Teaching Physics Students to Innovate

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Physics(13) The Department of Physics at Lawrence University, recognizing a need for greater innovation in the American workplace to arrest the current slippage in U.S. competitiveness worldwide, is investigating how to teach innovation as part of the undergraduate physics curriculum. A four-step methodology is being developed that will be implemented in two learning settings: summer research participation and two academic-year, laboratory-rich courses. The instructional steps include: 1) introducing students to innovation, 2) choosing targets for innovation, 3) moving ideas into action, and 4) testing and revising. With the expertise and equipment currently available at Lawrence, innovative work is focusing on the areas of optics and plasma physics. As the project progresses, course materials, laboratory instruction sets, selected observations and possible videos are to be developed and disseminated.