Project title:
Development and implementation of curriculum materials for a new approach to practical laboratory, case-study and project-based units to develop skills for employment in collaboration with industry.
Lead institution:
Other institutions involved:
University of Portsmouth
Project Lead Name: Christopher Dewdney
Date of report submission: 8 th September 2011
Summary
Development of curriculum materials for a new approach to practical laboratory, case-study and project-based units to develop skills for employment in collaboration with industry. As part of the overall project syllabus and curriculum materials have been prepared for two validated 20-credit units at level 4. The units will be implemented in the coming academic year (2011/12) and subject to review and evaluation by staff, students and industry partners. A level 5 20-credit project-based unit is under development with one project successfully prototyped in collaboration with DSTL Acoustics. A student group has evaluated the materials. Further short projects will be developed during the next period in collaboration with industry partners. Work has begun on a level 6 20 credit Applied Physics
Field Study unit equipment and curriculum materials are in preparation to enable a group student project focused on energy sustainability for small island communities. Automated energy survey devices have been prototyped as proof of principle for student project work. The development of the virtual collaborative learning environment has progressed but technical difficulties have delayed its use it is expected to be tested in the second half of the academic year. The project has received media coverage. The next period will see the completion of the Level 6 industry group-based project unit and the Field study unit.
A level 4 (20 credit) industry applications unit has been developed and validated entitled
“Applications and Impacts of Physics”. The unit will run throughout the academic year 2011/12. The unit incorporates lectures from representatives of Astrium, Portsmouth Hospitals Medical Physics
Department: Engineering and Nuclear Medicine, DSTL Physical Sciences Department, DSTL
Environmental Sciences and National Instruments. The industry lectures are designed to give an insight into the operation of the companies and the role of physics within the production processes.
The lectures are used to motivate the learning of physics related to the applications topics of the lectures and the operation of the companies. Site visits take place to Portsmouth Hospitals Medical
Physics Department, DSTL Environmental Sciences, Clanfield Observatory. The unit also incorporates invited lectures from eminent speakers who are experts in the application of physics in various contexts. The coming academic year will see lectures from Professor Stephen Sweeney on the impact of lasers, Dr Tom Higham on radiocarbon dating, Professor Tony Day on the future of energy in buildings and Dr Duncan Allsopp on solid state lighting. Progress in incorporating potential contributors from AWE, NPL and Qinetic has stalled, but efforts will continue to involve their participation in future. During the unit students develop a portfolio of materials related to the lectures and visits. Assessment is based upon the portfolio, an oral presentation related to one of the industrial visits and an article that would be suitable for publication in a popular format. Supporting written curriculum materials are being prepared jointly by academic and industry staff. The unit will be run It is hoped to prepare a set of publishable case-studies during the next months.
A level 4 (20 credit) Laboratory-based unit has been developed and validated.
The unit will run throughout the academic year 2011/12. Discussions with the industry steering group, backed by literature-based research (as described in the original application) emphasised the importance of instrument and computer literacy and in particular computer-based data acquisition and programming, data processing and instrument control. The National Instruments LabView environment has been acknowledged by our industry advisory group as an industry standard and it has been adopted for the
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development of the skills that have been identified in some studies as deficient in recent graduates. In conjunction with suitable data acquisition hardware, LabView has been used to develop a series of exercises in which students build vital industry applied physics skills in graphical programming and in the acquisition and processing of data from a variety of sensors and instruments. The more traditional lab experiments have been incorporated, where appropriate, in specific units. A student group has been employed during July to test exercises which will be employed in the academic year 2011/12.
A level 5 (20 credit) Laboratory short project-based unit is under development
The first of a set of eight 9-lab-hour (3 week) project group activities designed to develop research, technical, analytical and problem solving skills and knowledge motivated by real-world problems has been developed. Collaboration with DSTL Acoustics Division has resulted in the development of the first industry-based short project based on the problem of beam forming. Joint work has produced a prototype project to develop the hardware and Labview software to implement a steerable sensitivity array of microphones using software time-delays. The project is presented to the student group in a problem format. It is intended to develop a further set of such projects in the next 6 months. In the coming period it is intended to integrate into this unit the problem-based-learning practical scenarios that have been developed and used successfully at the University of Leicester.
A Level 6 Applied Physics Field Study unit which develops the concept of field-physics through project work is in the initial phase.
The basis for the work has been focussed on energy studies for small island communities. The idea is for students to use their acquired practical skills and physics understanding to design a suite of instruments that can assess the energy availability in the island community. Progress has been made in proving the principle by designing prototype equipment which uses sensors to measure and record automatically over extended period energy availability.
Level 6 (40-credit) joint academia-industry project
The team leader has joined the IOP group which is developing the concept of group industry projects and has attended the group meetings.
Over the next three months it will be possible to begin to evaluate the impact of the new curriculum on the students as the units are implemented in the Applied Physics degree.
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