course syllabus: preparing for the ap physics electricity ... · introduction to the module:...

FEBRUARY 15, 2016; 8 WEEKS

Course Syllabus: Preparing for the AP Physics Electricity and

Magnetism Exam

Table of Contents:

Course Description Prerequisites Key Content Areas Course Materials

Faculty Discussion Board Moderators

Format What Does the Course Include? Course Content Outline

Expectations Participation toward the certificate of completion, and certificate of completion requirements What you can expect from the course team What you can expect from EdX What we expect from you

Netiquette Guidelines Academic Integrity

Appendix A: Learning Objectives Appendix B: Lecturers and Featured Researchers

Lecturers Featured Researchers

PREPARING FOR THE AP PHYSICS C: ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM EXAM SYLLABUS FEBRUARY 15, 2016; 8 WEEKS

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Course Description This course will address introductory electricity and magnetism topics (using calculus) from a standpoint of continually asking 'how do we know', addressing this using experimental evidence, conceptual logic, derivation, and application of equations. Students will be exposed to how these topics relate to research at Georgetown University. Teachers taking this course will be exposed to the pedagogical choices made and some available resources for use in their own classrooms.

How do you know: from an experimental evidence perspective (DEMONSTRATIONS AND

SIMULATIONS) from a conceptual logic perspective (TUTORIALS From University of Maryland

and University of Pittsburgh) from a derivation and equationbased perspective (LECTURE VIDEOS) and/or apply (VIDEOBASED LABS

For students: how does this apply to current research at GU? For teachers: what pedagogical choices did we make and why, and how can you access

the resources to use these methods in your classroom?

Prerequisites Prerequisites include introductory calculusbased mechanics addressing kinematics, dynamics, momentum, and energy conservation. Students should know basic calculus techniques including integration and derivatives.

Key Content Areas The full list of learning objectives for the course can be found in Appendix A. Upon completing this course, students should have an understanding of these content areas:

Electrostatics

Charge and Coulomb’s law Electric field and electric potential (including point charges) Gauss's Law Fields and potentials of other charge distributions

Conductors, capacitors, dielectrics Electrostatics with conductors Capacitors Dielectrics


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Electric circuits Current, resistance, power Steadystate direct current circuits with batteries and resistors only Capacitors in circuits

Magnetic Fields Forces on moving charges in magnetic fields Forces on currentcarrying wires in magnetic fields Fields of long currentcarrying wires BiotSavart law and Ampere’s law

Electromagnetism Electromagnetic induction (including Faraday’s law and Lenz’s law) Inductance (including LR and LC circuits) Maxwell’s equations

Skills Design experiments Observe and measure real phenomena to analyze data Analyze errors Communicate results

Course Materials In addition to the video lectures and activities presented in the Courseware, there are two textbooks which are included as part of this course:

Urone, Paul Peter, Roger Hinrichs, Kim Dirks, and Manjula Sharma. "College physics." (2013).

Van Heuvelen, Alan, and Eugenia Etkina. The physics active learning guide. Pearson/AddisonWesley, 2006.

Faculty The full list of all participating Lecturers and Featured Researchers can be found in Appendix B. Amy Liu is Professor and Chair of the Georgetown Department of Physics. She received her A.B. in physics from Cornell University in 1985 and her Ph.D. in physics from U.C. Berkeley in 1991. After postdoctoral work at the Naval Research Laboratory and the NEC Research Laboratory, she joined the physics department at Georgetown.

Her primary research interests include the electronic, structural, and vibrational properties of crystals, interfaces, and clusters; electronic instabilities such as superconductivity and charge


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density waves; anharmonicity and thermal properties of materials.

Patrick Johnson is Assistant Teaching Professor in the Physics Department at Georgetown University. He received his bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Dayton in 2007 and his PhD from Washington University in St. Louis in 2012. Prior to his current role, Patrick was a visiting professor at William Jewell College, Marquette University, and Georgetown University. Patrick's research interests span a range of topics from rogue ocean waves to the magnetic behavior of nanoparticles. When not doing physics, Patrick does trivia and improv comedy.

