{"id":70482,"date":"2019-07-10T14:01:05","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T18:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=70482"},"modified":"2019-07-10T14:04:24","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T18:04:24","slug":"physics-phenom-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2019\/07\/10\/physics-phenom-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Physics phenom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Carissa Myers, who graduated from Wright State in May with a bachelor’s degree in physics, will pursue her Ph.D. at Michigan State after receiving a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. (Photo by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

Physics was simply an irresistible gravitational force for Carissa Myers.<\/p>\n

Even though she found the subject challenging, struggled with it in high school and initially picked chemistry as her college major \u2014 physics won out in the end.<\/p>\n

Today, the 2019 Wright State University physics graduate<\/a> is headed to Michigan State University to pursue her Ph.D. in physics with a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really big deal for the department and for Carissa when she got the fellowship. It is super competitive,\u201d said Myers\u2019 mentor Adrienne Traxler, assistant professor of physics. “I’m excited about the work that she’s going to be doing for it because it’s focused on opening the doors for other future students in physics.”<\/p>\n

Myers grew up in Cedarville but attended Southeastern High School in South Charleston her final three years of high school.<\/p>\n

She wanted to pursue teaching, inspired by her high school teachers and the enjoyment she got out of helping fellow students with their homework. But she wasn\u2019t sure what she wanted to teach. However, she realized she enjoyed the sciences, especially physics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did physics for fun, to some extent,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I was upset during the day, I would go do physics homework and it would make me feel better, weirdly enough. I liked the mental challenge behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, she actually struggled with physics in high school. So after enrolling at Wright State in 2015 as a first-generation college student and with a valedictorian\/salutatorian scholarship in her pocket, she declared chemistry as her major.<\/p>\n

But that changed after she took her first physics course with Traxler.<\/p>\n

\u201cI basically studied physics all the time even though I had other courses because I enjoyed doing it,\u201d said Myers.<\/p>\n

She also became a learning assistant for Physics I and II.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a learning assistant helps you learn how to communicate your thoughts with other students,\u201d she said. \u201cSo talking about physics is one way of learning. I don\u2019t think you ever actually learn something until you can communicate it and teach it to someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myers conducted several research projects in physics education at Wright State. One involved analyzing relationships between groups of students taking an Introductory Physics class, looking at whether students who have strong relationships and are highly connected with their fellow classmates do better academically in the class.<\/p>\n

Myers analyzed the students\u2019 online physics discussion forums to see if there was something in those group conversations helping them learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you could prove that group work is actually helping students, then active learning is very effective,\u201d she said. \u201cSo understanding what it is about group work is causing that correlation is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myers graduated May 4 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in physics<\/a> and has no debt from attending college.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really good to be able to say that. Wright State was a huge part of helping me fund my education,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Myers paved the way for her fellowship at Michigan State when she won an NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates award and spent last summer conducting physics education research at Michigan State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI highly recommend it for other students,\u201d she said of the undergraduate award. \u201cIt was life-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myers said she would not have been able to accomplish what she has without Traxler\u2019s knowledge and support.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the other physics professors are just as good,\u201d Myers said. \u201cAll of them have helped me be where I\u2019m at. My education would not be what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traxler says Myers is thoughtful, tenacious and insightful.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe thinks about things carefully and deeply. And she\u2019s really good at explaining her thought process,\u201d said Traxler. \u201cShe is also very collegial. She works well with other students. She pushes the people she works with to go a little further.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myers will begin working on her Ph.D. in physics at Michigan State in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will have a lot of knowledge of physics, but a big part for me is becoming more of a researcher,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to become a professor at a four-year institution where I both teach and do research.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carissa Myers, who graduated in May, discovered her passion for physics as a student at Wright State. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":70498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4299,2040,725,715,2065,746],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-profile","category-giving","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-physics","category-science-mathematics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70482"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70518,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70482\/revisions\/70518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}