For thousands of years, humanity has used only one small window to look at the universe – the window of visible light. Starting with 20th century, the technology has expanded that window into the UV, IR, microwave, radio, X-ray and even gamma-ray range. However, this was all still electro-magnetic radiation. Only two other windows into the universe exist at this time – the gravitational waves and the cosmic rays. The gravitational waves fully belong to the 21st century and are still not a wide-spread knowledge. At the same time, high energy physics has been around for almost a century, thus providing the information and including the topics on high energy physics and/or cosmic rays and how they expand our understanding of the Universe and the conditions right after the Big Bang have become important. The presentation will show how the direct collaboration with the Horizon-T cosmic rays observatory has proven to be very useful in this integration of the latest development in the ultra-high energy cosmic rays field into the curriculum. 

Relativistic kinetic energy is expressed in a quadratic form that clarifies the relationship between relativistic and non-relativistic kinetic energy. This leads to a unified spacetime-trigonometric interpretation of kinetic energy in terms of the square-magnitude of the “change in the momentum 4-vector (the 4-momentum-gain) from rest” in special relativity and in its analogous formulation in Galilean relativity. We will make use of the hyperbolic-analogues of two now rarely used trigonometric functions—the versed-sine and the chord functions. We relate this to the Work-Energy theorem. Our goal is not to just obtain formulas for kinetic energy, but to give their geometric interpretations on the worldline of a uniformly-accelerated particle in spacetime and on the mass-shell of a particle in an energy-momentum diagram.

Physicists have traditionally modeled angular momentum and magnetism (and more) using the vector cross product. But students struggle with right-hand rules and with phenomena whose vector direction is perpendicular to its motion or effects. Also, cross products are only meaningful in three dimensions: a simple 2D rotating system or magnetic interaction seems impossible to describe in purely 2D terms, and formulating these concepts in modern theories with extra dimensions looks hopeless. All of these challenges can be addressed by describing angular momentum, magnetic fields, and related quantities as bivectors. Instead of vector arrows, bivectors can be visualized as "tiles" with area and orientation whose components form an antisymmetric matrix. Even though they're less familiar today, in most ways bivectors are no harder to understand than vectors and cross products, and they can be included in the curriculum in a natural, scaffolded way. Introducing this one easily visualized concept (without complicated additional structures like geometric algebra or differential forms) can help address student difficulties and provide even experts with deeper insight into this familiar physics. A change like this couldn't happen all at once, but there are worthwhile first steps that can fit comfortably in almost-traditional instruction.

Senior exit surveys from 2016-2021 revealed that fewer than half of our graduating physics majors rated their “career advising” experience as a positive one. To address this short-coming and to better prepare our students for future careers in physics, in Spring 2022, our Physics Senior Seminar course was restructured to include a two-week career planning module. In this module, students complete self-evaluations of their skills and interests, discover how to map those abilities to a variety of physics-related jobs, utilize different databases to search for jobs across a wide cross-section of industries, construct professional resumes and cover-letters, and learn how to successfully prepare for and navigate through the interview process.  The module concludes with each student participating in a mock job interview with a faculty member from outside the physics program. Student feedback on the career planning module has been very positive. This poster will highlight some of the learning goals, assignments, and assessment tools in our career planning module.

As quantum information technologies (such as quantum computing and quantum sensing) move from science-fiction to "science-fact," it is increasingly important that our workforce be literate not only in the technical aspects of quantum but in the critical thinking skills to ensure these technologies are developed ethically and responsibly. The Quantum Ethics Project is a new interdisciplinary initiative designed to promote research and education in quantum ethics: the academic study of the potential social, economic, and political implications of quantum technology. Quantum ethics aims to analyze the potential societal impacts (both positive and negative) of emerging quantum technologies to ensure they are deployed wisely and for the broader benefit of the public. We discuss education and curriculum development initiatives we are working on, why quantum ethics matters, and how quantum educators can include topics of quantum ethics in their curriculum (from a 1-hour workshop to a full-semester course).

The Quantum Computing Conceptual Survey (QCCS) is a research-based assessment instrument under development targeting interdisciplinary introductory coursework in quantum computing. We discuss the development and pilot process for QCCS currently underway and highlight opportunities for instructors to provide feedback on the instrument and use QCCS to evaluate student learning in your classroom.

