Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2009 Spring Meeting of the Texas Sections of the APS, AAPT, and SPS
Volume 54, Number 2
Thursday–Saturday, April 2–4, 2009; Stephenville, Texas
Session F1: Advanced Lab 2 |
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Chair: Jimmy McCoy, Tarleton State University Room: Science Building 102 |
Friday, April 3, 2009 2:00PM - 2:24PM |
F1.00001: Advanced, open-ended research as part of the `standard' physics baccalaureate curriculum: Challenges and rewards Toni Sauncy There is little disagreement among most graduate school recruiters for physics (or related fields) or even technical employers that inclusion of open ended research activity is beneficial to the student. Often in undergraduate-only institutions, research with undergraduates is the primary avenue for scholarly activity for the faculty in the department, making the prospect beneficial to the faculty member as well. However, this synergistic activity brings about issues not faced by researchers at larger institutions including time scales, availability of non-faculty mentors and publication opportunities. However, at Angelo State such faculty-student collaborations have been a mainstay of the program. An overview of the efforts, problems encountered and solutions found in the quest to maintain and grow opportunities for research with undergraduates will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, April 3, 2009 2:24PM - 2:36PM |
F1.00002: A Reconfigurable Stepping Motor Charles Rogers, Richard Selvaggi Multiphase brushless actuators, commonly known as the stepper motors, are ubiquitous for many precision control applications. Developments in the microelectronics have lead to their use as efficient drive motors for modern electric vehicles. Understanding the physics and the control logic for interfacing these transducers continues to be important for scientists and engineers. An overview of the stepping motor principles and interfacing requirements is presented and a simple working model used to teach the concepts of stepper motors is described and demonstrated. This model was used to design a much larger stepper motor required to precisely rotate a massive optical system in the undergraduate advanced physics laboratory. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, April 3, 2009 2:36PM - 3:00PM |
F1.00003: The Advanced Lab Course at the University of Houston Rebecca Forrest The University of Houston Advanced Lab course is designed to help students understand the physics in classic experiments, become familiar with experimental equipment and techniques, gain experience with independent experimentation, and learn to communicate results orally and in writing. It is a two semester course, with a Lab Seminar also required during the first semester. In the Seminar class we discuss keeping a notebook and writing a laboratory report, error analysis, data fitting, and scientific ethics. The students give presentations, in pairs, on the workings and use of basic laboratory equipment. In the Lab courses students do a one week introductory experiment, followed by six two-week experiments each semester. These range from traditional experiments in modern physics to contemporary experiments with superconductivity and chaos. The students are required to keep a laboratory notebook and to write a four-page paper for each experiment in the publication style of the American Institute of Physics. This course introduces students to the experimental tools and techniques used in physics, engineering, and industry laboratories, and allows them to mature as experimentalists. [Preview Abstract] |
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