Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2013
Volume 58, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 18–22, 2013; Baltimore, Maryland
Session B38: Focus Session: Building a Thriving Undergraduate Physics Program |
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Sponsoring Units: FEd Chair: Ted Hodapp, American Physical Society Room: 347 |
Monday, March 18, 2013 11:15AM - 11:51AM |
B38.00001: From Near Extinction to Academic Excellence: The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Physics Program Invited Speaker: Gubbi Sudhakaran A physics department that was on the brink of extinction has been successfully resuscitated into a nationally recognized program at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UW-L). The revitalization efforts included sweeping curricular reforms, aggressive recruitment, and retention of students and faculty. The reforms included the introduction of new academic programs for the majors, new courses for non-majors, a dual-degree program in Physics and Engineering, and opportunities for undergraduate research. The department uses several recruitment techniques which include contacting high school seniors in the region and conducting outreach activities to attract students to the program. In order to sustain and enhance the quality of the program, the department carries out comprehensive assessment of its programmatic goals on a regular basis. The department is also very successful in placing students with bachelor's degrees in physics in STEM careers at an exceptional rate. The success of the program in recruiting, retention, and career placement can be attributed to a combination of aggressive advising and flexible options designed to meet the needs and career goals of each student. The retention rate in the program is high due to one-on-one advising, involving students in undergraduate research at an early stage, and a very vibrant student society. Due to these initiatives, the department has maintained its growth over the years with 160 majors currently, and 29 majors graduating during the 2011- 2012 academic year. Recently, the UW-L Physics Program was selected to receive the 2013 American Physical Society (APS) ``Improving Undergraduate Physics Education Award''. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 11:51AM - 12:03PM |
B38.00002: Increasing student success Gay Stewart, John Stewart A more scientifically literate society benefits all STEM disciplines, as well as society as a whole. It is best realized by better serving all undergraduate STEM students. In better-serving all students, a physics department also benefits. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville physics department has seen a drastic change in number of majors, the number of students active in research and the number of graduates pursuing graduate work, while also increasing the number of majors who decide to teach. Prior to our involvement with the Physics Teacher Education Coalition, graduation rates had increased by more than a factor of 4 in 4 years. After the increased efforts when we became a part of PhysTEC (http://PhysTEC.org) our graduation numbers doubled again. Specific attention to class policy to impact student learning in our introductory courses and strong preparation of the graduate teaching assistants, and quality advising were our primary areas of emphasis. What worked to build these numbers and strengthen these resources at Arkansas will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 12:03PM - 12:15PM |
B38.00003: SPIN-UP Regional Workshops: Enhancing Undergraduate Physics Programs Robert Hilborn, Ruth Howes, Kenneth Krane Through a grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education (0741560), the American Association of Physics Teachers has been hosting a series of regional workshops for teams of faculty members from physics departments across the country. The goal of the program is to help departments develop and implement plans to enhance their undergraduate programs for both majors and non-majors. We give a brief overview of the Strategic Plans for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics (SPIN-UP) effort, the characteristics of ``thriving undergraduate physics programs'' articulated in the SPIN-UP report, and the six regional workshops. We provide data on physics majors' enrollment and graduation data at the participating departments to assess the impact of the program. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 12:15PM - 12:27PM |
B38.00004: SPIN-UP Regional Workshops: Texas Physics Programs and Physics Programs at HBCUs Beth Cunningham, Paul Gueye, Michael Marder, James Stith, Quinton Williams As part of the broader SPIN-UP Regional Workshops program, the American Association of Physics Teachers organized two workshops directed at specific audiences. In May 2011, Hampton University hosted a SPIN-UP workshop focusing on physics programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In May 2012, the University of Texas at Austin hosted a workshop focusing on physics programs in Texas, many of which were affected by a decision of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to eliminate degree programs (in all fields) that produced fewer than five majors per year averaged over the most recent three-year period. We will summarize the discussions at these meetings and what is being done to respond to the challenges faced by the physics departments attending the workshops. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 12:27PM - 12:39PM |
