NameSchoolDepartment

MATERIALS FOR ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT IN NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE PHYSICS COURSES@ APRIL APS MEETING

JEFF LOATS, MSU DENVERKEN KRANE, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITYCINDY SCHWARZ, VASSAR COLLEGE

SUPPORTED BY NSFAWARD # DUE-1044037

ABOUT THE GRANT – CONTEXT

2

National Science Foundation (NSF)Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science (TUES)

1.5 of 3 years complete.

Context:

Research-based instructional strategies (RBIS) often begin in the introductory sequence.

Some have “percolated” up the curriculum.

ABOUT THE GRANT – GOALS3

Develop a range of active engagement materials for nuclear and particle physics.

Encourage and enable instructors to bring empirically tested pedagogies into these courses.

TYPES OF MATERIALS - I4

Pre-lecture “warm up” questions (for use with Just in Time Teaching).

Conceptual discussion questions (for use with Peer Instruction).

Back-of-the-envelope estimation exercises, using both recent and historical experiments.

Small projects and case studies using nuclear and particle physics databases.

Conceptual exam questions (to close the loop)

TYPES OF MATERIALS - II5

Back-of-the-envelope estimation exercises, using both recent and historical physics experiments.

Small projects and case studies using information from nuclear and particle physics databases.

Conceptual exam questions(to close the loop)

JUST IN TIME TEACHING6

Used in intro. courses for 15+ years.

Effectiveness demonstrated in many contexts

Easy to adopt

Basics of JiTT

Students answer 2-3 short-response questions (warm ups) the night before lecture.

–Usually conceptual, graded on effort

Instructor reads responses “just in time” tp modify lecture and motivate discussion.

EXAMPLE JITT WARM UP QUESTIONS

7

Describe in your own words the reason that all nuclei in their ground state have an electric dipole moment of zero.

There are three color charges (RGB) and each gluon carries a color and an anticolor. Why then are there only eight gluons and not the nine (3x3) we might expect?

PEER INSTRUCTION8

Used in many courses for 20+ years

Highly effective, especially paired with JiTT

Usually implemented with “clickers”

Basics of Peer Instruction

Difficult conceptual questions asked during class

Students respond individually

Students discuss in informal groups

Students respond individually, post discussion

Class-wide discussion

EXAMPLE PEER INSTRUCTION QUESTION

9

The vertex shows a Higgs Boson decaying into two fermions.

According to the standard model, which of the following quarks would the Higgs most likely decay into?

A) top and anti-top

B) strange and anti-strange

C) up and anti-up

D)charm and anti-charm

BACK-OF-THE-ENVELOPE ESTIMATIONS

10

From Fermi Questions to proofs-of-concept, estimations are important in physics.

Estimation discourages calculators and too-precise answers. (No calculators allowed!)

Estimation encourages a focus on key parameters and central concepts.

We try to base estimation exercises on either relevant recent or historical experiments.

EXAMPLE ESTIMATION EXERCISE

11

Consider the fusion reactions

2H + 2H 3He + n and 2H + 2H 3H + 1H

Suppose each one is initiated in an identical fashion by colliding two 2H nuclei head-on with equal kinetic energies. In which reaction would you expect the total kinetic energies of the two final products to be greater, and on what basis do you form your expectation?

SMALL PROJECTS/CASE STUDIES

12

Context-Rich-Problems (and others) have shown the power of digging into detailed case studies.

Real situations help integrate concepts and solidify learning.

Flexible! These small-group activities can be used in class or as weekly projects.

EXAMPLE CASE STUDY13

Consider the image […] The line emerging from the bottom corresponds to an electron struck by a muon antineutrino.

a) What is the direction of the magnetic field in the bubble chamber?

b) Describe the change in the trajectory that occurs around the point marked A in the image.

c) What physical process must have occurred at A in order for the trajectory to have changed in this way?

d) Etc.

A

C

B

CONCEPTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS

14

Leaving your exams unchanged can accidentally derail efforts to move toward active engagement.

Answered in sentence to probe understanding.

Offer powerful insight into the depth of knowledge our students have gained (or… not).

EXAMPLE CONCEPTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS

15

Consider a hypothetical nucleus with 10 nucleons.

a) In terms of the various interactions inside the nucleus, why is it that a clump of 10 neutrons is not a stable configuration?

b)How many stable configurations of 10 nucleons are there? Justify your answer with an empirical argument.

FIND, USE, SHARE!16

No moldy files! Please test, use, tweak and modify … (Modern? Conceptual? Etc.)

Please take a card, send an email or google us:

Jeff Loats, jeff.loats@gmail.com Ken Krane,

kranek@science.oregonstate.edu Cindy Schwarz, schwarz@vassar.edu

Find these slides at www.slideshare.net/jeffloats

Thank you NSF! (Award # DUE-1044037)