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arXiv2019

Astro2020 APC White Paper: Enabling Terminal Master's Degrees as a Step Towards a Ph.D

Earning any advanced degree in physics or astronomy is an arduous process and major accomplishment. However, not every journey to the Ph.D. is paved equally. Every year, there are hundreds of students who earn terminal master's degrees in physics and astronomy in the United States. A master's degree on its own is sufficient qualification for many good careers, but for a portion of these students, the master's degree is not the final step in graduate education. When students with master's degrees decide to continue their education and are accepted to Ph.D. programs, they often find that their credits do not transfer and that they will be required to re-do large portions of their master's degree at their new Ph.D.-granting institution. Here we discuss the need for gathering more data to understand both the different pathways to a Ph.D. and the students that choose each route. We also discuss some of the challenges faced by students that earn a master's degree before beginning a Ph.D. program. As students in the physical sciences that complete a master's and a Ph.D. at different schools take over 2 years longer to reach a Ph.D. than students that get both degrees from the same school, we suggest steps that can be taken to help these students succeed in a timely manner.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2019

Discussions of gas power cycle performance analysis method in the course of Engineering Thermodynamics

Engineering Thermodynamics has been the core course of many science and engineering majors at home and abroad, including energy and power, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, aerospace, cryogenic refrigeration, food engineering, chemical engineering, and environmental engineering, among which gas power cycle is one of the important contents. However, many Engineering Thermodynamics textbooks at home and abroad focus only on evaluating the thermal efficiency of gas power cycle, while the important concept of specific cycle net work is ignored. Taking an ideal Otto cycle and an ideal Brayton as examples, the optimum compression ratio (or the pressure ratio) and the maximum specific cycle net work are analyzed and determined. The ideal Otto and the ideal Brayton cycles, and also other gas power cycles, are concluded that the operation under the optimum compression/pressure ratio of the engine, instead of under the higher efficiency, is more economic and more reasonable. We concluded that the two very important concepts, i.e., the maximum specific cycle net work and the optimum compression (or pressure) ratio for the gas power cycles, should be emphasized in the Engineering Thermodynamics teaching process and the latter revised or the newly edited textbooks, in order to better guide the engineering applications. In the end, general T-s diagram is proposed for the gas power cycles.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

The African School of Fundamental Physics and Applications (ASP)

The African School of Fundamental Physics and Applications is a biennial school in Africa. It is based on the observation that fundamental physics provides excellent motivation for students of science. The aim of the school is to build capacity to harvest, interpret, and exploit the results of current and future physics experiments and to increase proficiency in related applications. The participating students are selected from all over Africa. The school also offers a workshop to train high school teachers, an outreach to motivate high school pupils and a physics conference to support a broader participation of African research faculties. Support for the school comes from institutes in Africa, Europe, USA and Asia. In this paper, we will present the school and discuss strategies to make the school sustainable.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

Serious Educational Reinforcement Game in Preschool

In Education, is constant the searching of techniques to strengthen and extend the educational strategies in order to achieve that students get knowledge received in classroom, training personal courses and workshops. Serious games are part of that set of educational strategies to reinforce or extend the knowledge using a set of rules and policies in an interactive and amuse way. Nowadays, using technology, it is possible to add images and sounds into serious games under a digital platform. In this paper, we present a solution based on serious games to reinforce the mathematical knowledge in the preschool education following the study plan of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Thus, we offer a tool with expectation of improving skills and knowledge of children on a specific area, also allowing follow the student track getting information of the activities performed. This compilation is made performing reports which will be available for teachers and facilitators. Reports allow adjust orientation and organization of topics imparted in classroom, and to know the general overview of a preschool educational course. Test performed determine the computational performance of solution, also the impact on children and teachers. The wide attention of children was verified, accomplishing the educational tasks in an indirect way.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

Blending of Conceptual Physics and Mathematical Signs

Mathematics is the language of science. Fluent and productive use of mathematics requires one to understand the meaning embodied in mathematical symbols, operators, syntax, etc., which can be a difficult task. For instance, in algebraic symbolization, the negative and positive signs carry multiple meanings depending on contexts. In the context of electromagnetism, we use conceptual blending theory to demonstrate that different physical meanings, such as directionality and location, could associate to the positive and negative signs. With these blends, we analyze the struggles of upper-division students as they work with an introductory level problem where the students must employ multiple signs with different meanings in one mathematical expression. We attribute their struggles to the complexity of choosing blends with an appropriate meaning for each sign, which gives us insight into students' algebraic thinking and reasoning.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

