PHYS 3650: Modern Physics Lab S18
General Information
Office E-mail
Instructor: R. Michalak, 215 PS
GA’s: Dani Schurhammer PS ### @uwyo.edu
Gabe Miller PS 233
Office hours(RM): PS215, T 12-1 pm, F 3-4, or by appointment
First Three ½ Weeks: lecture 1-4 in PS 234
When labs start: each experiment consists of one (short reports, lab 1-4) or three lab days (full reports, lab 5-9) - Lab 1-4pm in PS233; lab 10 is oral exam prep time on the experiment you are going to deal with in the exam
Minimally supervised lab sessions to improve data by appointment.
Text: Melissinos ‘Experiments in Modern Physics’
Additional texts (recommended not required):
Taylor ‘Error Theory’
Born ‘Atomic Physics’ or Taylor ‘Modern Physics’ – your old texts from Phys 2320
Webpage: You will find course related information on my website www.physics.uwyo.edu/~rudim
Special Announcement: Rick Fisher, Lecturer in English conducts a study in ‘Writing in the Professions’. He will shadow our course as needed and will ask you for your permission to use data and to conduct some interviews.
Course Content:
This course is an introduction to experimentation techniques and experiments in modern physics. We learn about proper techniques for report writing, data analysis, literature research, and measuring techniques including functional principles of measurement instrumentation.
We study a variety of landmark experiments, learn about electronics and experimental techniques as well as data analysis, and pursue mastery in a subset of experiments that will be analysed to a deeper level. During the initial block lectures, writing the laboratory report will be introduced chapter by chapter, and it will be practised chapter by chapter in the short reports.
The available lab sets include: gamma radiation, Millikan, Bragg diffraction,
Franck-Hertz, Photoelectric Effect, bbd radiation, alpha/beta radiation, Thomson e/m,
Michelson interferometry,
speed of light
light polarization,
gravitational constant,
Coulomb constant,
Chaos.
Write a list of two labs that you would prefer not to miss and hand it in to me now.
This course has been modified to fulfil USP2015-COM3. In a degree analysis it counts automatically as a WC under USP2003. The course meets all seven of the following Student Learning Outcomes:
1. Use the discourse of a discipline or interdisciplinary field to communicate that field’s subject matter to academic or professional audiences through written, oral, and digital communication.
- four short reports with draft deadlines
- four full reports at professional standard level
- eight 20 minute oral prelabs, five inlabs, two oral exams
- seminar style 15 minute oral presentation at beginning of term about equipment w/ Q/A
- IT: exploring Origin data analysis packet, Windat and Chaos experiment PC control software
2. Find, analyse, evaluate, and document information appropriately as applicable to the discipline, interdisciplinary field, or professional setting as demonstrated by completing a substantial communication project that requires appropriate research skills.
- each report’s and one short report’s introduction section requires extensive literature research; rules for citing, quoting trained in special 3 hour lecture (see below).
3. Recognize and evaluate more advanced aspects of communication that respond to the purposes and needs of audiences in a discipline, interdisciplinary field, or professional setting.
- special three hour interactive lab report lecture defines audience of reports and sets rules how to address audience appropriately
- seminar style report on equipment trains different audience specific presentation rules and skills
4. Make effective use of multiple drafts, revision, computer technology, peer and instructor comments, and collaboration to show understanding of communication standards in a discipline or interdisciplinary field.
- first short and first full reports use graded drafts deadlines, explicit and specific feedback and re-submission deadlines
- data fitting individualized on Origin software package where students have to develop their own fit routines
( e.g. nuclear experiment – three to four Gaussian peaks with different heights, positions, and widths overlap with 1/f background noise and continuous Compton spectrum), two one hour training lectures
5. Observe the accepted conventions of spelling, grammar, organizational structure, punctuation, delivery and documentation expected in disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or professional contexts.
- three hour interactive lecture on report writing with real time exercises and commented example reports and three hour lecture on citation, quotation, and plagiarism awareness with exercises
6. Deliver presentations in a confident and professional manner, consistent with the standards of the discipline or interdisciplinary field.
