Last updated November 13, 2001.
November 16-17, 2001
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Concurrent
Sessions - Contributed Papers
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| Session A: Introductory Physics Courses Room: 250, 9:00 - 11:20 am Chair: Steven Thornton, University of Virginia, stt@virginia.edu |
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| 9:00 | 1. How Things Work: Using Everyday Objects to Teach Physics
to Non-Scientists Louis Bloomfield, University of Virginia, lab3e@virginia.edu |
| How Things Work is a course for non-science students that introduces them to physics in the context of everyday objects. It reverses the traditional format of physics courses by starting with whole objects and looking inside them to see what makes them work. Because it concentrates on concepts rather than math, and on familiar objects rather than abstract constructs, How Things Work serves both to reduce students' fears of science and to convey to them a substantial understanding of our modern technological world. In this talk, I will describe the course briefly and then look at how I do it. We'll examine the physics and science behind several common objects, including a roller coaster and a microwave oven. | |
| 9:20 | 2. Defining High School Physics: What is the Standard? Gregory MacDougall, Virginia Beach City Public Schools, gmacdoug@vbcps.k12.va.us |
| The Virginia Standards of Learning lists objectives for Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics and thus broadly outline the topics for each course. End-of-course tests in Earth Science, Biology, and especially Chemistry are used by school divisions to further refine curricula. An end-of-course exam has yet to be designed for physics. This gives school divisions some flexibility in designing a physics course. The result is a wide range of students who graduate with a "physics" credit on their high school transcripts | |
| 9:40 | 3. Innovative Methods in Conceptual Physics Adam Niculescu, Virginia Commonwealth University, vnicule@mail1.vcu.edu |
| "Wonders of Technology" is a conceptual physics course developed for non-science majors. The approach taken here in the introduction of the physical concepts is to depict their role in today's technology, specifically the technology familiar to the students, and also to emphasize the connection between technology, art and culture from the historical perspective. This presentation highlights some of the innovative features of the newly developed course, with emphasis on responses from the education majors who are enrolled in the course. | |
| 10:00 | 4. Why Do We Teach Physics to Students Who Are Not Going Into
the Sciences? Gregory N. Derry, Loyola College in Maryland, gderry@loyola.edu |
| Physics is often taught in a manner that assumes that students will proceed to higher levels of physics training or at least to other advanced courses in some science discipline. In many contexts, however, this is not the case, and the question arises as to why we are teaching such students physics and what we wish them to gain from taking a terminal science course. I will argue that a genuine understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry and skill in certain characteristic thinking processes are more important goals than some typically taught content areas, and I will further argue that these things can be realistically achieved at an appropriate level. Examples from my own courses will be included in the presentation. | |
| 10:20 | 5. Rethinking What We Think and Teach Ken Broun , Tidewater Community College, Va. Beach Campus, tcbrouk@tc.cc.va.us |
| A discussion is in order concerning what we teach in our freshman physics courses. When we teach a course, we do so knowing where the road leads. Our students lack that insight. Do we confuse our students by teaching certain topics? For example, the Bohr model of the atom holds an important place in the evolution of what we know about the atom, but does it represent reality? Also, is gravitational potential energy mgh? Do students realize that this is just a special case? Is it good to present the special case before the general case? Rethinking these and other examples may improve student understanding and success. | |
| 10:40 | 6. Developing a Team of Studio Instructors Patrick Goolsby and Peter Martin, Virginia Commonwealth University, pmartin@vcu.edu |
| By recruiting from faculty members, experienced high school teachers, retired technical personnel from industry and graduate students, a team of instructors has been assembled to provide a hands-on program for introducing physics concepts to non-technical students. A strong reliance on mentoring improves the consistency of the instructions to the students. All team members must be involved and are encouraged to give opinions and suggestions concerning present and future improvements to the program. The wide diversification of talent among the instructors enhances the future of the program that remains a work in progress. | |
