Putting Wheels on Undergraduate Research and Physics Outreach to K-12
by
Dwight E. Neuenschwander
The complete physics education is an Arch with two sides. One side is
course work, with its end-of-chapter exercises and exams. The other side
of the Arch, equally important, is a generous dose of extracurricular professional
development activities designed to enhance the student's communication
skills, professional identity, self-confidence, leadership qualities, and
networking. Two extracurricular instruments that enhance the professional
development of individual students--while enlivening the culture of the
physics department--are Undergraduate Research and Physics Outreach to
local K-12 grades.
Undergraduate Research
The usual image of undergraduate research pictures an externally-funded program
where undergraduates assist faculty in cutting-edge work that is published in
Physical Review Letters. This approach is analogous to the tight focus and deep
pockets that characterized NASA through the Apollo era. Examples of this "NASA-Apollo
Model of Undergraduate Research" include the
NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates summer programs and
the DOE Science and
Engineering Research Semester. To solve some research problems the NASA-Apollo
type program is crucial because of the resources it makes available. However,
the NASA-Apollo Model is not the only model for undergraduate research. What
is the ultimate aim of undergraduate research? I would suggest the following
Mission Statement for it:
-
- The PURPOSE of undergraduate research is not the research itself, but
the growth in self-confidence of the undergraduate scientist.
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- The PRODUCT of undergraduate research is not a publication, but the transformation
of the student.
The lessons of undergraduate research experience, such as rising to the occasion,
dealing with "stuckness," communicating, defending one's work before an informed
audience, are too important to be left to only those who are accepted into a
highly structured program. In the wider view of the Mission Statement, it is
not necessary to have a grant or a cutting-edge problem in order to create some
meaningful research experience for the undergraduate physicist. This realization
is liberating. Complementing the NASA-Apollo approach, we remember the much smaller
scale of the Wright Brothers' shop as they designed, built, and tested their
Flyer.
A Wright Flyer Model of Undergraduate Research may feature a student and
faculty member (or other mentor) meeting weekly to extend a calculation, design
a computer simulation, or conduct a table-top experiment. I am convinced that
meaningful Wright Flyer projects can be sustained. In my own experience at
Southern Nazarene University, since 1989 I personally mentored some 20 students
in about 30 Wright Flyer projects, resulting in over 50 presentations at regional
meetings (and eight student-authored or co-authored publications since 1991),
all with zero external funding. The value of the experience to the student
was independent of the project's publishability. (Also, during those same years
a half-dozen of our students were accepted into NASA-Apollo Model programs
at other universities and national laboratories.) Just as the work of the Wrights
and the work of NASA were equally important in the history of aerospace, the
Wright Flyer Model and the NASA-Apollo Model are both important for physics
education, and physics needs lots of homes for both of them.
These themes are discussed in a 26-page booklet published by the Society
of Physics Students (SPS), How to Involve Undergraduates in Research: A Field
Guide for Faculty. It may help put wheels on the vehicle of undergraduate research,
from describing the implementation of Wright Flyer and NASA-Apollo Models,
to practical matters such as coaching student presentations. Originally distributed
to SPS chapters, the booklet is available to others from the SPS by sending
$5 to the address below.
Physics Outreach to Grades K-12
When we think of educational reform, we tend to think "top down" in terms of
NSF funded Projects and national standards. Top-down approaches are important,
and for certain purposes they are essential. But they are not the only models
for encouraging science education reform and increasing science appreciation.
Another model is a grassroots, or "bottom-up" approach. Until every single physicist
is taking a presentation into at least one local K-12 classroom per year, we
are not doing everything we know to do for science education. I may not be able
to control Congress or the implementation of national standards, but I can volunteer
to take my lenses and magnets to a nearby fourth grade, and heed the advice of
their teacher on how
to communicate effectively with this audience.
There is a genuine need for such interactions. Teachers tell me that among
their greatest obstacles to effective science teaching are lack of materials
to prepare demonstrations or experiments (much is paid for from the teacher's
own pocket), and lack of time to prepare demonstrations or hands-on activities
(the day in the life of an elementary teacher is structured down to the last
ten minutes). Making ourselves available to "take physics on the road" helps
answer these needs.
We know the physics, but it is the teachers who know how to communicate with
their pupils. From them we can learn much about communicating to young inquisitive
minds, and to the general public, in jargon-free language. Had the culture
of physics in recent decades held outreach in the same esteem that it reserved
for those who win grants, then the intellectual climae towards science in today's
society might have been much better than the present reality.
Many chapters of the SPS have already established a tradition of physics
outreach to local K-12 grades and the public. To assist them the Society recently
began publishing The Physics Outreach Notebook, offering advice and ideas solicited
from successful practitioners in the art of "taking physics on the road." Hole-punched
installments are added as they are published. Originally distributed to SPS
chapters, the Notebook installments we have to date are made available to others
for $5, payable to the SPS.
Faced with describing physics principles in third grade languages, bearing
the responsibility of being considered an "expert," and revealing that there
are many deep questions to which we do not know the answer, through outreach
efforts the university students and faculty gain a sobering experience in science
communication. Second-graders ask, "What makes the sun shine? What holds the
moon up when it's on nothing? Why are all people different?" These are profound
questions, the very questions that drive science. Hearing them from the mouths
of babes is a humbling experience. That they no longer ask these questions
by grade seven is tragic. Thus we must do what we can.
The question of what "the country" is doing about science education reform
is important, but is only the second question. The first question is, What
am I doing personally about it within the sphere of influence that I already
have? This is the first question because I alone have the responsibility to
answer it, and because I alone determine what the answer shall be. Dwight E.
Neuenschwander is Manager of the AIP Education Division and Director of the
Society of Physics Students
Address of the SPS:
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- Society of Physics Students
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740
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