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Many students do not develop a significant understanding of physical concepts through a traditional teaching. By traditional instruction, we mean instruction that is similar in emphasis and approach to that found in most introductory classrooms, the use of end–of-chapter problems and the use of numerical and textbook problems on homework and exams. The Physics Education Research Group considers the design and implementation of research-based instructional modifications. These modifications help students to acquire a conceptual physics functional understanding. Students develop functional understanding when they transfer cognitive abilities among several physical contexts.

• "Improving Conceptual Understanding of Density Through Hybrid Instruction", Presenter: Jorge Dayer
• "Developing Techniques for Improving Functional Understanding of Vectors", Presenter: Leonardo Rodriguez.

Current Projects

• Transfer of knowledge from mechanic to electromagnetics
• Conceptual understanding through in-lab interactive videos.
• Design and implementation of conceptual-numerical labs.
• Abstraction level of physics concepts learning through a variation process. 

Publications

• Student use of vectors in introductory mechanics. American Journal of Physics 72, 460 (2004); doi: 10.1119/1.1648686
• Students’ difficulties with tension in massless strings. American Journal of Physics 78, 1412 (2010); doi: 10.1119/1.3490008