Discussion Board Moderators Alexander Zajac, Georgetown University, lead Teaching Assistant for the course.

Format The official start of the course is February 15, 2016, and each unit be released at noon Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The units vary from 1 to 2 weeks in length; some units will be released on Monday and others will be released on Wednesday. The units should be completed by the night before the next unit release date in order to stay on track.

Students are expected to complete the readings that are part of each class session, to watch the lecture videos, to complete the practice assessment problems for each unit, to take the weekly quizzes, to take the final exam, and to otherwise engage with the material presented on the class website (such as the discussion board posts, and the pre and postcourse survey).

Students are also encouraged to form discussion groups and to ask and respond to questions regarding the course material via the discussion board.

What Does the Course Include? A different lecturer presents each module of the course listed in the Course Content Outline below. Each module will include a range of activities including videobased labs, demonstrations, simulations, conceptual reasoning questions, lectures, practice problems, and a quiz. In addition to the videobased labs and simulations, each module has a handson lab that students are instructed to perform at home. Each module has a handson lab that students are instructed to perform at home. Students are asked to keep an updated Lab Notebook on the course Discussion Board:

Module 1 Lab: Electrostatics (~30 minutes) Module 2 Lab: Conductors, Capacitors and Dielectrics (~30 minutes) Module 3 Lab: Conductors, Electric Circuits (~30 minutes)


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Module 4 Lab: Magnetic Fields (~30 minutes) Module 5 Lab: Electromagnetism (~30 minutes)

TOTAL: 4.5 hours of lab time

The topics are organized sequentially as they are related to each other to progress through the course in alignment with the AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism course learning objectives. Each unit also showcases Georgetown University faculty research that relates to the particular topics in that unit. There are also ways to participate within the international community of students taking the course by answering ungraded discussion prompts. There is also an OpenStax textbook embedded in the edX platform from which we have pulled suggested readings; this text also includes an extensive glossary. There are also other open source readings and resources provided throughout the course. Each unit ties specifically to the detailed learning objectives provided for the AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism course. These learning objectives are detailed in Appendix A.

Course Content Outline Overview:

What is the course about? What does the course include? What will I learn in the course? How do I use the course feature? Who is part of this course?

Module 1, Electrostatics: (2 weeks) Monday February 15 to Sunday February 28 Introduction to the Module: Electrostatics Charge and Coulomb's law Electric Field and Potential Gauss's Law Fields and Potentials of Other Charge Distributions Lab: Electrostatics Electrostatics in Action: Research at Georgetown University Module 1 Quiz For teachers: Pedagogical choices for Electrostatics

Module 2, Conductors, Capacitors and Dielectrics: (1 week) Monday February 29 to Sunday March 6

Introduction to the Module: Conductors, Capacitors and Dielectrics Electrostatics with Conductors Capacitors Dielectrics Lab: Conductors, Capacitors and Dielectrics Conductors, Capacitors and Dielectrics in Action: Research at Georgetown University


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Module 2 Quiz For teachers: Pedagogical choices for Conductors, Capacitors and Dielectrics

Module 3, Electric Circuits: (1.5 weeks) Monday March 7 to Tuesday March 15 Introduction to the Module: Electric Circuits Current, Resistance and Power, SteadyState Direct Current Circuits with Batteries and Resistors Only Capacitors in Circuits Lab: Conductors, Electric Circuits Electric Circuits in Action: Research at Georgetown University Module 3 Quiz For teachers: Pedagogical choices for Electric Circuits

Module 4, Magnetic Fields: (1.5 weeks) Wednesday March 16 to Sunday March 27 Introduction to the Module: Magnetic Fields Forces on Moving Charges in Magnetic Fields Forces on CurrentCarrying Wires in Magnetic Fields Fields of Long, CurrentCarrying Wires BiotSavart’s Law and Ampere’s Law Lab: Magnetic Fields Magnetic Fields in Action: Research at Georgetown University Module 4 Quiz For teachers: Pedagogical choices for Magnetic Fields

