Graduate Students in
Physics Education Research
(GSPER)

NOTE: This page has not been updated since roughly 2000

For more recent information about GSPER, go to this page. Thanks.

Introduction

Hello! Greetings! Welcome to GSPER (Gee-spur). As the field of physics education research (PER) continues to grow, it becomes necessary for us graduate students to find ways to keep in touch with each other and learn a little bit about each other's work. We work in separate environments and learn in our own ways what it means to be part of this field, yet it is important for all of us to learn of the variety that exists within the field. The least we should do with this variety is try to listen to each other, incorporating the skills others show into our own work. The only way for PER to succeed in the physics community is for us to be better than we are expected to be.....

GSPER Resources

Our goal is to create a forum for discussion and a way for us to present ourselves to the community at large.
Which of the following would you like to do?

• Read individual graduate student "biogaphies" and mini-descriptions of their work, together with links to their email and Web pages.
• Read about our Crackerbarrel session at the AAPT Winter meeting, January, 1997, in Pheonix, AZ. Members of GSPER discussed the question: "Should There Be Physics Education Groups in Physics Departments?"
• Go to the GSPER mailing list at this page

A Brief History

In August, 1996, two conferences in PER were placed back to back at the University of Maryland campus. The first was the International Conference on Undergraduate Physics Education, the second was the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) summer conference. During ICUPE, we heard about the European Science Education Research Association summer schools for graduate students, where invited grad students talk with each other about their work in progress. A few of us liked the idea, so we (Tom Foster of U.Minnesota and Michael Wittmann of U.Maryland, with input from others (Chris Cooksey, Mel Sabella and Valerie Otero) during the interval day picnic) got together and decided to do something similar here in the states. We met on the Thursday of the AAPT conference, and 31 people showed up. We got to know each other, and talked a little about our research and issues relevant to our work.

That's where we stand so far, but we have simple plans for the future. The possibility of an open summer school is being batted around. Also, we're working on putting together a mailing list so that we can discuss issues amongst ourselves, independently of the PhysLrnR environment.

This page was prepared by Michael Wittmann, University of Maryland, College Park. To get on the GSPER mailing list, go to the mailing list page.

Other Resources/Returns:

The Physics Education Research Group, University of Maryland, College Park, has a large set of resources, and links to other PER groups throughout the US and world.