addressing the national need for new laboratory experiences in physics

ADDRESSING THE NATIONAL NEED FOR NEW LABORATORY EXPERIENCES IN PHYSICS

Ben ZwicklHeather Lewandowski

Noah Finkelstein

University of Colorado, Boulder

PER@C

Graduate studentsStephanie BarrBen Van DusenKara GrayMay LeeMike RossBenjamin SpikeBethany Wilcox

Really Recent PhDsLauren Kost-Smith

FacultyMelissa DancyMike DubsonNoah FinkelsteinHeather LewandowskiValerie OteroKathy PerkinsSteven PollockCarl Wieman (on leave)

Post-docsCharles BailyDanny CaballeroStephanie ChasteenLaurel MayhewAriel PaulRachel PepperNoah PodolefskyBenjamin Zwickl

The genesis of the project

Junior FacultyAMO Physics/JILA

HS

PhD, Yale

Instructor

Post-doc

BS

THE NATIONAL CALL

ONE MILLION…

…more STEM graduates in a decade!

The Gist

1. Keep USA economically competitive

2. Need a million additional STEM degrees over decade

3. Improve retention during first 2 years.

5 Recommendations

1.Adopt validated effective teaching practices.

2.Do research and design oriented lab courses

3.Fix the math gap.

4.Link new STEM graduates with new STEM jobs.

5.Create a Presidential Council on STEM Education

Also includes:More undergraduate research experiences

Grassroots efforts

• 100’s of professors and instructors• Innovating at the upper-division labs• 4 year lab curriculum

How can we respond?

Opportunities for involvement

• Students

• Physics Faculty

• Education Researchers

THE LAB TRANSFORMATIONLearning goals, renovations, course redesign, curriculum redesign, assessment

Particular opportunities of a lab

Ready for active engagement Significant investment

Lots of space

Expert experimentalists

Small class sizes

How can we take advantage?

Goal #1: Course transformationExcellent for students• Develop experimental expertise• Modernize• MotivatingExcellent for faculty • Easier to teach• Easier to manage and maintainBroader impacts• A target for our lab sequence• A model for other schools

No lab manager

NSF funded. Share it!

Goal #2: A PER Research Project

Expanding research in PER• Minimal PER in labs• What should a lab for the 21st century look like?• What are students really learning?

Research-based resources• Example course materials• Assessments• A framework for redesigning labs

Spring 2011 classroom observations

1.Clear goals needed.

2.Applications needed.

3.Data analysis help.

4.Lab reports heavily emphasized.

5.It’s the best lab course.

Science Education Initiative Transformation Model

What should students

learn?

What are students learning?

What approaches improve student learning?

Consensus learning goals Assessments

Research-based curriculum development

DepartmentFaculty

PER Postdocs

Development of Learning Goals22 faculty Literature Community

LEARNING GOALS

Modeling Design

Technical lab skillsCommunication

Model: • Simplified• Predictive• Limited

applicability

Modeling• Developing• Testing• Refining

Four broad themes emerged

1. Modeling

2. Design

3. Communication

4. Technical skills

Development of Learning Goals

LEARNING GOALS

Modeling Design

Technical lab skillsCommunication

Math-physics-data connection

Statistical error analysis

Systematic error analysis

Modeling the measurement

Experimental design

Engineering design

Troubleshooting

Basic test and measurement equipment

Computer-aided data analysis

LabVIEWArgumentation

Integration into the physics discourse community

Development of Learning Goals

LEARNING GOALS

Modeling Design

Technical lab skillsCommunication

Math-physics-data connection

Statistical error analysis

Systematic error analysis

Modeling the measurement

Experimental design

Engineering design

Troubleshooting

Basic test and measurement equipment

Computer-aided data analysis

LabVIEWArgumentation

Integration into the physics discourse community

Systematic error analysis

Students should be able to test and develop models for sources of systematic error in their measurement devices and systems under study.

Why?1. Understanding systematic error is regarded by faculty as

an expert skill, yet it is largely absent from our lab courses.

