Recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) hold significant promise for improving physics education research that uses machine learning. In this study, we compare the application of various models for conducting a large-scale analysis of written text grounded in a physics education research classification problem: identifying skills in…

Computational thinking in physics has many different forms, definitions, and implementations depending on the level of physics or the institution it is presented in. To better integrate computational thinking in introductory physics, we need to understand what physicists find important about computational thinking in introductory physics. We…

Computation is intertwined with essentially all aspects of physics research and is invaluable for physicists' careers. Despite its disciplinary importance, integration of computation into physics education remains a challenge and, moreover, has tended to be constructed narrowly as a route to solving physics problems. Here, we broaden Physics…

Recent educational policies advocate a radical revision of science curricula and pedagogy, to support interdisciplinary practices, a distinguishing feature of contemporary science. Computational modeling (CM) is a core methodology of interdisciplinary science, as such models allow intertwining of data and theoretical perspectives from multiple…

A small group of interested upper secondary education students participated in a workshop where they created a particle-based physics engine and used the engine to implement a hanging cloth simulation and a two-dimensional heat diffusion model of their own creation. During the implementation of their models, learning opportunities present…