Experimental methods for the study of standing waves in strings

Several cases of the explanation of the phenomenon of standing waves in strings, there are few experimental measurement tools when demonstrating this phenomenon in a classroom, it is for this reason that we have implemented different forms to show how we can experimentally demonstrate the wave behavior of string vibration, where variations in the length, frequency and tension of the string have been made, with the purpose of showing this phenomenon more generally and clearly for students. In this work, we present the step-by-step the implementation of two experimental procedures of laboratory concerned with the study of wave strings, seeking as a primary objective to show students the experimental way of obtaining and measuring the number of bellies in a string in addition of being able to calculate both fundamentally and experimentally the fundamental frequency of each string by varying both its length and its tension using the resonance frequency. Finally, we present the respective experimental errors, for each of the assemblies and methods carried out in the laboratory to perform the measurements shown and registered in this work.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2020

How does the Monte Carlo method work?

The paper describes the practical work for students visually clarifying the mechanism of the Monte Carlo method applying to approximating the value of Pi. Considering a traditional quadrant (circular sector) inscribed in a square, here we demonstrate the original algorithm for generating random points on the paper: you should arbitrarily tear up a paper blank to small pieces (the first experiment). By the similar way the second experiment (with a preliminary staining procedure by bright colors) can be used to prove the quadratic dependence of the area of a circle on its radius. Manipulations with tearing up a paper as a random sampling algorithm can be applied for solving other teaching problems in physics.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

Undergraduate Quantum Mechanics: a Numerical Approach using QuTiP

We present an introduction to the Quantum Toolbox in Python (QuTiP) in the context of an undergraduate quantum mechanics class and potential senior research projects. QuTiP provides ready-to-use definitions of standard quantum states and operators as well as numerous dynamic solvers and tools for visualization. The quantum systems described here are typical for an undergraduate curriculum and range from two-state systems to optical interaction with multilevel atoms.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

Experimental analysis of a physical pendulum with variable suspension point

A physical pendulum with variable point of suspension (and, as an outcome, variable inertia moment) is experimentally analysed. In particular, the period of the small oscillations as a function of position of the suspension point is measured using three different methods: a smartphone used both as an independent tool or as a data-logger and commercial photo-gate. The experimental results are successfully compared with theoretical calculations based on the addition of inertia moments and the Steiner theorem.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2021

Content Sequencing and its Impact on Student Learning in Electromagnetism: Theory and Experiment

We investigate the impact of content sequencing on student learning outcomes in a first-year university electromagnetism course. Using a custom-built online system, the McGill Learning Platform (McLEAP), we test student problem-solving performance as a function of the sequence in which the students are presented aspects of new material. New material was divided into the three categories of conceptual, theoretical and example-based content. Here, we present findings from a two-year study with over 1000 students participating. We find that content sequencing has a significant impact on learning outcomes in our study: students presented with conceptual content first perform significantly better on our assessment than those presented with theoretical content. To explain these results, we propose the Content Cube as an extension to the the mental model frameworks. Additionally, we find that instructors' preferences for content sequencing differ significantly from that of students. We discuss how this information can be used to improve course instruction and student learning, and motivate future work building upon our presented results to study the impact of additional factors on student performance.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

New Directions in International Masterclasses

International Masterclasses (IMC) have developed since their introduction in 2005. Masterclasses for International Day of Women and Girls in Science (IDWGS) and World Wide Data Day (W2D2) are innovations that began two years ago and are going well. With IDWGS masterclasses, a new pathway has been opened for high school girls to be encouraged in physics. W2D2 establishes new ways to bring masterclass activities directly to high school classrooms. New masterclass measurements beyond those for the LHC have been developed and tested, notably the MINERvA neutrino masterclass, which is the first IMC offering in neutrino physics and the first based on a Fermilab experiment. In the MINERvA measurement, students are able to study interactions of a neutrino beam with carbon nuclei, using conservation of momentum to draw conclusions. Other masterclass measurements related to Belle II and medical imaging are also in the testing stage. More neutrino masterclasses are in development as well, especially for MicroBooNE. A longer-term goal is the creation of a DUNE masterclass measurement as that facility reaches the data-taking stage.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

Electric fluid to electric current: The problematic attempts of abstraction to concretization

In ancient times, electricity was viewed as a spirit or soul residing in an inanimate substance. A fluid image was introduced in an attempt to visualize its movement. It was also an effort to concretize its nature into the realm of physical objects as opposed to metaphysical. Eventually, a water circuit analogy has evolved and been introduced in science and engineering textbooks, old and new, to extend the depiction of a fluid image. However, educational research in physics and science education has documented a number of pedagogical issues regarding the use of this analogy. This paper outlines the historical attempts in the concretization of a fluid image to promote History of Science approach in teaching physics among physics teachers in first year undergraduate and physics in-service teachers. Equally important, it discusses the pedagogical concerns of this analogy as it relates to science teaching and learning processes in secondary physics education. The discussions might serve as pedagogical considerations for first year undergraduate physics instructors that need to connect with students entering post-secondary physics courses.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

