Workshops for Faculty and Staff Development in Implementing Physics Advanced Laboratory Experiments

American Association Of Physics Teachers, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by conducting a series of workshops to enable physics faculty and staff members to adopt improved experiments in their undergraduate advanced laboratories. These faculty and staff members are often assigned to teach these advanced laboratory courses in areas beyond their own research specialty. The instructors often lack the expertise to understand the background of the labs, design the labs, or best integrate the labs with other instruction. This project is especially important for instructors in small schools who often lack access to the facilities and expertise found in larger institutions. The project will create a mobile workshop capable of bringing workshops to these locations as well. Previous workshops included quantum mechanics experiments with photons, nuclear magnetic resonance, quantum analogs, Hall effect, gravitational wave interferometry, graphene, high Tc superconductivity, using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and open cavity helium neon laser experiments. The topics for the workshops supported by this award will be governed by demand and will include newly developed upper division laboratory experiments. The effectiveness of the workshops will be evaluated by questionnaires distributed to the participants and mentors immediately after the workshops. There will also be a follow-up survey sent to the participants 1.5 years after the workshops. The questions will deal with the content and value of the workshops, if the participants implemented the featured experiment at their home institutions, and what was required to do so. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.