We're the University of Georgia Physics and Astronomy Education Research group. We're involved in a variety of efforts to improve education at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Georgia and beyond. Current topics of interest include problem solving in physics, introductory physics labs, virtual and extended reality in astronomy courses, teaching assistant training, artificial intelligence in physics education, and graduate admissions in physics and astronomy.
What has G-PhAsER been up to?
July 7, 2024: G-PhAsER presents at AAPT and PERC.
Christopher, David, and Nick presented three talks and five posters at the American Association of Physics Teachers' Summer Meeting and Physics Education Research Conference in Boston, MA.
June 6, 2024: Nick gives talk at APS meeting
Nick gave an invited talk at the 55th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. His talk was titled "Toward a More Equitable and Effective Physics Graduate Admissions Process".
June 3, 2024: Nandana gives talk at Tech Ed 2024
Nandana's invited talk is titled "Effective Active Learning: Exploring Both Challenges and Solutions."
April 15, 2024: G-PhAsER members present at the University System of Georgia's Teaching and Learning Conference
David's talk was Investigating Lab Teaching Quality of Graduate TAs as Novice Instructors, Nandana's infographic was Evaluating the impact of exam preparation strategies on student performance, Nick's infographic was Using generative artificial intelligence to make course materials more visually engaging in STEM courses, and Robin's infographic was Enhancing Astronomy Education: Demonstrating Astronomical Phenomena using Immersive 3D Learning Experiences.
April 13, 2024: G-PhAsER members present at SACS-AAPT
David, Robin, and Zain presented posters at the SACS-AAPT meeting at the University of South Carolina and also served as panelists for an activel learing workshop. David also won the best poster award for his poster about lab QR codes in Physics 1251. Congratulations!
April 11, 2024: Robin defends his master's thesis
Robin's thesis is titled Enhancing astronomy education with three-dimensional resources.
April 8, 2024: G-PhAsER members present posters at Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities Symposium
Madison Ogle presented How Do Physics Teaching Assistants Adapt Their Pedagogy as They Repeat Instruction? and James Squires presented Improving STEM Education with Student Outcome Predictive Analytics.
April 4, 2024: Nandana wins two awards
Nandana has won both the Sandy Beaver Excellence in Teaching award and the Office of Instruction's Creative Teaching award. Congratulations, Nandana!
March 4, 2024: Craig and Nandana publish paper on changing career plans in STEM
November 11, 2023: G-PhAsER members present at the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society meeting
David and Robin presented posters about their research, and Craig gave a talk about integrating computation into the physics curriculum at SESAPS.
People
G-PhAsER is a community of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates at the University of Georgia. Click a photo to visit that person's professional website.
The G-PhAsER webpage is maintained by Dr. Nicholas Young. You can email him at nicholas.young {at} uga.edu.
Join G-PhAsER
Current UGA students
Current undergraduate or graduate students interested in getting involved in a research project should contact Drs. Wiegert, Weliweriya, or Young for opportunities within their projects.
Students interested in joining our biweekly group meeting should contact Dr. Young.
Prospective graduate students
Prospective applicants for the Fall 2025 graduate student cohort should contact Drs. Wiegert, Weliweriya, or Young for potential opportunities.
Post-PhD opportunities
There are no postdoctoral or faculty openings at this time.
