Karen Cummings

• University of Waterloo

At the 2007 Physics Education Research Conference, a workshop on publishing and refereeing was held with a panel of editors from four different publishing venues: the physics education research section of the American Journal of Physics, the Journal of the Learning Sciences, Physical Review Special Topics-Physics Education Research, and the Physics...

We report on the initial stages of a collaborative investigation into ways in which the Physics by Inquiry (PbI) curriculum (McDermott) can be implemented in larger enrollment courses using undergraduate peer instructors and cooperative grouping techniques. Typically, PbI is implemented in small classes with Physics graduate students as teaching as...

In this paper we explore students' pre-instruction knowledge of several conceptual and procedural pieces of knowledge that we believe are prerequisite to one's ability to generate correct light ray diagrams and understand image formation by a plane mirror. The research population is an algebra-based, introductory physics class of about 50 students...

Work more effectively and check solutions as you go along with the text! This Student Solutions Manual is designed for use with Cummings' Understanding Physics. Its primary purpose is to show readers by example how to solve various types of problems given at the end of each chapter in the text. Most of the solutions start from definitions or fundam...

Built on the foundations of Halliday, Resnick, and Walker's Fundamentals of Physics Sixth Edition, this text is designed to work with interactive learning strategies that are increasingly being used in physics instruction (for example, microcomputer-based labs, interactive lectures, etc. ). In doing so, it incorporates new approaches based upon Phy...

Understanding Physics is designed to work with learning strategies such as microcomputer-based labs and interactive lectures that ate increasingly being used in physics instruction. In doing so, it incorporates new approaches based upon Physics Education Research (PER), aligns with courses that use computer-based laboratory tools, and supports Acti...

"...I enjoyed the approach taken by the authors..." (Physical Sciences Educational Reviews, November 2002)

Measurement. Motion Along a Straight Line. Forces and Motion Along a Line. Vectors. Forces and Motion in Two Dimensions. Combined Forces. Translational Momentum. Extended Systems. Kinetic Energy and Work. Potential Energy and the Conservation of Energy. Rotation. Complex Rotations. Exercises and Problems. Special Problems. Appendices. Answers to Re...

In this talk we explore students' pre-instruction knowledge of conceptual and procedural pieces of knowledge that we believe are prerequisite to one's ability to generate correct light ray diagrams. We do so within the domain of image formation by a plane mirror. The research population is students in an algebra-based, introductory physics course a...