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…

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is an emerging technology that creates relevant text, images and other content from prompts. Large Language models (LLMs) are the most widely used of these GenAI forms. This technology already has applications in business and education. This paper tests GenAI's ability to apply physics to global problems…

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…

Large language models (LLMs) are now widely accessible, reaching learners across all educational levels. This development has raised concerns that their use may circumvent essential learning processes and compromise the integrity of established assessment formats. In physics education, where problem solving plays a central role in both instruction…

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…

This case study used individual interviews to investigate graduate students' sensemaking in upper-level electrostatics in the context of problems that can be efficiently solved for the electric potential using Laplace's equation. Although there are many technical mathematical issues involved in solving Laplace's equation, the focus of this…

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…

Students' challenges in learning mechanics are well documented from test situations, and group discussions are considered a fruitful way to meet these challenges. In this paper, we present a study from an authentic teaching setting where upper secondary students in groups solve the task of calculating the acceleration of an elevator by means of a…

Self-explanation, a learning strategy where students explain to themselves the steps taken in a worked example, is an effective learning strategy in early cognitive skill acquisition. However, many physics students produce self-explanations of low quality. There is also a lack of guidelines for what students should seek to explain when studying…

Understanding particle motion in force fields (PMFF), which encompasses the nature of forces and the relationship between force and motion, is fundamental to mastering mechanics and electromagnetism. Effectively solving PMFF-related problems requires advanced reasoning skills and the ability to apply knowledge across diverse contexts. Despite…

Despite the recognition that reflection is an essential part of problem solving, it is often not emphasized in upper-division physics courses. In this paper, we discuss homework corrections (HWCs) as a pedagogical tool to motivate reflection on homework assignments. We focus on gaining a qualitative understanding of how students may engage with…

Embodied forms of representation like gesture have been shown to play an important role in how learners conceptualize phenomena in physics; however, we know little about how students use gesture to capture the idea of "instantaneity." Drawing on multimodal microanalysis of interaction, we examine how undergraduate physics students use…

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…