| Session: | Scientific Visualization in Upper-Division Courses |
| Meeting: | 123rd AAPT National Meeting: Rochester, NY |
| Location: | Highland B, Convention Ctr. |
| Date: | 7/24/01 |
| Time: | 11:00 a.m. |
| Author: |
Wally Axmann, Kansas State
Univ. 785-532-7167, wjaxmann@excite.com |
| Co-Author(s): | Dean A. Zollman |
| Abstract: | In 1936, Max Born made, what was perhaps, the first attempt to create a quantum visualization for a general audience by putting a flipbook animation in The Restless Universe. Gigaflop desktop computers, for under $2000, have brought us a long way in interactive visualization for quantum mechanics since 1936. In Advanced Visual Quantum Mechanics (AVQM), interactive computer visualizations are married with physics education research and an active-learning environment. The aim is to increase upper-level physics students' conceptual learning and intuition in this abstract field, while still honing their fundamental analytic problem-solving skills. This outgrowth of the Visual Quantum Mechanics (VQM) instructional materials for secondary students began when we heard upper-level undergraduates and even graduate students saying things like, "I wish I had seen this stuff [VQM] when I was taking quantum." An overview of the AVQM materials will be given along with results from the initial field test and information about availability for future field tests. |
| Footnotes: | *Supported by NSF grants #ESI-945782 and #DUE-965288. |