Knowledge about the interior density distribution of a planetary body can constrain geophysical processes and reveal information about the origin and evolution of the body. Properties of this interior distribution can be inferred by analyzing gravity acceleration data sampled by orbiting satellites. Usually, the gravity data is complemented with…

A significant body of scholarship in Physics Education Research (PER) has documented that students have intuitive knowledge resources that they use to make sense of the physical world. Similarly, for physicists, symmetry is fundamental to making sense of the universe. In this dissertation, I explore students' intuitive resources related to…

The post-pandemic classroom dealt with not only the mental health struggles of educators and students, but also the technological and virtual learning dependence in a time ridden with misinformation. At this time, it was important to not only consider the purpose and intent of science education as a learning experience, but also pedagogical…

Students come to their high school physics classroom with experiences and knowledge that can be used to help explain physics concepts, but those experiences may not fully align with the scientifically accepted science concept. When there is a misalignment between a student's prior knowledge and the scientifically accepted concept a misconception…

This paper is a proposal, project, and dissertation for Kenneth Johnson, Doctor of Philosophy degree in Science Education, in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa. I propose analyzing the writing assignment in an undergraduate online physics course offered by a small midwestern community college (CC). The goal is to study how Writing to…

Validated conceptual multiple-choice surveys administered before and after instruction in relevant concepts can be useful tools to gauge the effectiveness of curricula and pedagogical strategies. Here we discuss the use of four different validated surveys to investigate student understanding: The Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey (EMCS), the…

This study investigated evidence of how students' mental models of fundamental kinematic relations evolved (i.e., developed cognitively over time) as observed during an introductory course in calculus-based classical mechanics. The core of the curriculum is based on a claim known as Galileo's principle of relativity. The course material comprised…

The creation of new knowledge in the form of scientific models is a cornerstone of the process of science. In physics laboratory instruction, students are very often stuck in a confirmatory mindset; they have been conditioned to believe that the role of experimentation in the classroom and in the world is to verify known facts. This mindset is…

Understanding human behavior and reasoning is essential for developing successful instruction. Discipline-based education researchers have examined how students learn, informing the development of successful instructional strategies. Researchers have also identified barriers to the successful implementation of such strategies. This work utilizes…

Concept inventories are widely used in physics education research, yet numerous studies show that concept inventories measure dramatically different learning gains in different demographic groups. Prior studies show that the performance gaps between demographic groups are already present in their preinstruction responses, suggesting that the…

Many efforts to reform science educational standards and structure have placed an emphasis on directing learners to communicate about concepts using external representations (ERs). Techniques to develop competencies with ERs often ask learners to develop understanding outside of a physical context while concurrently making connections back to the…

The work in this dissertation is presented in two parts. The first part (Chapters 3 and 4) details work relating to students' explanations of reaction mechanisms in organic chemistry. The second part (Chapters 5 and 6) details work relating to the evaluating the uptake of research-based instructional practices in introductory chemistry,…

Calls to transform introductory college physics courses to include scientific practices require assessments that can measure the extent to which these transformations are effective. Such assessments should be able to measure students' abilities to intertwine important concepts with practices in which scientists engage. In addition to evaluating…

Physics education research over the past few decades has made significant advances toward improving instructional practices and developing effective instructional materials for physics classrooms. In some contexts, however, after multiple instructional refinements difficulties can remain persistent. Recent findings in PER suggest that many of…

This study investigates the challenge faced by eighth-grade students at Southern State Middle School in grasping abstract concepts within the domains of physical science, physics, and chemistry. This difficulty is manifested in their poor performance on summative assessments. A comprehensive analysis of state-provided data, in conjunction with…