2. Modeling provides a natural framework for discussing systematic error.

Systematic error analysis

Overhaul of the entire lab

Before: Abandoned darkroom. Always locked.After: Modern physics.

Physically integrating lecture and lab

Old: Unused space Lecture across the street. Topics tangential to lab work.

“lecture” space in same room as lab

New: Space for 16 students Activities in

Mathematica LabVIEW Data analysis

Student oral presentations

Modernization of the optics labs

New: 10 versatile optics workstations research grade equipment More open space.

Standard optics workstation

4 Redesigned Optics Labs

A New Suite of Lab Activities

RESEARCH AND ASSESSMENT Developing a framework of modeling in experiment Students’ expertise in modeling Assessing students’ attitudes about experiment Experimental skills development (computation, design, …)

Modeling (almost) a century ago“In 1930, I wondered how Newton’s laws of motion could give such a good description of phenomena studied in the undergraduate laboratory which was an integral part of Physics 1A. After some fruitless speculations, I decided that the most important object of physics was to study interesting laboratory phenomena, and to try to make a mathematical model in which the mathematical symbols imitated, in a way to be determined, the motions of the physical system. I regarded this as a game, to be taken seriously only if it worked well.”

-Willis Lamb 1955 Nobel Prize for the “Lamb Shift”

Modeling in the 1980’s“For the most part, the modeling theory should appear obvious to physicists, since it is supposed to provide an explicit formulation of things they know very well. That does not mean that the theory is trivial or unnecessary. Much of the knowledge it explicates is so basic and well known to physicists that they take it for granted and fail to realize that it should be taught to students.”

-David Hestenes

Theoretical physicists and innovator of the model-centered instructional strategy in physics a.k.a. “Modeling Instruction”

Modeling in high school and intro college

High School

Approx. 10% of HS physics courses

Intro college (examples)

Rutgers physics lab for non-majors

Intro calculus-based physics

RealTime Physics Labs (Wiley): Technology enhanced modeling

But will it work in the upper-division lab course?

If so, what would a “model-centered” curriculum look like?

Modeling is implicit in traditional labs

Key ingredients of the traditional lab:1) Interesting physical systems: complex, but model-able.

2) Quantitative comparison between theory and experiment.

The main problem: Students only play part of the “modeling game.”Where’s the building and refining of models?

Toward a framework of modeling in experiment

Hestenes, D. Toward a modeling theory of physics instruction. American Journal of Physics 55, 440 (1987).

Description Stage

Formulation Stage

Ramification Stage

Validation Stage

David Hestenes’ Modeling framework

Essentials of a traditional lab course

REAL WORLD STUFF

DATA AND THEORY COLLIDE

Measurement probes

Real-world physical system

interrogated

ComparisonIs the current data good enough?

How can I get better agreement?

Stop

YesNo

“Theory” = a model of the physical system

Two contributions to the model:

(1) fundamental principles

(2) Specific situation

Two limits on model validity

Real-world physical system

ComparisonIs the current data good enough?

Specific situationIdealizations?

Unknown parameters?

Physical system model

PrinciplesApproximations?

abstract

predictions

Define a measurement model, too.

PrinciplesApproximations?

Specific situationIdealizations?

Unknown parameters?

Measurement probes

Data

ComparisonIs the current data good enough?

Measurement model

Results with uncertainties

Full modeling framework

Specific situationIdealizations?

Unknown parameters?

PrinciplesApproximations?

Physical system model

abstract

predictions

PrinciplesApproximations?

Specific situationIdealizations?

Unknown parameters?

Data

Measurement model

Results with uncertainties

Real-world physical system

Measurement probes

ComparisonIs the current data good enough?

How can I get better agreement?

Stop

YesNo

Improve the measurement model

Improve the physical model

Tradition:

No model refinement

-OR-

One parameter left unspecified

Example: Pendulum for measuring g

Specific situationSimple pendulum

g is unknown

Newton’s laws

Physical system model

abstract

predictions

Oscillationperiod

Simple pendulumTiming gate

ComparisonIs the current data good enough?