Module 5, Electromagnetism: (1 week) Monday March 28 to Sunday April 3 Introduction to the Module: Electromagnetism Electromagnetic Induction Inductance Maxwell’s Equations Lab: Electromagnetism Electromagnetism in Action: Research at Georgetown University Module 5 Quiz For teachers: Pedagogical choices for Electromagnetism

Bonus Unit, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: (1 week) Monday April 4 to Sunday April 10 Final Exam will stay open for the entirety of week 8: Monday April 4 to Sunday April 10

Expectations

Participation toward the certificate of completion, and certificate of completion requirements At the start of the course you will be requested to take a precourse survey. This survey will not be counted toward your course grade but is very valuable for the instructional team. You will also be requested to take a postcourse survey at the end of the course. Your completion of these is expected as part of your course participation.


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To receive a verified certificate students must complete the practice questions in each content unit and the quizzes at the end of each module of the course. There is also a final exam at the end of the course. The practice assessment questions throughout the content units count for a total of 50 percent of the final course grade. The short quizzes at the end of each week count for a total of 30 percent of the course grade. The final exam accounts for the remaining 20 percent. Each problem has a full explanation, so please click the ‘show answer’ button even after you have correctly answered a question to check your reasoning. Each practice question is set for three attempts, the quiz questions are set to two attempts, and for the final exam you will have only one attempt for each problem. To receive a course verified certificate, you must complete/submit all graded assignments by April 10, 2016 at 7:59 EDT / 23:59 UTC and receive a score of 70% or higher.

While you are encouraged, throughout the course, to discuss the topics of the course with your friends and fellow students, you must do the quizzes and the final exam on your own, without consulting others. We strongly recommend that you time yourself on the final exam as well, to give yourself a sense of whether your pacing is appropriate.

Please note that the discussion board prompts are very useful aspects to your learning and we look forward to seeing your contributions, but these do not count toward your grade or certification for this course.

What you can expect from the course team

The teaching assistants and some of the faculty support team will be moderating the course discussion forum (on the edX platform), the Facebook group (GUx AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism), and the Pinterest board (GeorgetownX: AP Physics C). Though these will be monitored for academic integrity, the teaching assistants will ONLY address questions posted on the discussion boards that receive significant upvotes each week. Upvoting can be done by clicking on the green plus sign within the edX discussion board; the more upvotes a question receives, the higher it will appear in the overall discussion thread. Make sure you post any questions on the discussion board and not on Facebook. We will also provide regular updates and reminders in the course info page and through weekly email updates.

What you can expect from EdX

In the event of a technical problem, you should click the “Help” tab located on the left border of the screen within the edX platform. This “Help” tab opens an instruction box that directs you to student Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for general edX questions. You can also:


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Report a problem Make a suggestion Ask a question

You may post technical problems to the “Technical” thread of the discussion board. Finally, you may also contact [email protected] directly to report technical problems.

What we expect from you

Netiquette Guidelines Please be respectful

To promote the highest degree of education possible, we ask each student to respect the opinions and thoughts of other students and be courteous in the way that you choose to express yourself. Some topics may be controversial and promote debate. Students in this course should be respectful and considerate of all opinions.

In order for us to have meaningful discussions, we must learn to really try to understand what others are saying and be openminded about others’ opinions. If you want to persuade someone to see things differently, it is much more effective to do so in a polite, nonthreatening way rather than to do so antagonistically. Everyone has insights to offer based on his/her experiences, and we can all learn from each other. Civility is essential.

