Laboratory Adaptations for an Undergraduate Optics Initiative

卡尔文学院的一项新的光学计划正在为学生提供符合市场需求的光学科学技术培训，并在物理课程中引入光学专业和光学技术辅修课程。这些项目的目标是物理和工程专业的学生，以及准备在高中教授科学的职前教师。课程变化包括几门物理课程的重新配置，并引入了一门中级课程，名为“物理246：波、光学和光学技术”。基于导师/学徒的教学模式，本课程将采用完全整合的实验室加讲座的形式，卡尔文的科学教育专家已经在为职前小学教师开设的课程中取得了巨大成功。新的教学方法也将影响学生在新的高级实验课程“物理383-384：高级光学实验室”中的指导方式。该项目涉及中级和高级课程的实验室改造，因此光学项目可以有效地实现培养技术知识和技能的双重目标，并通过动手探究提供一种新的教学模式。这些实验室改编自其他机构使用的实验室以及PI和Co-PI的研究项目。物理246的课程主要取自马里兰大学温德尔·t·希尔博士的课程，他一直在提供建议。某些单独的实验室（包括中级和高级水平）是基于现有的实验和来自加州理工学院、哈佛大学、哈维马德学院和国家标准与技术研究所的教师的输入。还有一些是PI在激光冷却和俘获原子和等离子体诊断方面的研究以及Co-PI在二极管激光应用和光谱学方面的研究的自然产物。

Physics (13) A new optics initiative at Calvin College is providing students with marketable technicaltraining in the optical sciences and introduces an optics concentration and an optical-technology minor into the physics curriculum. The programs target students in physicsand engineering, as well as pre-service teachers preparing to teach science in high school.Curricular changes include the reconfiguration of several physics courses and theintroduction of an intermediate-level course entitled Phys 246: Waves, Optics, andOptical Technology. Based on a mentor/apprentice pedagogical model, this course willmake use of a fully integrated lab-plus-lecture format, an approach with which Calvin'sscience-education specialists have already had great success in courses for pre-serviceelementary school teachers. The new pedagogical method will also influence the way inwhich students are mentored in a new upper-level lab course, Phys 383-384: AdvancedOptics Laboratory. The project involves adaptations of labs for both the intermediateand the advanced courses, so that the optics initiative can effectively address its two-foldgoal of cultivating technological knowledge and skill and providing a fresh model ofteaching by hands-on inquiry.The labs are adapted from labs used at other institutions and from theresearch projects of the PI and Co-PI. The curriculum for Phys 246 is taken largely froma course at the University of Maryland taught by Dr. Wendell T. Hill, who isproviding advice on a continuing basis. Certain individual labs (at both intermediate andadvanced levels) are based on existing experiments and input from faculty at Caltech,Harvard, Harvey Mudd College, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.Still others are a natural outgrowth of the PI's research on laser-cooled and trappedatoms and plasma diagnostics and the Co-PI's research on diode-laser applications andspectroscopy.