Upper-Division Electrostatics (E&M I)

Transformed Course Materials

Research Associated with the Course

The course is currently under study by Bethany R. Wilcox, a Graduate Student in the Physics Department at CU Boulder. Previously, Stephanie V. Chasteen, a Science Teaching Fellow, and Rachel E. Pepper, now a post-doc at UC Berkeley, developed these materials and began instituting research efforts into student challenges. Research efforts are funded by the University of Colorado's Science Education Initiative and NSF-CCLI Grant #1023028.

Ongoing Research Projects

Student difficulties with course material -

We are investigating which topics, concepts, and methods are challenging for students to learn and why. Our current research efforts focus on students' use of mathematics in context-rich physics problems.

Publications

• "Upper-division Student Understanding of Coulomb's Law: Difficulties with Continuous Charge Distributions"
  Bethany R. Wilcox, Marcos D. Caballero, Rachel E. Pepper, Steven J. Pollock
  PERC Proceedings 2012, AIP Press (2012)
• "Observations on student difficulties with mathematics in upper-division electricity and magnetism"
  Rachel E. Pepper, Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock, Katherine K. Perkins
  PRST PER 8, 010111 (2012)
• "Upper-division students' difficulties with Ampere's Law"
  Colin S. Wallace, Stephanie V. Chasteen
  PRST PER 6, 020115 (2010)
• "Our best juniors still struggle with Gauss's Law: Characterizing their difficulites"
  Rachel E. Pepper, Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock, Katherine K. Perkins
  PERC Proceedings 2010, AIP Press (2010)
• "A Research-Based Approach to Assessing Student Learning Issues in Upper-Division Electricity and Magnetism"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock
  PERC Proceedings 2009, AIP Press (2009)

Posters and Talks

• "Upper-division Student Understanding of Coulomb's Law: Difficulties with Continuous Charge Distributions"
  Bethany R. Wilcox, Marcos D. Caballero, Rachel E. Pepper, Steven J. Pollock
  Poster, PERC (2012)
• "Upper-Divison Electricity and Magnetism: Student Ideas and Difficulities"
  Rachel E. Pepper, Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock, Katherine K. Perkins
  Contributed Presentation, American Association of Physics Teachers (2010)
• "Our best juniors still struggle with Gauss's Law: Characterizing their difficulites"
  Rachel E. Pepper, Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock, Katherine K. Perkins
  Poster, PERC (2010)

Past Research Projects

Considerable research was conducted during the development of these materials to determine their impact on student outcomes. We have a large amount of evidence that implementation of our research-based resources has a significant positive impact on students' conceptual understanding without sacrificing performance on calculation intensive problems. Additional research has been performed on the implementation and sustainablitity of these course transformations.

• "Colorado Upper-Division Electrostatics diagnostic: A conceptual assessment for the junior level"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Rachel E. Pepper, Marcos D. Caballero, Steven J. Pollock, Katherine K. Perkins
  PRST PER 8(2) (2012)
• "Thinking like a physicist: A multi-semester case study of junior-level electricity and magnetism"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock, Rachel E. Pepper, Katherine K. Perkins
  AJP 80 923 (2012)
• "Transforming the Junior Level: Outcomes from instruction and research in E&M"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock, Rachel E. Pepper, Katherine K. Perkins
  PRST PER 8(2) (2012)
• "Teasing Out the Effect of Tutorials via Multiple Regression"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen
  PERC Proceedings 2011, AIP Press (2011)
• "A Thoughtful Approach to Instruction: Course Transformation for the Rest of Us"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Katherine K. Perkins, Paul D. Beale, Steven J. Pollock, Carl E. Wieman
  JCST 40(4) (2011)
• "Teasing Out the Effect of Tutorials via Multiple Regression"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen
  PERC Proceedings 2011, AIP Press (2011)
• "But Does it Last? Sustaining a Research-Based Curriculum in Upper-Division Electricity and Magnetism"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Rachel E. Pepper, Steven J. Pollock, Katherine K. Perkins
  PERC Proceedings 2011, AIP Press (2011)
• "The use of concept tests and peer instruction in upper-division physics"
  Steven J. Pollock, Stephanie V. Chasteen, Mike Dubson, Katherine K. Perkins
  PERC Proceedings 2010, AIP Press (2010)
• "Tapping into Junior's Understanding of E&M: The Colorado Upper-division Electrostatics (CUE) Diagnostic"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock
  PERC Proceedings 2009, AIP Press (2009)
• "Longer Term impacts of transformed courses on student conceptual understanding of E&M"
  Steven J. Pollock, Stephanie V. Chasteen
  PERC Proceedings 2009, AIP Press (2009)
• "Transforming Upper-Division Electricity and Magnetism"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock
  PERC Proceedings 2008, AIP Press (2008)

Posters and Talks

• "Teasing Out the Effect of Tutorials via Multiple Regression"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen
  Poster, PERC (2011)
• "But Does it Last? Sustaining a Research-Based Curriculum in Upper-Division Electricity and Magnetism"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Rachel E. Pepper, Steven J. Pollock, Katherine K. Perkins
  Poster, PERC (2011)
• "New Ways of Teaching Junior E&M: Description & Results"
  Stephanie Chasteen, Steven Pollock, Rachel Pepper, Michael Dubson, Edward Kinney, Paul Beale, Katherine Perkins
  Poster, American Association of Physics Teachers (2010)
• "Thinking Like a Physicist: Transforming Upper-Division E&M 1"
  Stephanie Chasteen, Steven Pollock, Rachel Pepper, Michael Dubson, Ed Kinney, Paul Beale, Katherine Perkins
  Contributed Presentation, American Association of Physics Teachers (2009)
• "Thinking Like a Physicist: Transforming Upper-Division E&M"
  Stephanie Chasteen, Steven Pollock, Rachel Pepper, Michael Dubson, Ed Kinney, Paul Beale, Katherine Perkins
  Poster, American Association of Physics Teachers (2009)
• "Tapping into Junior's Understanding of E&M: Development of the CUE Assessment"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock
  Poster, PERC (2009)
• "Cognitive Issues in Upper-Division E&M: The utility of the Colorado Upper-Division Electrostatics Assessment (CUE)"
  Steven J. Pollock, Stephanie V. Chasteen
  Invited Poster, PERC (2009)
• "Upper-Division Transformations in Physics"
  Stephanie Chasteen, Steven Goldhaber, Steven Pollock, Michael Dubson, Ed Kinney, Oliver DeWolfe, Paul Beale, Katherine Perkins
  Poster, CU I-cubed Event (2009)
• "Transforming Upper-Division Electricity and Magnetism 1"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock, Ward Handley, Darren Tarshis, Paul Beale
  Poster PERC (2008)
• "Assessing Student Understanding in Upper-Division Undergraduate Electricity and Magnetism I"
  Stephanie V. Chasteen, Steven J. Pollock
  Poster PERC (2008)