A New Writing Intensive Physics Course (PHY220W) Steven Schwarz, Dept. of Physics, Queens College...
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A New Writing Intensive Physics Course (PHY220W) Steven Schwarz, Dept. of Physics, Queens College Physics 220W – “Current Issues in Physics” was offered
A New Writing Intensive Physics Course (PHY220W) Steven
Schwarz, Dept. of Physics, Queens College Physics 220W Current
Issues in Physics was offered for the first time in the Fall of
2005. The class was designed to allow students in the sciences to
delve deeply into a specialized topic of their choice, while
simultaneously developing skills in technical presentation, both
written and oral. Some of the resources and exercises employed in
this course are highlighted below: Style and Grammar Exercises:
Michael Alley and colleagues have created a wonderful web resource
entitled Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students,
http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu. Students performed weekly on-line
exercises, and turned in one paragraph summaries of the exercise
that most surprised or confounded them. Three quizzes were based on
this material. http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu The Galileo Exercise:
Students examined and commented on abstracts from a recent meeting
of the American Physical Society. They were then given two pages of
excerpts from Galileos The Starry Messenger, and asked to write a
conference abstract based on this material. Unsigned copies of the
abstracts were analyzed in class. Here, with permission, are
examples: V14 5 Heliocentric Universe: The discovery of new
Celestial Bodies. GALILEO GALILEI, Galileo Institute of Technology
The Earth Centered Universe, a philosophy proposed by Aristotle and
Ptolemy has been the standard, of how most of the world views the
composition of the universe. My discovery of three new celestial
bodies orbiting around Jupiter refutes idea of an Earth Centered
Universe. After creating a telescope based on Flemings spyglass, I
was able to study the three prominent starlets around Jupiter.
After my first observation (January 7, 1610) I witnessed 2 starlets
to the east of Jupiter and one behind the planet, believing all
were fixed stars; however, after observing on January 8, 1610, I
noticed that the starlets were now west of Jupiter. This refutes
the idea that the earth is the center of all celestial motion and
validates the Copernican Heliocentric Model of the Universe. Also,
in studying the moon I have discovered that the moon does not have
a smooth surface, rather a very rough and cratered once, refuting
the idea that the moon has a smooth texture. Spyglass uncovers
revolving moons about Jupiter. GALILEO GALILEI. The importance of
understanding the effects of the planets and stars within the
universe is invaluable. With my advances in spyglass, using both
concave and convex lenses fitted to a lead filled tube, I have made
numerous discoveries, furthering mans knowledge of the solar
system. In the following report I have detailed my discoveries and
have made conclusions about the activity of planets, more
specifically about Jupiter and its four moons that revolve around
it. Although these starlets are the backbone of my findings, I have
also discovered smaller spots on the moon with the use of my
spyglass. Case Studies in Ethics: The Poynter Center provides a
valuable booklet entitled Moral Reasoning in Scientific Research,
available in pdf format at www.indiana.edu/~poynter/mr-main.shtml.
The class examined case studies addressing such topics as lab
notebook ownership, data manipulation, and plagiarism. Students
also examined a particularly fine discussion of the various levels
of plagiarism at www.ccc.commnet.edu/mla/plagiarism.shtml
www.indiana.edu/~poynter/mr-main.shtml
www.ccc.commnet.edu/mla/plagiarism.shtml Figure and Caption
Exercise: Students accessed a short list of numerical data on our
class Blackboard site, and were asked to plot the data in
publishable format, with a caption included. They were not told
what the data represented, and were allowed to invent a situation
where such data might be produced. (In fact, the data describe the
behavior of the consumer price index over a 90 year period.) Here
is one students output: Copenhagen: The class viewed the PBS movie
version of Michael Frayns 2000 Tony Award winning play Copenhagen.
The play addresses a fateful conversation between Niels Bohr and
Werner Heisenberg during WWII, and raises the question as to
whether Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principle might describe the
interaction between people as well as between particles. Students
also viewed small segments of 12 hours of symposia proceedings in
which scientists, historians, and critics discussed the play. These
tapes are available at
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/sciart/copenhagen/nyc/order.htm
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/sciart/copenhagen/nyc/order.htm Students
voiced their opinions in an in-class essay. Examples of Bad Science
Writing: The class explored two interesting examples of bad
technical prose. The first was an excerpt from a popular textbook
on scientific writing that devotes three pages to the use of a
computer mouse. The second was an excerpt from the famous 1995 hoax
by Alan Sokal entitled Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a
Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity. Sokal was able to
publish his lengthy but nonsensical tome in a leading humanities
journal. A good description of the Sokal Affair may be found at the
Wikipedia website. Library Research: Students were asked to select
an article of interest to them from a late 90s technical journal.
They searched for citations on-line using Google Scholar and Web of
Science. They searched in the library using the paper format of
Physics Abstracts and Science Citation Index, as well as the CD
format of the latter index. Finally, they submitted short
descriptions of the relative advantages and disadvantages of these
resources. Examples of Good Science Writing: The class discussed
the American Scientist 1990 article (vol. 78, pp. 550-558) by
George Gopen and Judith Swan entitled The Science of Scientific
Writing. This article pays particular attention to sentence
structure. David Custer (MIT) has a fascinating style manual on-
line at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Writing-and-Humanistic-
Studies/21W-783Science-and-Engineering-Writing-for-Phase-
IIFall2002/StudyMaterials/detail/style.htm. In the excerpt below,
he has improved a good paragraph, but his example illustrates how
difficult it is to provide students with the level of detail
required to restructure their prose.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Writing-and-Humanistic-
Studies/21W-783Science-and-Engineering-Writing-for-Phase-
IIFall2002/StudyMaterials/detail/style.htm As a model technical
paper, the class studied a controversial report by R.P.
Taleyarkhan, et al. (Phys. Rev. E69, 036109 (2004) in which the
authors claim to observe fusion induced by bubble collapse. C.V.
Exercise: Students received a short description of a mythical
physics major by the name of John Smith, as well as an actual
employment ad from the NY Times. Each student prepared a C.V. and
cover letter. In class, unsigned copies were examined, and one of
the Smith applicants was hired. Seminar Review: Each student
attended one technical seminar on campus and wrote a short review.
Research Paper and Oral Presentations: The paper and oral
presentations accounted for about half of the students efforts in
the course. Students chose a recent paper in a major technical
journal, and rewrote the paper in the style of Physical Review
Letters, but at the level of a typical physics undergraduate. First
drafts were edited by the instructor and by a fellow student. Each
student delivered a 12 minute oral PowerPoint presentation on their
research topic in conference style. Students also presented a 5
minute talk, in lieu of a final exam, on a newsworthy technical
development.