American Association of Physics Teachers
Chesapeake Section

Physics Education Research and a New Model Course in Applied Quantum Physics^*
Michael C. Wittmann, University of Maryland, wittmann@physics.umd.edu

As microscopic models of nature become more relevant for scientists and engineers, course materials must be adapted to fit their needs. The Physics Education Research Group at the University of Maryland has been conducting systematic investigations into student understanding of topics in modern physics and elementary quantum mechanics. We use this research as a guide to curriculum development and instruction. Our target audience is primarily the sophomore and junior level engineering class at the University of Maryland, but the research results and curriculum are relevant to all classes that cover topics in modern physics or quantum mechanics. In this workshop we will describe the research and work through sample materials. Participants will receive copies of the curriculum materials, including relevant software, tutorials, and applied homework problems.
^*sponsored in part by NSF grant DUE9652877 and Department of Education FIPSE grants 116B70186 and 116BOO0300.

The workshop will cover demonstrations and materials for teaching about color and color vision, including colors from additive and subtractive color mixing, use of the slit and anti-slit demonstration, a demonstration of the Land color vision experiment, and different spectral sources. Participants will use a packet of materials which they may keep for a cost of $10. Limit of 20 participants.

Saturday, November 4
starting at 8:30am
Pungo Building (F-133), Tidewater Community College

"Modern Physics and the Mathematical World": A New Course
George DeRise, Thomas Nelson Community College, gderise@tncc.cc.va.us

This new course is designed for Math majors who have completed two years of college mathematics and have no physics background at all. It contains "what every Math major must know about Physics". It provides an introduction to the concepts of modern physics from a semi-intuitive, semi-technical level. It includes exciting topics like the big bang, black holes, string theory, quantum geometry etc.The course was first presented at Christopher Newport University as Math 395 (Summer 2000) and was very well received.

Pasting Schwarzschild Charts Together
Lincoln E. Bragg

I will explain the chart geometry at the gap between the two Schwarzschild charts that describe the event-world geometry near a gravitational center. The explanations are accessible to physics teachers, their students, and their eating and drinking companions. It is always clear that established writers have developed a perhaps inexpressible personal understanding of this, but they never share their ideas with their readers. Sometimes what they say gives false impressions, and always it seems designed to leave the reader feeling that only experts could understand.

Innovative Teaching Practices in the Conceptual Physics "Wonders of Technology"   (slides - 19.2Mb)   (website)
Adam Niculescu, Virginia Commonwealth University, vnicule@saturn.vcu.edu

Virginia Collaborative for Excellence in Preparation for Teachers (VCEPT) has played an instrumental role in the development of a new General Education course in Physics at Virginia Commonwealth University called "Wonders of Technology" that was offered as a pilot for 9 students in the spring of 1997, and has grown to 315 students in the fall of 2000. The course is aimed at non-science majors and approximately 20% of the students enrolled are education majors. The course has been adopted in the same format by J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College and it will be offered starting in January 2001. This studio-based course departs from the traditional conceptual physics course in a number of ways. The course introduces physical concepts by depicting their historical and cultural role in today's society. It further requires the student to complete a series of experimental projects that connect physical principles to their everyday experiences. Emphasis is placed on the investigative process rather than on mathematical rigor or accuracy of results. In addition to project reports and conventional quizzes, the course requires the student to research a topic relating technology to the student's major, or to personal interests. The student prepares a short written report and gives a brief presentation to the entire class. This presentation will detail the features encompassed in this course, as well as some of the philosophy changes that seem effective in generating enthusiasm in this student population.

Obstacles Encountered In Calculating The Stress Tensor Using Thermoelasticity And Photoelasticity   (slides - 1.0Mb)
Deonna Woolard, Randolph-Macon College, dwoolard@rmc.edu

Thermoelastic and photoelastic stress analysis effectively provide information about the sum and difference of the principal stresses, respectively. Combining these two full-field, nondestructive evaluation techniques allows the individual stress components to be measured. The main obstacle with merging these techniques is in identifying an appropriate surface coating that is both highly emissive and birefringent. Other experimental issues currently under investigation are with the inherent errors associated with each system and their influence on the calculation of the stress tensor components. A physical model has been developed which accounts for some of these errors. Simulations have shown that small errors dramatically effect the calculated value for the shear stress.

An Application of the Method of Images: Who would have thought it?   (slides - 2.9Mb)
David M. Schaefer*, Towson University, dschaefer@towson.edu

The advanced Electricity and Magnetism course taught at Towson University introduces students to new theoretical techniques for solving electromagnetic problems. One such technique, the method of images, utilizes the uniqueness of the solution to Laplace's equation to determine electrostatic potentials and charges Many students view this as no more than a mathematical "trick" to circumvent the rigors of actually solving Laplace's equation, with little real life application. In this presentation, the method of images is used to study the electrostatic interaction of a charged particle with a substrate. Using a relatively simple model, the amount of charge on a polarized photoconducting sphere is determined. The implications of such results for adhesion studies will be discussed.
*Co-authors: Matthew Reames (Towson University), Donald Rimai (NexPress Inc.), Ronald Reifenberger and Brian Walsh (Purdue University)

