Building Undergraduate Physics Programs for the 21st Century: SPIN-UP Regional Workshops

美国物理教师协会与美国物理学会和美国物理研究所合作，正在为希望重振其本科课程的物理系教师团队组织一系列区域研讨会。这些研讨会建立在对本科物理创新战略计划（SPIN-UP）项目中蓬勃发展的本科物理计划的分析基础上[Robert C. Hilborn, Ruth H. Howes和Kenneth S. Krane,(2003)]。该项目的最终目标是让美国至少50%的物理系在三年内重振其本科课程。目前的项目是四个初步研讨会，涉及约80个物理系。该项目正在编写一份书面报告，分析讲习班方案的有效性，特别是对参与部门活动的影响。智力优势在于利用SPIN-UP报告中开发的分析，确定了蓬勃发展的本科物理课程的重要特征。此外，在万花筒项目主持下进行的试验证明，讲习班模式取得了成功。本项目扩展了这一模式，并详细评估了这一模式在促进教育变革方面的有效性。更广泛的影响包括为各种机构的大量物理系（最初系列讲习班约为80个）提供指导，以加强每年数千名学生的物理教学。基本目标是建立部门基础设施，以长期改善全国的本科物理课程，并提高学习物理的学生数量和学生学习的质量。

The American Association of Physics Teachers, in cooperation with the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics, is organizing a series of regional workshops for teams of faculty members from physics departments that wish to reinvigorate their undergraduate programs. The workshops build on the analysis of thriving undergraduate physics programs developed in the project Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics (SPIN-UP) [Robert C. Hilborn, Ruth H. Howes and Kenneth S. Krane, (2003)]. The ultimate goal of the project is to have at least 50% of the physics departments in the U.S. working on revitalizing their undergraduate programs within three years. The current project is for four initial workshops involving about 80 physics departments. The project is producing a written report analyzing the effectiveness of the workshop program and, in particular, its impact on the activities of the participating departments. The Intellectual Merit lies in the use of the analysis developed in the SPIN-UP report that identifies the important characteristics of thriving undergraduate physics programs. In addition, the workshop model is one that has proved successful in a trial version given under the auspices of Project Kaleidoscope. This project extends that model and includes a detailed evaluation of the effectiveness of such a model in promoting educational change. The Broader Impacts include providing guidance to a large number of physics departments (approximately 80 for the initial series of workshops) in a wide variety of institutions to enhance the teaching and learning of physics for thousands of students every year. The underlying objective is to build the departmental infrastructure that will produce long-term improvements in undergraduate physics programs across the country and to enhance both the number of students studying physics and the quality of student learning.