| 11:00 | 7. open |
| Session B: Physics Education Programs Room: 250, 11:20 - 12:00 pm Chair: Adam Niculescu, Virginia Commonwealth University, vnicule@mail1.vcu.edu |
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| 11:20 | 8. Middle School Physical Science Teacher Education Stephen T. Thornton, University of Virginia, stt@virginia.edu |
| Because of a problem in Virginia to produce well preparedand educated middle school science teachers, we have been offering summer courses for teachers in physical science forseveral summers. The NSF has a new program for mathematics, science, and engineering.graduate students to spend 10-15 hours in K-12 classrooms as resources for teachers in exchange for receiving a substantial fellowship. Together with colleagues in the mathematics departments at UVa and Virginia Commonwealth University, we began in July 2001 a program to bring middle school math and science teachers to VCU and UVa to obtain an interdisciplinary | |
| 11:40 | 9. Master of Arts in Physics Education (MAPE) Program Richard A. Lindgren, University of Virginia, ral5q@virginia.edu |
| In the past 15 years, the Department of Physics at the University of Virginia in collaboration with the Curry School of Education has supported numerous summer high school physics and physical science teacher enrichment programs through the School of Continuing and Professional Studies. As a result of this accumulated experience in working with teachers, we created the Master of Arts in Physics Education (MAPE) program to address the needs of the high school physics teacher of the present and future. Through distance learning and summer study at UVa, participants earn the 30 hours needed for the Masters degree within 2 1/2 years while maintaining their current teaching position. Summer study includes the calculus based primary physics courses 631, 632, and 633 and associated laboratory courses. Summer physics course assignments and responsibilities do not terminate until late in the fall. Distance learning during the academic year is accomplished via the Internet using WebA!ssign, chat rooms, email, videotapes, and streamline video. Although recently approved in the spring 2000, 12 teachers have already graduated with the MAPE degree. | |
| Session C: Teaching Tips Room: 251, 9:00 - 11:50 am Chair: George Watson, University of Delaware, ghw@udel.edu |
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| 9:00 | 10. Using GalaxySee software in Introductory Astronomy Course
Both Online and in a Traditional Class Harold Williams, Montgomery College at Takoma Park, hwilliam@mc.cc.md.us |
| GalaxySee is a free downloadable software from http://www.shodor.org/, that simulates point particle dynamics interacting via Newtonian gravity with a visual interface suitable for use in Astronomy and Physics courses taught at many different levels. I have use this tool with lesson plans developed by me and now on the web in both my online and traditional Introductory Astronomy classes. If and when I taught physics classes that taught F=ma and F=GMM/R^2, I would use this tool, in physics classes with lesson plans developed by me or you. | |
| 9:20 | 11. A Child's View of Physics David Wright, Tidewater Community College, tcwrigd@tc.cc.va.us |
| I have learned a lot about physics, by trying to teach it to children. The principles must be explained clearly, quickly and simply. The presentation, however, must also be correct physics and it should be fun. Such principles as why airplanes fly, the primary colors, and high frequency sounds will be used as examples. | |
| 9:40 | 12. Put a Physicist in your Physics Curriculum Tanya D. Waterman, St. Christopher's School, watermant@stcva.org |
| What is the average student's conception of a physicist? Lab coat? Beard? Absent-mindedness? If eccentricity is in the picture too, a teacher might as well acquaint the students with Richard Feynman. No beard, no lab coat, sharp memory, and an IQ that had to spill over to some good eccentricity. Physics teacher T. D. Waterman will share her tips of how she uses the book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" to add to her classes a human component of physics, and to make her students think about prejudice, snobbishness, stereotyping, and plain stupidity. Also featured are: the Manhattan Project, some of the great American physicists of the 20th century in Los Alamos, and what true freedom is all about in practicing science. These themes are visited as extensions of chapters from this best seller. | |
