Education research is our focus
Welcome to PER-Central, a resource collection for physics education researchers. Here you may find articles, theses and dissertations, research groups, curricular material, and news and events of interest to the PER Community. Learn more about PER-Central.
PER Literature
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- Basic Research
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By Topic:
Astronomy, Classical Mechanics, Electricity & Magnetism, Fluid Mechanics, General Physics, Mathematical Tools, Modern Physics, Optics, Oscillations & Waves, Other Sciences, Quantum Physics, Relativity, Thermo & Stat Mech
Reviews in PER
Over the past two decades, the PER community has developed a number of effective instructional strategies for calculus-based university physics classes.
This review article helps to bring a set of those results to the instructional community:
The Student-Centered Activities for Large Enrollment Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) project
by R. J. Beichner, J. M. Saul, D. S. Abbott, J. J. Morse, D. L. Deardorff, R. J. Allain, S. W. Bonham, M. H. Dancy, and J. S. Risley.
Find more articles that help to bridge research and practice in Volume 1 of Reviews in PER.
Community Resources
PER Programs
Browse the different PER groups and their descriptions on the PER Program Map.
For the Classroom
Connecting Meaning and Mathematics
This page contains step-by-step tutorials and guided inquiry activities designed to help students discover physical properties and concepts by developing understanding from mathematics. Most of this material is written for upper level classical mechanics courses. Connections are made with the Intermediate Mechanics Tutorials by Ambrose and Wittmann.
Find more PER-based Curricular Materials: Course Packages | Student Activities | Pedagogy Guides
Research Instruments
Symmetry and Gauss's Law Conceptual Evaluation
The Symmetry and Gauss's Law Conceptual Evaluation, developed by Chandralekha Singh, is a research-based multiple-choice test designed to evaluate students' conceptual understanding of symmetry and Gauss's Law. The test is appropriate for research in calculus-based introductory physics courses or upper-level undergraduate E&M courses.
