This summer, thanks to $25,000 in funds from CLAS we have made some major improvements to the lab equipment and organization here in Stamford.
Since well before I started as an adjunct professor at Stamford in 2018, the lab storage closet has been filled with a jumbled pile of outdated equipment. Much of the equipment dates from the previous century, and in some cases we have not even been able to identify its purpose. It was piled haphazardly on every available surface, making it difficult to access the usable items. Our introductory physics labs have been taught using this outdated, low-tech equipment for many years now.
We are a small department, consisting of one APiR (me) and two adjunct professors, with no lab techs or other support staff. During the academic year, we teach approximately 120 students each semester, leaving no time to embark on an overwhelming project like reorganizing the lab equipment.
This year, however, we received $25,000 from CLAS and were finally able to acquire modern, computer-linked lab equipment. We focused on versatile items such as carts with built-in sensors for measuring force, position, velocity, acceleration, and rotation, computer interfaces that can act as oscilloscopes, power supplies, and function generators, and accessories allowing for a wide range of lab activities. This new equipment will finally allow us to bring physics lab instruction in Stamford in line with the other UConn campuses.
In order to make best use of the new equipment, our team (consisting of myself, Adjunct Professor Tom O’Connell, and three student summer interns) have been reorganizing the lab. This includes the Herculean task of cleaning out the lab closet: emptying all the shelves, sorting through and testing old equipment, cleaning, and restocking. We also unpacked, catalogued, tested, and organized our new supplies. You can see the result in the “after” pictures, where the storage cabinet and floor are finally visible!
Dr. O’Connell and I have now embarked on the second part of the project, which is to rewrite our physics lab assignments to include the new equipment. We are finding creative ways to incorporate our old equipment with the new computer-linked sensors and hope to develop lab activities touching every topic covered in our courses.
We are excited about bringing the Stamford physics lab up to modern standards and having it so much better organized. Most of all, we are looking forward to how this new equipment will facilitate the teaching of fundamental physics concepts and improve student learning in our introductory courses.