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：为美国物理系本科生提供BFY后实验室教学。第一个项目是2012年关于大学一年级以后实验室教学的会议(BFY会议)，旨在广泛影响课程。第二个项目是阿尔法沉浸项目，专注于教职员工的发展，网站分布在全国各地。每一项倡议都是对国家调查的回应，并计划反馈给国家调查。BFY会议通过提供机会亲身接触大量适用于现代物理、电子学、光学、高级实验室的当代教学实验室，以及统计物理、凝聚态物理、量子力学等重点教学实验室，启动了这些计划。该计划的这些重点主题部分旨在引入支持课程模式的讨论，以提高4年制实验室课程的凝聚力和集成度。当对话集中在讨论特定课程甚至特定实验的层面上时，就会出现一些关于课程内容、结构和教学方法现代化的最有成效的交流。因此，阿尔法沉浸计划的每个网站都提供有重点的教职员工发展和更大规模的课程讨论，初步结果表明，该计划将成为课程变革的非常有效的推动者。每个参与者都将沉浸在他们选择的一个单一的、关键的BFY实验室主题的细节中，时间为三天。在到达前一个月，每个参与者都将获得预备阅读和任务，计划结束后，他们将获得(并得到提示)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的主题(如单光子干涉、不可分辨、纠缠、量子关联和贝尔不等)的4年教学模型，本科物理实验室的智力图景正在显著现代化。除了传播当代课程模型、教学方法、课程内容和实验技术外，这个项目还促进了对评估工具的共享采用，特别是强调处理学生对量子力学的概念理解的评估工具。所有材料均可通过AAPT/COMPADRE实验室材料档案网站查阅。因此，这个项目解决了实验室课程相对停滞的问题，我们的调查数据表明，全国各地的许多项目都存在这种停滞。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、共同的缺点。它有力地证明，在这一领域为教职员工和课程发展提供共享机会尤其重要，特别是对于数量惊人的机构来说，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，初步调查结果表明，可以通过提高可识别的、相对较少的一组人的专业资格和有效性来实现影响，这些人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关键作用。这里描述的两个方案可以共同影响到相当数量的这类指导员，正在做出特别努力，以包括那些服务于历史上代表性不足的群体的指导员。

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.