Physics Education Research Conference 2024

July 10, 2024 - July 11, 2024 in Boston, MA

Bridging the Institutional Gap: PER at Primarily Undergraduate Four Year Institution, Two-Year College, and K-12 Levels

One often-overlooked issue within physics education research is that the bulk of research products – publications, presentations, hardware, software, resources available online, etc. – are produced at large or very large research universities, yet the vast majority of institutions are not this institution type. A traditional expectation is that other institution types – primarily-undergraduate institutions (PUIs), two-year colleges (TYCs), and K-12 physics courses – are simply meant to adopt the products and use them as intended. Yet this is frequently insufficient; in-house PER at the other institution types needs to occur in order to a) identify a given physics course section's needs and b) attend to those needs within the expectations and mission statement of the respective institutions. However, ironically due to the primarily-teaching focus of these institutions – directly via a full teaching load or indirectly by focusing on teacher preparation – there is less support for proper in-house PER at non-research institutions' physics departments. This presents an institution gap regarding the potential benefits of PER overall. This conference proposal seeks to address this institutional gap and feature ways to bridge it. Efforts from non-research institutions, as well as collaborations between research institutions and non-research institutions, will be highlighted in the featured sessions.

Organizing committee

Andrew J. Mason, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR
Carina Rebello, Department of Physics, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON
Tianlong Zu, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Important Dates

February 1, 2024: Parallel session proposal submission opened
April 5, 2024: Parallel session proposals were due
April 6, 2024: Contributed poster abstract submission opened
May 13, 2024: Paper-eligible poster abstracts and Proceedings manuscripts were due
May 13, 2024: Community Connection proposals were due
June 7, 2024: Reviews for the PERC Proceedings were due
June 17, 2024: Non-paper eligible poster abstract submissions were due
July 10-11, 2024: Dates of the PERC