| 10:00 | 13. Research on the Force Concept Inventory Gregory MacDougall, Virginia Beach City Public Schools, gmacdoug@vbcps.k12.va.us |
| This session will review the development of the Force Concept Inventory, the research that has been published, and implications for physics education. | |
| 10:20 | 14. Continuous Quizzing to Promote Interaction in Large Classes Robert Gowdy, Virginia Commonwealth University, rhgowdy@vcu.edu |
| In my 200-student, introductory physics course for non-science majors, I make every lecture a quiz for credit,from beginning to end. After every major point during the lecture, students discuss and answer one or more multiple-choice questions on computer-graded scan sheets. I will discuss the logistics of this approach and the benefits that I have seen. | |
| 10:40 | 15. Visualization of Physics Using Mathematica Marilyn F. Bishop, Virginia Commowealth University, bishop@gems.vcu.edu |
| Students taking advanced physics courses often become so focused on the intricacies of problem solving that they often fail to appreciate the basic physical principles and are unable to visualize the problems they are solving. We have begun to help the students visualize these advanced topics by using Mathematica to plot results in two and three dimensions and animate the graphics. Animation helps students appreciate the time progression of the physical models. In addition, the students learn how to perform symbolic manipulation in Mathematica and learn numerical analysis methods useful in physics The numerical and visualization skills they learn are valuable for all of their physics courses. | |
| 11:00 | 16. Bodies Accelerating Themselves in a Newtonian System John A. McClelland, University of Richmond, jmcclell@richmond.edu |
| Typical textbook and journal article analyses of locomotion, such as walking, driving a car or leaping upward, describe the force responsible for accelerating the body as acting from the ground. As such is it a zero-work force. This can be shown to be incompatible with Newton's laws and the principle of conservation of momentum and to lead to the absurdity that one force changes the momentum of a body without changing its kinetic energy while another, unspecified force, must be responsible for changing the kinetic energy but not the momentum. A simple analysis is presented that avoids these criticisms. | |
| 11:20 | 17. The Perfect and the Good in Physics Pedagogy Frank Munley, Roanoke College, munley@roanoke.edu |
| We all know that approximations are a vital part of physics, but there is a tendency for some to insist that "perfect" concepts be taught. Others see the value in "good" concepts which may not apply universally but give the student a more familiar foundation to build on. I will review a number of examples of the "perfect" and the "good" from relativity, mechanics, and thermal physics. | |
| 11:40 | 18. Quantum Visualization Larry Weaver, Towson University, lweaver@towson.edu |
| In teaching a one semester senior level Quantum Mechanics course for physics majors we have been making use of the software Mathematica to help the students visualize how wave functions evolve in time. We will show some examples of what we have done along these lines and discuss some of the issues that have arisen, e.g., the relative merits of different ways of plotting wave functions. | |
| Session D: Innovations in Physics Teaching Room: 253, 9:00 - 11:20 am Chair: Chhanda Samanta, Virginia Commonwealth University, csamanta@saturn.vcu.edu |
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| 9:00 | 19. Outreach Programs at VCU Michael Olex (student), Virginia Commonwealth University, molex77@yahoo.com |
| 9:20 | 20. Renewed Crystal Radio Jeff Liverman, Science Museum of Virginia, jliverman@smv.org |
| The Wonders of Technology course at the Virginia Commonwealth University introduces non-science major students to physics through common technological devices. The course has been so successful that we have created an advanced version for middle and high school science teachers. In The Wonders of Technology - Teacher Inservice summer course students build a simple crystal radio. This project is a wonderful starting point for a wide variety of topics from electromagnetic radiation to semiconductors. After constructing the basic radio, students add tuned inductor/capacitors and transistor amplification to improve the sound quality, and even make their own speakers, inductors, and capacitors. By building the crystal radio and gradually improving its performance, students learn first-hand the scientific and technological principles behind extraordinary yet common devices. | |
| 9:40 | 21. Web-delivered Physics Simulations and Learning Communities
