Physics 262, 361, 362

Research Experiences in Physics

Spring 2007 Course Syllabus

Instructor: Don Salisbury

Moody Science 107

x2480

dsalisbury@austincollege.edu

Class Meeting Time: Tu 7:00-8:00 PM

Office Hours: M 10:00-11:00 AM, Tu 2:00-2:50 PM , W 2:00–2:50 PM, F 9:00 AM – 9:50 PM

Course Description

These courses are part of a four-course sequence that offers students the opportunity to work in small research groups on independent research projects. Students work closely with a faculty member in the Physics Department on topic selection, theoretical and experimental design, data analysis, and presentation of results. Topics vary depending on student background and interest.

Required Books

Alley, M., The Craft of Scientific Writing, 3^rd edition, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1996.

A laboratory notebook, preferably with quad ruling for tables and graphs.

Rationale for Student Research Projects

The physics faculty strongly believes that independent research projects add depth and breadth to students' background beyond traditional coursework. Specifically, research projects

• Give students the opportunity to explore their own interests and to make choices regarding experimental design, equipment selection, and data analysis techniques,
• Offer students the opportunity to formulate and to explore physical models using theoretical, experimental, and computational approaches,
• Introduce students to primary source materials through literature searches related to their project,
• Provide students the opportunity to present their results orally to a peer group, similar to the nature and format of scientific meetings,
• Provide students the experience of writing in a scientific context, and
• Offer students the opportunity to critically review scientific work of their peers.

Structure of Research Experiences in Physics Courses

Research Experiences in Physics (REP) courses offered by the Physics Department at Austin College are 0.25 credit courses in which students work in small research groups on independent research projects. Normally, sophomores take the introductory courses (PHY 261 and PHY 262) while juniors and seniors take the advanced courses (PHY 361 and PHY 362). Physics majors are required to take 4 REP courses, and physics minors are required to take 2 REP courses. Although one faculty member in the department serves as the REP course administrator, students may conduct research with any faculty member in the department. However, students are allowed to conduct research with the same professor only for two semesters to ensure exposure to a variety of research approaches and techniques.

Students may work independently or collaborate with one or two other students in the course. In most cases, students will choose a project topic related to course material learned from previous semesters. For example, a student who took Modern Physics in the previous semester may choose a project on the quantum nature of radioactive decay. Thus, REP projects often extend exposure to interesting topics only briefly addressed in a typical course.

The research project will consist of work which embraces experimental, theoretical, or computational investigation, or some combination of these methods. The project will span the entire semester, beginning with topic selection during the first week of class and concluding with submission of a final report during the 12^th week of class. Students with especially meritorious projects will be invited to summarize their work on the Departmental web page.

Topic Selection: The physics faculty will provide project suggestions during the 1^st week of class, but students are encouraged to develop their own project ideas, consulting as early as possible with the faculty. Topics to be explored will be related to previous course content. Although one faculty member in the department serves as the REP course instructor, any faculty member in the department may supervise student research.

Weekly Class Meetings: Students will meet during the usual class period for general activities related to research and experimental design. Topics to be covered may include aspects of scientific writing, proposals, oral presentations, citations, hypothesis testing, scientific modeling, and error analysis.

Project Proposal: By end of the 3^rd week of the term, each project group will submit to the instructor a two-page proposal that briefly describes a project. Proposal guidelines are described in more detail below.

Weekly Research Meetings: Each research group will meet weekly with the faculty member supervising their project to discuss progress and to evaluate experimental design.

Project Paper, Draft: A draft of the project paper is due during the 9^th week of class. Although students will be working in groups on the project, a separate project paper is required from each individual within a project group. Project report guidelines below specify the required parts of a report. These drafts will be reviewed and critiqued by other members of the class and the instructor during the 9^th week of class, to be returned for revision at the beginning of the 10^th week.

Peer Review: Each student will review and offer constructive feedback of a project paper from another group. Peer reviews offer students an opportunity to obtain valuable input from their intended audience. Peer review forms will be distributed at a later date. The instructor will evaluate the quality of the peer review. The authors should treat comments from reviewers seriously, and appropriate steps should be taken in the revised paper to address the reviewers’ concerns. The peer reviews are due during the 10^th week of class and will be returned to the authors during the 10^th week.

Presentation: Each student must give an oral presentation during the 11^th week of class. Time limits such as those imposed at scientific meetings will be enforced. Preparation for this talk should be taken seriously and will include a rehearsal presentation with the supervising faculty member, one week prior to the public presentation. If possible, all physics faculty will be present for the formal presentations. Students will assess presentations by other research groups through a peer review process. The course instructor will solicit colleague feedback on each presentation and incorporate these evaluations in the grading process.