How can I get better agreement?

Stop

YesNo

Improve the physical model

Fresnel Equations Lab

Plane waveMonochromatic

Linear polarized lightInfinite dielectric interfaceDetector close to interface

Maxwell’s equations and boundary

conditions

T(θ), R(θ)

Photodiode,Op-amp

Defining “zero angle”Calibrating the incident

powerFinite detector width.

T(θi), R(θi)

Physical system model

abstract

Laser beam,Rotation stage,

Lucite slab

(angle, voltage) pairs

Measurement model

Photodetector,voltmeter

ComparisonIs the current data good enough?

How can I get better agreement?

Stop

YesNo

Improve the measurement model

Improve the physical model

Gaussian beam?Polarization?Absorption?Scattering?Second reflection?

Implications of model-centered approach

1. Model both measurement and physical systems.

2. Systematic error is integrated into the experimental process.

3. Lecture courses provide the modeling tools for lab.

ASSESSMENT

Just a cheap knock-off survey?

VS.

The Original CLASS

It’s new!

How do our labs impact students?

“Traditional introductory laboratory courses generally do not capture the creativity of STEM disciplines. They often involve repeating classical experiments to reproduce known results, rather than engaging students in experiments with the possibility of true discovery. Students may infer from such courses that STEM fields involve repeating what is known to have worked in the past rather than exploring the unknown.”

-” PCAST Report,, Engage To Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates With Degrees In STEM (2012)

Use learning goals for question topics

+ enjoyment, teamwork, confidence

E-CLASS DesignPairs of question

Postonly

Pre &Post

Actionable evidence for instructor

Gray, Kara, et al. Students know what physicists believe, but they don’t agree: A study using the CLASS survey. PRST--PER 020106 (2008)

Example: (modeling the measurement system)

Pre- and Post-semester

Post-semester only

Validation19 interviews. Students take survey and then explain how they answered it.

Ambiguity: “What do I think vs. what should I think?”

Add: “What would a physicist say?” (about lab class or their research lab?)

Modify: “What would a physicist say about their research?” (what about theoreticians?)

Modify: “What would do experimental physicists say about their research?” (final)

Initial implementationPost-test results from Spring 2012 in early May• 1140 (Intro) Experimental Physics 1

• 2150 Experimental Modern Physics

• 3330 Electronics for the Physical Sciences

• 3340/4430 Advanced Lab (Optics and Modern Physics)

Questions we can answer in December.Do we see any pre/post shifts in E-CLASS scores?Do transformed intro labs at other institutions impact E-CLASS scores?

Questions we can answer in May…Do students’ perceive course goals same as the instructors?Is there a progression toward expert-like attitudes, beliefs, and practices?

Conclusions & Open Questions

• Lab transformation is intellectually engaging, fun, and important.

• Students, faculty, and PER researchers all have something to offer.

There is a lot of work left to be done!

FOR MORE INFO

Personal website:http://spot.colorado.edu/~bezw0974/

Advanced Lab website:http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phys3340/phys3340_sp12/index.html

BONUS (DELETED) SLIDES

Comparison between pre-transformed PHYS 3340 and other institutionsTypical1) Mostly seniors. 2) 25-30 students per semester3) Optics and modern physics content

• Labs not connected to lecture course content4) Assessment based mostly on the lab reports.5) Fairly cookbook.6) Emphasis on statistical error analysis7) Expected 10-15 hours per week8) Students work in pairs..

Not typical9) The instructors rotate often (like the lecture courses)10) 10 weeks of guided labs, 5 week final project11) 2 “lecture” hours per week.

STM of gold diffraction grating

Full modeling frameworkReal-world

physical system

Specific situationIdealizations?

Unknown parameters?

Physical Model of System

PrinciplesApproximations?

abstract

predictions

Measurement probes

Data

Measurement model

Results with uncertainties

ComparisonIs the current data good enough?

YesNo