Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) with single photons and polarizers in various paths of MZI. We discuss the extent to which students who worked through the MZI tutorial were able to transfer what they learned in that context to another context involving the double-slit experiment.

  • • Light, Imaging, Vision: An Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Course and New Textbook*

    • PST1C03
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM
    • by Philip Nelson,
    • Type: Poster
    • Students in physical and life science, and in engineering, need to know about the physics and biology of light. In the 21st century, it has become increasingly clear that the quantum nature of light is essential both for the latest imaging modalities and even to advance our knowledge of fundamental processes, such as photosynthesis and human vision. But many optics courses remain rooted in classical physics, with photons as an afterthought.\par I'll describe a new undergraduate course, for students in several science and engineering majors, that takes students from the rudiments of probability theory to modern methods like fluorescence imaging and Förster resonance energy transfer. After a digression into color vision, students then see how the Feynman principle explains the apparently wavelike phenomena associated to light, including applications like diffraction limit, subdiffraction imaging, total internal reflection and TIRF microscopy. Then we see how scientists documented the single-quantum sensitivity of the eye seven decades earlier than "ought" to have been possible, and finally close with the remarkable signaling cascade that delivers such outstanding performance. A new textbook, to be published in April 2017, allows others to replicate this course.

  • • Visualizing the Electromagnetic Field Tensor in Spacetime

    • PST1C05
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Roberto Salgado,, Tobias Nelson

    • Type: Poster
    • We describe how the electromagnetic field tensor can be visualized using apair of bivectors in spacetime. Using a geometric construction due to Baylis, we obtain the transformation formulas for the electric and magnetic fields in special relativity. We apply this idea to some simple configurations of the electromagnetic field, as viewed in different frames of reference.

  • • An Intermediate Course in Scientific Computing

    • PST1C07
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM
    • by Mark Rupright,
    • Type: Poster
    • I reflect on the first run of an undergraduate course in scientific computing for physics, mathematics, engineering, and chemistry majors. The course is designed to fit into the gap between introductory "how to use Matlab" and advanced numerical analysis courses, and provides necessary tools for using computing in advanced science and mathematics courses, as well as advanced undergraduate research. I will share experience and solicit ideas and feedback on the course design and implementation.

  • • Damped Oscillations of a Free Piston in a Gas-Filled Cylinder

    • PST1C09
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM
    • by Carl Mungan,
    • Type: Poster
    • If a cylinder is capped off by a sliding piston, we have a situation analogous to a mass on a spring. With suitable idealizations (hanging vertically in vacuum from a Hookean spring attached to a rigid support), the mass on the spring is undamped and it will oscillate forever if initially displaced from equilibrium. With other suitable idealizations (the piston has no friction with the cylinder, the gas is ideal with no viscosity or turbulence, there is vacuum on the other side of the piston, the piston and cylinder have zero thermal conductivity and heat capacity) will the piston similarly oscillate forever if initially displaced? No! Unlike the solid bonds inside a spring, the gas molecules are mobile and so the analog is not exact. In fact, the motion of a piston in a gas-filled cylinder is always damped [1]. However, the damping is weak and so the frequency of oscillation in a Ruchardt experiment closely approximates the undamped frequency.

  • • Development and Validation of a Conceptual Survey on the Formalism and Postulates of Quantum Mechanics

    • PST1C11
    • Mon 07/24, 8:30PM - 9:15PM

    • by Emily Marshman,, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • We discuss the development and validation of a conceptual survey about theformalism and postulates of quantum mechanics. The survey can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of various types of instructional approaches and pedagogies to help students learn quantum mechanics concepts tested in the survey such as properties of the states of a quantum system and their time-development, issues related to the measurement of observables, expectation values and their time dependence, Dirac notation and spin angular momentum. After the development and validation, the survey was administered to more than 350 students at six institutions. We find that undergraduate and graduate students have many common difficulties with these concepts and that research-based instructional strategies can significantly reduce these difficulties. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

  • • Learning Physical Biology via Modeling/Simulation: Undergraduate Course and Textbook*

