![[CPEP fusion chart schematic]](cpep.gif)
Gordon J. Aubrecht, II*, Department of Physics, Ohio State University at Marion, Marion, OH 43302-5695 USA, (614) 389-6786 ext. 6250, aubrecht@mps.ohio-state.edu
ABSTRACT
The Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP) has recently printed a new version of the popular Fundamental Particles and Interactions Chart. The group has also released updated software and introduced the materials to the World Wide Web as the Particle Adventure.
A new chart, on fusion energy, was just released. Additional fusion materials are available on the World Wide Web and others are forthcoming from CPEP. We shall show the new chart and discuss the groupēs continuing efforts in supplying quality materials for physics classrooms.
THE PARTICLES AND INTERACTIONS CHART Walter Michels, in his 1964 Oersted Lecture,[1] observed that "we seem to be engaged in a conspiracy to prevent elementary students from learning that imagination, inventiveness, and intuition play any part in the growth of physics, or from suspecting that anything in the physical universe is not yet fully understood."
The students of the current generation lack knowledge of science in general and physics in particular. Incorporation of contemporary topics can motivate students interest in physics as well as help produce the new physics teachers who will be needed in the next generation. Unfortunately, teachers who wish to incorporate new physics ideas still have few sources of information or inspiration to which to turn. One of the few is the Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP), formed after a Conference on the Teaching of Modern Physics at Fermilab in 1986. CPEP was formed originally to develop a chart for particle physics following the Conference on the Teaching of Modern Physics, held at Fermilab in 1986. A group of high school teachers, college teachers, and particle physicists from various physics labs developed a draft chart, distributed to subscribers of the Physics Teacher magazine in December 1988 along with an accompanying article.[2] Several hundred readers volunteered to be field testers, and received software and supplementary materials as well as a field-test response form. After changes to incorporate their suggestions, the original version of the chart was published in 1990. To date this project has involved, to varying degrees, approximately 600 people, ranging from particle physicists at national laboratories to high school students.
Initial funding came from AAPT and from the Department of Energy through SLAC and LBL. Some years after coalescing, the group named itself CPEP, incorporated as a nonprofit organization with a broader goal than particle physics (hence the umbrella name). We have been able to get contributions from various businesses to support CPEP. With the discovery of the top quark, and better determination of the W and Z masses, the chart was revised and reprinted in February 1995, again with help from several funding sources. The particle charts are distributed by several vendors through an arrangement with Science Kit.[3]
After the chartēs publication, CPEP began a program of workshops at physics teachers meeting that has continued to the present to help teachers use this resource in their teaching. A software package was also developed to assist teachers and students learn about particles. The software is now available in color Mac and PC versions. An expanded and updated version is now available as "The Particle Adventure" on the web. We have also actively been working on some further projects in particle physics. CPEP recently received a grant from the APS Division of Particles and Fields to support more educational outreach efforts.
THE FUSION CHART
In 1992, a group of plasma physicists approached CPEP and suggested that plasma physics was an area deserving of more exposure and desperately needing educational materials. CPEP Board members Thad Zaleskiewicz, Robert Reiland, and Fred Priebe volunteered to work with the plasma physicists and recruited physicists from other centers of plasma physics (Princeton, MIT, Livermore) who had no connection to General Atomics as well as college and high school teachers to form a subcommittee to develop the chart (Zaleskiewicz became its chair). As a result of a small amount of funding from General Atomics, a group of CPEP members began thinking about how to proceed. A workshop was designed and presented at the 1993 Winter AAPT meeting, which led to the involvement of more teachers in the effort. This group obtained funding from the Department of Energy to have a meeting early in 1994 to develop ideas.
As a result of the effort, three competing concepts were developed. These were discussed by the subcommittee and with interested teachers at the national AAPT meeting. After several more meetings to discuss the drafts, the plasma physics subcommittee developed a field test chart, Mac software, and a teacher handbook with development support from the APS Division of Plasma Physics. The draft field test chart was published in April 1995 with support from the Department of Energy. Approximately 70 teachers tested the chart. I was one of the teachers giving feedback. My students' reactions to my use of the chart in my introductory physics class were mixed. Some couldnēt make out much because the central part of the chart seemed too "busy". The students said that the binding energy curve should be bigger than the fusion rate coefficient chart, rather than smaller. As a result of this, the fusion chart was revised. Many plasma physicists and interested teachers brought to the working CPEP group have become members.
The chart you see (Fig. 1) is the result of all this labor. The view shows earth and the sun--the earth to bring the vision close to home, the sun to symbolize fusion processes. As a result of testers suggestions, the central part of the chart was revised to include just two reactions, but in more detail and clarity than was possible in the field test version. Also, the dependence of reaction rate coefficients on temperature was simplified by dropping the reaction eliminated from the central picture. The curve of the binding energy was simplified and clarified, and the low-mass region expanded into a separate piece of the chart. The picture of plasma in nature became more pictoral in nature, with photos replacing drawings. The "progress" toward breakeven in fusion was replaced by the more general confinement-temperature curve.
Fig.1. The organizational character of the CPEP Fusion Chart.
In addition to the development of the chart, the subcommittee developed other materials, including a fusion site on the World Wide Web. Everyone interested in contemporary physics should consider using this chart.
THE FOCUS OF FUTURE CPEP DEVELOPMENT
Both these histories illustrate what we have come to think of as the CPEP model of physics curriculum materials development. CPEP is willing to entertain suggestions from physicists who would like to begin a similar educational project in their area. If there is interest from CPEP members, then a new project may be spawned. We feel the most important element of the CPEP model is that it is a collaboration that includes both a broad group of leading subject matter experts and a group of active high school and college level teachers who work together to develop materials that are both scientifically accurate and appropriate for high school classroom use.
The development begins with a workshop of the active participants but materials pass through review by CPEP, revisions, field testing and further revisions before being mass produced for sale or other distribution. CPEP maintains the royalty collection from sales as low as possible, to ensure the products are inexpensive so they can be broadly used. Royalties allow us to reprint materials as they are used up and to do a small amount of targeted advertising to let teachers know of the materialsē availability. Workshops, new projects and the small organizational overhead of CPEP must be supported by fund-raising efforts. We hope that more results will soon be available.
REFERENCES
*Secretary, Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP).
The Project is a collaboration of individuals from national laboratories, colleges, and high schools. The CPEP group consists of