Collaborative Research: Paradigms in Physics: Creating and Testing Materials to Facilitate Dissemination of the Energy and Entropy Module

物理（13）统计和热物理的主题长期以来一直是本科课程中的问题。 对许多学生来说，这门课是抽象和理论性的，往往需要他们缺乏的数学工具。 该项目解决了通过俄勒冈州州立大学的物理学项目范例和缅因州大学的物理教育研究项目开发的能量和熵（E E）范例的基础上，教学上师热和统计力学的挑战。 E E对统计力学采取了一种完全不同的方法，将量子力学和测量问题作为其核心，并将熵作为最小偏差原则。 在这种方法中，热力学系统被视为大的，即宏观的量子系统，它们与宇宙的其余部分没有完全隔离。 这种外部相互作用具有巨大的影响，当考虑到热力学的实质时，热力学变量现在被理解为宏观量子平均值，热概率被理解为宏观量子概率。 熵假设在这场婚姻中扮演了最终的关键角色。 作为目前项目的一部分，正在进一步完善E E课程材料，并在俄勒冈州州立大学以及伊萨卡学院和太平洋大学的合作地点对这些材料进行实地测试，正在编写一份详细的教师手册，并正在进行一项教育研究项目，以检查这种方法和材料在支持学生在高级课程中学习这些概念方面的功效。

Physics(13) Topics in statistical and thermal physics have long been problematic in the undergraduate curriculum. To many students, the subject matter is abstract and theoretical and often requires mathematical tools they lack. This project addresses the challenge of teaching upper-division thermal and statistical mechanics by building on the Energy and Entropy (E&E) paradigm developed through the Paradigms in Physics Project at Oregon State University and a physics education research project at the University of Maine. E&E takes a radically different approach to statistical mechanics, incorporating the issues of quantum mechanics and measurement at its core and focusing on entropy as the Principle of Least Bias. In the approach, thermodynamic systems are treated as large, i.e. macroscopic, quantum systems that are not perfectly isolated from the remainder of the universe. This external interaction has enormous consequences that when taken into account clarifies thermodynamics' substance, with thermal variables now understood as macroscopic quantum averages and thermal probabilities as macroscopic quantum probabilities. An entropy postulate then plays the ultimate and crucial role of match maker in this marriage. As part of the current project, E&E curricular materials are being further refined and the materials are being field tested at Oregon State University and at collaborator sites at Ithaca College and Pacific University, a detailed instructor's manual is being prepared, and an education research project is being conducted to examine the efficacy of the approach and materials in supporting student learning of these concepts in advanced courses.