Physics Commons^™

Misalignments: Challenges In Cultivating Science Faculty With Education Specialties In Your Department, Seth D. Bush, Nancy Pelaez, James A. Rudd Ii, Michael T. Stevens, Kimberly D. Tanner, Kathy S. Williams

PIBERG Publications

Science Faculty with Education Specialties (SFES) are increasingly being hired across the United States. However, little is known about the motivations for SFES hiring or the potential or actual impact of SFES. In the context of a recent national survey of US SFES, we investigated SFES perceptions about these issues. Strikingly, perceptions about reasons for hiring SFES were poorly aligned with perceptions about potential and actual contributions reported by SFES themselves, and the advice they extended to beginning SFES was varied. While preparation of future teachers and departmental teaching needs were common reasons offered for SFES hiring, the potential and …

3d Systems' Technology Overview And New Applications In Manufacturing, Engineering, Science, And Education, Trevor Snyder, Mike Andrews, Mark M. Weislogel, Peter Moeck, Jennifer Stone-Sundberg, Derek Birkes, Madeline Paige Hoffert, Adam Lindeman, Jeff Morrill, Ondrej Fercak, Sasha Friedman, Jeff Gunderson, Anh Ha, Jack Mccollister, Yongkang Chen, John T. Geile, Andrew Paul Wollman, Babek Attari, Nathan Botnen, Vasant Vuppuluri, Jennifer Shim, Werner Kaminsky, Dustin Adams, John Graft

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since the inception of 3D printing, an evolutionary process has taken place in which specific user and customer needs have crossed paths with the capabilities of a growing number of machines to create value-added businesses. Even today, over 30 years later, the growth of 3D printing and its utilization for the good of society is often limited by the various users' understanding of the technology for their specific needs. This article presents an overview of current 3D printing technologies and shows numerous examples from a multitude of fields from manufacturing to education.

Weaving Experimental Skills Throughout The Introductory Laboratory, John Zwart

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The laboratory portion of an introductory course sequence can be used to meet a wide variety of goals ranging from illustrating phenomena studied in class, to building intuition about how the physical world works, to confronting the unexpected. Helping students develop experimental skills is a crucial goal that needs to be addressed in lab, especially in light of the fact that most introductory textbooks do not specifically address this topic. Important skills that students should learn in lab include how to analyze data, how to communicate results and the art of designing an experiment. This presentation will discuss how we …

A Women In Mathematics, Computer Science, And Physics Course, Jim Crumley, Kristen Nairn, Lynn Ziegler, Pamela L. Bacon, Yu Zhang

MapCores Faculty Publications

Increasing women's participation is a concern in disciplines beyond
physics. As part of our Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science
Research Scholars (MapCores) program, we teach a women in science
class covering these three areas. Our course is a special version of
our college's first year seminar, which is a course designed to
prepare our students to read, write, and speak at a college-level. We
structure our FYS to promote academic confidence and interest in our
disciplines for the women in MapCores. It covers not only contributions
that women have made and barriers that women face in these
disciplines, but also research …

The Magnetopause: Bringing Space Physics Into A Junior Lab, Jim Crumley, Ari Palczewski,, Stephen Kaster

MapCores Faculty Publications

Undergraduate students often have minimal exposure to many subfields
of physics which are active areas of research. Space physics
is an area that is particularly difficult to expose students to since
it builds off of another area that most undergraduates see little of,
plasma physics. The magnetopause is convenient entry point
into space physics, since it can be modeled as a pressure balance, which is
a concept familiar from introductory physics. We use the Earth's
magnetopause as the basis for a lab for junior physics majors. In
the lab students analyze results from a NASA MHD simulation and
data from …

The Real-Time Instructor Observing Tool For Future Teachers, Cassandra Paul

Faculty Publications

Current educational research shows that students achieve higher learning gains in science classrooms when interactive techniques are used. As a result, we are seeing more high schools and institutions of higher education adopt interactive courses. Unfortunately, it's difficult for future teachers to envision interactive science courses because their experience as students has been dominated by traditional lecture. New educators need to know what interactive science classrooms look like, so that they can model this experience in their own classrooms. The Real-time Instructor Observing Tool (RIOT), a computer application that allows an observer to quickly categorize classroom interactions, can help with …

