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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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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:

Matter & Interactions
by R. Chabay and B. Sherwood.

Find more articles that help to bridge research and practice in Volume 1 of Reviews in PER.

Community Resources

PER Programs

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Browse the different PER groups and their descriptions on the PER Program Map.

For the Classroom

Paradigms in Physics: Quantum Activities

Paradigms in Physics: Quantum Activities
This web page provides activities for Quantum Mechanics classes. Each activity includes learning goals and a guide for instructors. Activities for Operators, Eigenstates, Probability Densities, Stern-Gerlach Simulations, Schrödinger's Equation, and Time Evolution are included.

Find more PER-based Curricular Materials: Course Packages | Student Activities | Pedagogy Guides

Research Instruments

Magnetism Conceptual Survey

Magnetism Conceptual Survey
The Magnetism Conceptual Survey (MCS), developed by Singh and Li, is designed to evaluate students' conceptual understanding of magnetism up to Faraday's law. It is written for algebra- and calculus-based introductory courses.

Find more assessment instruments