We have developed a version of the Quantum Operators invented at Harvard in the ‘60s by Kostas Papaliolios*. Our Quantum Operators are two types of 3D-printed octagonal blocks with polarizers mounted inside and Dirac symbols printed on the outside. The Quantum Operators use the behavior of polarized light in the macro domain as an analogy for the behavior of photons in the quantum domain. Explorations with the Quantum Operators stimulate thinking about measurement and the role of the observer, leading to key concepts such as quantum superposition and the collapse of the wavefunction upon measurement. When two or more Quantum Operators are arranged in sequence, the relative intensity of transmitted light is observed and connected to the Dirac notation on the blocks. Students can also predict transmission based on the Dirac notation and explore non-commutative situations. Resources for constructing, understanding, and teaching with the Quantum Operators can be found at https://stemteachersnyc.org/quantumoperators/

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an important tool used in the modern STEM workforce. The recent development of inexpensive benchtop NMR spectrometers offers great opportunities for undergraduate institutions to give their students relevant research skills with this essential technique. Through the support of an NSF-IUSE grant, we have established an interdisciplinary and cross-institutional team to develop, assess, and disseminate curricular material that integrates NMR into the undergraduate science curriculum. We have been developing and testing curricular materials consisting of lab modules and associated instructional guides and online resources. As we focus on dissemination in the coming year, we would like to assess the implementation of these materials and their effectiveness in different institutional environments, with or without direct access to an NMR system. If you or any faculty colleagues may be interested in implementing any of our materials, please scan the QR code on the poster for the contact form.

We sometimes hear that global temperatures would continue to rise for many years even if humans immediately stopped emitting all carbon dioxide. This can be counterintuitive for students reasoning from poor analogies (the pot of water stops heating when you take if off the stove), and isn’t something that shows up in analytical equilibrium temperature calculations, because it’s a non-equilibrium phenomenon. I’ll discuss how I approach this topic in a computational physics course, starting with reproducing the equilibrium calculation and then continuing to having the students code a non-equilibrium toy model of climate change showing this “locked in” temperature increase. This is an excellent early example in computational courses, because the dynamics are captured with a single-variable first-order differential equation, unlike the more complex second-order equations of classical or quantum mechanics. It’s also a good introduction to toy models that reproduce one effect of interest, and it provides a starting point for students who want to extend the model to be more realistic. As such it models actual scientific research, while also explaining a key aspect of climate change.

When teaching modern astronomy, it can be difficult to convey a sense of discovery around basic facts. Students have learned from early childhood that the Earth is round and orbits the Sun. They lack the historical background to appreciate how remarkable and slow these discoveries were, and how subtle the thinking and observation had to be to come to this understanding. This can be approached via the Copernican revolution, but an alternate approach is via the shape of the Earth. Students may come in believing that everyone had thought the Earth was flat until the voyages of Columbus. It’s common in introductory astronomy to correct this by pointing to the proofs of Aristotle and the size measurement of Eratosthenes, but the subtleties are not often addressed. It’s generally not discussed how to reconcile this with Aristotle’s ordering of the elements (water higher than earth), or to explain why Columbus’s voyage was indeed impactful on our understanding of the shape of the Earth even though scholars already knew Aristotle’s proofs from millenia before. By showing the complexity of the past, and the multiple possible interpretations of observations, students can learn to appreciate the difficulty of making sense of modern observations from sparse data.

General relativity is a topic that fascinates students, covering phenomena like black holes, quasars, the Big Bang, and gravitational waves. However, there is relatively little material that bridges the gap between qualitative “astro 101” level discussions and the full mathematical rigor of a graduate-level course. This is a daunting leap for students, and leaves many instructors without good approaches in upper-division undergraduate courses on astrophysics, cosmology, or relativity. However, we know in-class tutorials are an effective approach to teaching even difficult concepts. With this poster I’ll present specific examples from my tutorials on the metric in general relativity, and discuss how students interact with them in the classroom. This poster will go into more depth on these specific topics, contrasted with a companion oral presentation that will be a broader overview.

In this poster we discuss efforts to ungrade a modern physics course in an effort to improve intrinsic motivation and learning outcomes.  The course was composed primarily of physics majors and structured around three one-on-one conferences with students spread across the semester.  During these conferences students reported their motivation for succeeding in the course, their learning goals, proposed activities to support these goals, and developed an assessment plan to determine their grade in the course. Throughout the course, the instructor provided formative and summative feedback as well as a variety of active learning activities.  In place of a final exam, students showcase their work during a poster session.  We will discuss grade distributions, student course evaluations, and results from the Quantum Mechanical Concept Inventory.