Selected Publications
Bringing Three-Dimensional Learning to Undergraduate Physics: Insights from an Introductory Physics Laboratory Course (under review)
This paper introduces a comprehensive curricular reform effort aimed at bringing the Next Generation Science Standards' (NGSS) Three-Dimensional Learning (3DL) framework into an introductory physics laboratory course. In this paper, we provide an abbreviated overview of 3DL and describe in detail how aspects of 3DL have been interwoven into various laboratory activities (e.g., warm-up activities, developing a research question, argumentation sessions). This paper is meant to serve as a motivating guide for instructors interested in bringing aspects of 3DL into their own courses. This is one of the first papers to provide a comprehensive overview of integrating 3DL into introductory physics courses.
May, J., De Grandi, C., Gerton, J., Barth-Cohen, L., Beehler, A., & Montoya, B. (under review). Bringing Three-Dimensional Learning to Undergraduate Physics: Insights from an Introductory Physics Laboratory Course. American Journal of Physics.
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Students' productive strategies when generating graphical representations: An undergraduate laboratory case study (under review)
This short paper presents a case study analysis of a group's iterative construction of graphical representations while engaging in an open-ended laboratory investigation. We highlight several productive strategies students use when working towards constructing a final graphical representation; these include identifying (potential) co-varying quantities, reducing data into representative sample subsets, and iterative graphical construction. Throughout use of these strategies students consistently referred back to their experimental goals when deciding which strategies to enact and how to sense-make from their ongoing results.
May, J., Barth-Cohen, L. & Adams, A. (under review). Students' productive strategies when generating graphical representations: An undergraduate laboratory case study. Physics Education Research Conference (PERC) Proceedings.
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Students' Dynamic Framing of Epistemic Agency
This ICLS poster paper explores how students mutually frame opportunities to enact epistemic agency in a group-based laboratory setting. We show how an undergraduate student group frames epistemic agency within course constraints but maintains ownership of the collective group frame's negotiation and reproduction via individual discursive and active contributions. Results suggest students can maintain a collective group frame of epistemic agency in a learning environment, even when students offer distinct frame contributions.
May, J. & Barth-Cohen, L. (2021). Students' Dynamic Framing of Epistemic Agency. In E. de Vries, J. Ahn, & Y. Hod (Eds.), Proceedings of International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2021. Bochum, Germany: International Society of the Learning Sciences.
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Developing an Assessment to Investigate Data Analysis in Introductory Physics
This short paper describes the development and preliminary results of an open-response task-based assessment meant to elucidate students' reasoning processes with various data-based actions (DBAs) and scientific practices. Prior to this assessment, there were few notable assessments focusing on understanding how students engaged in lab-based DBAs and scientific practices, and those most closely related often utilized a multiple choice format and required significant prior content knowledge.
Adams, A., May, J., Barth-Cohen, L., & De Grandi, C. (2021, accepted). Developing an Assessment to Investigate Data Analysis in Introductory Physics. Paper submitted to the 2021 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).
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Students' dynamic engagement with experimental data in a physics laboratory setting
In this paper, we present a single case-study analysis of a student group engaging in an inquiry-based physics laboratory to highlight the complex and iterative ways the group shifts between multiple data-based actions when expected to be engaging in a single laboratory task. We identified a grounded set of eight data-based actions (DBAs) that encompass students experimental actions when working with data in a laboratory setting. Through coding a student group's investigation with the DBA set, we show that students oftentimes shift between multiple data-based actions on short timescales and that these shifts can take place with implicit iterative patterns, even when the instructional setting is structured for a single experimental task.
May, J., Barth-Cohen, L., Gerton, J. M. & De Grandi, C. (2020). Students' dynamic engagement with experimental data in a physics laboratory setting. Physics Education Research Conference (PERC) Proceedings.
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