Conceptualization of Electromagnetic Induction at various Educational Levels: a Case Study

A vast scientific literature in physics education documents a general widespread difficulty in dealing with Electro-Magnetic Induction (EMI) at various levels of instruction. But, at the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of research that compares difficulties about EMI at different educational degrees. We discuss here a case study about Italian high school, graduate students' and teacher's conceptualization of some aspects of EMI as a function of the sample instruction level. We analyse the answers to a multiple choice written questionnaire, adapted from the literature and given to a total of 49 students. Some difficulties, emerged during the exams of university students of a physics education course while discussing their final project concerning a didactical path about EMI for secondary school, are also discussed. We find that some deep misunderstandings are common at all levels of education and probably come from the very poor link, generally presented in teaching EMI, between the Faraday's flux law and the Lorentz force.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

The Scalability, Efficiency and Complexity of Universities and Colleges: A New Lens for Assessing the Higher Educational System

The growing need for affordable and accessible higher education is a major global challenge for the 21st century. Consequently, there is a need to develop a deeper understanding of the functionality and taxonomy of universities and colleges and, in particular, how their various characteristics change with size. Scaling has been a powerful tool for revealing systematic regularities in systems across a range of topics from physics and biology to cities, and for understanding the underlying principles of their organization and growth. Here, we apply this framework to institutions of higher learning in the United States and show that, like organisms, ecosystems and cities, they scale in a surprisingly systematic fashion following simple power law behavior. We analyze the entire spectrum encompassing 5,802 institutions ranging from large research universities to small professional schools, organized in seven commonly used sectors, which reveal distinct regimes of institutional scaling behavior. Metrics include variation in expenditures, revenues, graduation rates and estimated economic added value, expressed as functions of total enrollment, our fundamental measure of size. Our results quantify how each regime of institution leverages specific economies of scale to address distinct priorities. Taken together, the scaling of features within a sector and shifts in scaling across sectors implies that there are generic mechanisms and constraints shared by all sectors which lead to tradeoffs between their different societal functions and roles. We particularly highlight the strong complementarity between public and private research universities, and community and state colleges, four sectors that display superlinear returns to scale.

cs.CY↗
arXiv2019

Einsatz von Hilfsmitteln zur Versuchsvorbereitung und Protokollierung im Anfängerpraktikum Physik

The Beginners Lab Course in Physics is scheduled very early in the course of studies not only for students of physics but also for students for which physics is a minor subject. We provide all partipants with several auxilliary materials for the preparation of the experiments and for writing a protocol. In our study, we enlighten the effect of the usage of these materials on the success of passing the lab course. ----- Das Anfängerpraktikum Physik ist eine früh im Studienverlauf stattfindende Veranstaltung sowohl für Hauptfachstudierende Physik, alsauch für Studierende mit Nebenfach Physik. Die vorliegende Untersuchung beleuchtet den Effekt der Verwendung von Hilfsmitteln zur Versuchsvorbereitung und Protokollierung auf das erfolgreiche Bestehen des Praktikums.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

Easy Java/JavaScript Simulations as a tool for Learning Analytics

In this paper we introduce the new and planned features of Easy Java/JavaScript Simulations (EJS) to support Learning Analytics (LA) and Educational Data Mining (EDM) research and practice in the use of simulations for the teaching and self-learning of natural sciences and engineering. Simulations created with EJS can now be easily embedded in a popular Learning Management System using a new plug-in that allows creation of full-fledged instructional units that also collect and record fine-grained, instructional-savvy data of the students interaction with the simulation. The resulting data can then be mined to obtain information about students performance, behaviors, or learning procedures with the intention to support student learning, provide instructors with timely information about student performance, and also help optimize the pedagogic design of the simulations themselves. We describe the current development and architecture, as well as future directions for testing and extending the current capabilities of EJS as a modelling and authoring tool to support LA and EDM research and practice in the use of simulations for teaching science, in particular in the context of the increasingly popular online learning platforms.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2019

Enacting Planets to Understand Occultation Phenomena

The Solar System motivates students to interest themselves in sciences, as a large number of concepts may be easily introduced through the observation and understanding of planet's motion. Using a large representation of the Solar System at a human scale ("a human Orrery"), we have conducted different activities with 10 to 16 years old children. In this contribution, we discuss the different scientific concepts covered by the Human Orrery, allowing the connection of both science and mathematics subjects in schools. We then detail how this pedagogical tool may serve to introduce abstract concepts required to understand occultation phenomena through a modelling activity.

physics.ed-ph↗