Session G07: Topics in Physics Education

Group Exam as an Instructional Technique to Promote Consistency Checking in Student Reasoning

Many students tend to provide intuitively appealing (but incorrect) responses to some physics questions despite demonstrating (on similar questions) the formal knowledge necessary to reason correctly. While these inconsistencies are typically persistent even in active learning environments, we believe that adding a group component to the exam may engage students sufficiently to resolve these instances of inconsistent reasoning. In our study, students were given opportunities to revisit their answers to questions known to elicit strong intuitively appealing (but incorrect) responses in a collaborative group component of an exam immediately following a traditional individual component. Students discussed their responses with group members but were required to submit their own answers and reasoning. In this presentation, we will examine the effectiveness of a collaborative group exam approach in addressing and resolving inconsistencies in student reasoning and will compare the effectiveness of this approach to a more traditional peer instruction technique.   

Developing the First Two Years of an Undergraduate Physics Program - A Ten-Year Study

Oxford College (OC) is an undergraduate division of Emory University focused on the liberal arts education of 950 first- and second-year students. After their second year, the students move to Emory College (EC) to complete the remainder of their undergraduate education. Between 2008-2010, OC contributed only 5 physics majors to the graduating classes at EC. To expand student interest in first- and second-year physics courses and increase its contribution to the number of physics majors OC applied many strategies, including those recommended by the National Task Force of the American Association of Physics Teachers [1]. The strategies focused on creating a rigorous curriculum and an environment and evaluation process to meet the students’ individual needs. Among the outcomes were that between 2010-2019 the physics faculty grew from one to three, the enrollment of women in a sophomore-level course increased from 17% to 38%-50%, and OC’s contributions to the total number of EC’s physics majors increased to 19 in years 2017-2019. An additional 13 students are estimated to graduate in 2020 alone. This presentation will provide an overview of the applied strategies and their outcomes.

[1] R. C. Hilborn, R. H. Howes, and K. S. Krane, The American Association of Physics Teachers (2003).
  

“Not Required,” “No Required Minimum,” and “Optional” General and Physics GRE Requirements: The Impact on Prospective Graduate Students

When applicants search for graduate schools, they research multiple aspects of the programs and reflect on how well they envision themselves fitting into each program. Graduate program’s reported Physics and General GRE requirements, recommended minimum scores, and previous cohort score averages influence students’ decisions about where to apply. In recent years, the test-optional language of No Required Minimum and GRE Optional requirements has muddied the waters for prospective applicants, particularly for women. In this qualitative study, 54 graduate students (25-F; 27-M; 2-DND) from 23 different graduate programs were asked how they decided where to (and not to) apply to graduate school. All students felt welcome to apply to graduate programs whose admissions requirements stated GRE Not Required or Do Not Send. However, women were far less likely than men to apply to graduate programs that stated No Required Minimum or GRE Optional language on their admission requirements webpage. This talk will highlight (1) how students interpreted these phrases, (2) how such phrases influenced students’ self-reflection about fit, and (3) how these factors influenced their decision on where to apply to graduate school.   

Solid State Physics across the Undergraduate Curriculum

Solid state physics encompasses a variety of physics phenomena, including modern ones such as high temperature superconductivity and nanotechnology. Despite its appeal, teaching it at undergraduate level can present challenges, as students may not have the necessary physics background until late in their undergraduate studies. Faculty at small physics departments often need to teach a range of courses, spanning from courses for the physics majors to service courses for the larger student body, and hence they may not be able to offer solid state physics as an elective. In this context, I will present the approach I took at Austin College, a small liberal arts school, in incorporating solid state physics in our curriculum, from our first-year course to capstone projects. I have used theoretical, experimental, lecture-based and project-based approaches. The topics included superconductivity through synthesis and characterization of high temperature superconductors, and nanotechnology through synthesis of carbon nanotubes and deposition and characterization of thin films at nanoscale.
  

New Methods for the Advanced Lab

The advanced lab lives at the awkward intersection of irrelevance and capstone course. I contend that it has a big part to play in the future of physics education and that it can be instrumental in turning undergraduate majors into professional physicists and astronomers. Tools that can be developed and which can convince lower and higher administration to invest into costly equipment include: Embedding of lab goals into institutional goals, assessment, and career outcomes. Cultivating critical thinking and presentation skills. Creating belonging and rapport that appeals to minorities. Reinvigorating tired out majors into this-is-what-I-came-here-for mindsets.   