Atmospheric aerosol optical depths have been measured in the Hampton Roads area (37 6' 18" N, 76 22' 44" W) during the period of June 05, 2000 and July 14, 2000. These measurements were performed as part of an evaluation study to assess the performance of two prototype research radiometers. Simultaneous measurements were also taken to calibrate Visible Haze Sensor (VHS) single channel (520.2nm) sunphotometers [Mims, 1997]. These VHS sunphotometers were built in-house using the design by Mims [1997] and will be used for educational purposes. The research radiometers simulate the SAGE III measurements and are expected to assist with testing of the Total Occultation Instrument (TOI is a SAGE III prototype radiometer) and the SAGE III instrument slated for the International Space Station. Mornings in the month of June for the 383.3 nm aerosol channel show aerosol optical thicknesses between -0.46422 and -1.349040 and afternoons showed variations between -0.882489 and -1.807600. The total daily range of aerosol optical thicknesses for the 383.3 channel in June was between -0.588614 and -1.12021. These results are comparable to measurements taken by AERONET for Wallops Island (37 56' N, 75 28' W) a relatively adjacent site (Holben, 1). The variation on the measurements for Hampton Roads throughout the days was dramatic. This is attributed to the humidity Hampton Roads experiences during the summer months that can cause large ranges in atmospheric aerosols when water vapor condenses. Sites with dryer climates, e.g. Tucson, AZ, where humidity during the summer months is minimal, show less total atmospheric aerosols and significantly less variation (0.331 - 0.35). Hampton Roads readings are typical of maritime mid-latitude climate. The results of this study suggest that these research radiometers can play a key role in the evaluation and testing of prototype flight radiometers.

Active Learning in Physics
Bill Warren, Lord Fairfax Community College, lfwarrb@lf.cc.va.us

Active learning methods have been shown to be more effective than traditional approaches to teaching physics. I have been using active learning (Workshop Physics) for eight years now and will show some of the results I have gotten, plus results from others nationwide.

Ion Beam Interaction with Matter
Ahmad Halim, Wilson High School, Portsmouth, VA, ahmad12@hotmail.com or halim@jlab.org

Ion beams are widely used to modify and analyze materials by injecting atoms to change their chemical and electronic properties. The ion beam also causes changes to solid targets by atom displacement. The TRansport of Ions in Matter(TRIM)calculations are based upon the classical dynamics model. The model studies the movement of atoms in a solid as a function of time. The model takes the interaction with all neighboring atoms into account. It can therefore be called a multiple interaction logic. All moving atoms are followed in small time steps so that collision between moving atoms are automatically included. The movement of an atom in a solid is governed by the forces from all target atoms in its neighborhood. The resulting force acting on a single atom is the sum of these forces from all atoms, leading to the Newtonian equation. The forces are usually assumed to be conservative. The integration methods of the coupled differential equations are discussed in several books on the initial value problem in ordinary equations. Important for the choice of the algorithm are stability, accuracy, reliability and efficiency, but simplicity too is often a definite plus. Another strong point is the use of algorithm that allow vectorization in order to realize the parallel architecture of modern supercomputers. Choosing the time step is usually a compromise between accuracy and computing time. As a rule, the time step is chosen such that the fastest knock on atom does not move more than 5% of interaction distance in one time step. SRIM-2000 package contains programs to calculate the energy loss of ions in solids, liquids and gases. The physics is combined with kinematic physics to calculate the transport of energetic ions in matter. including the transport of recoil atoms after ion/atom collisions. It can be used to predict energetic ion ranges in matter, ion transmission and reflection from matter, and the similar distributions for the recoiling target atoms. The package was loaded on my PC with window 95. At least 16MB of memory is required. The program will not work with unix based systems. Results will be shown for different combinations of ions and targets.

Implementing a Research-Based Curriculum in Microcomputer Based Laboratories at Norfolk State University   (slides - 17.6Mb)
James Toy, Norfolk State University, jltoy@nsu.edu

The physics department at Norfolk State University is in the process of implementing a Physics-Education-Research based curriculum for microcomputer based labs. The techniques for adapting the Tools for Scientific Thinking and Real Time Physics curricula for use with TeamLabs Personal Science Laboratory interfaces have been mastered and the focus is now on modifying the content to better suit our students needs. Observations on this process, the pitfalls encountered and the students' interactions with the new labs will be presented.

Circuits for Everyone: A Problem-Based Learning Approach   (slides - 0.9Mb)   (website)
George Watson, University of Delaware, ghw@udel.edu

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional method that challenges students to seek solutions to real-world problems by working cooperatively in groups. These problems are used to engage students' curiosity and initiate learning. A PBL curriculum for simple electrical circuits has been developed for a course for nonscience majors, Silicon, Circuits, and the Digital Revolution. Course materials and online resources will be presented, along with a discussion of issues and barriers encountered.

Reports

Secretary's Report (Bill Warren)

Minutes of Spring 2000 meeting

Treasurer's Report (David Schaefer)

Prizes for Best Contributed Presentations (David Wright)

Other reports

President's Report (Bill Ingham)

Spring 2001 meeting will be held at Loyola College in Baltimore, MD on April 20-21. Watch the web for further details.

Suggestion that next years' officers consider:

        a possible waiting period for repeat-prize-winning

        possible addition of a fourth prize category expressly for student papers

Old Business

New Business

Election of Officers for 2000-2001

Recognition of meeting host

Other new business

"http://www.physics.udel.edu/csaapt/Fall2000/abstracts.html"
Last updated November 10, 2000.