Effect of implementing project-based education in high school physics : file folder bridge engineering

Project-based education and portfolio assessments are at the forefront of educational research. This research follows the implementation of a project-based unit in a high school physics class. Students played the role of an engineering firm who designed, built and tested file folder bridges. The purpose was to determine if projectbased learning could improve student attitude toward science and related careers like engineering. Teams of students presented their work in a portfolio for a final assessment of the process of designing, building and testing their bridges.

ON THE EFFECT OF VIRTUAL REALITY ON STUDENT UNDERSTANDING OF AND INTEREST IN PHYSICS

This study investigated the effect that the video game Portal 2 had on students understanding of Newton’s Laws and their attitudes towards learning science during a two-week afterschool program at a science museum. Using a pre/posttest and survey design, along with instructor observations, the results showed a statistically relevant increase in understanding of Newton’s Laws (p=.02<.05) but did not measure a relevant change in attitude scores. The data and observations suggest that future research should pay attention to non-educational aspects of video games, be careful about the amount of time students spend in the game, and encourage positive relationships with game developers.

Physics and Science Policy Implications of Reduction of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Arsenal

Maintaining the readiness U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile is a fundamental pillar of American defense policy. The biggest issue facing the national laboratories that are charged with this mission is replenishing the highly skilled and specialized manpower that is necessary for this task. This lecture presents both physics and science policy questions that must be answered. It also presents employment opportunities for young scientists and engineers.

Expected performance of the ATLAS experiment - detector, trigger and physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN.

Over two decades of blended and online physics courses at Michigan State University

In Fall 1992, our first physics course offered online homework. Over two decades later, we have seven physics courses online, spanning the whole range of introductory course offerings, with a total of over 1600 students in 2014. We found that several of the the purely online courses had better learning success than traditional lecture courses, as measured by exam scores. Particularly successful were online materials with embedded assessment. This result can be interpreted in different ways, but may serve as an indicator that during in-class lectures, we are oftentimes not taking advantage of the fact that we have the students on-site.

Linguistic relativity and dialectical idiomatization: language ideologies and second language acquisition in the Irish language revival of Northern Ireland

A considerable number of Irish Catholics in West Belfast, originally native English speakers, have started learning the Irish language throughout the Northern Irish conflict in order to feel more Irish. Many of these have developed a strong conviction that the Irish language contains a different worldview from the one embodied in English. However, rather than constituting a plausible representation of relevant differences embodied in the languages themselves, this article puts forward the hypothesis that such a neo-Whorfian endorsement of linguistic relativity might rather be the product of dialectical idiomatization, following from the interplay of prevailing language ideologies and effects of second language acquisition.

Review of lattice results concerning low-energy particle physics

We review lattice results related to pion, kaon, D- and B-meson physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the particle-physics community. More specifically, we report on the determination of the lightquark masses, the form factor f+(0), arising in semileptonic K → π transition at zero momentum transfer, as well as the decay-constant ratio fK / fπ of decay constants and its consequences for the CKM matrix elements Vus and Vud. Furthermore, we describe the results obtained on the lattice for some of the low-energy constants of SU(2)L × SU(2)R and SU(3)L×SU(3)R Chiral Perturbation Theory and review the determination of the BK parameter of neutral kaon mixing. The inclusion of heavy-quark quantities significantly expands the FLAG scope with respect to the previous review. Therefore, we focus here on D- and B-meson decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters, since these are most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. In addition we review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant αs.

IMRT credentialing for prospective trials using institutional virtual phantoms: results of a joint European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer and Radiological Physics Center project.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) credentialing for a EORTC study was performed using an anthropomorphic head phantom from the Radiological Physics Center (RPC; RPC(PH)). Institutions were retrospectively requested to irradiate their institutional phantom (INST(PH)) using the same treatment plan in the framework of a Virtual Phantom Project (VPP) for IMRT credentialing. MATERIALS AND METHODS CT data set of the institutional phantom and measured 2D dose matrices were requested from centers and sent to a dedicated secure EORTC uploader. Data from the RPC(PH) and INST(PH) were thereafter centrally analyzed and inter-compared by the QA team using commercially available software (RIT; ver.5.2; Colorado Springs, USA). RESULTS Eighteen institutions participated to the VPP. The measurements of 6 (33%) institutions could not be analyzed centrally. All other centers passed both the VPP and the RPC ±7%/4 mm credentialing criteria. At the 5%/5 mm gamma criteria (90% of pixels passing), 11(92%) as compared to 12 (100%) centers pass the credentialing process with RPC(PH) and INST(PH) (p = 0.29), respectively. The corresponding pass rate for the 3%/3 mm gamma criteria (90% of pixels passing) was 2 (17%) and 9 (75%; p = 0.01), respectively. CONCLUSIONS IMRT dosimetry gamma evaluations in a single plane for a H&N prospective trial using the INST(PH) measurements showed agreement at the gamma index criteria of ±5%/5 mm (90% of pixels passing) for a small number of VPP measurements. Using more stringent, criteria, the RPC(PH) and INST(PH) comparison showed disagreement. More data is warranted and urgently required within the framework of prospective studies.

Good just isn't Good Enough: Humean Chances and Boltzmannian Statistical Physics

Statistical physicists assume a probability distribution over micro-states to explain thermodynamic behavior. The question of this paper is whether these probabilities are part of a best system and can thus be interpreted as Humean chances. I consider two Boltzmannian accounts of the Second Law, viz.\ a globalist and a localist one. In both cases, the probabilities fail to be chances because they have rivals that are roughly equally good. I conclude with the diagnosis that well-defined micro-probabilities under-estimate the robust character of explanations in statistical physics.