6,728 research outputs found
Modeling student pathways in a physics bachelor's degree program
Physics education research has used quantitative modeling techniques to
explore learning, affect, and other aspects of physics education. However,
these studies have rarely examined the predictive output of the models, instead
focusing on the inferences or causal relationships observed in various data
sets. This research introduces a modern predictive modeling approach to the PER
community using transcript data for students declaring physics majors at
Michigan State University (MSU). Using a machine learning model, this analysis
demonstrates that students who switch from a physics degree program to an
engineering degree program do not take the third semester course in
thermodynamics and modern physics, and may take engineering courses while
registered as a physics major. Performance in introductory physics and calculus
courses, measured by grade as well as a students' declared gender and ethnicity
play a much smaller role relative to the other features included the model.
These results are used to compare traditional statistical analysis to a more
modern modeling approach.Comment: submitted to Physical Review Physics Education Researc
Examining the relationship between student performance and video interactions
In this work, we attempted to predict student performance on a suite of
laboratory assessments using students' interactions with associated
instructional videos. The students' performance is measured by a graded
presentation for each of four laboratory presentations in an introductory
mechanics course. Each lab assessment was associated with between one and three
videos of instructional content. Using video clickstream data, we define
summary features (number of pauses, seeks) and contextual information (fraction
of time played, in-semester order). These features serve as inputs to a
logistic regression (LR) model that aims to predict student performance on the
laboratory assessments. Our findings show that LR models are unable to predict
student performance. Adding contextual information did not change the model
performance. We compare our findings to findings from other studies and explore
caveats to the null-result such as representation of the features, the
possibility of underfitting, and the complexity of the assessment.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, submitted to the PERC 2018 proceeding
Identifying features predictive of faculty integrating computation into physics courses
Computation is a central aspect of 21st century physics practice; it is used
to model complicated systems, to simulate impossible experiments, and to
analyze mountains of data. Physics departments and their faculty are
increasingly recognizing the importance of teaching computation to their
students. We recently completed a national survey of faculty in physics
departments to understand the state of computational instruction and the
factors that underlie that instruction. The data collected from the faculty
responding to the survey included a variety of scales, binary questions, and
numerical responses. We then used Random Forest, a supervised learning
technique, to explore the factors that are most predictive of whether a faculty
member decides to include computation in their physics courses. We find that
experience using computation with students in their research, or lack thereof
and various personal beliefs to be most predictive of a faculty member having
experience teaching computation. Interestingly, we find demographic and
departmental factors to be less useful factors in our model. The results of
this study inform future efforts to promote greater integration of computation
into the physics curriculum as well as comment on the current state of
computational instruction across the United States
Struggling to a monumental triumph : Re-assessing the final stages of the smallpox eradication program in India, 1960-1980
The global smallpox program is generally presented as the brainchild of a handful of actors from the WHO headquarters in Geneva and at the agency's regional offices. This article attempts to present a more complex description of the drive to eradicate smallpox. Based on the example of India, a major focus of the campaign, it is argued that historians and public health officials should recognize the varying roles played by a much wider range of participants. Highlighting the significance of both Indian and international field officials, the author shows how bureaucrats and politicians at different levels of administration and society managed to strengthen—yet sometimes weaken—important program components. Centrally dictated strategies developed at WHO offices in Geneva and New Delhi, often in association with Indian federal authorities, were reinterpreted by many actors and sometimes changed beyond recognition
Nonresonance impulsive higher order functional nonconvex-valued differential inclusions
In this paper, the authors investigate the existence of solutions for nonresonance impulsive higher order functional differential inclusions in Banach spaces with nonconvex valued right hand side. They present two results. In the first one, they rely on a fixed point theorem for contraction multivalued maps due to Covitz and Nadler, and for the second one, they use Schaefer's fixed point theorem combined with lower semi-continuous multivalued operators with decomposable values
General Lidstone Problems: Multiplicity and Symmetry of Solutions
AbstractFor the 2mth order Lidstone boundary value problem,y(2m)t=fyt,y″t,…,y(2i)t,…,y(2(m−1))t,t∈0,1, y(2i)0=y(2i)1=0,0≤i≤m−1, where (−1)mf: Rm→[0,$thinsp;∞) is continuous, growth conditions are imposed on f which yield the existence of at least three symmetric positive solutions. This generalizes earlier papers which have applied Avery's generalization of the Leggett–Williams theorem to Lidstone problems. We then prove the analogous result for difference equations
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