Individual Award for Excellence in Physics Mentoring

物理辅导卓越个人奖

• 批准号: 0938430
• 负责人: Richard Cardenas
• 金额: $ 1万
• 依托单位: St Mary's University San Antonio
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-06-01 至 2013-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0938430&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Individual; Award; Excellence; Physics; Mentoring

Dr. Richard Cardenas has served as the chair of the Physics and Earth Science department at St. Mary?s University since 2004. He facilitated the formation of the Society of Physics Students in 2002 and presently serves as the principal adviser to this group. In addition, Dr. Cardenas initiated the Fiesta of Physics Program in 2003, and since its inception the program has provided science education outreach to more than 15,000 families who live in the area surrounding St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. This program impacts low income, minority families who otherwise may not consider a science career or understand the role the natural world plays in their day-to-day lives. As a primary mentoring activity, St. Mary's students help develop the programming and conduct the experiments that they take to the various schools in the surrounding area. Over the past six years, Dr. Cardenas has personally mentored over 60 physics majors, and over 500 St. Mary?s students, primarily from the sciences but also from non-science majors, have participated in the Fiesta of Physics program. In order to prepare and teach the science experiments in Fiesta of Physics, students must have a good understanding of basic physics and other science principles and achieve deep learning that transcends the superficial memorization that often serves as knowledge. Einstein once stated that "if you can?t explain relativity to a six-year old, you don't understand it". Fiesta of Physics students have taken Einstein's observation to heart as they prepare to explain a variety of science principles to many six through ten-year olds and their families, many of whom indicated that they would like to become scientists in the future. In addition, the St. Mary's students develop greater curiosity and interest in science themselves, and over 80% of physics majors go on to attend graduate school to seek Ph.Ds. Many others go on to teach in area high schools. This Fiesta Physics Program reaches thousands of children and their families who have earlier not been interested in science and who are often taught by teachers who lack education and training in science fields. Frequently, science teachers recognize their limitations and actively recruit Dr. Cardenas to bring the Fiesta of Physics to their schools. Due to resource limitations, Fiesta of Physics has limited its programming to the Edgewood Independent School District, one of the poorest school districts in Texas. Currently, there is a waiting list of schools outside the Edgewood District that want to bring Fiesta of Physics to their students. To try and accommodate more schools, twice a year Fiesta of Physics provides programming through an on-campus extravaganza for all schools that wish to participate. Science demonstrations have helped the school children on the state-mandated achievement test. The Spring 2009 program had over 300 attendees most of whom were fourth or fifth graders. Increasingly, non-science majors who want to participate in community education outreach are being drawn to the program.

理查德·卡德纳斯 (Richard Cardenas) 博士自 2004 年起担任圣玛丽大学物理与地球科学系系主任。他于 2002 年促成了物理学生协会的成立，目前担任该团体的首席顾问。此外，卡德纳斯博士于 2003 年发起了物理嘉年华项目，自该项目启动以来，已为德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥市圣玛丽大学周边地区的 15,000 多个家庭提供了科学教育。该计划影响低收入、少数族裔家庭，否则他们可能不会考虑从事科学事业或了解自然世界在日常生活中所扮演的角色。作为主要的指导活动，圣玛丽的学生帮助开发程序并进行实验，并将其带到周边地区的各个学校。在过去的六年里，卡德纳斯博士亲自指导了 60 多名物理专业的学生，​​超过 500 名圣玛丽学院的学生（主要来自科学专业，也有非科学专业的学生）参加了物理嘉年华项目。为了准备和教授物理嘉年华中的科学实验，学生必须对基础物理和其他科学原理有很好的理解，并实现超越通常作为知识的肤浅记忆的深度学习。爱因斯坦曾经说过：“如果你不能向六岁的孩子解释相对论，那么你就没有理解它”。物理嘉年华的学生们将爱因斯坦的观察牢记在心，准备向许多六到十岁的孩子及其家人解释各种科学原理，其中许多人表示他们希望将来成为科学家。此外，圣玛丽学院的学生对科学本身也产生了更大的好奇心和兴趣，超过80%的物理专业学生继续进入研究生院攻读博士学位。许多其他人继续在地区高中任教。这个嘉年华物理项目惠及了成千上万的儿童及其家庭，他们以前对科学不感兴趣，而且经常由缺乏科学领域教育和培训的教师授课。通常，科学教师认识到自己的局限性，并积极招募卡德纳斯博士将物理嘉年华带到他们的学校。由于资源限制，物理嘉年华将其节目限制在埃奇伍德独立学区，这是德克萨斯州最贫困的学区之一。目前，埃奇伍德区以外的学校有很多学校希望为学生带来物理嘉年华。为了尝试容纳更多学校，物理嘉年华每年两次通过校园盛会为所有希望参加​​的学校提供​​节目安排。科学演示帮助学童通过了国家规定的成绩测试。 2009 年春季项目有超过 300 名参与者，其中大多数是四年级或五年级的学生。越来越多想要参与社区教育推广的非科学专业学生被吸引到该计划中。