Development and Validation of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics

As part of a comprehensive effort to transform our undergraduate physics laboratories and evaluate the impacts of these efforts, we have developed the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS). The E-CLASS assesses the changes in students' attitudes about a variety of scientific laboratory practices before and after a lab course and compares attitudes with perceptions of the course grading requirements and laboratory practices. The E-CLASS is designed to give researchers insight into students' attitudes and also to provide actionable evidence to instructors looking for feedback on their courses. We present the development, validation, and preliminary results from the initial implementation of the survey in three undergraduate physics lab courses.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, submitted to 2012 PERC Proceeding

Development and results from a survey on students views of experiments in lab classes and research

The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) was developed as a broadly applicable assessment tool for undergraduate physics lab courses. At the beginning and end of the semester, the E-CLASS assesses students views about their strategies, habits of mind, and attitudes when doing experiments in lab classes. Students also reflect on how those same strategies, habits-of-mind, and attitudes are practiced by professional researchers. Finally, at the end of the semester, students reflect on how their own course valued those practices in terms of earning a good grade. In response to frequent calls to transform laboratory curricula to more closely align it with the skills and abilities needed for professional research, the E-CLASS is a tool to assess students' perceptions of the gap between classroom laboratory instruction and professional research. The E-CLASS has been validated and administered in all levels of undergraduate physics classes. To aid in its use as a formative assessment tool, E-CLASS provides all participating instructors with a detailed feedback report. Example figures and analysis from the report are presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the E-CLASS. The E-CLASS is actively administered through an online interface and all interested instructors are invited to administer the E-CLASS their own classes and will be provided with a summary of results at the end of the semester

An epistemology and expectations survey about experimental physics: Development and initial results

In response to national calls to better align physics laboratory courses with the way physicists engage in research, we have developed an epistemology and expectations survey to assess how students perceive the nature of physics experiments in the contexts of laboratory courses and the professional research laboratory. The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) evaluates students' epistemology at the beginning and end of a semester. Students respond to paired questions about how they personally perceive doing experiments in laboratory courses and how they perceive an experimental physicist might respond regarding their research. Also, at the end of the semester, the E-CLASS assesses a third dimension of laboratory instruction, students' reflections on their course's expectations for earning a good grade. By basing survey statements on widely embraced learning goals and common critiques of teaching labs, the E-CLASS serves as an assessment tool for lab courses across the undergraduate curriculum and as a tool for physics education research. We present the development, evidence of validation, and initial formative assessment results from a sample that includes 45 classes at 20 institutions. We also discuss feedback from instructors and reflect on the challenges of large-scale online administration and distribution of results.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev. - PE

Alternative model for the administration and analysis of research-based assessments

Research-based assessments represent a valuable tool for both instructors and researchers interested in improving undergraduate physics education. However, the historical model for disseminating and propagating conceptual and attitudinal assessments developed by the physics education research (PER) community has not resulted in widespread adoption of these assessments within the broader community of physics instructors. Within this historical model, assessment developers create high quality, validated assessments, make them available for a wide range of instructors to use, and provide minimal (if any) support to assist with administration or analysis of the results. Here, we present and discuss an alternative model for assessment dissemination, which is characterized by centralized data collection and analysis. This model provides a greater degree of support for both researchers and instructors in order to more explicitly support adoption of research-based assessments. Specifically, we describe our experiences developing a centralized, automated system for an attitudinal assessment we previously created to examine students' epistemologies and expectations about experimental physics. This system provides a proof-of-concept that we use to discuss the advantages associated with centralized administration and data collection for research-based assessments in PER. We also discuss the challenges that we encountered while developing, maintaining, and automating this system. Ultimately, we argue that centralized administration and data collection for standardized assessments is a viable and potentially advantageous alternative to the default model characterized by decentralized administration and analysis. Moreover, with the help of online administration and automation, this model can support the long-term sustainability of centralized assessment systems.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, accepted in Phys. Rev. PE

Preparing for the quantum revolution -- what is the role of higher education?

Quantum sensing, quantum networking and communication, and quantum computing have attracted significant attention recently, as these quantum technologies offer significant advantages over existing technologies. In order to accelerate the commercialization of these quantum technologies the workforce must be equipped with the necessary skills. Through a qualitative study of the quantum industry, in a series of interviews with 21 U.S. companies carried out in Fall 2019, we describe the types of activities being carried out in the quantum industry, profile the types of jobs that exist, and describe the skills valued across the quantum industry, as well as in each type of job. The current routes into the quantum industry are detailed, providing a picture of the current role of higher education in training the quantum workforce. Finally, we present the training and hiring challenges the quantum industry is facing and how higher education may optimize the important role it is currently playing

Strong and Tunable Nonlinear Optomechanical Coupling in a Low-Loss System

A major goal in optomechanics is to observe and control quantum behavior in a system consisting of a mechanical resonator coupled to an optical cavity. Work towards this goal has focused on increasing the strength of the coupling between the mechanical and optical degrees of freedom; however, the form of this coupling is crucial in determining which phenomena can be observed in such a system. Here we demonstrate that avoided crossings in the spectrum of an optical cavity containing a flexible dielectric membrane allow us to realize several different forms of the optomechanical coupling. These include cavity detunings that are (to lowest order) linear, quadratic, or quartic in the membrane's displacement, and a cavity finesse that is linear in (or independent of) the membrane's displacement. All these couplings are realized in a single device with extremely low optical loss and can be tuned over a wide range in situ; in particular, we find that the quadratic coupling can be increased three orders of magnitude beyond previous devices. As a result of these advances, the device presented here should be capable of demonstrating the quantization of the membrane's mechanical energy.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Disclosing the heat density of district heating in Austria in 2050 under the remaining European CO2 budget of the 1.5 °C climate target

The core objective of this work is to downscale the cost-effective heat supply of different European decarbonization scenarios generated by the aggregate model GENeSYS-MOD from the national to the community level in Austria and thus disclose the heat density of district heating in 2050. We assume that district heating encompasses geothermal, synthetic gas, hydrogen, waste, and large-scale heat pumps as renewable heat sources. The results determine district heating in 68 Austrian communities in Austria in 2050, which corresponds to 6% of the total number of communities. We find that GENeSYS-MOD results are capable in covering local trends in district heating since high shares of the projected heat densities at the local levels achieve values indicating economic viability. Further research should follow on how locally determined district heating and heat densities could be returned into more aggregate models, such as GENeSYS-MOD, in the sense of a feedback loop. That allows refining assumptions in the large-scale upper-level models, which in turn will increase the plausibility and realism of pathways at the European level

Cavity optomechanics with Si3N4 membranes at cryogenic temperatures

We describe a cryogenic cavity-optomechanical system that combines Si3N4 membranes with a mechanically-rigid Fabry-Perot cavity. The extremely high quality-factor frequency products of the membranes allow us to cool a MHz mechanical mode to a phonon occupation of less than 10, starting at a bath temperature of 5 kelvin. We show that even at cold temperatures thermally-occupied mechanical modes of the cavity elements can be a limitation, and we discuss methods to reduce these effects sufficiently to achieve ground state cooling. This promising new platform should have versatile uses for hybrid devices and searches for radiation pressure shot noise.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, submitted to New Journal of Physic