Final Project Paper: Final written reports describing the project and results are due during the 12^th week of class. A separate final paper is required from each individual within a project group.

Final Project Meeting: The instructor will meet with each student before the term ends to discuss the work on the project, the oral presentation, and the written report. In addition, students will individually evaluate the contribution of each member in the project group.

Although students will be working closely with faculty members, it is the students’ responsibility to work on the projects. Murphy’s Law seems to apply frequently on research projects, so students are encouraged to begin projects early. Failure to meet deadlines will result in an automatic project grade penalty.

Grading Policy

Participation (15%): Students are expected to participate in scheduled course activities, weekly meetings with a research advisor, and attendance at a minimum of two research colloquium presentations during the semester. Students are also expected to ask at least one oral question at a colloquium presentation during the semester.

Proposal (10%): Guidelines for proposals are provided below. The research proposal is due on Friday, February 16, 5:00 PM.

Research and Experimentation (20%): Students will receive credit for proper research techniques, effort, perseverance, innovation, and creativity. A laboratory notebook will be used to record scientific data and ideas. The notebook is due each week during the weekly meeting with the research supervisor.

Research Paper (20%): Guidelines for the research paper are provided below. A first draft is due on Monday, April 2, 5:00 PM. The final draft is due Tuesday, April 24, 5:00 PM.

Presentation (20%): Guidelines for presentations are provided below. Presentations will be conducted on Tuesday, April 17, 4:30-8:00 PM.

Peer Review (10%): Each student will review another research paper. These peer reviews are an important component of the research process. Peer review forms will be distributed at a later date. Presentations will also be peer reviewed.

Peer Evaluation (5%): Each group member will evaluate all members (including herself or himself) on their contributions to the research project. Evaluation forms will be distributed at a later date.

Academic Integrity

A high ethical standard serves as a crucial foundation of scientific advancement. Falsification of data (in pharmaceutical research, for example) could produce disastrous results later. In this course, you will be working in small groups in close collaboration with other students and faculty. We expect students to maintain and uphold the highest standard of scientific integrity.

Plagiarism, falsification, and cheating will not be tolerated and will result in failure of this course.

A recent national survey suggests that college students and faculty have different perspectives on academic integrity and cheating. The following list provides a partial list of actions that the Physics Department considers violations of academic integrity in this course:

1. Turning in work done by someone else.

2. Working on an assignment with others when the instructor asked for individual work.

3. Writing or providing a paper for another student.

4. Falsifying lab or research data.

5. Fabricating or falsifying a bibliography.

6. Copying a few sentences of material from a written source without footnoting them in a paper.

7. Turning in a paper either purchased or plagiarized, in large part, from a term paper "mill" or website.

8. Copying a few sentences of material from an Internet source without footnoting them in a paper.

9. Copying material almost word for word from any written source and turning it in as your own work.

10. Turned in a paper copied from another student.

11. Using a false excuse to obtain extension on due date.

12. Hiding or damaging library/course material.

13. Cheating on a written assignment in any other way.

Semester Schedule

Initial Topic Presentation	Tuesday, January 30, 7:00 PM
Preliminary Topic Selection	Tuesday, February 6, 5:00 PM
Class Activities	Tuesday, February 13, 7:00 PM
Project Proposal Due	Friday, February 16, 5:00 PM
Class Activities	Tuesday, March 20, 7:00 PM
First Draft of Paper Due	Monday, April 2, 5:00 PM
Peer Review Distribution	Tuesday, April 3, 7:00 PM
Peer Review Due	Monday, April 9, 5:00 PM
First Draft Returned	Tuesday, April 10, 7:00 PM
Class Activities	Tuesday, April 12, 7:00 PM
Presentations	Tuesday, April 17 16, 4:30-8:00 PM
Final Paper Due	Tuesday, April 24, 5:00 PM

Bold indicates required meetings during the normally scheduled course time.

Proposal Guidelines

The purpose of the proposal is to clearly define the objectives of the research project. As the research progresses and new ideas develop, you will probably deviate slightly from the original objectives stated in the proposal. Nevertheless, it will provide a good starting point for your research and help you develop the basic framework of your research question. The two-page proposal will be written together by all members of the group. It will be graded. The proposal should include the following:

• Proposal title, names of group members, date, course name, and course number should appear at the beginning of the proposal.
• A brief statement of the main purpose of the project should appear next. The scientific question to be addressed and your working hypothesis (what you expect to discover) should be described.
• An initial plan for conducting the research should be outlined, including a brief discussion of experimental techniques. A project timeline should be included.
• The proposal will cite a minimum of three references that you consulted in the process of selecting a project topic. These references may be any type of source, e.g., textbook, web site, other reference volumes, or scholarly periodicals, but at least one of the references must be a scholarly periodical. References and citations will use the same format as Alley’s textbook. Please refer to Michael Alley’s website “Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students” (http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu) for additional information on reference format.

