Labs, Practicums, and Cosmic Rays
Here's the physics round-up for the week:
Wilcox and Lewandowski have a new paper out in Phy Rev: PER that looks at students' beliefs about experimental physics before and after lab courses. Their data uses the E-CLASS, and asks questions like, "Working in a group is an important part of doing physics experiments." Similar to what we've seen with the classroom version of this assessment, students tend to trend slightly toward less expert-like attitudes as a result of their physics labs. However, as this paper points out, the trend is removed for labs that use transformed curricula, or that focus on development skills rather than reinforcing content.
And on that note, Doug McKee has a great podcast with Natasha Holmes about reinventing science labs [55 min]. Check it out.
Schools in the USA are invited to apply for the ArduSat program, in which a student-designed experiment (using Arduino) is performed on board the ISS. Applications are closed 30 October. Schools in countries that participate in the European Space Agency can get experiments onto high-altitude arctic balloons.
Members of the American Modeling Teachers Association have a good selection of online seminars, held weekly on Thursdays.
This month's issue of The Physics Teacher is out. I want to point out one article this week, by Trevor Register. He suggests that we use practical experiences (practicums) instead of textbook problems to help students develop conceptual understanding. I especially like the examples he describes, some of which I've done with my students (but most of which I wish I'd done!).
On YouTube, I really enjoyed this video in which Dianna Cowern ("the physics girl") talks about her path into, and through, physics. I think she speaks to the importance of high school teachers in preparing students for STEM careers, and also to helping students from some underrepresented groups to believe in themselves.
For science literacy week, the WWEST blog posted a very good three-part series about female scientists (other than Marie Curie). The blog also has a good overview of fascinating research in which graduate students were asked to explain the preponderance of male faculty in their department.
Physics World has a good podcast focusing on women in physics, including an interview with author Angela Saini and a visit to the 2nd International Conference on Women in Physics this past summer.
This week, the Arecibo radio telescope took some serious damage during Hurricane Maria (along with the rest of Puerto Rico).
Finally, exciting news from the Pierre Auger observatory in Argentina, which observes cosmic rays with energies above 8e18 eV. Their data has crossed the 5-sigma threshold, and they can now claim that these cosmic rays are coming from outside the Milky Way. It's a genuinely important result.
Wilcox and Lewandowski have a new paper out in Phy Rev: PER that looks at students' beliefs about experimental physics before and after lab courses. Their data uses the E-CLASS, and asks questions like, "Working in a group is an important part of doing physics experiments." Similar to what we've seen with the classroom version of this assessment, students tend to trend slightly toward less expert-like attitudes as a result of their physics labs. However, as this paper points out, the trend is removed for labs that use transformed curricula, or that focus on development skills rather than reinforcing content.
And on that note, Doug McKee has a great podcast with Natasha Holmes about reinventing science labs [55 min]. Check it out.
Schools in the USA are invited to apply for the ArduSat program, in which a student-designed experiment (using Arduino) is performed on board the ISS. Applications are closed 30 October. Schools in countries that participate in the European Space Agency can get experiments onto high-altitude arctic balloons.
Members of the American Modeling Teachers Association have a good selection of online seminars, held weekly on Thursdays.
This month's issue of The Physics Teacher is out. I want to point out one article this week, by Trevor Register. He suggests that we use practical experiences (practicums) instead of textbook problems to help students develop conceptual understanding. I especially like the examples he describes, some of which I've done with my students (but most of which I wish I'd done!).
On YouTube, I really enjoyed this video in which Dianna Cowern ("the physics girl") talks about her path into, and through, physics. I think she speaks to the importance of high school teachers in preparing students for STEM careers, and also to helping students from some underrepresented groups to believe in themselves.
For science literacy week, the WWEST blog posted a very good three-part series about female scientists (other than Marie Curie). The blog also has a good overview of fascinating research in which graduate students were asked to explain the preponderance of male faculty in their department.
Physics World has a good podcast focusing on women in physics, including an interview with author Angela Saini and a visit to the 2nd International Conference on Women in Physics this past summer.
This week, the Arecibo radio telescope took some serious damage during Hurricane Maria (along with the rest of Puerto Rico).
Finally, exciting news from the Pierre Auger observatory in Argentina, which observes cosmic rays with energies above 8e18 eV. Their data has crossed the 5-sigma threshold, and they can now claim that these cosmic rays are coming from outside the Milky Way. It's a genuinely important result.