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To help prepare students to address future challenges in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), they need to develop 21st-century skills. These skills are mediated by their beliefs about the nature of scientific knowledge and practices, or epistemological beliefs. One approach shown to support students’ development of these beliefs and skills is problem-based instruction (PBI), which encourages collaborative self-directed learning while working on open-ended problems. We used a mixed-method qualitative approach to examine how implementing PBI in a physics course taught at a Dutch university affected students’ beliefs about physics and learning physics. Analysis of the responses to the course surveys (41–74% response rates) from the first implementation indicated students appreciated opportunities for social interactions with peers and use of scientific equipment with PBI but found difficulties connecting to the Internet given the COVID-19 restrictions. The Colorado Learning Attitudes towards Science Survey (CLASS), a validated survey on epistemological beliefs about physics and learning physics, was completed by a second cohort of students in a subsequent implementation of PBI for the same course; analysis of the students’ pre- and post-responses (28% response rate) showed a slight shift towards more expert-like perspectives despite challenges (e.g., access to lab). Findings from this study may inform teachers with an interest in supporting the development of students’ epistemological beliefs about STEM and the implementation of PBI in undergraduate STEM courses.

A compact detector for space-time metric and curvature is highly desirable. Here we show that quantum spatial superpositions of mesoscopic objects could be exploited to create such a detector. We propose a specific form for such a detector and analyse how asymmetries in its design allow it to directly couple to the curvature. Moreover, we also find that its non-symmetric construction and the large mass of the interfered objects, enable the detection gravitational waves (GWs). Finally, we discuss how the construction of such a detector is in principle possible with a combination of state of the art techniques while taking into account the known sources of decoherence and noise. To this end, we use Stern–Gerlach interferometry with masses ∼10 ^−17 kg, where the interferometric signal is extracted by measuring spins and show that accelerations as low as 5 × 10 ^−15 ms ^−2 Hz ^−1/2 , as well as the frame dragging effects caused by the Earth, could be sensed. The GW sensitivity scales differently from the stray acceleration sensitivity, a unique feature of the proposed interferometer. We identify mitigation mechanisms for the known sources of noise, namely gravity gradient noise, uncertainty principle and electro-magnetic forces and show that it could potentially lead to a metre sized, orientable and vibrational noise (thermal/seismic) resilient detector of mid (ground based) and low (space based) frequency GWs from massive binaries (the predicted regimes are similar to those targeted by atom interferometers and LISA).