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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 Programs

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

For the Classroom

Connecting Meaning and Mathematics

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

Rotational and Rolling Motion Conceptual Survey

Rotational and Rolling Motion Conceptual Survey
The Rotational and Rolling Motion Conceptual Survey, developed by Singh and Rimoldini, is designed to evaluate students' conceptual understanding of rotational and rolling motion. The survey is based on investigations of students' difficulties in introductory- and junior-level physics courses.

Find more assessment instruments

PER Events PER-Central Announcements RSS

Foundations and Frontiers of Physics Education Research: Puget Sound 2026
The sixth FFPER: Puget Sound conference will be held August 20-23, 2026 at the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center. FFPERPS is a regional conference open to physics educators in the Cascadia region and beyond.

More events

Latest Additions Latest Additions to PER-Central RSS

Jun 24 Inventory of Galilean Transformation of uniform linear motion in position-time graphs
Mar 30 Graduate Education in Physics: The Path Ahead. A Report on the 2nd Graduate Education in Physics Conference
Mar 30 Graduate Education in Physics: Which Way Forward?
Feb 25 Characterizing and Assessing Covariational Reasoning in Introductory Physics Contexts

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