Physics Education Research Laboratory - PERL

Congrats to PERL Professor Vashti Sawtelle on being the recipient of the Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year award!

‘The highest dedication’ -- MSU’s Sawtelle earns Distinguished Professor of the Year Award “Her contributions and expertise are assets to MSU, to the field of physics and physics education, and to higher education writ large.”

Congratulations to Brean Prefontaine, Katie Hinko, and collaborators on the publication "Informal physics programs as communities of practice: How can programs support university students’ identities?"

Informal physics programs as communities of practice: How can programs support university students' identities? Involving physics students in public engagement with local communities contributes positively to their physics identity development.

There is another PER seminar this week! We'll be welcoming Dr. Tra Huynh at 3pm EST Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021 for her talk Physics Educators’ Equity Framings Beyond Access and Achievement. More details & how to join https://perl.natsci.msu.edu/news-events/events/

Can you believe the next PER seminar is right around the corner? We'll be welcoming Dr. Eric Kuo at 3pm EST today for his talk Recognizing the Role of Conceptual/Mathematical Coherence in Problem-Solving Expertise. More details & how to join https://perl.natsci.msu.edu/news-events/events/

As part of a collaboration with CU-Boulder, PERL Professor Katie Hinko and research associate Dena Izadi published a paper, "Challenges and opportunities for informal physics learning in the COVID era" Paper available at https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.023102
Congrats!

Challenges and opportunities for informal physics learning in the COVID era Informal physics education programs that successfully adapted during COVID-19 have institutional flexibility and strong, ongoing support.

PERL professor Katie Hinko and research associate Dena Izadi contributed with CU-Boulder to an opinion piece in Physics Magazine. "It’s Time to Act on Supporting Public Engagement" is available at

It’s Time to Act on Supporting Public Engagement The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a systemic lack of support for the public-engagement programs of physics departments, a trend that the physics community should act to correct.

As part of a multi-institution collaboration, PERL Professor Danny Caballero submitted a paper, "A Framework for Evaluating Statistical Models in Physics Education Research." Preprint available at https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.11038
Congrats!

A Framework for Evaluating Statistical Models in Physics Education Research Across the field of education research there has been an increased focus on the development, critique, and evaluation of statistical methods and data usage due to recently created, very large data sets and machine learning techniques. In physics education research (PER), this increased focus has rec...

PERL grad student Bryan Stanley and MSU physicist Prof. Huey-Wen Lin have teamed up to create a new podcast called My Journey as a Physicist!

What is life as a physicist is like? It is a little bit different for everyone. On each episode, a different physicist discusses their research, what go them interested in physics, obstacles they overcame, and what a typical day as a physicist looks like. They also provide tips and suggestions for students who may be interested in studying physics and becoming physicists. Physicists are people with lives outside of the lab too! Guests share about their interests and hobbies outside of research. Be sure to listen if you are interested in becoming a physicist too!

The first episode is with Prof. Christopher Aubin (he/him/his), an Associate Professor of Physics at Fordham University. He is the "Cooking in LQCD — Flavor physics on the lattice" Instructor for the INT Summer School on Problem Solving in Lattice QCD.
"I am a gay physicist who loves (rescue) dogs and boardgames. A lot of my work is focused on analyzing systematic errors associated with lattice calculations as well as getting undergraduates involved in this research. I enjoy the ability to add to the body of knowledge in the world to assist even in the smallest way to understanding this universe just a little bit more. By teaching virtually I was able to spend six weeks with my family during the spring (the peak of the outbreak in NYC) during a difficult time when otherwise I couldn't have done so — while still not a great time, it was better because of COVID."

Be sure to listen to My Journey as a Physicist at https://anchor.fm/myjourneyasaphysicist, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever else you get podcasts!

Congratulations to Dan, Theo, Danny, and Paul on the submission of their paper "Developing a learning goal framework for computational thinking in computationally integrated physics classrooms"! Preprint available at

Developing a learning goal framework for computational thinking in computationally integrated physics classrooms Computational thinking has been a recent focus of education research within the sciences. However, there is a dearth of scholarly literature on how best to teach and to assess this topic, especially in disciplinary science courses. Physics classes with computation integrated into the curriculum are....

Be sure to check out PERL Professor Vashti Sawtelle's recent appearance on the KSMU STEM SPOTS podcast. You can listen to her episode, Physics and the Big Tent, about working on methods and practices where physics can become more inclusive through the link below:

STEM Spots: Physics And The Big Tent Over the last few decades, it has become apparent that, although the university as a whole has become more diverse, specific disciplines such as physics

Farewell and congratulations to PERL postdoc Dan Weller who joins Saginaw Valley State University as a physics instructor today! It's been a pleasure working with you and we wish you all the best!

PERL grad student, WAMPS outreach coordinator, and host of the Journeys of Scientists podcast, Bryan Stanley will be one of the panelists for the The The Sci-Files Podcast Panel on Saturday, April 10, at 3:30pm ET as part of the MSU Science Festival. Check it out at https://msu.zoom.us/j/98991180106