Seventh Amendment Right to Jury Trial in Non-Article III Proceedings: A Study in Dysfunctional Constitutional Theory

The right to a jury trial in civil cases, as enumerated in the Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, is an integral part of the Bill of Rights. Nevertheless, in this Article, Professor Redish and Mr. La Fave argue that the Supreme Court has failed to preserve this right when Congress has relegated claims to a non-Article III forum. Furthermore, they argue, the Court has done so without providing any basis in constitutional theory to justify such a relinquishment. Professor Redish and Mr. La Fave first examine the Supreme Court\u27s interpretation of the Seventh Amendment in instances where Congress has remained silent on the issue of the availability of a jury trial. They proceed to examine the Court\u27s contrasting response when Congress has explicitly directed that adjudication be held in a non-Article III forum, without a jury. In an effort to explain the Court\u27s approach to Seventh Amendment interpretation, they advance several possible doctrinal models, none of which, in their view, satisfactorily explains the Court\u27s apparent deference to Congress\u27s decision not to allow a jury trial. They suggest that the only rational explanation for the Court\u27s current Seventh Amendment jurisprudence is functionalism: deferring to Congress\u27s determination that some social or political objective outweighs constitutional considerations. They conclude that such deference by the Court, as the guardian of the Constitution, is not only unprincipled, but that such a practice actually endangers the supremacy of the Constitution and undermines the judiciary as the countermajoritarian check on the majoritarian branches of government

Symbolic Manipulators Affect Mathematical Mindsets

Symbolic calculators like Mathematica are becoming more commonplace among upper level physics students. The presence of such a powerful calculator can couple strongly to the type of mathematical reasoning students employ. It does not merely offer a convenient way to perform the computations students would have otherwise wanted to do by hand. This paper presents examples from the work of upper level physics majors where Mathematica plays an active role in focusing and sustaining their thought around calculation. These students still engage in powerful mathematical reasoning while they calculate but struggle because of the narrowed breadth of their thinking. Their reasoning is drawn into local attractors where they look to calculation schemes to resolve questions instead of, for example, mapping the mathematics to the physical system at hand. We model the influence of Mathematica as an integral part of the constant feedback that occurs in how students frame, and hence focus, their work

Emerging technologies in physics education

Three emerging technologies in physics education are evaluated from the interdisciplinary perspective of cognitive science and physics education research. The technologies - Physlet Physics, the Andes Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), and Microcomputer-Based Laboratory (MBL) Tools - are assessed particularly in terms of their potential at promoting conceptual change, developing expert-like problem-solving skills, and achieving the goals of the traditional physics laboratory. Pedagogical methods to maximize the potential of each educational technology are suggested.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Science Education and Technology; 20 page

Addressing student models of energy loss in quantum tunnelling

We report on a multi-year, multi-institution study to investigate student reasoning about energy in the context of quantum tunnelling. We use ungraded surveys, graded examination questions, individual clinical interviews, and multiple-choice exams to build a picture of the types of responses that students typically give. We find that two descriptions of tunnelling through a square barrier are particularly common. Students often state that tunnelling particles lose energy while tunnelling. When sketching wave functions, students also show a shift in the axis of oscillation, as if the height of the axis of oscillation indicated the energy of the particle. We find inconsistencies between students' conceptual, mathematical, and graphical models of quantum tunnelling. As part of a curriculum in quantum physics, we have developed instructional materials to help students develop a more robust and less inconsistent picture of tunnelling, and present data suggesting that we have succeeded in doing so.Comment: Originally submitted to the European Journal of Physics on 2005 Feb 10. Pages: 14. References: 11. Figures: 9. Tables: 1. Resubmitted May 18 with revisions that include an appendix with the curriculum materials discussed in the paper (4 page small group UW-style tutorial

Epistemic Complexity and the Journeyman-Expert Transition

Physics students can encounter difficulties in physics problem solving as a result of failing to use knowledge that they have but do not perceive as relevant or appropriate. In previous work the authors have demonstrated that some of these difficulties may be epistemological. Students may limit the kinds of knowledge that they use. For example, they may use formal manipulations and ignore physical sense making or vice versa. Both beginning (novice) and intermediate (journeymen) students demonstrate these difficulties. Learning both to switch one's epistemological lens on a problem and to integrate different kinds of knowledge is a critical component of learning to solve problems in physics effectively. In this paper, we present two case studies in which journeyman students (upper-division physics majors) demonstrate switching between epistemological resources in approaching a complex problem. We conjecture that mastering these epistemological skills is an essential component of learning complex problem solving in physics.Comment: 12 page

Learning physics in context: a study of student learning about electricity and magnetism

This paper re-centres the discussion of student learning in physics to focus on context. In order to do so, a theoretically-motivated understanding of context is developed. Given a well-defined notion of context, data from a novel university class in electricity and magnetism are analyzed to demonstrate the central and inextricable role of context in student learning. This work sits within a broader effort to create and analyze environments which support student learning in the sciencesComment: 36 pages, 4 Figure

Making Sense of the Legendre Transform

The Legendre transform is an important tool in theoretical physics, playing a critical role in classical mechanics, statistical mechanics, and thermodynamics. Yet, in typical undergraduate or graduate courses, the power of motivation and elegance of the method are often missing, unlike the treatments frequently enjoyed by Fourier transforms. We review and modify the presentation of Legendre transforms in a way that explicates the formal mathematics, resulting in manifestly symmetric equations, thereby clarifying the structure of the transform algebraically and geometrically. Then we bring in the physics to motivate the transform as a way of choosing independent variables that are more easily controlled. We demonstrate how the Legendre transform arises naturally from statistical mechanics and show how the use of dimensionless thermodynamic potentials leads to more natural and symmetric relations.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure