arXiv subjects

Gayle Geschwind

Publications and source records attributed to Gayle Geschwind.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Integrating noise into PhET simulations to promote student learning of measurement uncertainty

Understanding concepts and practices of measurement uncertainty is a core competency of physicists and engineers, and many physics lab courses aim to have students learn these ideas. However, there is strong evidence that these goals are often not met. To address the challenge of improving students' proficiency with measurement uncertainty concepts and practices, we designed and developed a new PhET simulation, Projectile Data Lab (PDL), featuring statistical noise and measurement tools in the context of projectile motion. We integrated this simulation into the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP), creating an instructional platform for collecting and analyzing data from the simulation, and designed three simulation-based instructional activities for instructors to use in their lab courses. We describe the pedagogical design of the new simulation, the PDL+CODAP instructional platform, and the associated instructional activities. We highlight how the targeted learning goals guided the pedagogical design, as well as how these three instructional tools (the simulation, the PDL+CODAP platform, and the lab activity) work together and leverage the affordances of each to scaffold learning. The goal of this work is to provide a model of how noise-enhanced simulations and activities can be designed to enhance student learning of measurement uncertainty.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2024

Development of a global landscape of undergraduate physics laboratory courses

Physics Education Research (PER) is a global endeavour, with a wealth of work performed at a variety of institutions worldwide. However, results from research into undergraduate physics laboratory courses is often difficult to compare due to the broad variations in courses. We have created a survey to help classify these courses to compare and contrast them, which will be useful in two key endeavours: comparisons between PER studies and providing useful data for individual instructors hoping to improve their courses, thus providing information relevant to both researchers and instructors. While we are still in the process of collecting sufficient data to create a full taxonomy of laboratory courses, we present here details of the survey creation itself, as well as a first look at the data collected, which includes a broad landscape of lab courses in 41 countries. We used both quantitative and qualitative methods in analyzing the data collected. Some of these results include similarities between courses, such as students often using pre-constructed apparatuses and that instructors hope for students to learn technical skills. We also find differences in courses, such as in the number and types of goals of the course, as well as the activities students participate in.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2023

Representational differences in how students compare measurements

Measurement uncertainty plays a critical role in the process of experimental physics. It is useful to be able to assess student proficiency around the topic to iteratively improve instruction and student learning. For the topic of measurement uncertainty, we developed an assessment tool called the Survey of Physics Reasoning on Uncertainty Concepts in Experiments (SPRUCE), which aims to assess students' knowledge, and use of, a variety of concepts related to measurement uncertainty. This assessment includes two isomorphic questions focused on comparing two measurements with uncertainty. One is presented numerically and the other pictorially. Despite the questions probing identical concepts, students answer them in different ways, indicating that they rely on distinct modes of representation to make sense of measurement uncertainty and comparisons. Specifically, students score much higher on the pictorially represented item, which suggests possible instructional changes to leverage students' use of representations while working with concepts of measurement uncertainty.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2023

Overview of couplet scoring in content-focused physics assessments

Content-focused research-based assessment instruments typically use items (i.e., questions) as the unit of assessment for scoring, reporting, and validation. Couplet scoring employs an alternative unit of assessment called a couplet, which is essentially an item viewed and scored through the lens of a specific assessment objective. With couplet scoring, a single item may have more than one assessment objective and therefore more than one couplet and thus more than one score. We outline the components of traditional item scoring, discuss couplet scoring and its benefits, and use both a recently developed content research-based assessment instrument and an existing one to ground our discussion.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2023

Survey of physics reasoning on uncertainty concepts in experiments: an assessment of measurement uncertainty for introductory physics labs

Measurement uncertainty is a critical feature of experimental research in the physical sciences, and the concepts and practices surrounding measurement uncertainty are important components of physics lab courses. However, there has not been a broadly applicable, research-based assessment tool that allows physics instructors to easily measure students' knowledge of measurement uncertainty concepts and practices. To address this need, we employed Evidence-Centered Design to create the Survey of Physics Reasoning on Uncertainty Concepts in Experiments (SPRUCE). SPRUCE is a pre-post assessment instrument intended for use in introductory (first- and second-year) physics lab courses to help instructors and researchers identify student strengths and challenges with measurement uncertainty. In this paper, we discuss the development of SPRUCE's assessment items guided by Evidence-Centered Design, focusing on how instructors' and researchers' assessment priorities were incorporated into the assessment items and how students' reasoning from pilot testing informed decisions around item answer options. We also present an example of some of the feedback an instructor would receive after implementing SPRUCE in a pre-post fashion, along with a brief discussion of how that feedback could be interpreted and acted upon.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2018

Combined computational and experimental investigation of the La-Cu-S-O quaternary system

The lack of a mechanistic framework for chemical reactions forming inorganic extended solids presents a challenge to accelerated materials discovery. We demonstrate here a combined computational and experimental methodology to tackle this problem, in which in situ X-ray diffraction measurements monitor solid state reactions and deduce reaction pathways, while theoretical computations rationalize reaction energetics. The method has been applied to the La-Cu-S-O quaternary system, following an earlier prediction that enhanced superconductivity could be found in these of new lanthanum copper(II) oxysulfide compounds. In situ diffraction measurements show that reactants containing Cu(II) and S(2-) ions undergo redox reactions, leaving their ions in oxidation states that are incompatible with forming the desired new compounds. Computations of the reaction energies confirm that the observed synthetic pathways are indeed favored over those that would hypothetically form the suggested compounds. The consistency between computation and experiment in the La-Cu-S-O system suggests a new role for predictive theory: to identify and to explicate new synthetic routes for forming predicted compounds.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