Conference Session

Innovations in Teaching and Research in Physics or Engineering Physics I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jian Peng, Southeast Missouri State University; Santaneel Ghosh, Southeast Missouri State University; Ken Surendran, Southeast Missouri State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

AC 2012-5262: REFLECTIONS ON TEACHING A CONSOLIDATED CAP-STONE DESIGN COURSE TO A MIXED STUDENT BODYDr. Jian Peng, Southeast Missouri State University Jian Peng is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics at Southeast Missouri State University. He received his B.E. degree from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1992, his M.S. degree from Hangzhou Institute of Electronic Engineering, Hangzhou, China in 1995, and his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 2004. His research focuses on intelligent robotics, computer vision, and characterization of nano-material. He is a member of ASEE and IEEE.Prof. Santaneel Ghosh, Southeast Missouri

Conference Session

Innovations in Teaching and Research in Physics or Engineering Physics III

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yumin Zhang, Southeast Missouri State University; David K. Probst, Southeast Missouri State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

25.1175.2describe the spring-mass system and the LC oscillator. The third is at the philosophical level,such as the phase transition phenomena in different systems. Our emphasis in this paper is at themathematical level, but the implication can be reflected at the phenomenological level.II. Kinematics vs. ElectrostaticsIn electrostatics there are three closely related variables: charge density, electric field andpotential. In many applications one needs to deal with its one-dimensional solution, such as in apn junction in semiconductor devices. Under such a circumstance, the divergence and gradientoperators can be converted to the simple derivative. In this way, the mathematical formulas arerather close to the kinematic equations relating acceleration

Conference Session

Innovations in Teaching and Research in Physics or Engineering Physics II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marie Lopez del Puerto, University of Saint Thomas; Jeff Jalkio, University of Saint Thomas; Paul R. Ohmann, University of Saint Thomas

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

. Then we either derive or write out the equation,maybe do an example, and finally students answer conceptual questions and/or solve problems.What is missing is the piece where students reflect on the meaning of the equations. Redish4 Page 25.477.2suggests that we need to “find activities that help our students build knowledge intointuitions/understanding.” This is what we are trying to achieve through having students writeequations in their own words. Our hypothesis is that by giving the students continuous practice inwriting they will gain conceptual understanding that will be reflected in their problem solving.MethodologyWe are conducting

Conference Session

Innovations in Teaching and Research in Physics or Engineering Physics I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bala Maheswaran, Northeastern University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

between 4 to 8. Page 25.701.6 6Responses to question 8 are shown in figure 8. This question, “do you think morebackground in physics would have helped you to better understand the machine sciencecircuit concepts?” reflects the students’ view regarding the physics background neededfor this work. The majority of the students, about 64% felt that additional physicsbackground was not needed to deal with new and more challenging physics concepts.The responses to the last survey question, #9, “how many elements in the following listwere you familiar with before doing the

Conference Session

Innovations in Teaching and Research in Physics or Engineering Physics I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jia-Ling Lin, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Manuela Romero, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Jennifer Binzley, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Eman A. Zaki, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

choices in this survey, we only use responseswith indications of either “very much” or “not much” when we define the majority in Figures 1and 2, respectively. The same definition of “majority” is applied to both Figures 3 and 4. Figure 1 and Table (II) display the 13 questions that produced a relatively higherpercentage of “desirable answers”. As illustrated in Figure 1, most survey questions/statementsthat received "desirable" responses generally mirror students’ learning experiences and thus theseresults are quite understandable. For example, students’ responses to statements under thecategory of “Effort”, (e.g., E20, E21, E22, E23, E24) typically reflect their strong determinationto learn well. Three questions in the category of

Conference Session

Innovations in Teaching and Research in Physics or Engineering Physics I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marie Lopez del Puerto, University of Saint Thomas

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Physics & Physics

Physics textbook. We have picked a textbook3 that reflects ourphilosophy for the Applications of Modern Physics course. After reviewing the literature andcourse materials available online, we decided to adapt the Physics-Education-Research-basedcourse materials developed at the University of Colorado-Boulder,4 which consist of lectureslides, tutorials and the use of on-line simulations, to fit the Applications of Modern Physicscourse.The objectives we have established for course development are: I. Adapt and expand course materials developed by the University of Colorado – Boulder Physics Education Research group in order to increase students’ conceptual understanding of modern physics topics, and II. Develop laboratories