Look before you write

Prior to posting a question or comment on the discussion board, the Georgetown course team asks that you look to see if any of your classmates have the same question. Upvote questions that are similar to your own or that are also of interest to you, instead of starting a new thread. Upvoting can be done by clicking on the green plus sign within the edX discussion board; the more upvotes a question receives, the higher it will appear in the overall discussion thread. This will greatly help our Georgetown teaching assistants to best monitor the discussions and will bring the most popular questions to their attention.

Use the discussion board for courserelated posts only

While we encourage students to get to know each other, please use the discussion board for course content conversations only and NOT for personal messages or discussions unrelated to the course.

Properly and promptly notify us of technical issues


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While we do not predict technical issues, they can and may happen. To make sure these receive prompt attention, post details about any technical issues directly on the “Technical” discussion thread or email [email protected] directly.

Academic Integrity

Observe edX and GeorgetownX’s honor policies

While collaboration and conversation are encouraged and will certainly contribute to your learning during the course, we ask students to refrain from collaborating with or consulting one another on any graded material for the course. Violations of the honor policy undermine the purpose of education and the academic integrity of the course. We expect that all work submitted will be a reflection of one’s own original work and thoughts.

GeorgetownX faculty and staff expect all members of the community to strive for excellence in scholarship and character.

Appendix A: Learning Objectives Electrostatics

Charge and Coulomb’s law Describe the types of charge and the attraction and repulsion of charges Describe polarization and induced charges Calculate the magnitude and direction of the force on a positive or

negative charge due to other specified point charges Analyze the motion of a particle of specified charge and mass under the

influence of an electrostatic force Electric field and electric potential (including point charges)

Define electric field in terms of the force on a test charge Describe and calculate the electric field of a single point charge Calculate the magnitude and direction of the electric field produced by two

or more point charges Calculate the magnitude and direction of the force on a positive or

negative charge placed in a specified field Interpret an electric field diagram Analyze the motion of a particle of specified charge and mass in a uniform

electric field Determine the electric potential in the vicinity of one or more point

charges


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Calculate the electrical work done on a charge or use conservation of energy to determine the speed of a charge that moves through a specified potential difference

Determine the direction and approximate magnitude of the electric field at various positions given a sketch of equipotentials

Calculate the potential difference between two points in a uniform electric field, and state which point is at the higher potential

Calculate how much work is required to move a test charge from one location to another in the field of fixed point charges

Calculate the electrostatic potential energy of a system of two or more point charges, and calculate how much work is required to establish the charge system

Use integration to determine electric potential difference between two points on a line, given electric field strength as a function of position along that line

State the general relationship between field and potential, and define and apply the concept of a conservative electric field

Gauss's Law Calculate the flux of an electric field through an arbitrary surface or of a

field uniform in magnitude over a Gaussian surface and perpendicular to it Calculate the flux of the electric field through a rectangle when the field is

perpendicular to the rectangle and a function of one coordinate only State and apply the relationship between flux and lines of force State Gauss's law in integral form, and apply it qualitatively to relate flux

and electric charge for a specified surface Apply Gauss's law, along with symmetry arguments, to determine the

electric field for a planar, spherical or cylindrically symmetric charge distribution

Apply Gauss's law to determine the charge density or total charge on a surface in terms of the electric field near the surface

Fields and potentials of other charge distributions Calculate by integration the electric field of a straight, uniformly charged

wire Calculate by integration the electric field and potential on the axis of a thin

ring of charge, or at the center of a circular arc of charge Calculate by integration the electric potential on the axis of a uniformly

charged disk Identify situations in which the direction of the electric field produced by a

charge distribution can be deduced from symmetry considerations Describe qualitatively the patterns and variation with distance of the

electric field of oppositelycharged parallel plates


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Describe qualitatively the patterns and variation with distance of the electric field of a long, uniformlycharged wire, or thin cylindrical or spherical shell

Use superposition to determine the fields of parallel charged planes, coaxial cylinders or concentric spheres

Derive expressions for electric potential as a function of position in the above cases

Conductors, capacitors, dielectrics Electrostatics with conductors

Explain the mechanics responsible for the absence of electric field inside a conductor, and know that all excess charge must reside on the surface of the conductor

