Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2018 Building a Thriving Undergraduate Physics Program
Volume 63, Number 3
Saturday–Sunday, February 10–11, 2018; American Center for Physics, College Park, Maryland
Session GPS: General Poster Session |
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GPS.00001: Sustaining a Thriving Undergraduate Physics Program Peter Sheldon, Sarah Sojka, Tisha Colvin, Peggy Schimmoeller, Katrin Schenk Randolph College has instituted a recruitment and retention program that has doubled the number of science majors in the last 5 years, more than tripling the number of physics majors. While the College has a total enrollment of 700 students and a physics department with 2.5 faculty, we have recently had 8-10 physics or dual degree engineering majors each year. The program includes a number of recruitment and retention initiatives, and was initially boosted by an NSF S-STEM grant. While the grant provided scholarships to two cohorts of 12 students, we have exceeded our goal to recruit 24 science students into our Step Up to Physical Science and Engineering at Randolph (SUPER) program each year, and to retain those students at a higher rate than the College as a whole. With a second NSF grant, we are now carefully researching the impacts of each part of our program. We will discuss the initiatives and research study implemented, and the sustainability of the programs and numbers of students. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00002: Successes of the Mines Physics Department: over a Decade of Effort H. Vincent Kuo The Mines physics department has consistently been one of the top producers of bachelors degree recipients in the U.S. over the past ten years. As an ABET accredited engineering physics program in a small, STEM-centered institution, the department focuses on the recruitment and retention of quality majors. From faculty involvements to student engagements, and from the redesign of learning environments and pedagogy to the reforms on curricular content and sequence, the department culture is one of collaborative advancement of knowledge and application. Indeed, it has been more of an engineering design project. This presentation will focus on the various synergistic and coherent efforts that have resulted in averaging 55 to 65 graduates per year. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00003: A Future for the Physics Program at Marshall University Maria Hamilton, Que Huong Nguyen, Sean McBride We address the many challenges faced by the physics faculty and students at Marshall University, the steps taken to build and sustain a viable undergraduate physics population, and the plans for a thriving physics program. For over a decade, the department has undergone a major transformation, changing from teaching-focused to a department more balanced between teaching and research. The department actively seeks more students and works to improve their graduation rate. In supporting these goals, the department hires faculty members with strong research records, promotes faculty and undergraduate research, and conducts many recruitment and outreach activities for students. Outreach activities are done at high schools and community colleges in the region, with faculty traveling to conduct hands-on physics demonstrations, and at Marshall University, with high schoolers coming to campus. Recruitment activities include open houses days, high school physics week, research orientation for college students, lab demos for high school students, building an active SPS group, hosting high school workshops, and maintaining a Facebook page.We are looking for more ways to make our department to develop, and to have a better program for physics students. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00004: Physics Department at Manhattan College Lubna Tumeh The Physics Department at Manhattan College provides students with a rigorous and challenging program with both theoretical and experimental components. We offer B.S., B.A. and minor in physics. Research~is both required and supported, whether in collaboration with a faculty member on campus or pursue an opportunity to take part in research with an outside organization. In a senior year our physics majors are actively engaged in cutting-edge research. Often external work is carried out in state-of-the-art national and international facilities such as Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Our students participate in analysis of Big Data from NASA astronomical space telescopes and from the Large Hadron Collider. This gives our physics majors an exciting opportunity to work not only with excellent MC faculty by also alongside the world's leading researchers.~Our students present their research results at international and national conferences, and publish articles in leading scientific journals. Major enrollments have been small with minor fluctuations. Freshmen class size has typically been from one to four Physics majors. Graduating classes have been from zero to two Physics majors. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00005: Physics Innovation and Entrepreneurship (PIE) Education in First Year Physics Courses Douglas Petkie, Jason Deibel The PIPELINE Network project is a group of institutions, working with APS, brought together to create, document, and disseminate new and existing approaches to teaching innovation and entrepreneurship at all levels across the physics curriculum. Companies that hire physics graduates recognize the value of a physics degree; however, physics majors often overlook the strong foundation that the degree provides for many career paths. When these aspects are coupled with the rate of change of the economy and its impact on industry and academic communities, it is ever more important for programs to explicitly incorporate Physics Innovation and Entrepreneurship (PIE) educational activities into the curriculum. Wright State University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute are part of the PIPELINE Network project and have a particular focus on contributing materials for first year physics courses. We will discuss these materials, materials we have adopted from the network, and the overall direction of the collaborative PIPELINE Network project. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00006: Preparing our students for downstream courses: how does modifying the curriculum impact student learning? Sarah LeGresley Rush, Michael Murray, Chris Bruner, Chris Fischer We wanted to explore how modifying the curriculum of an introductory calculus-based mechanics course would impact student learning. Currently, the curricula for most of these courses are structured with the concept of force introduced before the concept of energy despite the fact that, mathematically, it is simpler to learn and apply a scalar quantity than a vector quantity. With the idea of teaching scalars before vectors, we are using an ``Energy First'' approach that motivates the development of classical mechanics from the concepts of energy and energy conservation rather than forces. This ``Energy First'' curriculum also seeks to better prepare students for upper-level major courses by emphasizing calculus more than traditional approaches. Before implementing this curriculum department wide, we wanted to evaluate how it would impact student learning. Preliminary results of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) assessment indicate that students taught using the ``Energy First'' approach scored as well or higher on the post-test in the six topic areas (Newton's First Law, Newton's Second Law, Newton's Third Law, Kinds of Forces, Kinematics, and Superposition Principle) than students taught using the traditional approach. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00007: Building Career Preparation into Undergraduate Programs Brad Conrad In many undergraduate physics departments, the primary focus is on preparing students for graduate study. While these efforts are important, only about one in three degree recipients will go on to graduate school in physics. And while others will go to graduate school in other fields, a large percentage will immediately enter the workforce. With the need for physics teachers stronger than ever, this poster will outline how departments can provide and improve on the skills and resources students need for a broad distribution of destinations and career pathways. How to build topics such as overcoming obstacles, skills assessment, mental health, teaching as a profession, networking, and professional skills into existing courses will be discussed. Special attention is given to empowering students to manage their careers and informing them about teaching as a profession. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00008: The GCC Physics Department James Clem, Jeffrey Wolinski, Shane Brower, Doris Wagner, Glenn Marsch The department of physics at Grove City College (GCC) offers its 30$+$ undergraduate majors a comprehensive and diverse educational experience through meaningful research, innovating teaching, and state-of-the-art facilities. Our goal is to provide our undergraduates with the skills, knowledge, and experiences necessary to prepare them for a prosperous future in graduate work and other technical fields. The department's five full-time faculty specialize in a variety of disciplines, including nanotechnology, optics, biophysics, physics education research, and astrophysics and strongly encourages all students to engage in student-faculty research in these areas. We also have a large and active physics club with majors from multiple disciplines on campus, and we actively foster a sense of community through numerous faculty-student interactions both in and out of the classroom. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00009: Fix the roof while the sun is shining Earl Blodgett The physics program at the University of Wisconsin -- River Falls (UWRF) has weathered budget crunches and enrollment roller coasters for over 50 years by taking a proactive approach, rather being reactive. UWRF is a public comprehensive university with no graduate programs in physics, an enrollment of just over 6000 students, and 9 full time staff (8 tenure track). We expect to graduate about 20 physics majors this year, although our mean is closer to 15 per year over the past 20 years. In our poster, we will share some of the strategies that we have employed over the years to creatively redesign our program and curriculum to evolve with changing demands. As the title of our poster implies, the key is to take action before you get too deeply mired in problems. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00010: AIP Task Force to Eliminate African American Underrepresentation in Undergraduate Physics and Astronomy -- TEAM-UP Arlene Modeste Knowles, Bo Hammer The number of bachelor's degrees awarded in physics in the US is at an all-time high (8,440 degrees in 2016), yet the proportion of these degrees earned by African Americans remains appallingly low. Although the last decade has shown an increase in the number of physics bachelor's degrees earned by African Americans, it has not kept pace with the overall increases of physics bachelor's, nor with the overall rate of African Americans' bachelor's degrees across all majors AIP has established and funded a two-year National Task Force to Eliminate African American Underrepresentation in Undergraduate Physics and Astronomy (TEAM-UP) to investigate the reasons for the persistent underrepresentation of African American undergraduate students in physics and astronomy. This Task Force will produce a report of its findings with evidence-based recommendations for the physics and astronomy community -- particularly departments, funding agencies, and other stakeholders with the goal of significantly increasing the number of African American students obtaining physics and astronomy bachelor's degrees. AIP staff will share additional information regarding the Task Force, its mission, and proposed activities culminating in the Task Force Report. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00011: The Physics Program at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Joshua Hamblen We present an overview of the Physics Program at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. We are part of the Department of Chemistry and Physics and offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics along with additional concentrations in Biophysics and Physics: STEM Education. We consist of four tenure-track faculty and two lecturers. In addition to serving roughly 30 physics majors, we also contribute a significant service course load to the rest of the University by offering a broad range of courses in physics, astronomy, and general science. We will discuss the unique features of the program, the challenges we face, and actions we are employing to increase the number of majors. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00012: The Physics Program at Randolph-Macon College Rachele Dominguez, James McLeskey, George Spagna, Deonna Woolard Randolph-Macon is a small liberal arts college in central Virginia. Our physics department supports majors and minors in physics and engineering physics and a minor in astrophysics. We will present an overview of the department, including recent developments in our engineering physics degree and teacher training program. We will also describe the new Keeble Observatory, which opened this past year. [Preview Abstract] |
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GPS.00013: Using ALPaCA grading for course assessment Chris Fischer, Sarah LeGresley Rush, Jennifer Delgado Course assessment is a component of degree level assessment in our department and has typically been accomplished using student surveys and evaluation by peer instructors. While both of these tools have merit, we find them ultimately unsatisfactory since they do not probe the effectiveness of the instructor at moving the students toward proficiency in the course objectives. To address this shortcoming we have started to implement a modified version of competency-based grading or proficiency-based grading that we denote as \textbf{A}ssessment of \textbf{L}earning \textbf{P}roficiency \textbf{a}nd \textbf{C}ompetency \textbf{A}chievement (ALPaCA). In ALPaCA, we assign each problem on any graded activity to one or more specific learning objectives for the course. A student's grade in the course is then determined by the extent to which she or he has demonstrated proficiency or competency with each objective. The initial analysis of ALPaCA results obtained in general physics II has uncovered that while most students in this course are able to solve directed problems involving calculus, a smaller fraction of students can solve undirected problems involving calculus. This information points to students' inability to transfer skills from calculus courses into physics courses, and provides concrete targets for improvement in instruction. [Preview Abstract] |
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