1. MATERIALS FOR ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT IN
NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE PHYSICS COURSES
@ APRIL APS MEETING
Name
School
Department DENVER
JEFF LOATS, MSU
KEN KRANE, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
CINDY SCHWARZ, VASSAR COLLEGE
SUPPORTED BY NSF
AWARD # DUE-1044037

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ABOUT THE GRANT – CONTEXT
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science (TUES)
1.5 of 3 years complete.
Context:
Research-based instructional strategies (RBIS)
often begin in the introductory sequence.
Some have “percolated” up the curriculum.

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ABOUT THE GRANT – GOALS
Develop a range of active engagement materials
for nuclear and particle physics.
Encourage and enable instructors to bring
empirically tested pedagogies into these
courses.

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TYPES OF MATERIALS - I
Pre-lecture “warm up” questions
(for use with Just in Time Teaching).
Conceptual discussion questions
(for use with Peer Instruction).
Back-of-the-envelope estimation exercises,
using both recent and historical experiments.
Small projects and case studies using nuclear
and particle physics databases.
Conceptual exam questions (to close the loop)

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TYPES OF MATERIALS - II
Back-of-the-envelope estimation exercises,
using both recent and historical physics
experiments.
Small projects and case studies using
information from nuclear and particle physics
databases.
Conceptual exam questions
(to close the loop)

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JUST IN TIME TEACHING
Used in intro. courses for 15+ years.
Effectiveness demonstrated in many contexts
Easy to adopt
Basics of JiTT
Students answer 2-3 short-response questions
(warm ups) the night before lecture.
– Usually conceptual, graded on effort
Instructor reads responses “just in time” tp
modify lecture and motivate discussion.

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EXAMPLE JITT WARM UP QUESTIONS
Describe in your own words the reason that all
nuclei in their ground state have an electric
dipole moment of zero.
There are three color charges (RGB) and each
gluon carries a color and an anticolor. Why then
are there only eight gluons and not the nine
(3x3) we might expect?

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PEER INSTRUCTION
Used in many courses for 20+ years
Highly effective, especially paired with JiTT
Usually implemented with “clickers”
Basics of Peer Instruction
Difficult conceptual questions asked during class
Students respond individually
Students discuss in informal groups
Students respond individually, post discussion
Class-wide discussion

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EXAMPLE PEER INSTRUCTION QUESTION
The vertex shows a
Higgs Boson decaying
into two fermions.
According to the standard
model, which of the following
quarks would the Higgs most likely decay into?
A) top and anti-top
B) strange and anti-strange
C) up and anti-up
D) charm and anti-charm

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BACK-OF-THE-ENVELOPE ESTIMATIONS
From Fermi Questions to proofs-of-concept,
estimations are important in physics.
Estimation discourages calculators and too-
precise answers. (No calculators allowed!)
Estimation encourages a focus on key
parameters and central concepts.
We try to base estimation exercises on either
relevant recent or historical experiments.

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EXAMPLE ESTIMATION EXERCISE
Consider the fusion reactions
2H + 2H 3He + n and 2H + 2H 3H + 1H
Suppose each one is initiated in an identical
fashion by colliding two 2H nuclei head-on with
equal kinetic energies. In which reaction would
you expect the total kinetic energies of the two
final products to be greater, and on what basis
do you form your expectation?

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SMALL PROJECTS/CASE STUDIES
Context-Rich-Problems (and others) have shown
the power of digging into detailed case studies.
Real situations help integrate concepts and
solidify learning.
Flexible! These small-group activities can be
used in class or as weekly projects.

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EXAMPLE CASE STUDY
Consider the image […] The line emerging
from the bottom corresponds to an electron
C
struck by a muon antineutrino.
B
a) What is the direction of the magnetic
field in the bubble chamber? A
b) Describe the change in the trajectory
that occurs around the point marked A
in the image.
c) What physical process must have
occurred at A in order for the trajectory
to have changed in this way?
d) Etc.

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CONCEPTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS
Leaving your exams unchanged can accidentally
derail efforts to move toward active
engagement.
Answered in sentence to probe understanding.
Offer powerful insight into the depth of
knowledge our students have gained (or… not).

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EXAMPLE CONCEPTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS
Consider a hypothetical nucleus with 10
nucleons.
a) In terms of the various interactions inside the
nucleus, why is it that a clump of 10 neutrons
is not a stable configuration?
b) How many stable configurations of 10
nucleons are there? Justify your answer with
an empirical argument.

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FIND, USE, SHARE!
No moldy files! Please test, use, tweak and
modify … (Modern? Conceptual? Etc.)
Please take a card, send an email or google us:
Jeff Loats, jeff.loats@gmail.com
Ken Krane, kranek@science.oregonstate.edu
Cindy Schwarz, schwarz@vassar.edu
Find these slides at www.slideshare.net/jeffloats
Thank you NSF! (Award # DUE-1044037)