Improving Beyond-First-Year Physics Laboratory Instruction

该项目支持两个协同项目，旨在改善STEM教育的一个方面：美国物理系本科生的第一年以上（BFY）实验室教学。第一个项目是2012年大学一年级以上实验教学会议（简称BFY会议），旨在扩大课程影响。第二个项目是ALPhA浸入式项目，侧重于教职员工的发展，在全国各地都有站点。每项倡议都是对国家调查的回应和计划反馈。BFY会议通过提供实践机会来启动这些项目，提供广泛的smörgåsbord当代教学实验室，适合现代物理，电子学，光学，高级实验室，以及统计物理，凝聚态物理，量子力学等重点教学实验室。该计划的这些重点主题部分旨在引导对支持性课程模式的讨论，以提高四年制实验课程的凝聚力和整合程度。当对话集中在讨论特定课程甚至特定实验的层面上时，一些关于课程内容、结构和教学法现代化的最有成效的交流就会出现。因此，ALPhA浸入式项目的每个站点都提供了重点的教职员工发展以及更大的课程讨论，初步结果表明，该项目将成为课程变革的一个非常有效的媒介。每个参与者都沉浸在他们选择的单个关键教学BFY实验室主题的细节中三天。在到达前一个月，每个参与者将获得预备阅读和作业，在项目结束后，他们将获得（并被提示）后续支持。专家在整个过程中指导参与者，确保参与者能够自信地更新他们的课程。智力优势：通过传播关于相互关联主题的4年教学模式，如单光子干涉、不可分辨性、纠缠、量子相关性和贝尔不等式，本科物理实验室的智力景观正在急剧现代化。除了传播当代课程模式、教学方法、课程内容和实验技术外，该项目还促进了对评估工具的共同采用，特别强调那些涉及学生对量子力学概念理解的评估工具。所有材料都可以通过AAPT/ComPADRE实验室材料档案网站访问。因此，这个项目解决了实验课程的相对停滞，我们的调查数据表明，在全国许多项目中都存在这种停滞。更广泛的影响：一项关于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共同缺点。它有力地证明，在这一领域，教职员工和课程开发的共享机会尤其重要，特别是对于数量惊人的机构，在这些机构中，相关教师必须相对孤立地开发这部分课程。至关重要的是，初步调查结果清楚地表明，可以通过提高一个可识别的、相对较小的群体的专业资格和有效性来实现影响，这些群体在几乎所有主修或辅修物理学的学生的实验教学中共同发挥着至关重要的作用。这里描述的两个项目可以共同影响相当数量的这些教师，并且正在做出特别努力，包括那些服务于历史上代表性不足的群体的教师。

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.