Introduction to Engineering Design is a pilot course started in the fall of 2024 at Delaware State University among freshmen majoring in engineering physics. This course is one of the several course modules being piloted before a major program revision can be implemented. The goal for this pilot introductory engineering course is to bring the hands-on engineering design experience to the...
I will show an elementary derivation of the bound orbits of an inverse-square force law. The approach uses the Hamilton equations of motion, which are just two coupled first-order differential equations for the time rate of change of the radial coordinate and of the radial momentum. By decoupling these equations, we simply have to integrate a first-order differential equation of a complex...
Students with a strong science identity have a higher likelihood of choosing a science career and are more likely to demonstrate persistence in STEM courses and careers. Preliminary findings of an ongoing qualitative survey analysis of 120 undergraduate women in Physics will be presented. The following research questions are being investigated:
- What are undergraduate women’s conceptions...
The difficulties associated with relativistic two-body equations, both classical and quantum mechanical, will be discussed. Two approaches to the two-body Dirac equation will then be considered. The emphasis will be on the Breit version of this equation with instantaneous interaction. This equation will be solved for quarkonium states using a standard potential with short-range and linear...
Many textbooks define the COP of a refrigerator consisting of a working fluid (taken to be an ideal gas) as the ratio of the sum $Q_C$ of all heats input to the ideal gas divided by the total work $W$ done on the ideal gas, both calculated around one complete cycle. Since the change in internal energy of the gas is zero for a (steady-state) cycle, $W$ can alternatively be written as $Q_H -...
This study explores how International Graduate Teaching Assistants (IGTAs) adjust to teaching roles in the U.S., focusing on how their cultural backgrounds influence their experiences and classroom interactions. Using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as a framework (Hofstede, G. 2011), we examine how power distance, individualism versus collectivism, and motivation towards achievement in their...
When I started as a research leader at a UMD gen-ed UG program in 2018, I realized that I could effectively utilize my experimental high energy physicist upbringing in my role. This was not only because of the research projects I implemented in the course, but also of the baseline knowledge, competencies, hard and soft skills acquired through apprenticeship, experiential learning, project and...
This past summer, I was a facilitator at a Morgan State University quantum teacher workshop titled "Quantum Literacy Teachers Training" (QLT2). In this talk, I will share my experience and the goals, details and outcomes of this workshop.
During the past two years, The Organization for Physics at Two-Year Colleges (OPTYCs) has ramped up multiple programs for professional development. While these are aimed at two-year college faculty, we have had participation from high school teachers, professors from four-year institutions, and graduate students. In this presentation, we will highlight some of our programs and share what we...
Projectile motion is the first topic in an introductory physics course that can boggle the minds of students. It is important to start with basic observations and discussion much earlier in math, geology, or other science classes. The presentation will demonstrate how free simulations, such as PhET - [Projectile Motion][1], can be effectively used for pre-lab activities or projects in schools...
As quantum information science becomes a more prominent topic, high schools and colleges are thinking about how to incorporate these ideas into existing classes and new courses. We have been working with teachers to develop quantum activities and lessons for high school computer science, chemistry, and physics classes as well as to develop a new conceptual (no pre-requisites) university...
During my US Pathways Summer 2016 Internship with the Office of Science (High Energy Physics) of US Dept. of Energy (Germantown MD), I evaluated the US workforce readiness for future US particle physics projects for further research of the Standard Model of Physics and Beyond. One of the findings showed literacy disparities in physics of American secondary students in comparison to those of...
Since time immemorial people are wondering what the world is made of. An ancient idea dating back to the Greeks is the system of four elements: earth, water, fire and air. Our understanding of nature has come a long way since then. We have learned that much of our world is made of the various atoms compiled in the periodic table of elements. We have also learned that atoms themselves are built...
Introduction: How can a Physics and Chemistry student easily visualize the resultant charge of a Neutron or Proton? By using a simple educational model that includes Down and Up quarks. Computing the resultant charge requires knowledge of only simple fractions.
Methodology/Theoretical Framework: Color-coded spheres are used to represent Down Quarks, Up Quarks, and Gluons. Desktop...
A red LED and a green LED are wired in parallel and attached to a lamp cord. The LEDs are oriented in opposite directions, so when one of them is forward biased the other is reverse biased. When plugged in to a wall outlet, at any instant only one of the LEDs will be forward biased; this switches between red and green with a 60 Hz frequency. Waving the end of the cord back and forth (or...
