8:30 am Registration Opens – 3M Atrium Owen’s Science Hall
9:00 am Introduction – OWS 166
9:15 am Presentations – OWS 166
TALK 1: JERRY ARTZ, HAMLINE UNIVERSITY
(9:15 am - 9:30 am)
AN IDEA FOR PROMOTING HONESTY, INTEGRITY AND LEARNING IN SOLVING GENERAL PHYSICS HOMEWORK PROBLEMS
Homework and how it promotes learning are important areas of research. Many teachers of general physics and of other physics courses have been concerned by the rampant student use of and dependence upon online homework solutions. I have developed and used for the past five years a “5-Star Rating” self-assessment done by students themselves, to indicate use, or no use, of online solutions in the solving of physics homework problems. Students are encouraged to give themselves a 5-star rating if they work on a homework problem without the use of books, notes, online solutions, or other people. Or they can work their way down to a 0-Star problem utterly copying without understanding. The emphasis is on honesty and integrity. If students use an online solution, they must reference it! If someone else helps, give them credit! One’s homework grade is not reduced by star-rating the problem. In fact, a small bit of extra credit is awarded should a student agree voluntarily to use the 5-Star Rating. The 5-Star Rating system and possible correlations between 5-Star Rating and course performance will be discussed.
TALK 2: JENNIFER DOCKTOR, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN – LA CROSSE
(9:35 am - 9:50 am)
SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? PHYSICS MAJOR RETENTION
Enrollment is a prevalent concern for many Physics Departments, especially at primarily undergraduate institutions. A recent report from the American Institute of Physics (AIP) on “Attrition and Persistence in Undergraduate Physics Programs” describes factors that contribute to a student’s decision to persist or leave physics. I will describe initiatives at UW-La Crosse to address enrollment issues based on the report findings and recommendations.
TALK 3: SYLKE BOYD, UNIVERISTY OF MINNESOTA – MORRIS
(9:55 am–10:05 am)
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN SMALL UNDERGRADUATE PHYSICS PROGRAMS
The physics discipline at the University of Minnesota Morris has undergone some difficult changes, foremost a reduction in faculty. I would like to talk about the measures taken to not only ensure the future existence of the physics program, but also to strengthen student opportunities, up to a new tenure track hire in physics. This includes collaborative efforts, curricular adjustments, activation of the physics alumni, and broad public engagement. Outreach activities such as Open Observatory nights, and outdoor Minute Physics on the mall have significantly increased visibility of physics on campus. I will gladly share some of the ideas with you.
TALK 4: JOLENE JOHNSON, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN – RIVER FALLS
(10:10 am - 10:25 am)
SUPPORTING PHYSICS TEACHERS AND ILLUMINATING LOCAL HISTORIES OF WOMEN IN PHYSICS
In this talk, I will share two interconnected projects that reflect my commitment to supporting physics educators and promoting diversity in the field. After spending four years teaching in high-need high schools during the pandemic—an experience that was both incredibly challenging and profoundly formative—I returned to higher education with a renewed focus on strengthening support for physics teachers.
At the University of Wisconsin–River Falls, my colleague Lowell McCann and I co-developed the Visiting Scientist Program, which connects physics faculty with local high schools to support teachers and spark student interest in physics. I will describe how the program works, the impact it has had, and how others might adapt similar models to their own contexts. I will also highlight the role of the Physics of Living Systems Teacher Network (PoLS-T) in providing community and resources for high school physics educators.
In the second part of the talk, I will discuss how I use the STEP UP curriculum to foster conversations about equity and representation in physics. As I adapted these lessons for my college seminar course, I began exploring the local history of women in physics—motivated by both my own experience as a woman in the field and a desire to make discussions of diversity more personal and place-based for my students.
This exploration evolved into a project documenting the experiences and contributions of women physicists in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I began with the University of Minnesota and other institutions where I’ve studied and worked. I will share highlights from this research, discuss how I incorporate these stories into my teaching, and outline plans for expanding the initiative.
10:30 am Poster Session – OWS 166
11:30 am – 12:00 pm Solar Observing – Schoenecker Center Quad
12:00 - 1:00 pm LUNCH – Room 403 Schoenecker Center
1:00 - 1:45 pm Business Meeting – Room 403 Schoenecker Center
2pm Presentations – OWS 166
Talk 5: KEN HELLER – UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, TWIN CITIES
(2:00 pm - 2:15 pm)
MAKE THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING: BRINGING THE INTRODUCTORY COLLEGE PHYSICS COURSE INTO ALIGNMENT WITH THE MODERN STRUCTURE OF PHYSICS
While our curriculum has been unchanged for at least three quarters of a century, our colleagues in Biology and Chemistry have changed their introductory courses to better reflect the outlook of their fields. The first semester of our college physics (algebra based) course starts with kinematics and ends with conservation of either energy or momentum following the order in most textbooks. This talk presents some minimal changes to the order and the emphasis of the topics to better reflect the outlook of contemporary physics. It is intended to promote a discussion on changing the emphasis of the introductory physics course curriculum.
TALK 6: ANANDA SHASTRI – MINNESOTA STATE UNIVERSITY MOORHEAD
(2:20 pm - 2:35 pm)
THE CASE OF THE RACIST SOAP DISPENSER: A DEI-RELATED ACTIVITY IN ANALOG ELECTRONICS
The physics and astronomy department at Minnesota State University Moorhead has implemented DEI initiatives into its 4-year work plan. In this talk, I demonstrate a DEI-related activity for an analog electronics class suitable for a mid-semester lab. As a pre-lab assignment, students see a video clip of an incident [1] where a soap dispenser in a public restroom did not dispense soap to black people. The 3-hour lab challenge is to understand the technical origin of this problem, and create a circuit that dispenses soap to everyone. The activity motivates discussion for how tech bias occurs, and reveals how bias can be unintentionally propagated. [1] M. Broussard, More than A Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2023.
TALK 7: LELAND ALDRIDGE – MINNESOTA STATE UNIVERITY MOORHEAD
(2:40 pm - 2:55 pm)
SUN DOGS AND GEOMETRIC OPTICS: THEORY AND MEASUREMENT
Sun dogs are an optical phenomenon where ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere produce bright spots displaced horizontally from the sun at a roughly 22 degree angle from the sun. This can be understood as a caustic in the distribution of angular deviations of sunlight passing through randomly oriented horizontal ice crystals. In this talk, the theory of sun dog formation is discussed and a simple laboratory exercise for investigating the central features of sun dog formation is presented, with suggestions for student-led analysis.
2:55 Closing – OWS 166
3:00 End