    • PST1C02
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM
    • by Philip Nelson,
    • Type: Poster
    • Undergraduate life-science curricula remain largely rooted in descriptive approaches, even though much current research involves quantitative modeling. Not only does our pedagogy not reflect current reality; it also reinforces the silos that prevent students from connecting disciplines. I'll describe a course that has attracted undergraduates in several science and engineering majors. Students acquire research skills that are often not addressed in traditional undergraduate courses, using a general-purpose platform like MATLAB or Python. The combination of experimental data, modeling, and physical reasoning used in this course represents an entirely new mode of "how to learn" for most of the students. These basic skills are presented in the context of case studies from cell biology, specifically control theory and its applications to synthetic biology. Documented outcomes include student reports of improved ability to gain research positions as undergraduates, and greater effectiveness in such positions, as well as students enrolling in more challenging later courses than they would otherwise have chosen.

  • • Raising Physics to the Surface

    • PST1C04
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Elizabeth Gire,, Aaron Wangberg, Robyn Wangberg

    • Type: Poster
    • The Raising Physics to the Surface project is to develop student-centered activities with carefully engineered tools to help students develop rich, geometric understandings of physics. The tools include 3D, transparent, dry-erasable surfaces that represent functions of two variables, corresponding contours maps and gradient maps, and inclinometers for measuring slopes on a surface. At this early stage of the project, we are prototyping activities and tools for topics in mechanics, E&M and thermal physics courses. We present some of this preliminary work, including examples of activities and tools that represent physical systems that are relevant to physics instruction.

  • • Core Graduate Courses: A Missed Learning Opportunity?*

    • PST1C08
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Alexandru Maries,, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • An important goal of graduate physics core courses is to help students develop expertise in problem solving and improve their reasoning and meta-cognitive skills. We explore the conceptual difficulties of physics graduate students by administering conceptual problems on topics covered in undergraduate physics courses before and after instruction in related first year core graduate courses. Here, we focus on physics graduate students' difficulties manifested by their performance on two qualitative problems involving diagrammatic representation of vector fields. Some graduate students had great difficulty in recognizing whether the diagrams of the vector fields had divergence and/or curl but they had no difficulty computing the divergence and curl of the vector fields mathematically. We also conducted individual discussions with various faculty members who regularly teach first year graduate physics core courses about the goals of these courses and the performance of graduate students on the conceptual problems after related instruction in core courses.

  • • Developing an Interactive Tutorial on a Quantum Eraser

    • PST1C10
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Emily Marshman,, Chandralekha Singh

    • Type: Poster
    • We developed a quantum interactive learning tutorial (QuILT) on a quantum eraser for students in upper-level quantum mechanics. The QuILT exposes students to contemporary topics in quantum mechanics and uses a guided approach to learning. It adapts existing visualization tools to help students build physical intuition about quantum phenomena and strives to help them develop the ability to apply quantum principles in physical situations. The quantum eraser apparatus in the gedanken (thought) experiments and simulations that students learn from in the QuILT uses a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer with single photons. We also discuss findings from in-class evaluations. We thank the National Science Foundation for Support.

  • • Exploring Mathematical Sense-making in Quantum Mechanics

    • PST1C12
    • Mon 07/24, 9:15PM - 10:00PM

    • by Erin Ronayne Sohr,, Ayush Gupta

    • Type: Poster
    • Coordinating between mathematical formalism and the referent physical system is widely accepted as important in physics problem-solving, with mathematical sense-making being a type of such coordination. We use the term mathematical sense-making to mean coherence-seeking between the heart of the mathematics and the physical system, such as seeing the kinematics velocity equation as “saying” the final velocity is equal to the initial velocity plus the change in the initial velocity. Accounts of how mathematical sense-making can be useful in problem-solving have largely been limited to classical physics. We aim to extend the notion of mathematical sense-making to quantum mechanics. We draw on clinical interviews with physics graduate students to analyze how students with several semesters of experience seek coherence between a physical system and its associated mathematical formalism in quantum mechanics. We will present our preliminary analysis.

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