Upgrading the Lab Experience for Physics Majors

9452227乔伊纳·汉普登-悉尼学院是弗吉尼亚州的一所四年制文科学院，提供生物、化学、物理和跨学科领域的自然科学学士学位课程。物理系的物理招生人数异乎寻常地多，超过30%的学生参加了物理课程，这在很大程度上要归功于各级积极的实验室计划。该项目将在入门课程之后的四个课程中对实验室进行升级。选择的领域是核、低温和X射线荧光。在这四门课程中使用所要求的设备，预计将增加我们在毕业于入门课程的学生中对专业的保留。我们还预计，这些入门课程将对专业的数量产生可衡量的影响：考虑到我们目前3%的比例，物理专业毕业生占毕业班5%的目标似乎并不不合理。(如果达到5%，我们的主要生产率将是全国平均水平0.5%的十倍。)我们的两所当地高中和当地社区大学的学生也将在下午晚些时候获得所需的设备。

9452227 Joyner Hampden-Sydney College, a four-year liberal arts college in Virginia, offers baccalaureate programs in the natural sciences in biology, chemistry, physics, and interdisciplinary areas. The physics department maintains an unusually large enrollment in physics with more than 30% of the student body enrolled in a physics course, due in large part to an aggressive laboratory program at all levels. This project will upgrade the laboratories in four courses which follow the introductory course. The areas selected are nuclear, low temperature, and X-ray fluorescence. The use of the requested equipment in these four courses is expected to increase our retention of majors among students coming out of the introductory course. We also expect a measurable impact on the number of majors coming out of these introductory courses: a goal of 5% physics majors in a graduating class does not seem unreasonable, given our present 3% ratio. (At 5%, our major productivity would be ten times the national average of one-half percent.) The requested equipment will also be available to students in our two local high schools and in the local community college, on a late-afternoon basis.