Steve "Steve-o" Stonebraker:
Physics Education Researcher

I have been a member of the OSU Physics Education Research Group since 2001. Some of my work in PER can be found below. My current advisor is Dr. Lei Bao, who is most well known for his "model analysis" procedure, and for having lots and lots of ideas.

Current Projects

1. Model Analysis "extension" - In model analysis, a student's mental state with regard to a particular physics topic is referred to as "mixed" or "pure" depending on the self-consistency of their answers to an array of questions on that topic. We have begun to look more closely at the "mixed" state in which a student sometimes answers correctly and sometimes incorrectly. We are interested in whether this mixed state, which presumably corresponds to a student who is in the process of learning, is more easily observed in certain contexts, or with certain problem types. If a student shows a mixing as measured by multiple-choice conceptual questions, how likely are they to show mixing when presented with traditional show-work problems? Is mixing in certain topics correlated to mixing in others? This project is in its formative stages, so we aren't sure quite which direction we will take it, but there are a lot of interesting questions.
2. Physics simulations in a virtual environment - With programming done by Wenhui Zhou, we have a 3D "virtual reality" environment in which to run physics simulations that students can interact with in realtime using a joystick, just like a video game. The VR project has its own website (see link above) with more detail.

Past Projects

1. The "Flexible Homework" system - A replacement for more traditional methods of assigning problems in physics classes, in this system students are given more freedom to determine what they want homework to be for them. They may choose -- with some restrictions -- which problems to submit and additionally complete, worked-out solutions to some of the problems are provided before their due date. Students may use these solutions in whatever manner they wish, usually as a surrogate tutor or helper.

Posters and Talks

Here is a collection of work-related files for your entertainment. Everything is being offered as Adobe PDF files for maximum portability. These were exported directly from OpenOffice to PDF.

Flexible Homework

• Effects of Increased Freedom In Homework Assignments (.pdf, 150 kB) - This poster provides an overview of our flexible homework system, and then discusses the choices made by students about which problems to solve. From the 126th National AAPT meeting, January 2003.
• Student Response to Formats of Teacher-Provided Homework Solutions (.pdf, 170 kB) - This poster describes the role of problem solutions in our flexible homework system, including the students' habits with the solutions and their impression of the solutions' usefulness. From the 126th National AAPT meeting, January 2003.
• Comparing Grades and Behavior Under a Flexible Homework System (.pdf, 170 kB) - Another poster, analyzing the relationship -- or lack thereof -- between students' final grades and the way they spend their time under the FlexHW system. From the 127th National AAPT meeting, August 2003.
• Implementation Of And Student Behavior Under A Flexible Homework System (.pdf, 120 kB - Companion to to the talk below, this poster offers an overview of the system with additional data from a second large trial course. It contains the first non-anecdotal evidence that the Flex HW system is not harmful to student learning despite giving away half the solutions, and may, in fact, be beneficial. From the 128th National AAPT meeting, January 2004.
• Flexible Homework: Allowing Students Self-Determination In Homework (.pdf, 130 kB) - Very similar to the poster above, this talk served as our first big "advertisement" for the Flex HW system. The poster is probably better reading, but this is provided for the sake of completeness. From the 128th National AAPT meeting, January 2004.

Virtual Environment

• Force and Acceleration in Virtual Reality Simulations with Haptic Cues (.pdf, 60 kB) - My first professional talk (from the 127th AAPT, August 2003), this is an introduction to the VR simulations I am testing with Bao. Since it's a talk rather than a poster, there isn't as much information on the slides themselves, so it might not make interesting reading. Check Bao's page for more info on this project, though.
• Creating Cognitive Conflight In Mechanics Using "Virtual Reality" Simulations (.pdf, 240 kB) - A followup on our progress. Introduces the third simulation (collisions) and describes the trial runs we've had using the sims with student volunteers.

Go to: (Steve-o's Personal Homepage)