Dedra Demaree

• Assistant professor of physics, joined Oregon State University in 2007
• Research interests: Assessing curricular reform, writing in physics
• Dedra's webpage: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/~demareed/
• Page for Dedra's projects and students: Dedra's Group, Dedra

Corinne Manogue

• Professor of physics, joined Oregon State University in 1988
• Research interests: Developing and assessing the paradigms in physics program, The vector calculus gap, Field Theory in Curved Spacetime, Dimensional Reduction and Octonions
• Corinne's webpage: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/~corinne/Myhomepages/

Elizabeth Gire

• Working with the paradigms project from fall 2007 to spring 2009
• Research interests: students' views about physics, problem solving, students' understanding of quantum mechanics
• Elizabeth's webpage: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/~giree/

• Len Cerney: Working with Corinne to study the paradigms program
• Sissi Li: (sissi)Working with Dedra to study the implementation of group work in large lecture classes
• Lin Li: (Lin_Li) Newest group member - still looking into research interests
• Julian Taylor: Julian (Student at UCT) Working with Dedra on the role of audience in the way students report measurement

• Emily Van Zee: Associate Professor in Science and Math Education at OSU: http://smed.science.oregonstate.edu/node/49
• Nam-Hwa Kang: Assistant Professor in Science and Math Education at OSU: http://smed.science.oregonstate.edu/node/46
• Saalih Allie : Professor of Physics and Academic Development, University of Cape Town: http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/dept/phyedu.htm
• Xueli Zou: Associate Professor of Physics, California State University, Chico: http://www.csuchico.edu/~xzou/index.html

• Mike Low: Maters received Spring 2008, Project Title: “A Quantitative Analysis of Summary Writing in Physics”, advised by Dedra Demaree

This section is specifically for active projects involving the group members listed above. Also see the physics department's general Physics Education Research webpage with blurbs about each of the major department projects: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/ResearchPER

Presentations, activities, and publications for each project are listed with that project's blurb.

Here is the working page for the grant we are writing: Grant

Dedra Demaree leads this project and will involve every group member and anyone else she can wrangle! This is the newest venture for the department and will be a large effort.

In our large-enrollment introductory calculus-based physics class we are moving from a structure with 3 hours of lecture and 3 hours of lab, to one with 2 hours of lecture, 2 of lab, and 2 of an activity-based session. This will allow us to incorporate interactive-engagement while minimally increasing the teaching load on the instructors. In order to achieve this, we are remodeling the large lecture hall to facilitate peer interaction, and working on the design and construction of a SCALE-UP (http://www.ncsu.edu/PER/scaleup.html) inspired activity-based classroom. We are working on a curriculum inspired by ISLE (http://www.islephysics.net/) and Matter and Interactions (http://www4.ncsu.edu/~rwchabay/mi/).

We will be researching the impact of the new curriculum on student learning, the impact of classroom design on peer interactions in the large classes, and the teacher development needed to manage the activities in these classes. Study of student learning is of primary importance but is very broad and we do not yet know what we will focus on for our initial studies (other than basic data such as concept inventories and student attitudes). We would like to study issues related to the math-physics connection, and to specifically investigate students grasp of specific course goals such as using multiple representations.

• Colloquium given at the University of the Western Cape, August 2008: Promoting interaction in large-class lectures and engaging students in the practices of science, Dedra Demaree. colloquium_uwc.ppt
• Colloquium at California State University, Chico, March 2008: Bridging Gaps: integrating research expertise with curricular development aimed to synchronize upper division course goals with our large introductory classes, Dedra Demaree. colloquium_chico.ppt
• Invited talk at the American Physical Society NorthWest Meeting, April 2008: Integrating writing research with curricular development in large-enrollment introductory physics, Dedra Demaree. aps_talk_sp08.ppt

None yet - but we just started!

Corinne Manogue leads this project, with Elizabeth Gire and Len Cerny fully involved. Other faculty members are also involved, as detailed on the department PER page: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/ResearchPER

The Paradigms in Physics Program at Oregon State University is a restructuring of the traditional upper-division curriculum to be more modern, more flexible, and more inclusive. The focus of our current NSF-grant is to design materials to support faculty teaching more traditional courses who may wish to experiment with one or more pieces of our successful curriculum, be it a single activity or an entire course. Among other things, the group is doing research into students’ ability to reason harmonically and metacognitively, and into how these capabilities are affected by Paradigms curricular materials. Extensive information about the paradigms project can be found on the Paradigms Wiki: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/doku.php

See the Paradigms Wiki: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/doku.php?id=publications:start#talks

See the Paradigms Wiki: http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/doku.php?id=publications:start

In August, 2007, Dedra began collaborating with Saalih Allie at the University of Cape Town. In our first project, we asked the students in the Foundations program (a bridging program that allows disadvantaged students to do their first year over two in order to prepare them to successfully join the mainstream science programs) to write summaries of the textbook chapters in preparation for class. We developed a framework for analyzing the summaries, and Mike Low did the coding and analysis for his masters project in 2008. In a separate project, we are interested in activating productive resources for students when they are asked to report measurements. Julian Taylor is investigating this with probes that assign different audiences to whom the students must report their measurements. We are very interested in the role of audience in activating feelings of authority in the students, and see a close tie with being asked to write an explanation and being put into the role of an authority. We intend to study this further with an interest in how the authority role can be activated, and whether this positively impacts student epistemologies.

• AAPT (American Association of Physics Teachers) Talk: Using summary writing for textbook engagement and student class preparation. Dedra Demaree, Saalih Allie, Michael Low and Julian Taylor, 2008 AAPT Summer Meeting: Edmonton, Canada aapt_talk_2008.ppt
• AAPT Poster: Applying a Framework to Analyze Student Textbook Summary Writing. Michael Low, Dedra Demaree, Saalih Allie, and Julian Taylor, 2008 AAPT Summer Meeting: Edmonton, Canada aapt_poster_2008.ppt
• Physics Education Research Conference Poster: Developing a Framework for Analyzing Student Summaries of Textbooks. Dedra Demaree, Saalih Allie and Michael Low, 2008 PERC conference: Edmonton, Canada perc_poster_2008.ppt
• Invited Poster: Physics Education Research Conference Poster: Making Sense of Measurements, Making Sense of the Textbook. Saalih Allie, Dedra Demaree, Julian Taylor, Fred Lubben and Andy Buffler, 2008 PERC conference: Edmonton, Canada
• Invited talk at the American Physical Society NorthWest Meeting, April 2008: Integrating writing research with curricular development in large-enrollment introductory physics, Dedra Demaree. aps_talk_sp08.ppt

• Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of student textbook summary writing. Dedra Demaree, Saalih Alie, Michael Low and Julian Taylor, 2008 PERC Proceedings: Edmonton, Canada: demaree_perc_2008.pdf
• Invited Paper: Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings: Making Sense of Measurements, Making Sense of the Textbook. Saalih Allie, Dedra Demaree, Julian Taylor, Fred Lubben and Andy Buffler, 2008 PERC conference: Edmonton, Canada allie_demaree_perc2008.pdf