in Support of Science Education Pascal Renault, John Tyler Community College, prenault@jt.cc.va.us |
| Web-delivered computer simulations are safe, efficient, and affordable ways to visualize and manipulate physical concepts. They are valuable teaching tools, both in distance education courses and in traditional lecture courses. This presentation will focus on four topics: the applets developed by the presenter, selected programming tools, practical suggestions for the use of simulations, and virtual learning communities. | |
| 10:00 | 22. The Radio Telescope at the "Center of the Universe" Scott Lansdale, Randolph-Macon College, slansdal@rmc.edu |
| We have converted a 10' satellite dish into a radio telescope operating at 21 cm wavelength. This telescope will be used for observation of the distribution of neutral atomic hydrogen in the interstellar medium, and of continuum radio emission from the Sun and other sources. We will describe the steps taken in construction, and subsequent installation of electronics, and tests leading to "first light." Initial observations will be presented, and plans for future work will be discussed. | |
| 10:20 | 23. Understanding the Spherical Pendulum with the Help of MATLAB William H. Ingham, James Madison University, inghamwh@jmu.edu |
| Most classical mechanics textbooks include a treatment of the spherical pendulum, including the precession of nearly circular orbits. Few if any of these texts examine the natural precession of nearly planar (i.e., highly "elliptical") orbits. This presentation will illustrate how MATLAB can be used to examine such orbits and will also address the connection to the Foucault pendulum. | |
| 10:40 | 24. Pathways to becoming a High School Physics Teacher - My
Experiences at Norfolk State University Ayisha Fullerton (student), Norfolk State University, Ayisha1032@aol.com |
| In this talk, I shall discuss the various factors that influenced my decision to pursue a major in physics with the ultimate goal of becoming a High School Physics Teacher. Several experiences outside the classroom have enriched my education - e.g. The International Bicycle Project, the Science Studio, and the NASA Pre-Service Teacher Institute (PSTI). I shall describe these and other experiences in detail in this talk, in light of the special advantages of attending an HBCU. | |
| 11:00 | 25. Using Scientific Visualization Tools to Learn About Global
Climate Change S.Raj Chaudhury, Norfolk State University, schaudhury@nsu.edu |
| The Norfolk Sate University BEST Lab (Bringing Education and Science Together) has many ongoing educational projects. Several of these projects emphasize the use of scientific visualization techniques. The software programs use data and images from various remote sensing platforms. "Seasons", a visual simulation tool, allows the student to explore potential changes in global temperature distributions if the Earth had a different axial tilt or different eccentricity to its solar orbit. "WorldWatcher", an earth science visualization tool designed with the novice learner in mind, allows the student to use and manipulate remotely sensed data to investigate critical components of the Earth's radiation budget such as surface temperature, incoming solar radiation, greenhouse effect, absorbed solar energy and other variables. WorldWatcher is a powerful, yet supportive environment for investigations based on historical global climate change data. We shall demonstrate the two software tools above and discuss their use in undergraduate science courses. We shall also present some scientific visualization TIPERs (Task Inspired by Physics Education Research) we are developing that use remote sensing data. These Ranking Tasks aim to measure a student's understanding of the use of variables such as color bars, time, and color schemes to come to an analytical conclusion about a given problem. Some preliminary results from investigations in science courses for non-majors will also be discussed. | |
| Session E: Upper-level Physics Courses Room: 253, 11:20 - 12:00 pm Chair: Richard A. Lindgren, University of Virginia, ral5q@virginia.edu |
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| 11:20 | 26. Teaching Modern Physics to Engineers Alison Baski, Virginia Commonwealth University, aabaski@vcu.edu |
