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January 4–7, 2014
Monday afternoon
teachers over time? To what extent has the racial and gender profile of
physics teachers changed over time? To what extent have the age and
years’ of experience distributions change over time?
PST2B12: 9:15-10 p.m. Developing Master Physics Teacher
Leaders
Poster – Greg Rushton, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA
30144;
David Rosengrant, Kennesaw State University
This project is a five-year NSF-funded project to take area physics
(and chemistry) teachers who are excelling in the classroom and
to help transition them into Master Teachers. We define a Master
Teacher as someone who moves from being a consumer of education
resources to a producer or resource for others. We have a total of eight
physics and eight chemistry teachers participating in this project who
are resources at their school. However, our goal is to transform these
teachers into resources at a county, state or national level. For this
presentation, we will showcase our professional development model
(currently in second year), participants, calendar, goals and benefits
to the teachers. Furthermore, this presentation will highlight the
journey and lessons learned from the education faculty involved in
this project. For further information, please visit our website: http://
PST2B13: 9:15-10 p.m. Learning Assistant (LA) Program:
A Passage for High School Teacher Education and
Recruitment
Poster – Homeyra R. Sadaghiani, CalPoly Pomona, 3801 W. Temple
Ave., Pomona, CA 91768-2557;
Steve McCauley, Alex Rudolph, Cal Poly Pomona
Learning Assistant (LA) program is a mechanism for recruiting and
preparing physics majors for careers in teaching. Learning Assistants
(LAs) are talented undergraduates who work with faculty members to
make courses more collaborative, student-centered, and interactive.
Learning Assistant program provides potential future teachers with
strongly supported and low-stress early teaching experiences that
can encourage them to pursue teaching certification. In the process,
faculty use LAs to promote interaction and collaboration among stu-
dents enrolled in the course, which consequently improves the quality
undergraduate physics programs. We will report on our challenges
and achievements.
PST2B14: 9:15-10 p.m. Online Physics Problem Solving
Frameworks: High School and University-level
Implementation*
Poster – Andrew J. Mason, University of Central Arkansas, Lewis Sci-
ence Center, AR 72035-0001;
Mishal Benson, University of Central Arkansas
At the University of Central Arkansas we are currently investigating
implementations of computer coaches developed at the University
of Minnesota, Twin Cities for calculus-based physics. The modules
are designed to use cognitive apprenticeships to coach the decision-
making process required to develop a problem-solving framework. As
such, there exists a potential to apply the modules towards additional
learning environments, e.g. a pre-college environment. We describe
the considerations needed in implementation between that of a
university-level physics course and a high school physics classroom. A
sampling of local area high school physics teachers teaching different
levels of physics were surveyed during the summer and fall of 2013
about the utility of algebra-based coaching modules in their class-
room, as well as for teacher-training purposes. We categorize their
statements and compare to the prescribed use of the original calculus-
based modules for an introductory university-level course.
*The work is in collaboration with work by L. Hsu, K. Heller, Q. Ryan, and E.
Frodermann at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
PST2B15: 8:30-9:15 p.m. STEM Institutes for High School
Teachers
Poster – Jennifer Blue, Miami University, Department of Physics, Ox-
ford, OH 45056;
For three years, Sinclair Community College has run STEM Institutes
for high school teachers out of their Courseview campus in Mason,
OH. The teachers attend the Institute for two weeks in their first
summer; in week one, they are pushed into considering inquiry-based
pedagogy as they practice lessons in science, math, and engineer-
ing, and in week two, they write and present their own multi-day
lessons. In the following school year, many of them participate in an
iDiscovery online course
), in which they con-
tinue their discussions about active, inquiry-based teaching. In their
second summer, they have a job shadowing program in which they
are placed in local teach businesses and hospitals. Results of teacher
surveys about the program will be shared, as well as an evaluation
of the lesson modules the teachers created during the Institute. This
work is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant
No. DUE-1003048.
PST2B16: 9:15-10 p.m. High Altitude Balloon Missions
Poster – Joel C. Berlinghieri, The Citadel, Physics Department, Charles-
ton, SC 29409;
Weather balloons can be used to raise small instrument packages to
high altitudes. The instruments flown on these balloons can be used
to measure atmospheric properties (temperature, pressure, etc.), mea-
sure radiation (cosmic rays, light scattering, etc.), and record stunning
pictures (Earth, its curvature, etc.) among other flight projects. With
a grant from Google and support from our STEM Center we are
establishing a program that involves high school teachers and their
students. High school teams propose, design, and build instrument
packages which, with the help of our faculty and physics undergradu-
ates, are launched, tracked, recovered, and analyzed by these teams.
PST2B17: 8:30-9:15 p.m. A Standard Model Poster for the
Classroom
Poster – Cristina Brazzelli, William Floyd High School, Mastic Beach,
NY 11951;
Joanne Schwager, Farmingdale High School
Tom Tomaszewski, Shoreham-Wading River High School
Gillian Winters, Smithtown East High School
Harry Stuckey, Stonybrook University
A Standard Model poster for the classroom is presented. This poster
summarizes what we know today about the building blocks of matter
and how they interact with the Higgs boson. On a single poster we
have displayed the various components of matter: quarks, leptons,
gauge bosons, along with Feynman diagrams to help explain vari-
ous observed phenomena. Included on either side of the chart are
examples of baryons and mesons.
Physics Education Research Posters 2
PST2C01: 8:30-9:15 p.m. Peer Evaluations of Video Lab
Reports by Introductory Physics Students
Poster – Shih-Yin Lin, Georgia Institute of Technology, GA 30332-0002;
John M. Aiken, Scott Douglas, Michael F. Schatz, Georgia Institute of
Technology
Marcos D. Caballero, Michigan State University
Assessing student performance becomes challenging when course
enrollment becomes very large (~10^5 students). As part of an
introductory physics Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) offered
by Georgia Institute of Technology, students submit video reports on
force and motion labs. Peer evaluation of reports provides the primary
method for evaluating student laboratory work. This paper describes
the methods developed and used to guide students in evaluating each