Project Report Guidelines

Each project report must be word-processed (including equations) using any word processor with which you are comfortable. Data, images, and graphs should be included within the body of the report, not appended at the end, and should be properly identified in a caption. Diagrams in the final draft of your paper must be made with computer drawing programs, but the required first draft can contain hand-drawn diagrams. The total length of the paper will depend on the nature of the project, but will typically be 8-10 pages in length. The project report must contain the following sections:

• Title Page: The title page should include the project title, your name, and names of your partners, date, course name, and course number. In addition, it should contain an abstract that summarizes the important points and results of your project. You may want to complete all other parts of your report before writing the abstract.
• Introduction: This section should provide a context in which the main objectives of the paper can be understood. Background information and previous research should be discussed here. This section should contain a clear, concise statement of the main purpose of the project. The introduction should be 2-3 pages in length.
• Theoretical and Experimental Approach: Discussion of theoretical foundations with equations should be included here. A listing of equations will not suffice. Instead, theory should be placed in context. If key equations used in calculations are not derived in your text, they should be derived in this section of the report. You may want to look up and cite some references that provide you with some added theoretical grounding for the project. For experimental projects, a description of procedures and equipment used should be included in this section. An apparatus drawing with appropriate labels would be appropriate in this section. For computational projects, the numerical approach and computer program structure should be outlined.
• Results: Data should be clearly labeled with units. Calculations and data analysis with calculated uncertainties should appear. Each calculated step should be displayed for at least one sample calculation of each type (including equations used to calculate each column in a spreadsheet). Results may be displayed in tabular or graphic form with axes labeled with units. Digital images may also be used. This section should not contain every single detail, result, and analysis of your experiment. Rather, it should highlight the most important aspects of your research by providing supporting (or non-supporting) evidence of your main thesis. For example, multiple pages of numerical data do not provide significant insight on the research. A simple plot containing much of the same information as the numerical data (along with a clear explanation of the importance of the plot) would be more valuable to the reader.
• Discussion: A discussion of results and conclusions including an assessment of uncertainties and suggestions for improvement of the experiment should appear in this section.
• References: A list of references should appear at the end of the paper. Proper citation of these sources should occur in the main body of the paper. Although various journals cite references differently, we will utilize a standard citation format used in the Alley textbook. Additional information can be found on Michael Alley’s web site http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu/

Alley’s book is a good source for an extended discussion of these elements of a report. This resource divides research papers into the following parts: Summary (our Title Page), Beginning (our Introduction section), Middle (our Approach and Results sections), and Ending (our Discussion and References sections). Furthermore, this book offers suggestions on how to organize your ideas and how to write clearly and effectively.

Oral Presentation Guidelines

The oral presentation is a group effort. As such, it is important that you plan in advance who will discuss each section of the presentation. The audience will be your fellow classmates, so you can assume they have a basic understanding of the material at the level covered in the previous course. However, do not assume too much from your audience or they might not understand your presentation. The presentation should be 10 minutes in length, followed by a 2-minute question and answer session. This is not a lot of time, so you should plan accordingly. Each person is required to give a portion of the presentation, so you need to rehearse together at least once. At the end of 8 minutes, you will be given a signal that you have only two minutes left.

You may use PowerPoint, draw on the board, use overhead transparencies, make posters, or use whatever visual aids you might need to describe your project. In general, you are not allowed to bring out the experimental set-up to demonstrate; we would like you to describe it instead. Although your presentation might not contain all of the elements listed below (or it may contain some that are not mentioned), here are some common features of typical project presentations:

• Title Page with investigator names.
• Outline of the presentation.
• Brief Statement of the purpose of the project. Remember, no one knows what you have done for your project.
• Description of the investigation, along with background information, if appropriate. The procedure used to obtain data should be stated along with any diagrams or figures, if this is helpful.
• Data (with uncertainties) should be presented in tables and/or graphs that include units.
• Conclusions based on analysis of the data. This is important!! What do the data tell you? You should interpret, not speculate.
• Discussion of the results. Do your results make sense? What are the uncertainties and what do they imply? What kinds of difficulties did you run into? How might the project be improved?
• Brief conclusion of the project.

Please keep in mind that 10 minutes go by very fast. You may not be able to discuss every aspect of your project in the time allotted. Therefore, you may need to leave out portions that are not critical to understanding the project.

Additional information on preparing presentations can be found in Alley’s book.

Revised 01/30/07 DCS