About PhysPort

PhysPort supports physics faculty in implementing research-based teaching practices in their classrooms, by providing expert recommendations about teaching methods, assessment, and results from physics education research (PER). Work in PER has made enormous advances in developing a variety of tools that dramatically improve student learning of physics. Our goal is to synthesize and translate the results of this research so you can use it in your classroom today.

What you can find on PhysPort:

  • Expert Recommendations written by PhysPort staff and expert guest authors to answer the most common questions of physics faculty new to implementing research-based teaching in their classrooms.
  • Teaching Guides to over 50 research-based teaching methods, instructional strategies, and curricula developed by experts in PER
  • Assessment Guides to over 90 research-based assessment instruments that you can use to find out what your students are learning evaluate the effectiveness of your teaching. Verified educators can download most assessments directly from our site.
  • Assessment Data Explorer where you can get instant analysis of your students' scores on research-based assessment instruments, comparisons to national averages and students like yours, recommendations for improving your teaching, and reports for tenure and promotion files, teaching portfolios, and departmental accreditation. (sign up to be a beta tester now!)
  • Video Workshops The Periscope collection of lessons for novice instructors to learn through watching and discussing videos of best-practice physics classrooms, and the Virtual New Faculty Workshop collection of video presentations by leaders in physics education research and curriculum development.

Our mission:

Our goal is to empower physics faculty to use effective research-based teaching so that every student has the opportunity to learn physics.

Who we are:

PhysPort is developed by the American Association of Physics Teachers, in collaboration with Kansas State University. It is supported by the National Science Foundation. Our staff includes experts in Physics Education Research, software developers, and user interface design experts. Our Editorial Board, which reviews all site content, includes researchers in PER, science education communicators, university and community college faculty, and high school teachers.

Director
Sarah "Sam" McKagan, AAPT

Associate Director
Adrian Madsen, AAPT

Periscope Director
Rachel Scherr, University of Washington Bothell

Research and Design Consultant
Lauren Bauman, AAPT

AAPT Advisors
Bruce Mason, AAPT
Beth Cunningham, AAPT
Bob Hilborn, AAPT

Technical Staff
Lyle Barbato - Technical Lead, AAPT
Joshua Weese - Data Explorer Technical Lead, Kansas State University

Librarian
Caroline Hall, AAPT

Administrative Support Staff
Kim Coy, Kansas State University
Sean Costello, American Physical Society

Former team members:

Research Director
Eleanor Sayre, Kansas State University

Postdoctoral Researchers
Linda Strubbe
Brian Danielak

Graduate Students
Tra Huynh, Kansas State University
Dina Zohrabi Alaee, Kansas State University

Technical Staff
Matt Riggsbee - Visual development, AAPT

User Interface Design
Sandy Martinuk - Lead designer, Cognition Technology
Alex Bell - Assistant designer, Cognition Technology

Funding:

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant numbers 0840853, 1256352/1256354, 1245490, 1347821/1347728, 1726113/1726479, and portions of 1323699, 1223405, 1323129, 1626496, 1140860, and 1140706.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.