Upgrade and Modernization of the Introductory Modern Physics Laboratory

本项目是对现代物理入门课程二年级的实验室进行升级和现代化改造。有几个动机。首先，最近一个外部部门审查委员会在其建议中挑出了这个实验室。其次，对附近11所大学进行了一系列系统的考察，发现了许多需要调整和实施的新想法。第三，一位具有电光学专业知识的新教员为这个实验室提供了一种方法，使其在物理学专业的早期阶段成为一个令人兴奋的实验入门，并结合当前的研究。最后，新的教学模式表明，这个实验室可以更加以探究和调查为基础。该项目为新实验室配备了光学工作台、光学支架和元件、半导体激光器、1.0米光谱仪和CCD相机。该项目的目标是在现有电子和核物理实验室的模型上实现实验室的灵活性和可重构性，这样，一旦理解了实验，就可以很容易地修改以解决新问题。在赠款的24个月期间，实验室的基本实验将重新设计两次，一次在学年期间，一次在夏季，并且正在设计这些实验，以便易于执行。学生们被鼓励做出这样的改变，并以网页形式公布他们的调查结果，由教授/推荐人/编辑链接到课程主页。希望这个新实验室能对学生以后的专业作业，特别是大四的独立论文项目产生有益的影响。它还应该激励学生在第一年的课程中考虑主修物理。

Physics (13) This project is upgrading and modernizing the laboratory for the second year introductory course in modern physics. There are several motivations. First, a recent external Department Review committee singled out this laboratory in its recommendations. Second, a systematic series of visits to see what worked best at eleven nearby colleges revealed many new ideas to adapt and implement. Third, a new faculty member with expertise in electro-optics provides the means to make this laboratory, early in the physics major, an exciting introduction to experimentation, incorporating current research. Finally, new models of pedagogy suggest this laboratory could be more inquiry-based and investigative. The project is equipping the new laboratory with optical tables, optical mounts and components, semiconductor lasers, a 1.0 meter spectrometer, and a CCD camera. The project is aiming at flexibility and reconfigurability of the laboratory, on the model of existing electronics and nuclear physics laboratories, so that experiments, once understood, can be easily modified to address new questions. The basic experiments of the laboratory are being reworked twice within the 24-month period of the grant, once during the school year and once in the summer, and they are being designed so that variations of them are easy to implement. Students are being encouraged to make such variations and publish the results of their investigations in webpage form, linked by the professor/referee/editor to the course homepage. It is expected this new lab to have a beneficial influence on students' later coursework in the major, especially the independent thesis projects of the senior year. It should also motivate students in the first year course to consider a major in physics.