| At Virginia Commonwealth University, the majority of students enrolled in our Modern Physics course (3rd semester of calculus-based introductory sequence) are engineers taking it as an elective course. Consequently, I teach it more as a topics course that focuses on concepts versus mathematical derivations. The lecture notes are presented in a Powerpoint format, where the students are given the notes before class so that their attention is more focused during the lecture. Wherever possible, Physlets are incorporated in order to develop a more intuitive understanding of the material, e.g. formation of wave packets from the real-time superposition of two moving waves. Because engineers are accustomed to learning by doing, example homework problems are incorporated into lecture and all old problem sets are posted on the course homepage to provide a "template" for the current homework (www.courses.vcu.edu/PHYS320/). Lastly, exams consist of 10 problems in order to be comprehensive, but half of them are "conceptual" in order to probe deeper understanding of the material. All old exams are also posted on the web page so that students can practice the material as much as they choose. These modifications have generated substantial "word-of-mouth" recommendations from past students and sustained a healthy enrollment of engineers for our Modern Physics course. | |
| 11:40 | 27. The Physics of Sound and Music Marilyn F. Bishop, Virginia Commonwealth University, bishop@gems.vcu.edu, and Alison Baski, aabaski@vcu.edu |
| A new course in the physics of sound and music has recently been introduced at Virginia Commonwealth University. This is an interdisciplinary course designed to accommodate both the non-science and science major. Students begin with the study of simple harmonic motion, and move on to the study of waves and sound. They study topics such was interference and beats, resonance, the synthesis of complex waves and learn how these concepts relate to music. After learning about these fundamentals, they study some of the basics of music theory to enable them to understand the structure of music and of musical temperament and pitch. All of these concepts are incorporated in understanding the human ear and voice and various types of musical instruments. The purpose of the course is to provide the student with a basic knowledge of the physics of sound and music, as well as developing basic concepts of music. | |
| Session F: Exciting Current Research Room: 250, 1:00 - 2:45 pm Chair: Robert Gowdy, Virginia Commonwealth University, rhgowdy@vcu.edu |
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| 1:00 | 28. Looking Beyond the Periodic Table Purusottam Jena, Virginia Commonwealth University, pjena@vcu.edu |
| 1:20 | 29. Elusive SHE in the Exotic Island Chhanda Samanta, Virginia Commonwealth University, csamanta@saturn.vcu.edu |
| In nature we find about 100 different elements, such as Iron, Silver, Lead etc. The nucleus of Lead-208 atom has 82 protons and 126 neutrons and Lead-208 seems to last for ever. This stability depends how the protons and neutrons in the nucleus of the atom are arranged. They are arranged in different shells and the first shell can have at most two protons and two neutrons. But, the next shells can have more. Because of this onion like shell structure of nuclei, when the neutron or, proton numbers are 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, 126 (called, "Magic Numbers"), they make the nucleus very stable. In the nuclear chart of elements, the stable nuclei stay on an area called, "The Main Land of Stability". Recently, near the edge of this "Main Land", several "Exotic" nuclei have been discovered whose shapes and sizes are very different from the normal nuclei. As the scientists gradually made heavier and heavier elements, they found that their half-lives become shorter and shorter and finally they reach the "Sea of Instability" in which no bound nucleus exists. However, in the mid-1960s, a Polish Physicist Adam Sobiczewski predicted that a "Super Heavy Element" (SHE) with the doubly magic nucleus containing 114 protons and 184 neutrons should be actually stable; but so far SHE remains elusive. At the moment, the scientists are using all sorts of different methods and trying to get closer to this "Island of Stability" where SHE lives. Some physicists think that SHE can be a great source of energy. | |
| 1:40 | 30. Converting Light into Microwaves David Ameen, Virginia Commonwealth University, dameen@vcu.edu |
| The use of fiber optic cables to transmit electronic signals enables less signal attenuation than the use of the more conventional coaxial cables,which use microwaves as the signal. Since light is the carrier signal in fiber optic cables, the light must be imprinted with the lower frequency microwave signal being sent. Presently, in telephone systems, light is imprinted with a low frequency electrical signal in a process called amplitude modulation. In a somewhat different process, called photomixing, the mixing of light of slightly different frequencies creates an imprint on the resulting carrier light whose frequency is in the microwave range. This process is proposed for use in the phased array antenna. | |
