Improving Beyond-First-Year Physics Laboratory Instruction

改善一年级以上物理实验室教学

• 批准号: 1122993
• 负责人: Gabriel Spalding
• 金额: $ 45.18万
• 依托单位: American Association of Physics Teachers
• 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: 2011-11-01 至 2017-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1122993&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Improving; Beyond; First; Year; Physics

This project supports two synergistic programs aimed at improving one aspect of STEM education: beyond-first-year (BFY) laboratory instruction of undergraduates in physics departments in the US. The first program is a 2012 Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College (the BFY Conference), aimed at broad curricular impact. The second program is the ALPhA Immersions Program, focused on faculty-staff development, with sites distributed around the country. Each initiative is in response to and plans to feed back into national surveys. The BFY Conference initiates these programs by offering opportunities for hands-on exposure to a broad smörgåsbord of contemporary instructional labs appropriate to Modern Physics, Electronics, Optics, Advanced Labs, as well as key instructional labs in Statistical Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Quantum Mechanics, etc. These focused-topic portions of the program are designed to lead into discussion of supporting curricular models that improve the degree of cohesion and integration of the 4-year laboratory curriculum. Some of the most productive exchanges about modernizing curricular content, structure, and pedagogy emerge when the conversation is focused at the level of discussing particular courses or even particular experiments. So, each site of the ALPhA Immersions Program is offering focused faculty-staff development coupled with larger curricular discussions, and initial results demonstrate that this program will be an extraordinarily effective agent for curricular change. Each participant is immersed for three days in the details of a single, key instructional BFY laboratory topic of their choice. A month before arrival, each participant will be given preparatory reading and assignments, and after the program they will have access to (and be prompted for) follow-up support. Experts mentor the participants throughout the process, ensuring that participants can confidently update their curricula.Intellectual Merit: By disseminating 4-year models of instruction regarding interconnected topics such as single-photon interference, indistinguishability, entanglement, quantum correlations, and Bell's inequalities, the intellectual landscape of undergraduate physics laboratories is being dramatically modernized. In addition to disseminating contemporary curricular models, pedagogies, curricular content, and experimental techniques, this project promotes shared adoption of assessment tools, particularly emphasizing ones dealing with student conceptual understanding of quantum mechanics. All material is made accessible through the AAPT/ComPADRE archival website for laboratory materials. This project thereby addresses the relative stagnation of laboratory curricula that our survey data suggest exists in many programs throughout the nation. Broader Impact: An initial national survey regarding BFY laboratory instruction has been conducted, highlighting clear, common shortcomings among undergraduate physics programs. It makes a strong case that shared opportunities for faculty, staff, and curricular development in this area are especially important, particularly for the surprisingly large number of institutions where the relevant instructors must develop this portion of the curriculum in relative isolation. Critically, the initial survey results make clear that impact can be achieved by improving the professional qualifications and effectiveness of an identifiable and relatively small cohort of persons who collectively play a crucial role in the experimental instruction of nearly all students who major or minor in physics. The two programs described here can collectively impact a significant number of these instructors, and special efforts are being made to include those serving historically underrepresented groups.

该项目支持两个协同计划，旨在改善STEM教育的一个方面：美国物理系本科生的一年级后（BFY）实验室教学。第一个项目是2012年大学一年级之后的实验室教学会议（BFY会议），旨在广泛的课程影响。第二个方案是ALPhA沉浸方案，侧重于教职员工的发展，地点分布在全国各地。每项举措都是对国家调查的回应，并计划对国家调查作出反馈。BFY会议通过提供动手接触适合现代物理，电子学，光学，高级实验室的当代教学实验室的广泛smörgåsbord的机会来启动这些计划，以及统计物理，凝聚态物理，量子力学，这些重点--该计划的主题部分旨在引入支持课程模型的讨论，这些模型可以提高课程的凝聚力和整合度。四年制实验室课程当谈话集中在讨论特定课程甚至特定实验的层面时，一些关于课程内容、结构和教学法现代化的最富有成效的交流就会出现。因此，ALPhA浸入式课程的每个站点都提供有针对性的教职员工发展以及更大的课程讨论，初步结果表明，该课程将成为课程变革的非常有效的代理人。每个参与者都沉浸在他们选择的一个单一的，关键的教学BFY实验室主题的细节三天。在抵达前一个月，每位参与者将获得预备阅读和作业，在课程结束后，他们将获得（并被提示）后续支持。在整个过程中，专家会指导参与者，确保参与者能够自信地更新自己的课程。智力优势：通过传播关于单光子干涉、不可分割性、纠缠、量子相关性和贝尔不等式等相互关联主题的4年教学模式，本科物理实验室的智力景观正在显著现代化。除了传播当代课程模型，教学方法，课程内容和实验技术，该项目促进共同采用的评估工具，特别是强调那些处理学生的量子力学的概念理解。所有材料均可通过AAPT/CompADRE实验室材料档案网站访问。因此，这个项目解决了实验室课程的相对停滞，我们的调查数据表明，在全国各地的许多方案存在。更广泛的影响：关于BFY实验室教学的初步全国调查已经进行，突出了本科物理课程中明显的，常见的缺点。它使一个强有力的情况下，教师，工作人员和课程开发在这一领域的共享机会是特别重要的，特别是对于令人惊讶的大量机构，相关教师必须开发这部分课程在相对孤立的。至关重要的是，初步调查结果表明，可以通过提高一个可识别的和相对较小的人群的专业资格和有效性来实现影响，这些人群在几乎所有主修或辅修物理的学生的实验教学中共同发挥着至关重要的作用。这里描述的两个方案可以共同影响这些教师的显着数量，并正在作出特别努力，包括那些服务于历史上代表性不足的群体。