PARADIGMS IN PHYSICS - OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
LABORATORIES IN THE PARADIGMS IN PHYSICS CURRICULUM
The Development Team
The Paradigms in Physics project at Oregon State University has reformed the entire upper-level physics curriculum. This has involved both a rearrangement of content to
better reflect the way professional physicists think about the field and also the use of a number of reform pedagogies that place responsibility for learning more firmly in the
hands of the students. We have taken advantage of years of results from physics education research that indicate that students learn better when they are actively engaged
in the learning process. We integrate laboratory experiments into the curriculum in addition to our use of white board questions, kinesthetic activities, small group problem
solving, and computer activities. Our revised schedule has 2-hour class sessions twice a week that allow us to do laboratory experiments in the same time slot as the
lecture; there is no separate large block of lab time, which is often the case in traditional physics courses. The labs are supervised in the same way as the lectures—by the
instructor with TA support. The labs are broken up into smaller components than is usual, and class time is used for discussion of results and modeling. We do not have an
advanced lab course, but we do have labs in our optics, electronics, and computer interfacing classes, and we require all majors to do a senior thesis.
PARADIGMS CURRICULUM
Paradigms (P) & Capstones (C)
The junior year consists of short case studies of paradigmatic
physical situations which span two or more traditional
subdisciplines of physics. Most have both a classical and
quantum base. They are designed explicitly to help students
gradually develop problem-solving skills. The senior year
consists of more conventional single-quarter lecture classes in
each of the traditional subdisciplines of physics. The format is
more condensed than in the old, traditional curriculum because
the content builds on the examples of the paradigms in the junior
year. An overview of our curriculum is shown at right.
Jr
P
Sr
C
FACULTY:
Corinne A. Manogue
David H. McIntyre
Janet Tate
Tevian Dray
Emily Van Zee
Barbara Edwards
David Roundy
Allen L. Wasserman
Philip J. Siemens
William M. Hetherington
Henri J. F. Jansen
Kenneth S. Krane
Albert W. Stetz
William W. Warren, Jr.
Yun-Shik Lee
Ethan Minot
Dedra Demaree
Elizabeth Gire (postdoc)
Mary Bridget Kustusch (postdoc)
INTEGRATED LABORATORIES
•Symmetries & •1-D Waves
Idealizations
•Spin &
•Static Vector
Quantum
Fields
Measurements
•Oscillations
•Central Forces
•Energy & Entropy
•Periodic Systems
•Rigid Bodies /
Reference Frames
•Math Methods(C)
•Class Mech
•E & M
•Thermal Physics
•Quantum
Mechanics
•Optics
Course
• Oscillations
• Oscillations
• Oscillations
• Waves
• Waves
• Spins
• Energy & Entropy
• Energy & Entropy
• Rigid bodies
Lab activity
• Pendulum with large amplitude
• LRC circuit - sinusoidal excitation
• LRC circuit - impulse excitation
• Vibrating string
• Coaxial cable - impedance mismatch
• Stern-Gerlach (simulation)
• Melting ice calorimetry
• Rubber band
• Rotating cages
Key Physics
• Harmonic and anharmonic oscillation
• Damped, driven harmonic oscillation
• Fourier analysis, spectral analysis
• Dispersion relation
• Wave reflection and transmission at boundary
• Quantum measurements
• Heat capacity, entropy
• Equation of state, Maxwell relations
• Principal axes
EXAMPLES
Coaxial Cable - Impedance Mismatch
Students send a pulse down a long coaxial cable with an adjustable terminating
resistor and monitor the excitation and return pulses on an oscilloscope.
Student Activities
• Measurement of propagation speed
• Quantitative measurement of reflected pulse
• Reconcile with class work on reflection of ropes from sharp boundaries
• Study damping as a quasi-independent project
• Find cable parameters Z 1 and R/Z 1 from fit
• Understand modeling – what is “known” and what is “given”, if indeed either
Experimental lessons
• Correct grounds are important
• Disconnect the function generator when you measure Rterm with a multimeter
• The oscilloscope is your friend, with many important buttons (calibration, trigger, etc.)
• Good record keeping, good experimental habits like appropriate data spacing
RESOURCES
Rubber Band Experiment
Reflections
This lab demonstrates the negative thermal expansion of rubber, which is the principle
prediction of the entropic spring statistical model.