- eight ~ 20’ oral prelabs and five ~ 10’ inlabs, an oral midterm prepare and train the student for the 1 ½ hour final oral exam
7. Interact effectively with audience members, engage opposing viewpoints constructively, and demonstrate active listening skills.
- equipment seminar has question and answer section; student topics overlap to guarantee all students have something to contribute and question during discussion.
- pre-labs are interactive discussions (see below)
All of the following information is tentative and I reserve the right to change any of it as seems necessary to keep the class average on course. Such changes will be announced in class.
Lecture During the first three weeks three hour long lecture blocks will be given on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These block lectures introduce:
(1) Course intro syllabus and remarks about measurements
(2) Data distributions I (Taylor 3-6)
(3) Data distributions II (Taylor 8-12)
(4) Lab Report instruction
(5) Lab Report continued; Citing, Quoting, and Plagiarism
(6) Equipment seminar
All block lectures are interactive and provide opportunities to earn standards (see below).
In week four to six the first hour of each lab day is reserved for lecture (exception day 1). A tentative list:
(1) Millikan, e/m ; Bragg, bbd; ph.elec., FH – no lab
(2) ab, g - 1 hr then lab 1
(3) Michelson Interferometer, speed of light/polarization - 1 hr then lab 2
(4) Chaos, gravitational constant - 1 hr then lab 3
(5) Origin data processing, introduction - 1 hr then lab 4
(6) Origin data fitting, interactive - 1 hr then first day lab 5
Note that this amounts to 26 lecture hours, whereas a purely lecture based course has 42 lectures.
Laboratory Ten complex modern physics experiments with one to three lab days each.
Three day labs: On day one, time is used for your understanding of the experimental setup and trouble-shooting, including the identification and minimizing of systematic errors and deciding on necessary number of repetitions for data statistics and the researching of accepted values.
Students receive a detailed hand-out for the experiment they will perform in the following week. Each lab day begins with questions about the theoretical and experimental background (prelabs). One at a time, students will be called out to have a one on one professional conversation. On the first experiment day, focus will be on the theoretical background, day two focuses on experimental aspects, and day three on data analysis. Some of the respective other material will be talked about on each day as well. Students will rotate so that each will have roughly the same exposure to day one, two, and three questions. The rotation pattern is set so that it is hard to predict.
The answers students give during prelab can earn the student standard grades (see below). Up to five students will be interviewed in one-on-one situations on each of the three lab days.
Students are encouraged to come to office hours before lab time and address questions they have about the lab instructions and experimental and theoretical background of an experiment.
Participation in all laboratory sessions is mandatory for the successful completion of this course. Excused absence requires a valid doctor’s note or university excuse. In that case, an appointment is made for a makeup session.
Each student absence, late arrival, or early departure without instructor (not TA) approval results in grade penalties. A five minute grace period is granted at start and end of lab and three five minute absences during lab time are acceptable as well.
Each student works individually and writes his or her own lab reports. Students are responsible for making sure the data they take are meaningful and complete. If equipment is broken or missing the student informs the TA as soon as possible and an alternative for the assignment is worked out. Missing, statistically meaningless, or wrong data will lead to lower lab grades.
Safety advice is given at the beginning of the first lab and students sign a consent form, which also proves that the students have been instructed about lab related dangers and have been instructed how to proceed in the event of an accident.
Lab reports and homework have to be handed in according to the schedule and will be handed back at the beginning of the next but one lab day or as soon as possible (delays can be expected when the instructor has exam weeks in his other classes). Expectations for reports will be further specified in lecture. Each student hands in his or her own report and multiple copies of almost identical reports will not be accepted. Simply paraphrasing sources counts as plagiarism (see special lecture).
In finals week each student has a 1 ½ hour oral and practical exam. The schedule will be discussed after midterm.
Grades
Labs with short reports: 4 20%
Short report draft 1 2.5%
Labs with full reports: 4 35%
Full report draft 1 2.5%*
Seminar 1+ 5%
Midterm : 1 7.5%
Final exam lab: 1 15%
Standards: in 4 categories 15%
Full report 9 is a bonus assignment with special rules and deadlines (see below).
