The chicken and the egg problem of academic productivity

May 22, 2019 Nick Young

The chicken and the egg problem of academic productivity

Faculty at more prestigious universities tend to publish more. However, faculty at prestigious universities tend to be trained at prestigious universities. So it is the training or their current position that causes their productivity bump?

May 1, 2019 Nick Young

Sexual harassment is a problem in physics

75% of undergraduate women in physics report experiencing some form of sexual harassment.

April 24, 2019 Nick Young

Virtual Labs vs Physical Labs: does it matter?

Physics labs can be done with physical equipment or done virtually. It appears each has its own benefits.

April 10, 2019 Nick Young

Will I get worse student evaluations if I switch to active learning? Probably not.

Many instructors fear that switching from lecture to active learning will result in worse student evaluations. That doesn’t appear to be the case.

March 27, 2019 Nick Young

This title is like an analogy; it should explain this post but it really doesn’t.

Analogies are used all of the time in physics education. But what makes a good analogy?

March 13, 2019 Nick Young

That’s no schematic, it’s a power box

Today’s post introduces a new type of representation for understanding circuits, the power box with multiple examples.

February 27, 2019 Nick Young

Hey instructors, your beliefs can affect students’ grades (and not in a positive way)

Minority students in classes with fixed-mindset instructors do worse than in classes with growth-mindset instructors.

February 13, 2019 Nick Young

Is taking notes on paper better than taking notes on a computer? Y- Maybe?

Prior work has claimed that taking notes by hand is better than on a computer but this claim doesn’t appear to hold up.

January 30, 2019 Nick Young

The more decimals, the more confusion

As more decimal places are shown in data, high school students seem less able to draw correct conclusions.

January 16, 2019 Nick Young

Who feels more capable of doing physics: women with “A”s or men with “C”s? The answer probably won’t surprise you.

Yep, women who perform the same as men perform don’t feel they are as capable of doing physics.