A Single-axis Tunneling Microscope for Undergraduate Labs

I will discuss the conception and development of a low-cost z-axis tunneling microscope (ZTM) for learning about quantum mechanics and electronic structure in undergraduate labs. Inspired by the scanning tunneling microscope, this device cuts costs and complexity for the undergraduate lab setting by limiting tip control to the tip-sample separation. To further reduce cost, an off-the-shelf ceramic capacitor (MLCC) is used as the piezo actuator [1]. Students can observe the exponential dependence of the tunneling current on barrier width (I-z), as well as the local electronic density of states (I-V) for many samples under ambient conditions.
[1] J. Chen and Z. Feng, Electron. Lett. 50, 538 (2014).   

The Tolman-Stewart Experiment – A Modern Interpretation

The Tolman-Stewart Experiment, published in 1916 by Richard C. Tolman and T. Dale Stewart, proved that the charge carriers in a conductor were identical to the electrons previously discovered in cathode rays and beta rays. The concept of free electrons in a conductor is still an essential building block of electrodynamics, and the Tolman-Stewart experiment demonstrates this in a fundamental way. Our interpretation of this experiment makes use of modern circuitry and computer control to better adapt the experiment for an advanced undergraduate lab course. We spin a coil of copper or aluminum wire up to sufficiently high speeds and brake it suddenly. This stops the nuclei, but the free electrons keep moving, creating a short-lived current pulse. This current pulse is amplified, converted to a voltage, and recorded using a simple circuit and data acquisition system. Modern rotational encoders accurately determine the rotational speed. Our results confirm that the charge carriers inside both copper (negative charge carriers via the Hall Effect) and aluminum (positive charge carriers via the Hall Effect) are electrons. This interpretation brings a canonical experiment to the advanced lab for the first time and yields compelling proof of the identity of charge carriers in a conductor.   

Statistical differences in over 1000 Student Lab Reports and 9000 Lab TA comments using new Experimental Design Pedagogy

At a rate of 700+ students/year implementation of this experimental design (ED) pedagogy, 4.5 years of data was collected. This ED pedagogy moves the lab culture from cookbook labs into inquiry-based deviations, and towards a research-based final project. Three ED thought spheres scaffold all labs into cookbook-based pattern recognition: measurements (M), calculations (C), and variations (V). Three ED connection pathways teach students how, when and why scientists critically think about doing science (regression versus derivation approaches) using 3 interconnected stages Design, Data, and Analysis. With Google Classroom, Lab TAs wrote feedback comments as well as the rubric-based grades for student lab reports in one term alone. We analyzed all comments in terms of total words, tone, complexity, and probing level. It was hypothesized that the tone of Lab TA comments were correlated to student evaluations; however, it was complexity, word count, and probing level of comments which were correlated to student evaluations (and final exam scores). We discuss future research into the differences between Teaching/Learning pair types: Judging Teacher and Obedient Student (Active-Reactive) versus the Socratic Teacher and Constructive Student (Reactive-Active).   

The Wolfram Language: A general tool for science education

The Wolfram Language (WL) provides a wide range of scientific data, tools, and algorithms for students of all levels. The WL includes an extensive knowledge base on subjects from the properties of subatomic particles to the details of orbits to the changing magnetic field of the earth. Students can engage with the WL in a wide range of formats. They can start out with simple natural language queries on Wolfram|Alpha, getting guidance on solving complex equations using its step by step functionality. Through the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, they can find thousands of dynamic examples for a wide range of physics concepts. In Wolfram|Alpha Notebook Edition students turn their natural language queries into actual code as well as make use of the Wolfram Function Repository which expands the WL with specialized independently submitted functions. Using the WL fully students can manipulate formulas with explicit units and physical quantities, propagate uncertainty in their calculations, compute eigenvalue and vectors, use advanced tools to solve ODEs and PDEs, analyze results using statistical models, create dynamic and insightful visualizations, employ machine learning algorithms, and utilize a wide range of other computational tools.   