Explain why a conductor must be an equipotential, and apply this principle in analyzing what happens when conductors are connected by wires

Show that all excess charge on a conductor must reside on its surface and that the field outside the conductor must be perpendicular to the surface

Describe and sketch a graph of the electric field and potential inside and outside a charged conducting sphere

Describe the process of charging by induction Explain why a neutral conductor is attracted to a charged object Explain why there can be no electric field in a chargefree region

completely surrounded by a single conductor, and recognize consequences of this result

Explain why the electric field outside a closed conducting surface cannot depend on the precise location of charge in the space enclosed by the conductor, and identify consequences of this result

Capacitors Relate stored charge and voltage for a capacitor Relate voltage, charge and stored energy for a capacitor Recognize situations in which energy stored in a capacitor is converted to

other forms Describe the electric field inside the capacitor, and relate the strength of

this field to the potential difference between the plates and the plate separation

Relate the electric field to the density of the charge on the plates Derive an expression for the capacitance of a parallelplate capacitor Determine how changes in dimension will affect the value of the

capacitance Derive and apply expressions for the energy stored in a parallelplate

capacitor and for the energy density in the field between the plates Analyze situations in which capacitor plates are moved apart or moved

closer together, or in which a conducting slab is inserted between


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capacitor plates, either with a battery connected between the plates or with the charge on the plates held fixed

Describe the electric field inside cylindrical and spherical capacitors Derive an expression for the capacitance of cylindrical and spherical

capacitors Dielectrics

Describe how the insertion of a dielectric between the plates of a charged parallelplate capacitor affects its capacitance and the field strength and voltage between the plates

Analyze situations in which a dielectric slab is inserted between the plates of a capacitor

Electric circuits Current, resistance, power

Relate the magnitude and direction of the current to the rate of flow of positive and negative charge

Relate current and voltage for a resistor Write the relationship between electric field strength and current density in

a conductor, and describe, in terms of the drift velocity of electrons, why such a relationship is plausible

Describe how the resistance of a resistor depends upon its length and crosssectional area, and apply this result in comparing current flow in resistors of different material or different geometry

Derive an expression for the resistance of a resistor of uniform crosssection in terms of its dimensions and the resistivity of the material from which it is constructed

Derive expressions that relate the current, voltage and resistance to the rate at which heat is produced when current passes through a resistor

Apply the relationships for the rate of heat production in a resistor Steadystate direct current circuits with batteries and resistors only

Identify on a circuit diagram whether resistors are in series or in parallel Determine the ratio of the voltages across resistors connected in series or

the ratio of the currents through resistors connected in parallel Calculate the equivalent resistance of a network of resistors that can be

broken down into series and parallel combinations Calculate the voltage, current and power dissipation for any resistor in

such a network of resistors connected to a single power supply Design a simple seriesparallel circuit that produces a given current

through and potential difference across one specified component, and draw a diagram for the circuit using conventional symbols

Calculate the terminal voltage of a battery of specified emf and internal resistance from which a known current is flowing

Calculate the rate at which a battery is supplying energy to a circuit or is being charged up by a circuit


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Apply Ohm’s law and Kirchhoff’s rules to directcurrent circuits, in order to determine a single unknown current, voltage or resistance

Apply Ohm’s law and Kirchhoff’s rules to directcurrent circuits, in order to set up and solve simultaneous equations to determine two unknown currents

State whether the resistance of voltmeters and ammeters is high or low Identify or show correct methods of connecting meters into circuits in

order to measure voltage or current Assess qualitatively the effect of finite meter resistance on a circuit into

which these meters are connected Capacitors in circuits

Calculate the equivalent capacitance of a series or parallel combination Describe how stored charge is divided between capacitors connected in

parallel Determine the ratio of voltages for capacitors connected in series Calculate the voltage or stored charge, under steadystate conditions, for

a capacitor connected to a circuit consisting of a battery and resistors Calculate and interpret the time constant of an RC circuit Sketch or identify graphs of stored charge or voltage for the capacitor, or

of current or voltage for the resistor, and indicate on the graph the significance of the time constant