Increasing Interest Of Young Women In Engineering, Diane Hinterlong, Branson Lawrence, Purva Devol

Publications & Research

The internationally recognized Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) develops creative, ethical leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As a teaching and learning laboratory created by the State of Illinois, IMSA enrolls academically talented Illinois students in grades 10 through 12 in its advanced, residential college preparatory program. IMSA also serves thousands of educators and students in Illinois and beyond through innovative instructional programs that foster imagination and inquiry. IMSA also advances education through research, groundbreaking ventures and strategic partnerships.

Mapcores 2013-2014 Assessment Report, Kristen Nairn, Pamela L. Bacon, Jim Crumley, Yu Zhang

MapCores Faculty Publications

This is a report showing the assessment results for the MapCores (MAthematics, Physics, COmputer science REsearch Scholars) program at the College of Saint Benedict. Started in 2009, MapCores is a cohort-based program designed to increase women's interest and achievement in mathematics, physics, computer science and engineering. The report was submitted for the National Science Foundation grant number 0965705.

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis As A Laboratory Activity: At The Interface Of Physics And The Body, Elliot Mylott, Ellynne Marie Kutschera, Ralf Widenhorn

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present a novel laboratory activity on RC circuits aimed at introductory physics students in life-science majors. The activity teaches principles of RC circuits by connecting ac-circuit concepts to bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) using a custom-designed educational BIA device. The activity shows how a BIA device works and how current, voltage, and impedance measurements relate to bioelectrical characteristics of the human body. From this, useful observations can be made including body water, fat-free mass, and body fat percentage. The laboratory is engaging to pre-health and life-science students, as well as engineering students who are given the opportunity to observe electrical …

Grading By Response Category: A Simple Method For Providing Students With Meaningful Feedback On Exams In Large Courses, Cassandra Paul, Wendell Potter, Brenda Weiss

Faculty Publications

As instructors, we want our students to develop a deep understanding of course material, and feedback is essential in their sense-making process. Providing effective individualized feedback to students in large courses is especially difficult. While researcherssuggest,1 and many instructors of large courses are,2,3incorporating interactive techniques that allow peer feedback, studies have shown that it's important for students to also have direct feedback from the instructor.4 Since the requirement for individualized feedback is difficult to meet during class time in large courses, providing effective feedback on exams and quizzes takes on added importance. Some instructors choose to …

Wrinkling In Buckling And A Thin Sheet, Narayanan Menon

Patterns Around Us

Module 1: Euler Buckling

Learning Objectives:

• What is an instability? A sudden change in behaviour in response to a small change in conditions.

• Instabilities usually involve a change in symmetry from a more symmetric situation to a less symmetric one

• The mechanism for an instability usually involves two competing forces (one force stabilizing the symmetric state, and the other one destabilizing it), with one suddenly winning the contest

• These competing forces in thin objects are often the forces of compression (destabilizing force - favors buckling or wrinkling) and of bending (stabilizing force).

Understanding by data collapse, the power of using …

2013-2014 Newsletter, Morton Sternheim

STEM Education Institute Newsletters

Patterns Workshop

iCons

New! MassBioEd Seminars

Arsenic: Citizen Science

STEM DIGITAL online

Nanotechnology

Kinesthetic Activities For The Classroom, Elliot E. Mylott, Justin C. Dunlap, Lester Lampert, Ralf Widenhorn

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Educators have found that kinesthetic involvement in an experiment or demonstration can engage students in a powerful way. With that as our goal, we developed three activities that allow students to connect with and quantitatively explore key physics principles from mechanics with three fun physical challenges. By presenting these activities as competitions, we can challenge students to use what they know about the relevant physics to improve their performance and beat their own score or those of other students. Each activity uses an original, real-time data collecting program that offers students and educators a simple, clear method to demonstrate various …