Activity-Based Tutorials

Home | Volume 1: Intro | Volume 2: Modern
Understanding How Students Learn | Teacher's Guide

M.C. Wittmann, R.N. Steinberg, E.F. Redish and the University of Maryland Physics Education Research Group

Volume 2: Moden Physics

Overview
Classroom Materials
Software
Videos
Exam Questions
Essay Questions

Example Course Outline

This course for engineers and physicists would appropriately be taught 4 hours per week - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of tutorial. Some of the topics and examples could be covered exclusively in tutorial or as part of a homework assignment.

We have developed extensive materials to help implement this suggested course outline. For more information, see the Summary of classroom materials or the "Classroom materials" section, linked to at the top of the page.

Introduction to QM: The experimental base

  • The photoelectric effect
  • Electron diffraction
  • Atomic spectra

Building the Quantum Model

  • The Thomson and Rutherford models
  • The Bohr model
  • deBroglie waves

Wave mechanics

  • Electron dispersion relation
  • The 1D Schrödinger equation
  • Group and phase velocities
  • Fourier transforms
  • The uncertainty principle

Bound states

  • Potential energy diagrams
  • Infinite square well (1, 2, and 3D)
  • Finite square well
  • Harmonic oscillator
  • Delta function

Scattering state

  • Scattering at a step
  • Delta function
  • Barrier penetration and tunneling

Spin and statistics

  • Introduction to spin (no math)
  • Fermi and Bose statistics

Quantum models of matter

  • Double well - molecular bonding
  • Multiple wells - band structures

Conductivity

  • Conductors, semiconductors, insulators
  • Quantum polarization (applying an external electric field)

Devices

  • pn-junctions / diodes
  • transistors
  • MOSFETs
  • SQUIDs

 

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We are grateful to the National Science Foundation (grants DUE 9652877 and DUE 9455561) and the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE grants 116B70186 and 116B000300) for partial funding support. Additional support has been provided by The University of Maryland, The University of Maine, and the City College of New York.