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…

The well-known artificial intelligence-based chatbot ChatGPT-4 has become able to process image data as input in October 2023. We investigated its performance on the test of understanding graphs in kinematics to inform the physics education community of the current potential of using ChatGPT in the education process, particularly on tasks that…

There is currently little physics education literature examining thinking and learning in graduate education and even less literature characterizing problem solving among physics graduate students despite this being an essential professional skill for physicists. Given reports of discrepancies between physics problem solving in the undergraduate…

Statistical mechanics has received limited attention in physics education research and remains a relatively underrepresented topic even in research on upper-division physics courses. The purpose of this study was to explore potential challenges that physics students encounter when they solve statistical mechanics problems in groups. Adopting a…

In the context of physics education, it is imperative that educators prioritize the development of students' problem-solving abilities. Given the interdisciplinary nature of physics and its relevance to everyday life, students must possess robust problem-solving skills. However, conventional and uninspiring learning approaches have been shown to…

The subject of physics can sometimes seem esoteric and challenging to engineering students. It would be beneficial to create a more conducive learning environment for them by combining words, mathematical equations, graphs, and diagrams to increase their problem-solving abilities. It has been demonstrated in mechanics that employing multiple…

Reasoning with mathematics plays an important role in university students' learning throughout their courses in the scientific disciplines, such as physics. In addition to understanding mathematical concepts and procedures, physics students often must mathematize physical constructs in terms of their associated mathematical structures and…

Students' success in physics problem-solving extends beyond conceptual knowledge of physics, relying significantly on their mathematics skills. Understanding the specific contributions of different mathematics skills to physics problem-solving can offer valuable insights for enhancing physics education. Yet such studies are rare, particularly at…

We use a validated conceptual multiple-choice survey instrument focusing on thermodynamic processes and the first and second laws of thermodynamics at the level of introductory physics to investigate the problem-property dependence of introductory and advanced student responses to introductory thermodynamics problems after traditional…

This study examines the effects of the pedagogical use of context-rich problems on motivation and learning, as compared to traditional problems, in mechanical physics courses at the college level. The results indicate that the treatment has appreciable outcomes on conceptual learning gain, on the perception of task value and on a perceived sense…

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of STEM activities on students' attitudes towards STEM and problem-solving skills by taking their components into account. An experimental design with pretest-posttest control group was applied in the study. Quantitative and qualitative data collection tools were used. The participants of the study…

Modelling roles of mathematics in physics has proved to be a difficult task, with previous models of the interplay between the two disciplines mainly focusing on mathematical modelling and problem solving. However, to convey a realistic view of physics as a field of science to our students, we need to do more than train them to become fluent in…

Research carried out through the last 20 years gave us undeniable evidence that to learn anything we need to be active participants, not passive observers. One of the important aspects of learning physics is constructing explanations of physical phenomena. To support and guide students toward constructing their explanations, teachers need to be…

This study aims to give chemistry students a deeper understanding of electron shielding and quantum transitions by interpreting the characteristic X-ray lines. There is a popular misunderstanding among learners and even teachers in which an outer-shell electron fills a vacancy in the inner shell, releasing some of its energy as an X-ray photon.…

This study examines the feasibility and potential advantages of using large language models, in particular GPT-4o, to perform partial credit grading of large numbers of student written responses to introductory level physics problems. Students were instructed to write down verbal explanations of their reasoning process when solving one conceptual…