Physics Education Research at CU-Boulder
News & Announcements
CU Wins National Award
Researchers from education and science deparments have won one of twelve ($2.4M) awards from the National Math & Science Initiative
Wieman Featured in AP News
A popular piece on the efforts at CU, UBC and elsewhere to transform large enrollment science courses
PhET winsScience 2007 Visualization Challenge
The Physics Education Technology Project wins First Place in Science Magazines 2007 Visualization Challenge
PER Group Featured in Science Magazine
"The goals of the Physics Education Research (PER) group at the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU-B), are as big and bold as the Rocky Mountains that loom over the campus..." writes Science editor Jeff Mervis
Finkelstein wins awards . . .
Noah Finkelstein wins university-wide Teaching Excellence Award and the GTP Gold Pin Excellence in Teaching Award and was recently featured in Science Magazine's Careers
Dubson Article in Physics Teacher (and National Teaching Award)
Learn the 3 or 4 Golden Rules of Lecture from Michael Dubson . . .
Physics Education Research at CU-Boulder
The Physics Education Research Group at Colorado (PER@C) is one of the newest and largest research programs in PER in the nation. Our research group develops and studies: uses of technology in physics education, assessments (conceptual, epistemological, and belief oriented), theoretical models of students learning physics, social and contextual foundations of student learning, examination of successful educational reforms and replication studies of such reforms, and student problem-solving in physics. We sponsor a number of educational reforms in physics, which range from pre-college to post-doctoral. The research group includes faculty, staff, and students from both the Department of Physics and the School of Education. read more »
Upcoming Events
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Jun 1: PERC absracts due
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May 15: Group Meeting: summer, and review PERC abstracts, reading group Science piece: abstraction
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May 8: Group Meeting: Derek Briggs, Education: the FASCI (developing pedagogical conent knowledge & assesment)
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May 8: Physics Dept Graduation!!!
Featured Project: PhET
The Physics Education Technology project at the University of Colorado has developed a suite of physics simulations that take advantage of the opportunities of computer technology while addressing some of the limitations of these tools. The suite includes over 50 research-based simulations that span the curriculum of introductory physics as well as sample topics from advanced physics and chemistry All simulations are free, and can be run over the internet or downloaded for off-line use. The simulations are designed to be highly interactive, engaging, and open learning environments that provide animated feedback to the user. The simulations are physically accurate, and provide highly visual, dynamic representations of physics principles. Simultaneously, the simulations seek to build explicit bridges between students’ everyday understanding of the world and the underlying physical principles, often by making the physical models (such as current flow or electric field lines) explicit.