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Activity-based

Orientation on the
Specializations in the BS
Applied Physics Program
of UPLB
D. L. V. Almanza, A. L. C. Jusi, J. S. C.
Dizon
A. K. G. Tapia
Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Physics
University of the Philippines Los Baos
College, Laguna, Philippines
email: agtapia@up.edu.ph

Overview of the BSAP


Program
o Physics and Applied Physics major subjects
in the BS Applied Physics curriculum are
taken by students from third year in the
program.
APHY 140, PHYS 115, PHYS 116 (NUMERICAL)
PHYS 111, PHYS 112, PHYS 121, PHYS 131, PHYS 132,
PHYS 151, PHYS 160, PHYS 170 (ANALYTICAL)
PHYS 192, PHYS 193, PHYS 195, APHY 150
(EXPERIMENTAL)
APHY 101-105 (APPLIED PHYSICS: Instrumentation)

Students Issues
o EARLY SHIFTING to other course w/o
experiencing the physics core courses
o Unpreparedness to the core courses and
which research lab to pursue.
o Unaware of the methods and ways of the
various research laboratories.

Research
Specializations
Instrumentation
Experimental
Computational

Undergraduate
Research Monitoring
o Implementation stage
Monitoring stage
Evaluation Stage

Motivation
o In order for the students to appreciate
methods to solve Physical problems,
an activity-based orientation of the
specializations in the BS Applied
Physics curriculum was designed.

Motivation
The title of this pilot activity is
Physics Workshop on Newtons Law
of Cooling: Introduction to Analytical,
Numerical, and Experimental
Methods

Orientation of the
Program-Traditional
o Lecture type orientation
Students are unavaialbe most of the time
Students cant rememeber all the
information about the research laboratories
Topics discussed are not so relatable

Activity-based
Orientation

students have a chance to have a


hands-on experience on the different
methods/approaches of the various
laboratories.

Profile of participants
students in their second year in the
curriculum

Newtons Laws of
Cooling

The rate of heat exchange between two


objects is proportional to the temperature
difference between the objects.

dT/dt = -k(T-Ts)
T(t) = Ts + (TO - Ts)e-kt

Activity Proper 1
Lecture
on the
Newtons
Law of
cooling

Activity Proper Analytical


Using basic calculus, they
derived the temperature as
a function of time of a
system being cooled.
participants were also
taught of basic
discretization of a certain
differential equation.

This is to introduce them to the analytical courses


that will be taken in the program.

Activity ProperNumerical
Using Eulers
method, they
simulated the
cooling curve of
a system using
excel.

This is to introduce them to the


computational courses that will be taken in
the program.

Activity ProperExperimental
they performed
experiment
comparing the
cooling curves of
water & oil using
hot plate,
thermometer &
thermocouple
This is to introduce them to the experimental
courses that will be taken in the program.

Figure1. shows the data of the cooling curve using


experimental, analytical and numerical methods

Sources of errors
Students identified
in the analytical solution, the heat
transfer through the container was not
incorporated.
the response time of the measuring
device was not measured.
the numerical errors using Eulers
method were not calculated

Facilitators Evaluation
the time alloted (3hrs) is not enough to cover all
the details.
Limited set-up for the participants
Students are expected to have better
mathematical foundation
Simpler workshop materials
Profiling of students abilities prior to the workshop.
Pre and post evaluation of their learning outcomes

Students Evaluation
All of the students evaluation on the overall
workshop content and appreciation range
from agree to strongly agree.
Based from their skills and to what they
know, they have ranked the specializations
accordingly.

12.5
%

50%
37.5%

This would help us to improve & design


suitable activities

Summary
An activity-based orientation of the specializations in
applied physics was pilot tested
There is a need for improvements of the mode of
orientation
All of the students response to the workshop range from
agree to strongly agree
As part of the students response, 50% of the students
prioritize computational physics as specialization
followed by experimental physics and instrumentation

Acknowledgement

Juan Rafael Bautista


Kristian Carlo T. Garcia
Hazel Glaine Sales
2nd year BSAP students

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