Academic interests
- Using computation to support epistemic agency and creativity in physics learning
- Computational thinking and computational literacy in physics learning
- Applications of natural language processing to educational research literature and data
- Supporting and preparing learning assistants and teaching assistants in physics
- How students make sense of physics concepts
Background
Tor is an associate professor of physics education research at the Center for Computing in Science Education. His research focuses on how computation can be leveraged to support student creativity and epistemic agency in science learning, how students acquire disciplinary computational literacy, and applications of natural language processing techniques to analyze science education research literature and data. Tor holds a PhD in physics education research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his dissertation work focused on how undergraduate physics students make sense of abstract or tricky physics concepts, the specific strategies they use, and how instructors can help them in that process. Tor also holds a masters in physics from UW-Madison and a bachelors in physics from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Outside Interests
In his spare time, Tor enjoys playing and listening to Norwegian folk music (fiddle), and is also an avid runner, skier, woodcarver, and graphic novel enthusiast.