PhysPort Newsletter 2025 Issue 1
Greetings from the PhysPort team!
We would like to share some new resources on PhysPort to support your physics teaching. We plan to send out two newsletters a year to keep you updated on what’s new!
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Help test a new assessment on how physics educators think about student ideas
Faculty at Boise State University are looking for physics educators to test out an assessment of physics teacher candidates’ attentiveness (the ability to analyze and respond to a student’s thinking around a discipline specific task) to inform program improvement and evaluation.
Please consider taking this assessment and share the link with other physics educators (tutors, LAs, TAs, preservice teachers, teachers, professors, etc.).
What’s involved?
- Take an online physics assessment (estimated time: ~10 minutes per task; take up to 10 tasks)
- Completely anonymous—no identifying information collected
- Your participation will help advance physics education!
- Earn a $5 gift card for completing each assessment task (up to 10 tasks)
- Note: gift cards are only valid at the U.S. Amazon site
Take the survey. Questions? Contact Dr. Leslie Atkins at leslieatkins@boisestate.edu.
Contribute to PhysPort
If you are developing research-based approaches, materials, and assessments, contribute to PhysPort and leave the dissemination to us: PhysPort is a well-known source for research-based teaching and assessment materials with over a decade of experience in dissemination and is widely regarded as the go-to place to learn about research-based teaching in physics. Your materials will be maintained on PhysPort after your project ends. Our educator verification process ensures that only educators have access to any restricted materials. PhysPort is backed by the American Association of Physics Teachers. Reach a wide audience: PhysPort registered users represent over 20% of college physics faculty in the US. We also reach a large audience of US high school physics teachers (a third of our users) and international physics instructors (another third of our users). Learn more.
Updated consultant directory
Are you or your department looking for a consultant to help with a physics or astronomy education project? We are excited to share the newly relaunched Physics and Astronomy Education Consultants Directory. Find consultants to help with external evaluation, incorporating educational innovations, designing programs, offering professional development, contributing specialized expertise for funded projects, and more. If you are a consultant, you can also request to be listed in the directory.
Featured teaching materials
The University of Colorado Boulder Course Materials, developed by the Physics Education Research group at the University of Colorado Boulder are now hosted on PhysPort. These are research-based materials for modern physics, classical mechanics, advanced E&M and other topics developed as part of the CU Science Education Initiative and other research-based efforts.
The Activity-Based Physics Tutorials, developed by Michael Wittmann, Richard Steinberg, and Joe Redish at the University of Maryland in the 1990s, were originally published as a book that students could buy. The book is out of print, but you can now download all the materials in pdf or word for free from PhysPort. Materials include tutorials, pretests, homework, exam questions, and essay questions for introductory physics and modern physics. There are recommendations for coupling many tutorials with PhET simulations.
The Tutorials in Thermal Physics, developed by Michael Loverude, John Thompson, David Meltzer, Warren Christensen, Don Mountcastle, are now available on PhysPort. These Tutorials focus on an intermediate-level thermal physics course and are intended for small group work.
The Tutorials in Mathematical Methods in Physics, developed by Michael Loverude, John Thompson, and Warren Christensen, are for use in courses in mathematical methods for intermediate-level physics students.
New expert recommendations
Faculty Teaching Institute Recommendations. This new collection of Expert Recommendations from the Faculty Teaching Institute (FTI) covers topics from backwards design and assessment strategies to structuring group work and lecturing more effectively.
EP3 Recommendations. The Effective Practices for Physics Programs (EP3) Initiative has new Expert Recommendations on implementing research-based teaching in your classroom and department.
New research-based assessments
Upper-level Statistical and Thermodynamics Evaluation for Physics (U-STEP)
Developed by Katherine Rainey, Michael Vignal, Bethany Wilcox
Purpose: To assess student learning of core content in advanced statistical mechanics and thermodynamics.
Modeling Assessment for Physics Laboratory Experiments (MAPLE)
Developed by Benjamin Pollard, Michael F. J. Fox, Laura Rios, Dimitri R. Dounas-Frazer, Alexandra Werth, Heather Lewandowski
Purpose: To measure students' processes of modeling in advanced lab classes focusing on either electronics or optics.
Survey of Physics Reasoning on Uncertainty Concepts in Experiments (SPRUCE)
Developed by Michael Vignal, Gayle Geschwind, Marcos D. Caballero, Heather Lewandowski
Purpose: To determine how students handle measurement uncertainty across ten different areas of this subject in intro to upper-level undergraduate physics laboratory courses.
Sincerely,
The PhysPort Team
(Sam McKagan, Adrian Madsen, Lyle Barbato, and Lauren Bauman)
