Why do students struggle with physics? Why are more negative feelings associated with physics than, say, math? Why do so few female or minority students become physics majors? Most importantly, is there anything we can do about these depressing facts? Physics education research (PER) strives to answer these and other questions concerning how, what, and why students learn in physics courses.

There are several ongoing PER/curriculum development projects going on at RIT. Dr. Scott Franklin has co-authored a new activity-based curriculum for non-science majors, Explorations in Physics, and is currently investigating the effect students' learning styles impact their learning. Dr. Anne Young is active in Astronomy Education Research. And Dr. Robert Teese is currently director of the LivePhoto project which is producing high-quality videos for use in introductory physics courses.