A challenge for high school teachers pursuing the National Board Certification is the ability to demonstrate differentiation in the classroom. One example of such differentiation is implementing multiple formative or summative assessments adequate for the critical thinking level of the students for an 11th grade Honors Physics class. Yet designing a curriculum for each individual student...
During the Summer of 2024, from July to August, Morgan State University hosted an in-person five-week summer program entitled iQuEST. Twenty-three iQuest participants, selected from 9th - 12th graders in the Baltimore metropolitan schools, were given the opportunity to build 21st-century skills that involved problem-solving, critical thinking, and innovation concepts in quantum science. These...
Students are often intimidated by professors in introductory courses, despite having questions or misunderstandings about concepts. In an effort to address this, last year I implemented a new component to participation in my introductory physics courses. During Physics Chats or PhysChats, students schedule time to meet with me individually and informally talk about a group activity they did in...
Dance obviously involves body control and biomechanics, lending itself to the use of physics principles in its execution. But as a teacher of both physics and dance, I find that physics and astronomy instruction also benefits from analogies to dance movements and figures. From simple teaching tools like the "sun and moon dance" to the use of folk dance analogies in the teaching of circuits and...
North Carolina Central University received a grant to give underrepresented students ( women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and TYC) along with TYC faculty opportunities to do research at Triangle University Nuclear Laboratories along with TUNL REU students and TUNL faculty. I will be talking about my experience as a TYC faculty getting back into research and the opportunities of my TYC students...
We teach a little modern physics in Phy 202; one topic we cover is the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle. To demonstrate the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle, we put the sound of a tuning fork through different filtering window sizes then we get the resulting spectrum. The result shows that reducing the uncertainty in time will increase the uncertainty in the frequency in accord with the...
Research findings suggest that many students tend to ask infrequent and superficial questions, which hinders their ability to deepen their understanding and acquire new knowledge. This pilot study (N=15) asked whether having students pose their own problems to examine would have an effect on their understanding. The instructor guided the students from structured problems to having students...
2025 has been designated as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ). I have developed a set of simple outreach activities that involve applications of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and spectrum analysis using simple diffraction grating viewers. Students and outreach audiences often marvel at the rich details that emerge from ‘normal’ sources of light: the wavelengths...
I will present an overview of an interactive electronic textbook I have developed on Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. Based on an original PDF text by my late colleague Prof. Rexford Adelberger, I have expanded his content into a 14-chapter Jupyter Book that walks the reader through four vectors, Lorentz Transformations, and spacetime diagrams, all the way through relativistic...
The Centripetal Force Experiment is a standard experiment for physics student labs in which a mass is attached is rotated in a circle at different angular velocities. The mass is attached to a string that goes around a pulley and is attached a force sensor by a string over a pulley so that the length of the string to the pulley is the radius $R$ of the circular motion, and so the centripetal...
Students who complete a high school physics course may be under the impression that physics somehow “stopped” in the late 19th or early 20th century. Of course this idea could not be further from the truth, as physicists today continue to work on addressing an ever-growing list of unsolved questions: Where has all the antimatter gone? What is dark matter? What is dark energy? Physicists from...
We will demonstrate the Centripetal Force Experiment in which a mass is attached is rotated in a circle at different angular velocities. The mass is attached to a string that goes around a pulley and is attached a force sensor by a string over a pulley so that the length of the string to the pulley is the radius $R$ of the circular motion, and so the centripetal force is measured. In this...
This is a survey of some ideas and resources I use (or have used) in my online asynchronous Physics classes. I will mention a couple of tips on using Moodle as well as other external tools and software that I've found useful. I'll also talk about what it is possible to do to decrease cheating and to push students towards learning the main ideas in
In my previous talk I outlined the role of quantization considerations in the emission spectra of ionized elements and in the colors emitted by Light Emitting Diodes. I have created an inexpensive set of demonstrations that can be given to students and outreach audiences of almost all ages so that they can directly experience these surprising phenomena. I cut small squares of linear...
Kahoot! is a widely-used game-based learning platform in K-12 classrooms, valued for its ability to review knowledge, facilitate formative assessments, and provide an engaging alternative to traditional learning activities. However, its use in college-level physics education remains limited. Moreover, most Kahoot! games typically rely on teacher-generated questions or pre-made content. This...
QuarkNet is more than an amazing professional development opportunity for teachers! QuarkNet also provides the Data Portfolio, a set of teacher curated and tested particle physics lessons intended for use at the high school level. Talk will feature examples of implementation in a real classroom, as well as discussion of QuarkNet's eLabs and Masterclasses, with some focus on the Virginia Tech Center.