Write expressions to describe the time dependence of the stored charge or voltage for the capacitor, or of the current or voltage for the resistor

Analyze the behavior of circuits containing several capacitors and resistors, including analyzing or sketching graphs that correctly indicate how voltages and currents vary with time

Magnetic Fields Forces on moving charges in magnetic fields

Calculate the magnitude and direction of the force experienced by a charged particle in a magnetic field in terms of q, v, and B, and explain why the magnetic force can perform no work

Deduce the direction of a magnetic field from information about the forces experienced by charged particles moving through that field

Describe the paths of charged particles moving in uniform magnetic fields Derive and apply the formula for the radius of the circular path of a charge

that moves perpendicular to a uniform magnetic field Describe under what conditions particles will move with constant velocity

through crossed electric and magnetic fields Forces on currentcarrying wires in magnetic fields

Calculate the magnitude and direction of the force on a straight segment of currentcarrying wire in a uniform magnetic field


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Indicate the direction of magnetic forces on a currentcarrying loop of wire in a magnetic field, and determine how the loop will tend to rotate as a consequence of these forces

Calculate the magnitude and direction of the torque experienced by a rectangular loop of wire carrying a current in a magnetic field

Fields of long currentcarrying wires Calculate the magnitude and direction of the magnetic field at a point in

the vicinity of a long straight currentcarrying wire Use superposition to determine the magnetic field produced by two long

wires Calculate the force of attraction or repulsion between two long

currentcarrying wires BiotSavart law and Ampere’s law

Deduce the magnitude and direction of the contribution to the magnetic field made by a short straight segment of currentcarrying wire

Derive and apply the expression for the magnitude of B on the axis of a circular loop of current

State Ampere's law in integral form precisely Use Ampere’s law, plus symmetry arguments and the righthand rule, to

relate magnetic field strength to current for planar or cylindrical symmetries

Apply the superposition principle to determine the magnetic field produced by combinations of the configurations listed above

Electromagnetism Electromagnetic induction (including Faraday’s law and Lenz’s law)

Calculate the flux of a uniform magnetic field through a loop of arbitrary orientation

Use integration to calculate the flux of a nonuniform magnetic field, whose magnitude is a function of one coordinate, through a rectangular loop perpendicular to the field

Recognize situations in which changing flux through a loop will cause an induced emf or current in the loop

Calculate the magnitude and direction of the induced emf and current in a loop or wire or conducting bar if the magnitude of a related quantity such as magnetic field or area of the loop is changing at a constant rate

Calculate the magnitude and direction of the induced emf and current in a loop or wire or conducting bar if the magnitude of a related quantity such as magnetic field or area of the loop is a specified nonlinear function of time

Analyze the forces that act on induced currents and determine the mechanical consequences of those forces

Inductance (including LR and LC circuits)


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Calculate the magnitude and sense of the emf in an inductor through which a specified changing current is flowing

Derive and apply the expression for the selfinductance of a long solenoid Apply Kirchhoff’s rules to a simple LR series circuit to obtain a differential

equation for the current as a function of time Solve the aforementioned differential equation for the current as a

function of time through the battery, using separation of variables Calculate the initial transient currents and final steady state currents

through any part of a simple series and parallel circuit containing an inductor and one or more resistors

Sketch graphs of the current through or voltage across the resistors or inductor in a simple series and parallel circuit

Calculate the rate of change of current in the inductor as a function of time

Calculate the energy stored in an inductor that has a steady current flowing through it

Maxwell’s equations Be familiar with Maxwell’s equations and associate each equation with its

implications Design experiments

Describe the purpose of an experiment or a problem to be investigated Identify equipment needed and describe how it is to be used Draw a diagram or provide a description of an experimental setup Describe procedures to be used, including controls and measurements to be

taken Observe

Make relevant observations and measure real phenomena Be able to take measurements with a variety of instruments

