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1. Bringing exploratory learning online: Problem-solving before instruction improves remote undergraduate physics learning

   https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1215975  

   DeCaro, Marci S; Isaacs, Raina A; Bego, Campbell R; Chastain, Raymond J (August 2023, Frontiers in Education)

   STEM undergraduate instructors teaching remote courses often use traditional lecture-based instruction, despite evidence that active learning methods improve student engagement and learning outcomes. One simple way to use active learning online is to incorporate exploratory learning. In exploratory learning, students explore a novel activity (e.g., problem solving) before a lecture on the underlying concepts and procedures. This method has been shown to improve learning outcomes during in-person courses, without requiring the entire course to be restructured. The current study examined whether the benefits of exploratory learning extend to a remote undergraduate physics lesson, taught synchronously online. Undergraduate physics students (N = 78) completed a physics problem-solving activity either before instruction (explore-first condition) or after (instruct-first condition). Students then completed a learning assessment of the problem-solving procedures and underlying concepts. Despite lower accuracy on the learning activity, students in the explore-first condition demonstrated better understanding on the assessment, compared to students in the instruct-first condition. This finding suggests that exploratory learning can serve as productive failure in online courses, challenging students but improving learning, compared to the more widely-used lecture-then-practice method. 

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2. Electrostatic potential of a uniformly charged annulus

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6404/ad2cf6  

   Ciftja, Orion; Bentley_Jr, Cleo L (March 2024, European Journal of Physics)

   Abstract The calculation of the electrostatic potential and/or electrostatic field due to a continuous distribution of charge is a well-covered topic in all calculus-based undergraduate physics courses. The most common approach is to consider bodies with uniform charge distribution and obtain the quantity of interest by integrating over the contributions from all the differential charges. The examples of a uniformly charged disk and ring are prominent in many physics textbooks since they illustrate well this technique at least for special points or directions of symmetry where the calculations are relatively simple. Surprisingly, the case of a uniformly charged annulus, namely, an annular disk, is largely absent from the literature. One might speculate that a uniformly charged annulus is not extremely interesting since after all, it is a uniformly charged disk with a central circular hole. However, we show in this work that the electrostatic potential created by a uniformly charged annulus has features that are much more interesting than one might have expected. A uniformly charged annulus interpolates between a uniformly charged disk and ring. However, the results of this work suggest that a uniformly charged annulus has such electrostatic features that may be essentially viewed as ring-like. The ring-like characteristics of the electrostatic potential of a uniformly charged annulus are evident as soon as a hole is present no matter how small the hole might be. The solution of this problem allows us to draw attention to the pedagogical aspects of this overlooked, but very interesting case study in electrostatics. In our opinion, the problem of a uniformly charged annulus and its electrostatic properties deserves to be treated at more depth in all calculus-based undergraduate physics courses covering electricity and magnetism. 

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3. Decision making in graduate physics coursework: What is being assessed versus what is expected

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.21.010148  

   Robbins, Michael E; Davis, Nathan D; Burkholder, Eric W (May 2025, Physical Review Physics Education Research)

   There is currently little physics education literature examining thinking and learning in graduate education and even less literature characterizing problem solving among physics graduate students despite this being an essential professional skill for physicists. Given reports of discrepancies between physics problem solving in the undergraduate classroom and “real-world” problem solving, we sought to investigate whether this discrepancy exists at the graduate level. We first investigate the problem-solving skills present in first-year graduate physics assignments. A recent framework that characterizes problem solving as decisions-to-be-made was used. Assignments were taken from the four core courses of one academic year at one research-intensive university and coded by two researchers. We found that only 4 of the 29 decisions in the framework were present in most of the assignments. We then interviewed 11 instructors from 3 universities and asked which decisions they expected of first-year graduate students. Eleven decisions were expected by eight or more of the participants, but only four of these decisions were commonly practiced on assignments. Therefore, there seems to be a mismatch between instructor expectations and practice of problem solving on assignments. This suggests that graduate physics courses may not be aligned with the problem-solving skills that physics graduate students will need in their research or future careers. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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4. Quantitative Analysis of Self-Regulation in Engineering and Mathematics Education

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--44005  

   Lawanto, Oenardi; Minichiello, Angela; Ul_Abideen, Zain; Naqash, Talha; Iqbal, Assad (June 2023, American Society for Engineering Education)

   This paper shares the initial findings of a three-year research project. Quantitative methods were used to develop coarse-grained understandings of undergraduate students’ self-regulation of cognition (SRC) and self-regulation of motivation (SRM) during academic problem-solving activities in two undergraduate engineering and mathematics (EM) courses. Two research questions were constructed to guide this study: (1) How are SRC and SRM strategies related to each other while solving EM problems?; and (2) How do students perceive their SRC and SRM strategies for problem-solving activities in EM courses? Two 2nd year EM courses, Engineering Statics and Ordinary Differential Equations, were purposefully selected as the contexts of the study. There were a combined total of 142 students (120 male and 20 female), across both courses, that participated in quantitative data collection using two validated surveys during spring 2022. Quantitative data were collected using two selfreport surveys: Brief Regulation of Motivation Scale (BRoMS), and the Physics Metacognitive Inventory (PMI). Although PMI was initially designed for Physics, it can be used to assess students’ metacognition for problem solving in other knowledge domains by simply revising the word “physics” to another domain knowledge. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted to analyze the collected quantitative data. During data analysis we found: (1) a significant relationship between students’ strategies to selfregulate their cognition and motivation during EM problem-solving activities; (2) no significant difference between male and female’s self-regulation of cognition (SRC) and self-regulation of motivation (SRM); (3) no significant difference of SRM between students who engaged in Engineering Statics and Ordinary Differential Equation problem-solving activities; and (4) a significant difference of reported strategies in interpreting problem and evaluating strategies between those who engaged in Engineering Statics and Ordinary Differential Equation problemsolving activities. Participants reported using certain SRM strategies, such as “If I need to, I have ways of convincing myself to keep working on a tough assignment” more frequently than other strategies during problem solving. 

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5. Promoting Computational Thinking in Integrated Engineering Design and Physics Labs

   Lopez-Parra, R. D.; Subramaniam, R. C.; Morphew, J. W. (January 2023, ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings)

   Computational thinking has widely been recognized as a crucial skill for engineers engaged in problem-solving. Multidisciplinary learning environments such as integrated STEM courses are powerful spaces where computational thinking skills can be cultivated. However, it is not clear the best ways to integrate computational thinking instruction or how students develop computational thinking in those spaces. Thus, we wonder: To what extent does engaging students in integrated engineering design and physics labs impact their development of computational thinking? We have incorporated engineering design within a traditional introductory calculus-based physics lab to promote students’ conceptual understanding of physics while fostering scientific inquiry, mathematical modeling, engineering design, and computational thinking. Using a generic qualitative research approach, we explored the development of computational thinking for six teams when completing an engineering design challenge to propose an algorithm to remotely control an autonomous guided vehicle throughout a warehouse. Across five consecutive lab sessions, teams represented their algorithms using a flowchart, completing four iterations of their initial flowchart. 24 flowcharts were open coded for evidence of four computational thinking facets: decomposition, abstraction, algorithms, and debugging. Our results suggest that students’ initial flowcharts focused on decomposing the problem and abstracting aspects that teams initially found to be more relevant. After each iteration, teams refined their flowcharts using pattern recognition, algorithm design, efficiency, and debugging. The teams would benefit from having more feedback about their understanding of the problem, the relevant physics concepts, and the logic and efficiency of the flowcharts 

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