Student Activities
• Assemble a stretched rubber band inside a pipe sealed at one end
• Use hot water and ice to measure the tension of the rubber band as a function of temperature
• Repeat measurements for different rubber band lengths to determine the equation of state
LRC Circuit - Sinusoidal and Impulse Excitation
Students build an LRC series circuit and measure the voltage across the resistor when the
circuit is driven with a sinusoidal voltage, and then again with a voltage pulse.
Student Activities
• Measure amplitude and phase of sinusoidal response
• Measure response to short impulse
• Relate frequency and temporal responses with Fourier transform
Integrating labs and lectures seamlessly into a curriculum requires a move away from the
"grand project" approach typical of labs that occupy a separate time slot (usually a
substantial block of time) from the lecture. Active engagement is obviously built into a
physical measurement, but students must also be actively engaged in the assessment of
their experiments, and this can be challenging. The following are reflections from a particular
instructor's experience with the integrated labs approach:
1. Reporting on the lab experience is important, but students' technical writing skills
are not well developed and must be explicitly developed along with physics
knowledge
2. A template approach to reporting on labs is not effective
3. Couching the investigations in terms of "modeling" rather than "verification" is
much more reflective of what professional physicists do, and more satisfying to
students (but most students start with the latter mindset)
4. Explicit attention to non-textual presentation (particularly graphs) is important
5. Gradually increasing the complexity of assignments is useful
6. A "research" component to some later labs is useful
Website
http://www.physics.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki
Stern-Gerlach Simulation
Textbooks
Our spins-first approach to quantum mechanics is supported by a computer simulation of
successive Stern-Gerlach spin experiments (Schroeder & Moore, Am. J. Phys. 61, 798-805,
1993). Students take "data" and then infer the state vector, as in real experiments. Traditional
curricula approach these problems backwards: predicting the results of experiment from a given
wave function.
Quantum Mechanics: A Paradigms Approach, David H. McIntyre (Addison Wesley, 2012).
The Geometry of Vector Calculus, Tevian Dray & Corinne A. Manogue (web, 2010).
The Geometry of Special Relativity, Tevian Dray (A.K. Peters/CRC Press, 2012).
Thermal Physics: Concepts and Practice, Allen Wasserman (Cambridge Press, 2011).
SPINS Labs (Java software available on web site)
Not-so-lossy cable: Z1 = 50 W, R' = 0.042 W/m
Lossy cable: Z1 = 75 W, R' = 0.154 W/m
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• Spins Lab 1 - Spin-1/2 Stern-Gerlach measurements
• Spins Lab 2 - Determine unknown states, spin interferometer, "which path" experiment
• Spins Lab 3 - Spin-1 Stern-Gerlach measurements
• Spins Lab 4 - Spin precession in a uniform magnetic field
National Science Foundation
•DUE-9653250, 0231194, 0618877
•DUE-0088901, 0231032
Publications
1. D. H. McIntyre, Using Great Circles to Understand Motion on a Rotating Sphere, Am. J.
Phys. 68, 1097-1105 (2000).
2. C. A. Manogue, P. J. Siemens, J. Tate, and K. Browne (Department of Physics) & M. L.
Niess and A. J. Wolfer (Department of Science and Mathematics Education), Paradigms
in Physics: A New Upper-Division Curriculum, Am. J. Phys. 69, 978-990 (2001).
3. C. A. Manogue and K. S. Krane, The Oregon State University Paradigms Project: Reenvisioning the Upper Level, Phys. Today 56, 53-58 (2003).
4. C. A. Manogue, K. Browne, T. Dray, and B. Edwards, Why is Ampere's law so hard? A
look at middle-division physics, Am. J. Phys. 74, 344-350 (2006).
5. D. H. McIntyre, J. Tate, and C. A. Manogue, Integrating Computational Activities into the
Upper-Level Paradigms in Physics Curriculum at Oregon State University, Am. J. Phys.
76, 340-346 (2008).
Oregon State University
•Department of Physics
•College of Science
•Academic Affairs
Mount Holyoke College
•Hutchcroft Fund
Grinnell College
•Noyce Visiting Professorship