In a study of student understanding of negative definite integrals at two institutions, we administered a written survey and follow-up clinical interviews at one institution and found that "backward integrals", where the integral was taken from right to left on the x-axis, were the most difficult for students to interpret. We then…

The Physics One Mechanics in a community college syllabus usually allocates more time to cover the topics in kinematics, dynamics, energy, momentum, and rotation; with relatively less time for the topics of fluid mechanics and heat diffusion in the creation of a knowledge gap for those students deciding on mechanical and chemical engineering…

During the pandemic and lockdown situations of the last few years, we transitioned to online, physical, and hybrid education approaches at various times. We had difficulty teaching multiple calculus and analytical geometry units online. In light of the current situation, a graphical user interface (GUI) teaching tool has been developed to teach…

Resistor--capacitor (RC) circuit labs help students, but most courses don't include them because of complications and cost. This work presents an easy and inexpensive Arduino-based lab on the charge and energy transfer between two capacitors with different values of the initial electric charge when they are connected through a resistor. Capacitors…

This study investigated how students reason about the partial derivative and the directional derivative of a multivariable function at a given point, using different graphical representations for the function in the problem statement. Questions were formulated to be as isomorphic as possible in both mathematics and physics contexts and were given…

The preparation gap [Salehi et al., Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 15, 020114 (2019)] refers to gaps in students' prior knowledge that can negatively affect their learning as they engage in introductory physics courses. To better characterize the gap, the current study distinguished the impact of various prior knowledge components on learning gains.…

Over the course of the introductory calculus-based physics course, students are often expected to build conceptual understanding and develop and refine skills in problem solving and qualitative inferential reasoning. Many of the research-based materials developed over the past 30 years by the physics education research community use sequences of…

We use the Survey of Thermodynamic Processes and First and Second Laws-Long, a research-based survey instrument with 78 items at the level of introductory physics, to investigate introductory and advanced students' difficulties with internal energy, work, and heat transfer. We present analysis of data from 12 different introductory and advanced…

When learning physics, students need more than just an understanding of mathematical and physical concepts. Integrating the two fields is crucial, as research indicates that students often struggle even when they have a strong grasp of both. In this paper, we use the heat equation as an example from higher education. Given the importance of the…

We used student surveys to assess changes in proficiency with integral calculus, calculus self-efficacy, and physics self-efficacy in a second semester course of introductory physics focused on electricity and magnetism. In addition to tracking the fraction of quantitative problems solved correctly on the calculus proficiency survey, we also used…

This study investigated factors influencing Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE) pretest and post-test scores for a sample (N=1116 students) collected in the introductory calculus-based mechanics class at a large eastern land-grant university. Several academic and noncognitive factors were examined using correlation analysis and linear…

Self-efficacy has emerged as one of the most important noncognitive variables explaining academic behavior. It has been shown to influence students' academic and career decisions as well as their academic performance. Multiple studies have reported differences in self-efficacy between men and women in science, technology, engineering, and…

This paper examines the prevalence of rapid answer copying among university students completing online homework for an introductory level calculus-based physics course taught remotely during the COVID pandemic. We first compared the attempt duration distribution of 26 problems, between 42 students who self-reported as having completed the homework…

This study proposes methods of reporting results of physics conceptual evaluations that more fully characterize the range of outcomes experienced by students with differing levels of prior preparation, allowing for more meaningful comparison of the outcomes of educational interventions within and across institutions. Factors leading to variation…

Introductory calculus-based mechanics ("Physics 1") is an important gateway course for students desiring to pursue a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career. A major challenge with this course is the large spread in the students' incoming physics preparation. This level of preparation is strongly predictive of a…