B38.00005: Learning by doing at the Colorado School of Mines Thomas E. Furtak, Todd G. Ruskell With over 260 majors, the undergraduate physics program at CSM is among the largest in the country. An underlying theme in this success is experiential learning, starting with a studio teaching method in the introductory calculus-based physics courses. After their second year students complete a 6-week full-time summer course devoted to hands-on practical knowledge and skills, including machine shop techniques, high-vacuum technology, applied optics, electronic control systems, and computational tools. This precedes a two-semester laboratory sequence that can be taught at an advanced level because of the students' experience. The required capstone senior course is a year-long open-ended challenge in which students partner with members of the faculty to work on authentic research projects, teaming with grad students or post-docs as contributing members to the department's externally funded scholarship. All of these features are important components of our B.S. degree, Engineering Physics, which is officially accredited by ABET. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 12:39PM - 12:51PM |
B38.00006: Physics Teacher Preparation as a Means for Growth Ron Henderson Physics departments across the country are experiencing pressures to increase the number of graduates. One response is to improve marketing and recruiting efforts to add students to existing pipelines. A more innovative approach is to create new pathways tied to career paths that are alternatives to graduate school. One occupation that currently needs more graduates than physics departments are supplying is physics teaching. About 3 years ago, MTSU began implementing a strategy to prepare physics majors for careers in high school teaching. These efforts included developing coursework specifically related to physics teaching, creating relationships with the college of education, moving to pedagogies that reflect physics education research (PER)-validated best practices, hiring a tenure-track PER expert, implementing new ways to reach potential majors, and seeking external funding. The cumulative result has not only added a number of physics teaching majors to our roles, but has affected our existing programs in a manner that has yielded further growth. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 12:51PM - 1:03PM |
B38.00007: Positive Aspects and Challenges Associated with Program Growth in Towson University's Physics Department David Schaefer Towson University's physics department has experienced dramatic growth over the past five years. Many directed and strategic initiatives have been implemented to increase student enrollment and retention. This has resulted in an increase from approximately 60 majors in 2007 to 115 in 2012. Graduation numbers have also seen a corresponding increase. This presentation will discuss efforts taken to produce these results as well as information related to the positive and negative aspects of growth. Future directions and plans to deal with challenges encountered will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 1:03PM - 1:15PM |
B38.00008: Retention at Departments of Physics Rafael Muller, Luis Rosa A thriving physics department is the end result of many actions, taken over time, that results in the development of a sense of community between the faculty and the students. As part of this sense of community, gifted students must receive special attention and innovative ideas must be incorporated to successfully accommodate the needs of these students. We have found that the best retention strategy for gifted undergraduates is the total involvement of them in undergraduate research projects and also the development of leadership in extracurricular activities within the department. A careful employment strategy is needed to secure a faculty committed to the goals of the community. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 1:15PM - 1:27PM |
B38.00009: Biological Physics major as a means to stimulate an undergraduate physics program Herbert Jaeger, Khalid Eid, Jan Yarrison-Rice In an effort to stress the cross-disciplinary nature of modern physics we added a Biological Physics major. Drawing from coursework in physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, and related disciplines, it combines a broad curriculum with physical and mathematical rigor in preparation for careers in biophysics, medical physics, and biomedical engineering. Biological Physics offers a new path of studies to a large pool of life science students. We hope to grow our physics majors from 70-80 to more than 100 students and boost our graduation rate from the mid-teens to the mid-twenties. The new major brought about a revision of our sophomore curriculum to make room for modern topics without sidelining fundamentals. As a result, we split our 1-semester long Contemporary Physics course (4 cr hrs) into a year-long sequence Contemporary Physics Foundations and Contemporary Physics Frontiers (both 3 cr hrs). Foundations starts with relativity, then focuses on 4 quantum mechanics topics: wells, spin 1/2, oscillators, and hydrogen. Throughout the course applications are woven in whenever the opportunity arises, e.g. magnetism and NMR with spin 1/2. The following semester Frontiers explores scientific principles and technological advances that make quantum science and resulting technologies different from the large scale. Frontiers covers enabling techniques from atomic, molecular, condensed matter, and particle physics, as well as advances in nanotechnology, quantum optics, and biophysics. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 1:27PM - 1:39PM |
