FFPER2019

The 2019 conference on the Foundations and Frontiers of Physics Education Research will be held in Bar Harbor Maine from June 17 to June 21.

Attendees

Schedule

Please see the dynamic calendar below, which is being updated as the meeting progresses.

Contributed Posters

Interested in presenting a poster at the meeting? All meeting participants are welcome to do so. We will not ask for titles or abstracts but are happy to write a letter that states you have presented a poster (this may be of help when securing funding).

Curious about what size poster you can bring? Please make sure your posters are smaller than 4' x 4', keeping in mind that you'll have a neighbor on one side.

Collaborative Groups

At FFPER 2019, conference attendees may organize collaborative groups on their own initiative. We encourage several different formats for collaborative groups, or you can design your own:

Discussion:

A loosely-structured (or unstructured) conversation among participants on a particular topic. Suggestion:“Personal and professional concerns of [group]”

Workshop:

A structured session in which presenters teach participants how to do a specific thing. Suggestion: “Statistics for physics education researchers”

Working group:

Participants collaborate toward some clear outcome, often a policy statement or advocacy plan. Suggestion: “Increasing the presence of PER in APS”

Poster session:

Participants present research posters on a theme. Suggestion: “Conceptual blending in PER”

FFPER organizers will support collaborative groups by designating time for collaborative groups to meet and providing meeting rooms at the conference. At the conference, group meeting times and places will be announced daily at the plenary session. To start a collaborative group, decide when you want your group to meet and announce your intentions to participants (in advance, at the conference, or both).

Graduate and Post Doc Symposium

Overview

Graduate students and post docs will have the opportunity to take part in a program in which they will write a short paper on part of their PhD or post doc research, give a talk, and participate in a peer review process. Participants will be assigned to small groups, each of which has a faculty mentor. The process is expected to benefit students' thesis research or post docs' research and possibly result in a publishable paper. Participants will also broaden their knowledge of PER, strengthen their communication skills, develop reviewing skills and get to know their peers.

Deadlines

March or April: Participants who have registered for FFPER 2019 apply to participate in the Symposium by submitting a request to Paula Heron.

Some time in May: Participants submit a short paper (see Paper Submission guidelines below) by email to Paula Heron, who will distribute submissions to peer reviewers.

Later in May: Reviewers deliver reviews (see Reviewer guidelines below) to faculty mentor.

Early June: Faculty mentor delivers reviews and letter to participants.

Collaborative Sessions (at FFPER)

Each small group will meet in a 90-minute breakout session, which will be open to everyone attending. During the session, each participant's work will be discussed. First, other members of the group will have the opportunity to ask questions and make comments. In particular, they will be encouraged to raise issues from their written reviews and comment on how the author responded. The faculty mentor, followed by the general audience, will then be invited to ask questions or make comments.

Guidelines

Paper Submission Guidelines

Papers should follow the format for PERC Proceedings (see here for more information)

Reviewer Guidelines

There is no set format for reviews. Reviewers are expected to provide constructive criticism aimed at improving the paper and the research it describes, not to judge its readiness for publication. For example, reviewers may: ask why a particular method was chosen and/or suggest a different one; suggest additional references; point out threats to the validity of the conclusions; ask how the results relate to broader research themes; suggest improvements to make figures or tables easier to read, etc.

Serving as a faculty mentor

Each mentor will read the papers of the particiapnts in their group AND read the reviews before they are forwarded to authors. The mentor will write a "cover letter" to authors that may help interpret and prioritize the feedback contained in the reviews. Mentors will also Chair the oral sessions.

Photos

It's always nice to share photos from the week. Click on the image below for more. We will provide information on how to add images to it.