I will be presenting my recent work in redesigning Introductory physics 1 and 2 for pre-health majors at the University of Virginia by integrating biological and medical applications of the physics concepts covered in a manner that students perceive as relevant and engaging. We aim to bridge the gap between physics and biology, addressing the common issue of waning interest in learning the...
In this talk our interest is on whether we can observe, demonstrate, and perhaps measure at some level the interplay of the effects of air-drag around smooth non-spinning balls, rough balls, and spinning balls (Magnus Force) at speeds available in a classroom environment. Some of this effort came about when looking for simple aerodynamic affects that could be used in an active learning...
Since Galileo and (more recently) D’Arcy Thompson, it has been understood that physical processes and constraints influence biological structures and their resulting functions. However these cross-discpline connections — and their importance to growing scientific disciplines such as biophysics — are rarely taught in introductory physics courses. Here we examine how the laws of physics shape...
The Virginia QuarkNet Center hosts an annual particle physics masterclass for students and several teacher workshops each year primarily including teachers in the Hampton Roads and Richmond area. Some participating teachers also attend workshops at CERN and Fermilab. We will share details of some activites from recent Viriginia QuarkNet Center events.
Driven by advancements in electronics and manufacturing, microsatellites have become increasingly capable and popular in recent years, driving down the cost to access space. However, propulsion systems have not evolved in tandem with these microsatellites, leading to many being launched without the necessary propulsion for orbital maintenance, interplanetary travel, and other critical...
We study Quasistars, which consist of a stellar to intermediate mass black hole embedded inside a massive star-like envelope. The accretion rate onto the black hole matches the Eddington rate for the entire Quasistar, easily placing it in the hyper-Eddington accretion region. The quick growth of the black hole leads to the outwards transport of angular momentum and energy, causing the envelope...
Articular cartilage (AC) is an important connective tissue located at the ends of bones in joints. AC’s unique mechanical and physical properties enable it to cushion and facilitate smooth movement. However, its limited regenerative abilities often lead to osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease affecting over 32.5 million adults in the United States. Cartilage tissue engineering aims to...
Superconductors, while displaying phenomenal physical properties, are impractical for many applications due to their low operational temperatures. A developing solution to this problem is the usage of dopants, which may improve several qualities found in a superconducting material, such as its critical temperature and microstructural morphology, greatly improving their practicality. For the...
The transit method is used to detect exoplanets and their properties by analyzing the intensity and duration of a dip in a host star’s brightness. By determining the dip in brightness of stars in regions of space through the analysis of FITS files, areas with exoplanets detectable through the transit method can be identified. Using Python packages such as MatPlotLib, DAOStarFinder, and...
Intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) remain elusive, in comparison to their supermassive or stellar-mass counterparts, but are essential for understanding galaxy – black hole co-evolution. The small size and distance to IMBHs make dynamic detections difficult, so active galactic nuclei (AGN) signatures provide an easier way to locate IMBHs in dwarf galaxies. Dwarf galaxies also contain other...
Thermoelectric materials, capable of harnessing waste heat in industrial applications, use a temperature difference to create a voltage difference. The most efficient thermoelectric materials are rigid inorganics, but hybrid organic-inorganic materials are flexible and more applicable to moving heated surfaces. To quantify a material’s thermoelectric power factor, we develop an apparatus to...
Mars is notable for its frequent and intense dust storms. These storms can be found at nearly every location on the planet, though they vary in frequency and intensity. Dust storms on Mars are seasonal, with most storms occurring during northern fall and winter, from L_s~135 to L_s~360. During this season, increased heating associated with perihelion causes intense westerly jets to form around...
Electromagnetic metamaterials can interact and change light’s properties. We fabricated a microwave metamaterial that has electronic ring resonators which impact the incoming microwaves’s electromagnetic fields. Metamaterials are used in a variety of applications, in invisibility cloaks, perfect absorbers, solar cells, super lens, and more. We used a microwave 2.8cm wavelength Sargent Welch...
We used the 0.4318 m ground-based telescope at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Dr. Cristina V. Torres Memorial Astronomical Observatory (CTMO) located in Resaca de la Palma State Park in Brownsville, Texas. The CTMO telescope is an f/6.8 CDK17 astrograph manufactured by PlaneWave. We used an FLI ProLine CCD with no filter. On the night of 2024 June 16, CTMO pursued a short...
