United States

Whitewashing science goes back hundreds of years. An early victim was the medieval Arab scientist Ibn al-Haythem. His work combining experimental investigations with mathematical modeling anticipated by many centuries the rise of European science, and his breakthrough theory of light and perception was the first to be both physically grounded and mathematically rigorous. In the late medieval period his theory of light and perception became widely accepted throughout Europe, influencing the development of Renaissance art and providing the foundations for modern geometric optics. In the process, however, his name and ethnic background were obscured—likely due to racial or religious prejudice—and even to this day he is not given due credit for the significant contributions he made to physics. In this talk I will briefly review his work and how it entered into the European cannon while denying him due credit.

AAPT SM 21

The Uncelebrated Arab Genius

non-european

ibn al-haytham

history of physics

geometric optics

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technical paper


In the Summer of 2020, due to COVID-19, institutions either canceled or remotely hosted their NSF REU programs. We carried out a 16-week longitudinal study examining the impact of these fully remote research experiences on mentees’ psychosocial gains (e.g. sense of belonging). We studied the phenomenon of a remote research experience from the standpoint of the mentees (N=10) and their mentors (N=8), who were each interviewed seven and three times, respectively (94 total interviews). All mentees reported that this experience was highly beneficial and that they developed a sense of belonging and identity, despite working remotely -- often from their own bedrooms. Mentees developed a sense of belonging through making scientific contributions and through their communication and social interactions with other group members. Additionally, our results demonstrate that mentees’ research identity particularly developed through taking responsibility for their work and seeing it valued by others.


Impact of virtual REU experiences on sense-of-belonging and identity.

In May 2020, our University decided to proceed with remote teaching in fall 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, I spent the spring and summer of 2020
redesigning my first-year physics course on mechanics for remote teaching. Since I have mainly done face-to-face teaching in the past, it was a monumental task to rise
to the challenge posed by this sudden disruption caused by the pandemic to in-person teaching and learning. I attended many workshops and programs to get ideas to meet this challenge. In the redesign, I focused on multiple factors with the overarching aim of maximizing student learning and its social aspects. In this presentation, I am excited to share how all these efforts came together in the form of a new functional course design, and what role my pre-pandemic experience played in coming up with this new course design.


Redesigning a first-year mechanics course for remote teaching during Covid-19

Undergraduate research is a critical component of student engagement and retention and the pandemic has challenged us to be creative and adapt. Our colleges have been engaging in collaborative projects for years, establishing a working relationship across campuses, so we were able to leverage this experience to continue working with students on a sounding rocket payload and other projects. The first few months, all work stopped, but we were able to utilize that time to plan. Allowing students to work at home kept the projects alive, weekly journaling kept them communicating and zoom check-ins kept them engaged and accountable. Support from Colorado Space Grant was pivotal in switching to a virtual model, without their support we would not have been able to do robotics and aerospace projects. Burnout is an issue for both students and faculty, as we have supported the stressful struggles of students while going through similar issues.

Community College Student Research Projects in the Time of COVID

We reflect on the transition of our Technology Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) introductory physics courses – large-scale, general requirements – from fully in-person to fully remote during the Spring ’20, Fall ’20, and Spring ’21 semesters. First, we discuss the resources and tools we leveraged and consider their impacts on our course design; key resources included existing interactive content from parallel MOOC courses, randomized online formula response assessments, and video/audio/board collaboration tools. Next, we describe how the fully remote mode informed our structural changes to the course, such as increasing active engagement during class, lowering the stakes of graded components, and promoting group work and community. In addition, we catalog the modifications made to the workflows and collaboration strategies employed by our team of instructors, TAs, and course developers. Finally, wherever possible, we evaluate the impact of these many modifications to our performance as a team, the student experience in the course, and the instruction and learning achieved.

