Creating a Modern Physics Course: Visualization and Computation for Undergraduate Physics Majors

理工科专业的学生在第三学期第一次认真学习二十世纪的物理学，通常被称为现代物理学。现代物理课程在培养未来的科学家和工程师方面具有独特的作用。物理学专业的学生开始研究当代物理学家感兴趣的话题；工程学和其他科学专业的学生有唯一的机会学习与微米和纳米技术相关的物理--这些领域对他们的职业生涯将是重要的。然而，目前的课程几乎没有改变，以反映关于学生学习、计算技术或基础量子物理最新研究进展的知识。我们正在现有的工作(主要是视觉量子力学)的基础上创建一门新的现代物理课程。这门现代的现代物理课程将利用现代的教学方法，基于对学生如何学习物理、计算和可视化技术的研究，以及最新的基础研究成果。要开发的材料包括帮助学生可视化量子物理概念的工具、简单的动手活动和计算工具的模板。这些材料中的许多将是视觉量子力学材料的扩展。从这些现有的量子教学材料开始，该项目将能够以相对较低的成本完成这一努力。该项目将得到一个咨询委员会的建议和指导，该委员会的成员是根据他们在现代物理教学方面的知识和先前的工作而被挑选出来的。在材料发布用于商业分发之前，现场测试人员将完成广泛的测试，他们将在全国各地的课堂上使用这些材料。结果将是一套现代学习材料，为理工科学生提供了解当代物理的机会。

Science and engineering majors first encounter a serious study of Twentieth Century physics, frequently called Modern Physics, in their third semester. The Modern Physics course has a unique role in the education of future scientists and engineers. Physics students begin their study of topics of interest to contemporary physicists; engineering and other science majors have their only opportunity to study physics related to micro-and nano-technology - areas which will be of importance to their careers. Yet, the present course has changed little to reflect knowledge about student learning, computational technology, or recent research advances in fundamental quantum physics. We are building on existing work (primarily Visual Quantum Mechanics) to create a new Modern Physics course. This modern Modern Physics course will utilize contemporary teaching-learning methods which are based on research into how students learn physics, computational and visualization techniques, and recent fundamental research results. Included in the materials to be developed are tools which will help students visualize the concepts of quantum physics, simple hands-on activities, and templates for computational tools. Many of these materials will be expansions of Visual Quantum Mechanics materials. By beginning with these existing quantum teaching-learning materials the project will be able to complete this effort at a relatively low cost. The project will receive advice and direction from an advisory committee whose members have been selected for their knowledge and previous work in teaching modern physics. Before the materials are released for commercial distribution extensive testing will be completed by field testers who will use the materials in classes throughout the country. The result will be a set of modern learning materials which provide the opportunity for science and engineering students to learn about contemporary physics.