This paper is a proposal, project, and dissertation for Kenneth Johnson, Doctor of Philosophy degree in Science Education, in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa. I propose analyzing the writing assignment in an undergraduate online physics course offered by a small midwestern community college (CC). The goal is to study how Writing to…

This chapter describes the last 30 years of the engagement of community college faculty with one physics professional society. Plans are under development for establishing a National Center for Physics focused on two-year colleges.

Objective: Community colleges have considerable potential to grow the number of individuals who complete STEM baccalaureate degrees and to broaden access to educational opportunities in STEM. However, efforts to tap this potential have been hampered by nagging questions about whether community colleges prepare students adequately for advanced STEM…

In this study, conceptual and algebra-based physics students were engaged in scientific inquiry using Physics Education Technology (PhET) interactive simulations via semester-long group projects. The instructor and students used the Scientific Abilities Assessment Rubrics (SAAR) to evaluate project presentations and papers (formative assessment).…

Scientific expertise is manifested through extensive cycles of making and acting on decisions. To learn the processes and practices of science, therefore, students must have practice with scientific decision making. We argue that this can only happen if students are afforded agency: the opportunity to make decisions to pursue a goal. In this…

Physics educators keep adding many skill developments to science and engineering students during their education as individuals and groups including critical thinking, conceptual understanding, problem-solving, mathematical implementation, computational implementation, etc. Here, we are discussing how to reach and analyse students' outcomes within…

The PhD Plus 10 Study was the first-ever follow-up of mid-career physics PhD recipients. In 2011 individuals who graduated with a physics PhD from the classes of 1996, 1997, 2000, and 2001 in the United States were contacted. Of those who responded to the survey, 597 were employed in academia, 464 academic employees worked in physics or astronomy…

Curiosity is associated with cognitive development and learning. In fact, Piaget suggested that being curious is a prerequisite for knowledge construction. One way to increase curiosity is to put individuals in situations of uncertainty, so that they become motivated to seek knowledge of the unfamiliar. A teaching method that appears to do this…

Concept inventory (CI) tests are typically used to measure students' general knowledge before and after instruction. We find issue with the current format of these tests, which some researchers claim, measure students' misconceptions, since the answers choices given to students do not consider their prior knowledge. We particularly analyze Force…

Interdisciplinary education offers a collaborative approach to multifaceted topics, such as environmental sustainability. In this article, we present the conceptual framework and lessons learned from a team-taught course, entitled Sustainability, Energy, and the Green Economy (SEGE). Faculty from the departments of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology…

Is physics education research based on a representative sample of students? To answer this question we skimmed physics education research papers from three journals for the years 1970-2015 looking for the number of research subjects, the course the subjects were enrolled in, and the institution where the research was conducted. We combined this…

The relevance of the investigated problem is caused by the need for monitoring the impact of the Unified State Examination (USE) on the level of mathematical culture and the level of geometric literacy of applicants and students of modern engineering universities of Russia. The need to determine the position of Descriptive Geometry in the…

Physics lab instruction is evolving in response to changing technology, a desire to better prepare students for diverse careers, and renewed focus from physics education researchers. To prepare researchers to evaluate progress in instructional labs in the future, this study set out to understand the current state of instructional physics labs in…

Success in college is built upon classroom success, but success in the classroom does not in itself ensure college completion. Completion arises from success in a sequence of classes one after another over time. It does so most frequently when students are presented with coherent course pathways to degree completion, are able to gain degree credit…

Enrollments in physics courses at two-year colleges About 176,000 students were enrolled in various physics courses on two-year college (TYC) campuses during the 2011-12 academic year. This represents a 60% increase in enrollments since the 1995-96 academic year. Enrollments in conceptual physics courses more than doubled during this period, going…