| 2:00 | 31. The Dawn of Gravitational Wave Astronomy Robert Gowdy, Virginia Commonwealth University, rhgowdy@vcu.edu |
| Several large-scale interferometers have been built to detect the gravitational waves that are expected from such astronomical events as the inspiral and coalescence of binary black hole systems. I will give an overview of these projects and will discuss the impact that they have had on research in Einstein's theory of Gravitation. | |
| 2:20 | 32. Computational Condensed Matter Physics: An Emerging Perspective
in Research and Teaching G.P. Das, Virginia Commonwealth University, gpdas@vcu.edu |
| The breathtaking advance in computer technology has an all pervading influence on science and society. As the speed and memory of computers continue to increase by leaps and bounds, a new branch of science has emerged --- a hybrid between theoretical and experimental science --- known as 'computational science'. In the field of condensed matter physics, which is basically governed by the behavior of extra-nuclear electrons, there are problems that are too complex to be solved by analytical approaches. Similarly there are problems that are too difficult or prohibitively expensive to be probed experimentally. By varying the parameters of the theory or the experiment, it is possible to simulate the behavior of very complex systems starting from only our basic understanding of classical, quantum or statistical mechanics. The predictive power of simulations can not only narrow down the task of the experimentalists, but also open up the possibility of designing new materials with novel properties. The days are not far when new tailor-made materials will be 'created in computer' before actual experiments. In this talk, I shall discuss the role of computer simulation in condensed matter physics. In particular, I shall try to underscore the synergy between teaching and research. | |
| 2:40 | 33. Nano-magnetic Materials: Smaller is Stronger S. N. Khanna, Virginia Commonwealth University, snkhanna@vcu.edu |
| From ancient compass needle to the electric motors, from stickers on refrigerators to the magnetic hard drives, from magnetic sensors to the magnetic beds, magnetic materials have touched our lives in innumerable ways. The pace of technology has carried us towards smaller devices and this coupled with newer applications has driven the search for new magnetic materials. The talk will focus on the novel magnetic behaviors exhibited by small clusters and nanoparticles. It will be shown that by controlling size and composition, it would be possible to make much stronger magnets and ultra dense memory devices that can store more than 50 thousand books or 300 CD's in a single drive. The talk will also highlight quantum magnetic behaviors at reduced sizes and their potential for new technologies. | |
| 3:00 | 34. Planned methods and techniques for the analysis of surface
and electrical properties of bonder tip materials Zachary R. Kostura, James Madison University, kosturzr@jmu.edu |
| The production of microelectronic components involves the use of bonding techniques in which an electric current passes through a resistive metallic tip, increasing its temperature. The cyclical nature of this process causes excessive tip wear, which may affect the quality of electric junctions produced. This study represents a real-world manufacturing problem, which requires the development of new instrumentation, measurement, and observational procedures. A description of methods and techniques being employed in the study of surface and electrical properties of the bonder tip materials will be presented. The composition and surface properties of the tip material, such as grain structure, will be determined using various microscopy techniques, including optical observations and scanning electron microscopy. Surface and analysis procedures are being applied to cycled tips in order to identify changes in the overall materials properties of the tip. The inherent effects of these changing materials properties on the manufacturing environment also are discussed. Work supported in part by the Virginia Academy of Science Undergraduate Research Grant. | |
| Session G: Integrating Research in the Undergraduate
Experience Room 250, 2:45 - 3:00 pm Chair: Robert Gowdy, Virginia Commonwealth University, rhgowdy@vcu.edu |
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| 3:20 | 35. Successful transition from undergraduate to graduate research J.C. Moore (student), Virginia Commonwealth University, jcmoore@vcu.edu |
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"http://www.physics.udel.edu/csaapt/Fall2001/paper-abstracts.html"
Last updated November 13, 2001. |