Relating to Students via Simulation of Cutting Edge Experimental Physics (Virtual RIXS)

In contrast to other fields, it is difficult to satisfactorily explain the work of a modern day research physicist to an undergraduate physics major, even after the sophomore year. This is in large part because quantum mechanics is abstract, difficult, and counterintuitive. As part of a pilot project to address these issues, we present a PhET-based spectroscopy simulator (viewable at https://heldentodd.github.io/phetsims/RIXS-simulator/RIXS-simulator_en.html) and some related pedagogical materials for formal and informal education. Currently the simulator is geared toward exploring discoveries enabled by the recent advances in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS). This allows us to introduce ideas in advanced materials physics (electronic properties) to second year physics students as part of their mainstream curriculum, as well as to give students a better idea of modern physics research. Emphasis has been placed on developing basic concepts such as energy, momentum, electric fields, and elementary quantum physics. Student and instructor reaction to this project will be discussed, along with future education and dissemination projects aimed at both higher and lower level students.   

Controlled Studies of Stereoscopic Virtual Reality in Freshman STEM Classes

Stereoscopic virtual reality (VR) driven by smartphones is a relatively new tool for teaching concepts that rely on detailed three-dimensional visuospatial skills. VR has long been a topic of education research, and smartphone-driven VR significantly reduces the barrier to entry for both students and instructors and can be implemented for all students at once in the classroom. However, best practices for effective VR implementation are needed. To this end, we implemented VR interventions for freshmen physics, math, and engineering classes at OSU. In the physics course, our electrostatics VR module covered vector fields. Initially, we compared VR to traditional media, and in a follow-up study, we found that training in VR can have a small but significant effect on learning gains during a VR treatment. In a multivariate calculus course, students chose between various media for viewing content. In the engineering visuospatial thinking course, we found small gains when comparing modules with and without VR treatments. Overall, we find that VR is an effective tool for increasing student engagement, but that learning gains, when present, do not seem to depend on medium. Instead, a key factor is that students have a choice to use media that they are comfortable with.   

Virtual Reality Simulations for Solid State Physics Education

Solid-state physics is considered hard to grasp since it requires a strong background in math and quantum mechanics. Even with a solid knowledge of math and quantum mechanics, it is still challenging to visualize the three dimensional and even complicated two-dimensional structures. In the meantime, the spatial visualization of crystals is critical to understand the symmetries of a physical system.
We have utilized virtual reality simulations to improve the students' spatial visualization ability and help them to have a more interactive learning experience in a solid-state physics context. In this talk, I will present on the details of how virtual reality simulations are used as a virtual lab [1] to build different types of crystals and associate the lattice structure with the physical properties such as magnetic and electronic properties of solids.

[1] R. B. Loftin, M. Engleberg and R. Benedetti, "Applying virtual reality in education: A prototypical virtual physics laboratory," Proceedings of 1993 IEEE Research Properties in Virtual Reality Symposium, San Jose, CA, USA, 1993, pp. 67-74.
  

Teaching Women's History in Physics

Much effort has been expended to uncover contributions by women in physics and publicize examples of female physicists to students, largely to help female students see themselves in physics. However, the physicists who formulated the ideas taught in college courses were almost all men, and women’s absence from these important roles will be noted by students. If we don’t acknowledge and address their absence, then female students won’t feel fully supported in their decision to become physicists, since they’ll see women only in less influential roles. We need to discuss the social context in which these most influential physicists worked. Since the necessary combination of educational opportunities, family support, social acceptance, financial means, and employment opportunities were available to a much smaller fraction of women than men, it’s no surprise that a small fraction of discoveries were made by women. This talk will present a brief sampling of history, looking at the opportunities of three important male physicists—James Clerk Maxwell, Robert Millikan, and Albert Einstein—and comparing them to their female peers. Instructors might use a few minutes of class time to discuss this disparity, and simultaneously open the door to discussions of current social conditions.   

Teaching with Wikipedia-based assignments

Wikipedia is the most widely-used source of information, not only for the public, but also for many decision-makers and academics; the way that subjects are covered in Wikipedia drives the way they are discussed in the scientific literature (Thompson & Hanley 2017). But the quality of content on Wikipedia depends on the skills, knowledge, and interests of the volunteer editors who write Wikipedia articles.

Students in physics classes have the skills and background to add high-quality content to Wikipedia while gaining depth of knowledge about the subject and taking ownership of their learning experience. Since 2014, university students in physics and engineering classes have added over 400,000 words to Wikipedia articles using tools and support provided by Wiki Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving Wikipedia’s quality, equity, and reach. These articles were viewed over 7.5 million times in the semesters in which the students were active.

We will discuss our experience running assignments (Vershinin) and the overall impact of the program (Ramjohn). Attendees will gain insight into the benefits of trying this assignment in their courses, and will leave with information about getting started.