B38.00010: Design of an Experimental Contemporary Physics Course which Develops the Full Experience of Scientific Research and Highlights Current Faculty Research Jan M. Yarrison-Rice, Herbert Jaeger, Khalid F. Eid From background literature searches and reading, to conducting experiments, to presenting results and writing a journal manuscript, Miami University has revised its second-year Experimental Contemporary Physics Course, Phy293, to follow a basic research model. We examined research that faculty were conducting and chose experiments which were strongly related to understanding the ongoing research in the Department, while being based in fundamental quantum mechanics and recent 21st century physics. Experiments often had common instrumentation and data analysis techniques which allowed for grouping them into 3 basic categories: 1) Spectroscopy of gases and solids, 2) Characterization of contemporary samples, and 3) Quantized systems in electronic, magnetic and nuclear physics. These experiments also supported our secondary goal of preparing students to enter our research laboratories. At Miami, we generally have between 25-35 second year students, so the laboratory course must be managed to maintain groups of 2-3 for the best student learning outcomes. We will report on course logistics, the grouping of experiments, and methods for assessing students' learning. Having run the revised, full experimental format of Phy293 a 3rd time, we feel confident stating that this course demonstrates to students ``how physics research in the 21st century is actually conducted!'' [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 1:39PM - 1:51PM |
B38.00011: Development of the Future Physicists of Florida A. Wade, C. Weatherford, P. Cottle, S. Fannin, W. Roberts, M. Fauerbach, L. Ponti, J. Sear We present the development of the ``Future Physicists of Florida'' (FPF) comprised of Florida university physics professors, middle and high school science teachers, and backed by the Florida Legislature. Our purpose is to address the lack of incoming college freshmen ready and willing to become physics majors. We will discuss the building of FPF and the development of a pipeline for middle and high school students predicted to produce the optimal number of bachelor's degrees in STEM. We will also discuss our use of community-building activities to educate the students, and their parents and teachers about the educational value of taking physics before going to college and potential careers in physics, to entertain them with fun physics related activities in order to peak their interest in physics, and to ultimately inspire the students to become physicists. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 1:51PM - 2:03PM |
B38.00012: A Thriving and Innovative Undergraduate Experiential Physics Program Bahram Roughani The thriving physics program at Kettering University has experienced a three-fold increase in the number of physics majors since 2002. Our unique physics program requires students alternate between on-campus academic terms and off-campus co-op work terms on a three months rotation format to complete their degree in 4.5 years that includes summer as either school or co-op term. Students complete a minimum of five terms ($\sim$15 months) of cooperative work terms, and two terms ($\sim$6 months) of senior thesis work. The IP of the thesis work done at a co-op site belongs to the company. This has attracted co-op sponsors for our program by removing the IP concerns. The cooperative and experiential education part of our program is required for graduation, without any credits assigned to it. At the end of every co-op term students' work performance is evaluated by their co-op supervisor, which should match expected performance standards. In addition to co-op and thesis, our programs include a senior capstone design project course, concentrations within physics (Acoustics, Optics, and Materials), a required technical sequence outside physics, as well as entrepreneurship across curriculum. The success of our student securing the highest paid jobs for undergraduate physics majors in the nation plus their success in graduate studies are the main ``Pull Factors'' that has lead to three fold increase the physics majors since 2002. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, March 18, 2013 2:03PM - 2:15PM |
B38.00013: A capstone research experience for physics majors David Jackson Dickinson College is a small liberal arts college with a thriving physics program. For years, one of the key features of our program has been a year-long senior research project that was required for each student. Unfortunately, as our number of majors increased, it became more and more difficult to supervise such a large number of senior research projects. To deal with this growing challenge, we developed a capstone research experience that involves a larger number of students working together on an independent group project. In this talk I will give a broad overview of our new senior research model and provide a few examples of projects that have been carried out over the past few years. I will also briefly describe the positive and negative aspects of this model from the perspective of faculty and students. [Preview Abstract] |
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