Philip Eaton

Assistant Professor of Physics

Phone:  701-721-4366
Email: Philip.Eaton@stockton.edu
Office: USC2-206
Website/CV:  
 

 

BIOGRAPHY

I was born, two minutes ahead of my DNA stealing brother, and raised in North Dakota. As a result I am what people call "midwest nice" and love to chat with people, likely strangers, about this, that, and the other. After spending a summer working on a farm and the next summer working on a wildlife refuge, I decided working in the sun was not as fun as I thought it would be. Coincidentally, I was taking a physics course at the time and decided to give it a shot in college cause it "seemed interesting." As it turned out am a bit of a math geek, so after getting my Bachelors in Physics and Mathematics at the University of North Dakota I decided to go to Montana State University to continue my education. From there I brought eternal shame to my father by getting my Ph.D. in Physics, his Ph.D. is in Psychology, and my twin won "brown-noser for life" by getting his Doctorate in Psychology. Finally, I won big in the casino game called "Job Hunting" and wound up here, Stockton University, looking forward to what life next brings my way.


EDUCATION

Bachelors of Physics and Bacehlors of Mathematics,  University of North Dakota
Masters in Physics, Montana State Universitt
Ph.D. in Physics, Montana State University

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Physics Education Research - Psychometric Analysis of Instruments

COURSES TAUGHT

PHYS 2230: Physics II
PHYS 2235: Physics II Lab

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am interested in the statistical functionality (i.e. psychometric properties) of assessments used to probe students' understanding of physics. I use tools like network analysis, exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis, and item response theory to extract information about assessments from student response data. This information is used to help future instructors/researchers better interpret students' results from these assessments and to offer suggestions on how assessments can be improved in the future.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Eaton, Philip, Barrett Frank, and Shannon Willoughby. "Examining the effects of item chaining in the Force Concept Inventory and the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation using local item dependence." (Accepted to PR:PER - 2020)

Smith, Trevor I., Philip Eaton, Suzanne W. Brahmia, Alexis Olsho, Andrew Boudreaux, and Charlotte Zimmerman. "Toward a valid instrument for measuring physics quantitative literacy." arXiv:2007.08586v1 [physics.ed-ph]. (2020)

Alexis Olsho, Suzanne W. Brahmia, Trevor Smith, Charlotte Zimmerman, Andrew Boudreaux, and Philip Eaton. "Online administration of a reasoning inventory in development." arXiv:2007.08621 [physics.ed-ph]. (2020)

Charlotte Zimmerman, Alexis Olsho, Andrew Boudreaux, Trevor Smith, Philip Eaton, and , Suzanne W. Brahmia. "Exploring student facility with "goes like" reasoning in introductory physics." arXiv:2007.10409 [physics.ed-ph]. (2020).

Eaton, Philip, Keith Johnson, and Shannon Willoughby. "Examining changes of student ability along multiple latent traits on the force concept inventory using multi-trait item response theory." Physical Review Physics Education Research 16.1 (2020)

Eaton, Philip, Keith Johnson, and Shannon Willoughby. "Generating a Partial Credit Grading Criteria for the Force Concept Inventory Utilizing a 2-Parameter Logistic Nominal Response Model" Physical Review Physics Education Research 15.2 (2019)

Smith, Trevor, Philip Eaton, Suzanne Brahmia, Alexis Olsho, Andrew Boudreaux, Chris DePalma; Victor LaSasso, Scott Straguzzi, Christopher Whitener. PERC Proceedings Papers "Using psychometric tools as a window into students' quantitative reasoning in introductory physics." (2019)

Eaton, Philip, Barrett Frank, Keith Johnson, and Shannon Willoughby. "Comparing Exploratory Factor Models of the brief electricity and magnetism assessment and the conceptual survey of electricity and magnetism." Physical Review Physics Education Research 15.2 (2019)

Eaton, Philip, Kinsey Vavruska, and Shannon Willoughby. "Exploring the pre- and post-instruction non-Newtonian worldviews as measured by the force concept inventory." Physical Review Physics Education Research 15.1 (2019)

Eaton, Philip, Keith Johnson, Barrett Frank, and Shannon Willoughby. "Classical test theory and item response theory comparison of the brief electricity and magnetism assessment and the conceptual survey of electricity and magnetism." Physical Review Physics Education Research 15.1 (2019)

Eaton, Philip, and Shannon D. Willoughby. "Con firmatory factor analysis applied to the Force Concept Inventory." Physical Review Physics Education Research 14.1 (2018)