Network Exchange: Chris Richardson to the University of Colorado at Boulder

CIRTL's next Network Exchange participant is Chris Richardson, a doctoral student at Michigan State University. Richardson will be visiting the University of Colorado at Boulder campus, February 15-18, to give his Teaching-as-Research presentation on Assessing Gender Differences in Response System Questions for an Introductory Physics Course and disciplinary research presentation on The Nature of the H2 Emitting Gas in the Crab Nebula. We encourage all students to attend one or both of his presentations. If you are interested in attending the presentations, attached is an iternary of his visit. 

Chris Richardson is a fourth year Ph.D. student in Astrophysics at Michigan State University. He received his Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Applied Physics from Eastern Illinois University. He is currently performing plasma simulations in various astrophysical environments, in particular, the Crab Nebula and exotic objects known as Quasars. Aside from theoretical astrophysics, Chris is also interested in differences in behavior of students in physics and astronomy courses based on gender. In the classroom, he is interested in learning ways to keep advanced students challenged while simultaneously helping those who are falling behind. Upon completion of his PhD in Astrophysics, he plans to pursue a career as a professor at a university dedicated to undergraduate teaching and research. An early introduction to research, strong development of physical intuition, and collaborative work with fellow researchers are experiences that he strives to provide for his current and future students.

Presentation Abstracts:

Teaching-as-Research Presentation: Assessing Gender Differences in Response System Questions for an Introductory Physics Course

The small yet persistent gender gap associated with introductory physics courses remains intact despite interactive engagement techniques. One hypothesis is that females are at fundamental disadvantage due to gender stereotypes. Previous research at Michigan State University has described the timescale differences associated with genders and on-line homework. Furthermore, males tend to use process of elimination, while females tend to talk with other classmates before answering again. After tutorials, do genders still respond on two fundamentally different timescales? Does this relationship change for questions at a different cognitive level? We seek to answer these questions using clicker data from the interactive Lyman Briggs College physics classroom. We answer these questions in two ways: (1) determine the fraction of correct responses as function of the last recorded response time (when do most students actually get the answer right); and (2) determine the fraction of total responses as a function of last recorded response time (when do they think they have the answer right). We show that there are no statistically significant discrepancies between genders for any cognitive level. We discuss the implications of these results within the context of gender stereotypes in the classroom environment and think-pair-share pedagogy.

Disciplinary Research Presentation: The Nature of the H2 Emitting Gas in the Crab Nebula

We use a combination of NASA ADP data and new ground-based observations to study the molecular cores located in Crab nebula's filaments. Plasma simulations of these molecular cores can provide clues to answering several open questions: How much mass is in the molecular component? What excites the H2 emission? How were the molecules formed? What is the nature of the dust that is also present?

Knot 51 (K51) is a spatially isolated knot of molecular hydrogen for which we have long slit optical and NIR spectra covering emission lines from ionized, neutral and molecular gas, as well as HST and ground-based NIR narrow-band images and Spitzer and Hershel mid-IR images. The H2 temperature has been measured from the ratio of 2-1 S(1) and 1-0 S(1) lines of ortho-hydrogen to be ~3000 K. The plasma simulation code, Cloudy, handles ionized through molecular gas in a physically complete, self-consistent model. I will present our results from plasma simulations of K51 that investigate the excitation mechanisms, formation processes, dust content and level populations in its molecular core. Planned future observations of CO will further constrain the properties of this molecular region. 

For more information on CIRTL's Network Exchange Program, please visit: www.cirtl.net/networkexchange