Modernization of the Douglas College Physics Instruction Laboratory

9352140莫尔纳我们正在现代化和改善本科普通物理实验室在道格拉斯学院，全国最大的女子学院，这是位于罗格斯大学。 在道格拉斯学院学习普通物理I和II的女学生主要计划主修数学、科学和工程。 其中相当一部分是少数民族学生。普通物理实验与讲座课程分开教授，主题联系薄弱。 它强调繁琐的数据采集和物理定律的定量验证。 为了给这些学生提供更好的教学支持，他们在普通物理方面比其他校区的学生做得更差，我们已经完全现代化了道格拉斯学院教授的普通物理实验室部分，除了将实验与每周讲座中所涵盖的材料紧密结合。 现代化包括引进计算机辅助实验，沿着更换过时的仪器。 我们已经获得了一打Macintosh微型计算机与实验室接口和传感器运行基于微处理器的实验室实验。 我们还更换了我们的空气轨道，光学和静电实验。 我们的目标是建立在我们的学生通过在实验室的实践经验的物理概念的直观感受。 新的实验是基于我们在其他课程中的迷你实验室的成功，它侧重于理解物理原理，因为它们同时在讲座中讨论。我们认为，通过改变我们在道格拉斯大学的物理教学方式来庆祝道格拉斯学院成立75周年，使物理不再是女性科学生涯的主要障碍，从而实现职业平等。 ***

9352140 Molnar We are modernizing and improving the undergraduate General Physics Lab taught at Douglass College, the nation's largest women's college, which is located at Rutgers University. The female students who take General Physics I and II at Douglass College primarily plan to major in math, science, and engineering. A substantial number of them are minority students. The General Physics Lab has been taught separately from the lecture course with a weak connection in topics. It has emphasized tedious data-taking and quantitative verification of physical laws. In order to provide greater instructional support for these students, who do more poorly in General Physics than students on other campuses, we have completely modernized the General Physics Lab sections taught at Douglass College, in addition to tightly coupling the experiments to the material covered in lecture each week. The modernization encompasses the introduction of computer-aided experiments along with replacing outmoded apparatus. We have obtained a dozen Macintosh microcomputers with lab interfaces and sensors to run Microprocessor Based Laboratory experiments. We have also replaced of our air tracks, optics, and electrostatics experiments. Our objective is to build in our students an intuitive feeling for physical concepts through hands-on experience in the laboratory. The new experiments are based upon our success with minilabs in other courses, which focuses on understanding physics principles as they are concurrently discussed in lecture. We feel it is particularly apt to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Douglass College by changing our way of teaching physics at Douglass so that physics is no longer a major hurdle in a woman's path to a scientific career, and thus, to career equality. ***