Significant, perhaps unprecedented, attention is being paid to the needs
for transformation within the fields of science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at the
undergraduate level. This talk examines how higher education STEM
disciplines, and physics departments in particular, are positioned to
contribute to these discussions. I will review the growth of our own
program in physics education research (PER) at CU-Boulder. This work
develops a new theoretical line of inquiry in physics education research
through experimental work at the individual, the course, and the
departmental scales. I present samples of these scales reviewing: how
we can build on understanding of student reasoning to study and
transform our upper division courses (E/M and advanced laboratories),
studies of how our environments do and do not support women in physics,
and time permitting, an examination of what the data say about teaching
physics through a massively open online course (MOOC).
PLEASE NOTE: ROOM CHANGE