Positions

Research Areas research areas

Overview

  • My field of research is Physics Education which focuses on topics such as problem solving, uncovering students' initial ideas about physics, the role of active learning and conceptual understanding, and how beliefs about knowledge and learning impact student behavior. My biggest projects have been designing and assessing curriculum in two interdisciplinary courses: introductory calculus/physics and introductory physics for life science students. My research also focuses on helping students connect meaning and mathematics and on uncovering cognitive resources that student bring to physics courses on which deeper understanding can be built.
  • Selected Publications

    Academic Article

    Year Title
    2017 Using the resources framework to design, assess, and refine interventions on pressure in fluidsPhysical Review Physics Education Research.  13:010125. 2017
    2015 Stimulated recall interviews for describing pragmatic epistemologyPhysical Review Special Topics: Physics Education Research.  11:020138. 2015
    2013 Reinventing physics for life-sciences majorsPhysics Today.  66:38-43. 2013
    2013 De- and Re-constructing Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences 2013
    2012 Rounding off the cow: Challenges and successes in an interdisciplinary physics course for life science studentsAmerican Journal of Physics.  80:913-922. 2012
    2008 How students use mathematical resources in an electrostatics contextAmerican Journal of Physics.  76:570-578. 2008
    1995 A COMPACT REPRESENTATION OF GAMMA-RAY BURST TIME-SERIESAstrophysics and Space Science: an international journal of astronomy, astrophysics and space science.  231:119-122. 1995
    1995 SEARCHING FOR MULTIFRACTAL SCALING IN GAMMA-RAY BURST TIME-SERIESAstrophysics and Space Science: an international journal of astronomy, astrophysics and space science.  231:111-114. 1995
    1995 Periodic orbits of nonscaling Hamiltonian systems from quantum mechanics.Chaos: an interdisciplinary journal of nonlinear science.  5:261-270. 1995
    1993 Statistics and scarring of eigenvectors of a shell model.Physical Review E - Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics.  47:2405-2414. 1993
    1992 SEMICLASSICAL WAVE-FUNCTIONS OF NONINTEGRABLE SYSTEMS AND LOCALIZATION ON PERIODIC-ORBITSJournal of Statistical Physics.  68:97-130. 1992
    1991 QUANTUM LOCALIZATION ON CLASSICAL PERIODIC-ORBITSAnnals of Physics.  208:333-345. 1991
    1988 Quantum chaos in a schematic shell model.Physical Review A: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics.  37:3499-3513. 1988

    Conference Paper

    Year Title
    2013 Teaching Fluids to IPLS Students from a Microscopic Viewpoint2013 PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH CONFERENCE. 373-376. 2013
    1998 Quantifying variability in GRB light curves using multiscale edge detectionAIP Conference Proceedings. 201-205. 1998
    1998 Quantifying variability of gamma-ray burst light curves: Multifractal analysisAIP Conference Proceedings. 206-210. 1998
    1997 Wavelet based analysis of cosmic gamma-ray burst time seriesSTATISTICAL CHALLENGES IN MODERN ASTRONOMY II. 427-428. 1997
    1996 A compact representation of GRB time series using multiscale edge detectionAIP Conference Proceedings. 116-120. 1996
    1996 Quantifying variability of GRB light curves using multifractal analysisAIP Conference Proceedings. 57-61. 1996
    1994 WAVELET ANALYSIS OF GAMMA-RAY BURSTSAIP Conference Proceedings. 701-705. 1994

    Co-principal Investigator On

    Teaching Activities

  • Doctoral Research Taught course 2022
  • General Physics I Recitation Taught course 2022
  • Intro to Physics Rsch&Teaching Taught course 2022
  • Doctoral Research Taught course 2022
  • Mechanics/Mathematical Phys I Taught course 2022
  • Peer Led Team Learning-Physics Taught course 2022
  • Doctoral Research Taught course 2021
  • Intro to Physics Rsch&Teaching Taught course 2021
  • Mechanics/Mathematical Phys II Taught course 2021
  • Doctoral Research Taught course 2021
  • Mechanics/Mathematical Phys I Taught course 2021
  • Doctoral Research Taught course 2020
  • Mechanics/Mathematical Phys II Taught course 2020
  • Doctoral Research Taught course 2020
  • General Physics I Recitation Taught course 2020
  • Introduction to Physics II Taught course 2020
  • Introduction to Physics II Taught course 2020
  • Doctoral Research Taught course 2019
  • Doctoral Research Taught course 2019
  • Introduction to Physics II Taught course 2019
  • Introduction to Physics II Taught course 2019
  • Intro to Physics Rsch&Teaching Taught course 2018
  • Peer Led Team Learning-Physics Taught course 2018
  • Doctoral Research Taught course 2018
  • Introduction to Physics II Taught course 2018
  • Introduction to Physics II Taught course 2018
  • Intro to Physics Rsch&Teaching Taught course 2017
  • Peer Led Team Learning-Physics Taught course 2017
  • Introduction to Physics II Taught course 2017
  • Introduction to Physics II Taught course 2017
  • Intro to Physics Research Taught course 2016
  • Peer Led Team Learning-Physics Taught course 2016
  • Introduction to Physics II Taught course 2016
  • Introduction to Physics II Taught course 2016
  • Intro to Physics Research Taught course 2015
  • Peer Led Team Learning-Physics Taught course 2015
  • Honors/General Physics II Taught course 2015
  • Honors/General Physics I Taught course 2014
  • Intro to Physics Research Taught course 2014
  • Peer Led Team Learning-Physics Taught course 2014
  • Honors/General Physics II Taught course 2014
  • Issues/Teaching &Learn Physics Taught course 2014
  • Peer Led Team Learning-Physics Taught course 2014
  • Education And Training

  • B.A. Liberal Arts&Sci/Liberal Study, St. John's College
  • M.S. Physics, California Institute of Technology
  • Ph.D. Physics, California Institute of Technology
  • Full Name

  • Dawn Meredith