We provide tools for identification and exploration of data with very large variability having power law tails. Such data describe extreme features of processes such as fire losses, flood, drought, financial gain/loss, hurricanes, population of cities, among others. Prediction and quantification of extreme events are at the forefront of the…

Objective: This study examines the prospective relationship between substance use during college and two outcomes: having definite plans to attend graduate school; and, among individuals with plans, enrolling in graduate school upon college graduation. Participants: n = 980 were originally enrolled as first-time, first-year college students in an…

One argument for keeping the physics Graduate Record Exam (GRE) is that it can help applicants who might otherwise be missed in the admissions process stand out. In this work, we evaluate whether this claim is supported by physics graduate school admissions decisions. We used admissions data from five Ph.D.-granting physics departments over a…

In this work we are going to present how an interactive platform can be used as a powerful tool to allow students to better explore a foundational problem in quantum chemistry: the application of the variational method to the dihydrogen molecule using simple Gaussian trial functions. The theoretical approach for the hydrogen atom is quite…

This paper investigates differences in higher education outcomes according to the qualifications with which students enter university. The study is situated in the context of increasing marketization, competition and privatization in post-16 qualifications, combined with an increase in students entering higher education with either vocational…

Repeated sampling approaches to inference that rely on simulations have recently gained prominence in statistics education, and probabilistic concepts are at the core of this approach. In this approach, learners need to develop a mapping among the problem situation, a physical enactment, computer representations, and the underlying randomization…

Missing data mechanisms, methods of handling missing data, and the potential impact of missing data on study results are usually not taught until graduate school. However, the appropriate handling of missing data is fundamental to biomedical research and should be introduced earlier on in a student's education. The Summer Institute for Training in…

Over the previous two decades, state lawmakers have made two fundamental changes to how they finance their public universities. They have shifted more of the costs of higher education to students and their families through higher tuition rates; and created new grant programs that are not solely based on financial need but require prior…

We analyzed a pool of items from an admissions test for differential item functioning (DIF) for groups based on age, socioeconomic status, citizenship, or English language status using Mantel-Haenszel and item response theory. DIF items were systematically examined to identify its possible sources by item type, content, and wording. DIF was…

Postdoctoral programmes have recently become an important step leading from doctoral education to permanent academic careers in the social sciences. This paper investigates the effects of a large and structured postdoctoral programme in the social sciences on a number of academic and non-academic outcomes of fellows. Propensity score matching is…

Energy measurements play a fundamental role in the theory of quantum mechanics, yet there is evidence that the underlying concepts are difficult for many students, even after all undergraduate instruction. We present results from an investigation into student ability to determine the possible energies that can be measured for a given wave function…

The protein folding (Levinthal's) paradox states that it would not be possible in a physically meaningful time to a protein to reach the native (functional) conformation by a random search of the enormously large number of possible structures. This paradox has been solved: it was shown that small biases toward the native conformation result…

The aim of this paper is to present the subject of state reconstruction in classical and in quantum physics, a subject that deals with the experimentally acquired information that allows the determination of the physical state of a system. Our first purpose is to explain a method for retrieving a classical state in phase space, similar to that…

The "Price Is Right" ("TPIR") provides a wealth of material for studying statistics at various levels of mathematical sophistication. The authors have used elements of this show to motivate students from undergraduate probability and statistics courses to graduate level executive management courses. The material consistently generates a high…

Our study, situated within graduate-level courses for teachers focused on statistics, illustrates work across institutions for making sense of teachers' statistical thinking. Using a common assessment instrument, we identify and discuss four items that indicate strong statistical thinking and two that highlight concepts with which teachers…