Analyze data Display data in graphical or tabular form Fit lines and curves to data points in graphs Perform calculations with data Make extrapolations and interpolations from data

Analyze errors Identify sources of error and how they propagate o Estimate magnitude and

direction of errors Determine significant digits Identify ways to reduce error

Communicate results Draw inferences and conclusions from experimental data Suggest ways to improve experiment Propose questions for further study


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Appendix B: Lecturers and Featured Researchers

Lecturers David Brookes, Assistant Professor of Physics at Florida International University: I am an assistant professor of physics at FIU (Florida International University). My research field is physics education research. I use the ISLE philosophy by Etkina and Van Heuvelen in my physics classroom. My research follows two strands: 1. I am interested in embodied cognition and use this general approach to understand how physics students understand language and how they understand physics equations. 2. I am interested in engineering the learning environment so that physics students can teach themselves, acquire scientific abilities, and develop positive attitudes towards physics.

Dedra Demaree, Adjunct Professor of Physics and Learning Design and Research Specialist at CNDLS, Georgetown University: Dedra has her PhD in Physics from the Ohio State University and worked as an assistant professor in physics education research at Oregon State University prior to joining the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) at Georgetown University as a learning design and research specialist and adjunct faculty of physics. She is a frequent content editor for physics textbooks and other curricular materials. She is also a previous member of the editorial board for The Physics Teacher.

James Freericks, Professor of Physics at Georgetown University: James Freericks, Professor of Physics, was trained as an undergraduate at Princeton University (A.B. 1985) and as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley (MA 1987, Ph.D. 1991). He did postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (199193) and at the University of California, Davis (199394). His work ranges from mathematical physics, to developing computational methods for the manybody problem, to working on "ab initio" calculations in real materials and recently has branched off into cold atom physics and quantum simulation. He has been awarded the Kusaka Memorial Prize in Physics from Princeton University (1985), the Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Junior Faculty Enhancement Award (1995), the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program award (1996), the Georgetown University Distinguished Achievement in Research award (2007), the Alpha Sigma Nu National Book Award for the Natural Sciences (2009), and an Outstanding Referee prize from the American Physical Society (2013). He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and is Treasurer/Secretary of the Division of Computational Physics. In 2010, he was named the inaugural holder of the McDevitt Chair in Physics at Georgetown.

Beth Lindsey, Assistant Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University, Greater Allegheny: I am an Assistant Professor of Physics at Penn State Greater Allegheny, near Pittsburgh. My research area is Physics Education Research. I have three principle research projects currently underway. One looks at student understanding of energy, particularly the


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connections they make between energy in physics and in chemistry. Another examines students’ metacognition how well students recognize what things they know and what they don’t know. Finally, I’m researching the development of students’ reasoning skills in introductory physics courses.

Alexandru Maries, Post Doctoral Teacher Scholar at DisciplineBased Science Education Research Center, University of Pittsburgh: I received my PhD from University of Pittsburgh in physics education in 2013 with a focus on the role of multiple representations in physics problem solving. Currently, I am the postdoctoral teacher scholar and assessment consultant at the DisciplineBased Science Education Research Center (dBSERC) of University of Pittsburgh. At this center, I work with faculty members in Natural Science departments who are interested in using evidencebased teaching strategies to improve student learning. I also provide consultation with assessment of teaching effectiveness and proposals which have a significant educational component.

Justyna Zwolak, Postdoctoral Associate in STEM Transformation Institute at Florida International University: Justyna has her MS in Mathematics and PhD in Physics from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland. She is currently a postdoctoral associate in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Transformation Institute at Florida International University (FIU). She is working on integrating social network analysis techniques with qualitative analysis in the study of student retention and persistence of physics majors. Prior to joining FIU she worked as a postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University, where she researched topics in Quantum Information Theory and also got involved in Physics Education Research. In particular, she worked on assessing student reasoning in upperdivision electricity and magnetism using the Colorado UpperDivision Electrostatics diagnostic. In Quantum Information, she has developed novel analytical tools to construct entanglement witnesses for detecting bipartite entanglement in high dimensional quantum systems and for understanding the structure of quantum states.