Remote Active Learning for Large-Enrollment Introductory Physics

As universities adjust to the COVID pandemic, many educational outreach efforts transitioned to the virtual world. In this presentation, I will discuss the challenges faced by university-based, student-led virtual physics outreach to middle school and high school students who were in remote and in-school environments. By collaborating with large STEM collectives, after-school programs, and partner schools, physics outreach efforts from our chapter of the Society of Physics Students led to audiences up to over 130. Successful strategies implemented included the use of accessible physics demonstrations using household materials, hands-on participation by target audiences, virtual tours of laboratories, an interactive Q & A forum, virtual games, and the participation of STEM Career speakers from diverse backgrounds.


Lessons from Student-led Virtual Physics Outreach Efforts during the Pandemic

The pandemic forced educators of instructional physics lab classes to rethink how labs are taught. We targeted introductory modern physics labs for remotification. When exploring the photo-electric effect, diffraction and interference, gamma-ray absorption, atomic spectra, and the Franck-Hertz experiment, which all involve sophisticated equipment, students engage primarily by pressing buttons, turning knobs, and reading displays. We were able to adapt and motorize classroom equipment for nearly equivalent remote engagement at relatively low cost. This was possible using consumer-grade technology that has matured over the last 15 years, namely 3D printing, single-board computers, webcams, and open-source programming libraries. In this presentation, we will demonstrate how students view and control our apparatus through a website and discuss elements and principles that have been key for successful deployment and student learning. Such remotified experiments may have post-pandemic relevance by providing students easier access to costly equipment, transcending constraints of space and time.


Remotification of Five Introductory Modern Physics labs for ~$1k apiece

I describe a directed reading course intended for Physics and Astrophysics majors on causes of, manifestations of, and ways to address underrepresentation. Students examined their own identities, and designed community projects to promote inclusivity in our department.

Engaging Physics Majors in DEI Work Through a Half-credit Course

Phoebe Sarah Marks was born on 28th April 1854 in Portsea, UK and was one of eight children. Sarah had a hard childhood but was very gifted and was helped by several benefactors. She attended Girton College, Cambridge studying mathematics; she passed her Tripos in 1880 but Cambridge did not award her a degree. While at Cambridge, she invented a sphygmomanometer. She obtained a London University degree a year later and began teaching. In 1884, she started a course on electricity at Finsbury Technical College, presented by Professor William Edward Ayrton; they were married a year later. Her career flourished and she made other valuable inventions. She was a committed suffragette. She died of blood-poisoning on 26th August 1923. 
It is now only two years to the centenary of her death, so we may expect to hear much more of her remarkable life in the near future.


Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923): physicist, inventor, engineer and suffragette.

As a teen, I read biographies and mysteries. I loved reading about scientists, my favorite was book "Madame Curie" by Eve Curie. One of my happiest times was when I actually attended a talk by Marie Curie's granddaughter. I got to hear firsthand stories from the granddaughter who has two Nobel Prizes in the family! I currently direct an LSAMP program at my university where many students in the program are Hispanic. Do my students know of others in physics that look like them? Do they know their stories? Moreover, do the non-Hispanics in my department know about these persons? Do you? I will share the contents of a poster(s) that will reflect Hispanics in the physical sciences, particularly physics. Hispanic students should read about the lives of their role models in history and about those that are currently successful in the field.

Hispanics in Physics for Today's Students

Many high-profile contemporary physicists have aligned themselves with paranormal skepticism, as espoused by organizations like the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Yet this attitude has not always been universal for physicists, nor do we need to reach back to the era of alchemy for counterexamples. In the modern era, we find prominent physicists who were members of the Society for Psychical Research, proponents of synchronicity and ESP, and believers in all manner of quantum spookiness. In this talk, I will review recent work from historians of science on the complex connections between experimental physics and paranormal belief, and argue that an appreciation of this history may help physicists to communicate their subject in a way that is more inclusive to diverse viewpoints.

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The Uncelebrated Arab Genius

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