*The draft grade for the full report draft is effectively bonus points in excess of 100% total grade.
The standard grading rules:
• There are three levels of standards one can achieve: Basic, Advanced, and Proficient
• The levels are related to learning outcomes according to Bloom’s Taxonomy (see appendix).
Basic Standard = Bloom 1/2 - Memorization
Advanced Standard = Bloom 3 - Understanding and Application
Proficiency Standard = Bloom 4 - Analysis/Synthesis/Evaluation
To obtain the final grade for standards you will need to accomplish certain landmarks in four categories. Some of these can be assessed during lab (in prelab or inlab), during midterm or final exam, others in lecture and seminar, and finally in report writing.
The four categories are called: experiment, report, oral & theory, COM3.
In order to fulfil a standard (at any of the three levels) in any category you need to fulfil the standard in each category’s sub-categories first. You will get access to our master chart for standards that allow you to trace your progress and current standing. A colour coding informs you about standards earned per sub-category in the most recent assignments.
Here are the sub-categories for each category: (currently under further review)
• experiment: basic lab skills and safety skills, mastery of advanced apparatus, software packages and data decision making*, random error, systematic error, experiment modification/adaptation*
6 sub-categories
• report: spellcheck and metrics, paragraph design, chapter design and integration, report chapter content (including lab book), bibliography and research, deadlines
6 sub-categories
• oral & theory: preparation, audience, confidence and delivery, math, theory, data fitting theory
6 sub-categories
• COM3: drafts*, IT usage, use of jargon, peer group, professional standards
5 sub-categories
Some of the sub-categories are self-explanatory, on others we will comment further as we reach the assessment stage.
* standard may not always be available
• Before you fulfil a higher level standard you have to fulfil the respective lower level standards in each sub-category.
• If you fail a standard sub-category you can retake it as often as there is time for, but not the same day.
• Some standards you will fill implicitly and we will inform you at the end of the day or the next day when we update the standard sheet for the day or when a lab report is returned.
• We will also explain on certain occasions why you may have not passed a standard.
• The lab TA can award basic standards.
• Advanced and Proficiency standards are only awarded by the instructor.
• As term progresses students may want to be proactive, for example, they can state at the beginning of a prelab ‘I am going for a standard in systematic error and data fitting’.
How awarded standards are converted into standard grades: (under review)
In order to get any grade from standards you need to accumulate enough sub-category standards to fulfil the standard for the whole category. You will have to go through the whole procedure again to reach an advanced standard, only this time at the advanced Bloom’s level; and then again for the proficiency level. In order to get the category basic standard you will need to achieve a basic standard in each sub-category. In order to get the advanced or proficient standards in a category, you need an advanced/proficient in all but one sub-category.
Based on these achieved category standards, I will determine your per cent grade for the 20% of the course grade which are standard based. A proficiency standard category counts 5% toward the overall standard grade, an advanced standard category counts 4.00%, and a basic standard category counts 3%.
A few examples to familiarize you with what you want to strive for:
4 proficiency 20 100 % A
2 proficiency, 2 advanced 18 90 % A-
4 advanced 16 80 % B
3 proficient, 1 unachieved 15 75 % B-
2 advanced, 2 basic 14 70 % C+
4 basic 12 60 % C-
2 advanced, 2 unachieved 8 40 % F
2 basic, 2 unachieved 6 30 % F
4 unachieved 0 0 % F
If at the end of term, the average student struggles to make at least a C average on standards, I will count the total number of sub-standards earned instead, assign an appropriate letter grade to the highest standing, and normalize all other students’ standard grades to this.
From this list you can see that I want you to strive for breadth in achieving standard levels in categories. This reflects the goals of the COM3 USP.
Course Scale:
A > 92.5% GPA 4.0
A- > 87.5% 3.67
B+ > 82.5% 3.33
B > 77.5% 3.0
B- > 72.5% 2.67
C+ > 67.5% 2.33
C > 62.5% 2.0
C- > 57.5% 1.67
D+ > 52.5% 1.33