Featured Researchers Paola Barbara, Associate Professor of Physics at Georgetown University: Paola Barbara received her M. S. degree (Laurea in Fisica) at the University of Salerno, Italy, in 1991 and her Ph. D. in Physics at the Technical University of Denmark, in Lyngby, Denmark, in 1995. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgetown University, she worked at the Center for Superconductivity Research (currently Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials) at the University of Maryland as a postdoctoral associate. Dr. Barbara was the recipient of a NSF 2003 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and a Research Innovation Award from Research Corporation. Her research interests are in experimental condensed matter, including superconductivity and physics and applications of materials with reduced (atomic scale) dimensions.


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Amy Liu, Professor of Physics and Chair of Physics Department at Georgetown University: Amy Liu received her A.B. in physics from Cornell University in 1985 and her Ph.D. in physics from U.C. Berkeley in 1991. After post doctoral work at the Naval Research Laboratory and the NEC Research Laboratory, she joined the physics department at Georgetown. Her primary research interests include the electronic, structural, and vibrational properties of crystals, interfaces, and clusters; electronic instabilities such as superconductivity and charge density waves; anharmonicity and thermal properties of materials. Makarand (Mak) Paranjape, Associate Professor of Physics at Georgetown University: Makarand (Mak) Paranjape is an Associate Professor in the Physics Department, having joined the faculty in 1998. His entire education (BSc, MSc and Ph.D.) is in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta (Edmonton) in 1993, and has held postdoctoral appointments at Concordia University (Montreal), Simon Fraser University (Vancouver), and University of California (Berkeley). From 1995'98, Paranjape was a consultant at the Istituto per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (IRST) in Trento Italy. He holds key intellectual property in a unique biomedical technology for sensing human glucose concentrations using a painless transdermal patch. Paranjape is Associate Editor for Biomedical Microdevices and an editorial board member for Sensors and Materials. His research focuses on the engineering of functional sensors, mainly for biomedical applications, fabricated in the Georgetown Nanoscience and Microtechnology Laboratory (GNμLab), where is the Director. Prof. Paranjape has a record of involving undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and even highschool students in many aspects of his research.

Jeffrey Urbach, Professor of Physics and Interdisciplinary Chair in Science at Georgetown University: Prof. Urbach completed his B.A. in Physics at Amherst College (1985), his Ph.D. at Stanford University (1993), and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin (19931996). He joined the Physics Department at Georgetown University as an Assistant Professor in 1996 and was promoted to Professor of Physics in 2006. He served as chair of the Physics Department in 200102 and again from 200307, as the coDirector of the Program on Science in the Public Interest from its founding until 2011, and is the founding Director of the Institute for Soft Matter Synthesis and Metrology. In 200910, he served as a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the Department of Energy. Prof. Urbach’s research interests include complex dynamics and biophysics. He has received a Sloan Foundation fellowship and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and research funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, NIST, the Petroleum Research Foundation, the Research Corporation, and the Whitaker Foundation.

Edward Van Keuren, Associate Professor of Physics and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Georgetown University: After receiving a Ph.D. in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University in 1990, Edward Van Keuren worked for the German chemical company, BASF AG, in Germany and Japan, and also spent several years at the Japanese National Institute of


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Materials and Chemical Research. He joined Georgetown in 1999, where his research is primarily focused on the preparation and application of nanoparticles. His recent work involves applying novel optical characterization methods to measure the initial nucleation and selfassembly of organic nanoparticles in solution as well as the development of new nanoparticle materials for applications such as MRI contrast enhancement.


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