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that defines a timeline and justifies their budget. Alumni-endowed
funds support expenses and stipends. They report on their progress
in a weekly one-credit seminar. They must write a thesis, defend it to
a committee, and present their work at a conference. This studentdriven
approach to Undergraduate Research has the strengths of
supporting their curiosity, initiative, and self-confidence, but it has
the weakness that the students often pick subjects outside the specific
expertise of our faculty, making it more challenging to advise them.
I will close the presentation with examples of recent student research
projects.
GD04: 9:40-9:50 a.m. Looking at Data From Different
Perspectives Through Unbiased Approaches by an
Undergraduate Researcher
Contributed – Ximena C. Cid, University of Washington, 3910 15th Ave.
NE, Box: 351560 Seattle, WA 98195-0001; ximena.c.cid@gmail.com
Mentoring undergraduates to do research is tricky business. There is
a fine line between guiding students to come to their own conclusions
and not guiding them enough in order to formulate coherent
thoughts. On the other hand, one of the biggest advantages of having
undergraduates do research in your lab is utilizing their unbiased
approaches and ideas to explore the data. This talk will focus on an
undergraduate’s approach to reinterpreting collected data. We will
highlight one approach that takes advantage of different representations
which lead to unexpected results.
GD05: 9:50-10 a.m. Promoting Retention and Completion with
Research and Design Cohorts
Contributed – Gregory Mulder, Linn-Benton Community College, 6500
Pacific Blvd. SW, Albany, OR 97321; mulderg@linnbenton.edu
At Linn-Benton Community College we have created a series of
Research and Design Cohorts (RDCs) that students are encouraged to
join their first term on campus. RDC projects include designing and
building underwater ROVs, payloads on rockets, and experiments for
use in nearby drop tower. All RDCs start with a 1-credit micro-controller
class that focuses on programming and data collection skills.
Students then pursue an RDC for their one to three years at the community
college. RDCs allow students to use the content knowledge
gained in their traditional classes to solve interesting and open-ended
research questions while building ties with faculty and other students.
GD06: 10-10:10 a.m. Seeking Exoplanets with Inexpensive
Cameras
Contributed – Martin G. Connors, Athabasca University, 11560 80 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T6G 0R9 Canada; martinc@athabascau.ca
Olivier Guyon, University of Arizona
Josh Walawender, Subaru Telescope
Every year sees better Digital Single Lens Reflex (DLSR) cameras
come to market, with higher resolution, better lenses, and increased
sensitivity. Most modern cameras can be attached to a computer
for control and data download. These allow many levels of interaction
with the night sky, from taking beautiful photos to quantitative
analysis, all of which have appeal to students at various levels. On an
inexpensive mount that gives pointing and tracking ability, a DSLR
can survey an impressive amount of “real estate” in the Galaxy. The
images can be analyzed on a computer to look for changes in stellar
brightness that range from dramatic in the case of eclipsing binary
or pulsating stars, to very subtle in the case of transits of exoplanets
in front of their star. We explore the rapidly developing technologies
that allow undergraduates to do cutting-edge astronomical research,
highlighting Project Panoptes (http://projectpanoptes.org).
January 3–6, 2015
GE01:
Session GE: Teaching Advanced
and Honors Students
Location: Nautilus Hall 5
Sponsor: Committee on Physics in Undergraduate Education
Date: Tuesday, January 6
Time: 8:30–10:20 a.m.
Presider: Juan Burciaga
8:30-9 a.m. Serving Dessert First: An Inverted Introductory
Course for Potential Majors
Invited – Thomas Moore, Pomona College, Physics, 610 N. College
Ave., Claremont, CA 91711; tmoore@pomona.edu
How can one entice incoming students having a variety of different
backgrounds to explore physics as a possible major By serving
dessert first! This talk will describe Pomona College’s introductory
sequence for potential physics majors having at least some high
school physics and calculus. The first semester, instead of reviewing
(yet again) the mechanics of frictionless blocks on inclined planes,
introduces students to conservation laws, special relativity, quantum
mechanics, and statistical mechanics. Second-semester half-courses
then allow students to improve their strength in classical physics as
needed. I will also discuss implications for upper-level courses as well
as the latest data on enrollment patterns and the sequence’s impact on
the number of physics majors we attract.
GE02: 9-9:30 a.m. Honors Physics Instruction at a Large State
University
Invited – Paul A. Crowell, University of Minnesota, 116 Church St. SE,
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0213; crowell@umn.edu
The College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota
admits approximately 1000 students as freshmen each year.
Of these, approximately 120 are admitted to the University Honors
Program (UHP). The School of Physics and Astronomy has offered an
introductory course for these students since approximately 1985. The
vast majority of the UHP students enroll in this class for two semesters.
A third semester, which is required by only a few majors in the
college, enrolls about 30% of the honors class. Although the prerequisites
are similar to those for the standard calculus-based introductory
class, the honors sequence has its own laboratory sections and is
provided with more instructional resources than the standard course.
Although the level of difficulty is generally higher than in the regular
sequence, the honors course is not intended to cover more material,
nor is it specifically designed to appeal to prospective physics majors.
I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this approach from
the standpoint of the College as well as the physics program. In the
2013-2014 academic year, the department inaugurated a new honors
introductory class with a much smaller enrollment (approximately 20)
and much more selective entrance requirements. One of the goals of
this class is to serve prospective physics majors, although it is open to
all who meet the prerequisites. As the instructor for this class, I will
offer my perspective based on our one year of experience. Finally, I
will review the role of the honors program in the upper level physics
curriculum.
GE03: 9:30-10 a.m. Honors Physics for First-Year College
Students
Invited – Keith Griffioen, College of William & Mary, PO Box 8795, Williamsburg,
VA 23187; griff@physics.wm.edu
William & Mary has long offered an honors course in introductory
electromagnetism for those who did well in introductory mechanics.
Two years ago we introduced an honors mechanics course for
incoming undergraduates. We put 40 eager, mathematically inclined
students into a class together with the goal of creating a microcosm of
the larger physics community, complete with collaboration, peer review,
experimentation, mutual problem-solving, and presentation. We
expect our students to understand mechanics thoroughly, to develop
mathematical sophistication in problem-solving, to gain insight into
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Tuesday Morning