Welcome to the Furman Physics STEM blog! We have established this blog site to serve as a meeting ground and clearing house for curriculum development activity in physics education in the Physics Department at Furman University.
John R. Conrad
Augmentation and enhancement of existing laboratory experiments
Most students in elementary physics courses are already using embedded systems devices in their laboratory courses, without being aware that they are using embedded systems! Data loggers such as the Pasco’s GLX (which we use at Furman in the Physics 111 and 112 labs) and Vernier’s LabQuest devices are in fact quite substantial embedded systems platforms. The problem is that students see them as what they are—namely black box devices with canned software so that all of the work is done for the student. The pedagogical problem here is that these devices do not engage the student in a meaningful way! Rather than trying to replace these devices in the laboratory curriculum, it is our plan to augment the existing set of laboratory experiments with meaningful extensions of the same material using Arduino-based experiences.
These activities build on, exploit, and leverage the technology-based DIY/DIWO subculture of the Maker Movement to introduce embedded system Arduino technology at every level of the undergraduate curriculum, with the goal at a local level to increase by a factor of two the number of undergraduate physics majors at Furman. We hope to attract students who might not otherwise be inclined to major in physics. We believe that the material developed will be easily transportable to other institutions and will help to allow other institutions to also increase the number of students attracted to STEM fields generally, and in particular in undergraduate physics curricula. Although the specific projects we will explore are focused on the undergraduate physics curriculum, the approach and pedagogy developed will be easily adaptable to other STEM disciplines.
The strategic goals for this program address three issues:
- Recruiting of qualified students into the undergraduate physics pipeline
- Retention of those who enter the pipeline
- Enhancing the quality of the education by providing an engaged, hands-on, project-based learning experience
In order to achieve the above strategic goals, we have identified the following seven categories of Arduino-based projects:
- Augmentation and enhancement of existing laboratory experiments
- Research laboratory apparatus
- Lecture/showcase demo apparatus
- Projects that interface with Mathematica & Labview platforms
- Standalone consumer devices
- “Internet of Things” devices
- Robotics competition projects