A conference experience for undergraduates
- Group T-4, MS B212, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
- The University of New Mexico, Physics and Astronomy, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 (United States)
Programs launched by many universities and the federal government expose many undergraduate students in the physical sciences to research early in their careers. However, in their research experiences, undergraduates are not usually introduced to the modes by which scientific knowledge, which they may have helped gather, is communicated and evaluated by working scientists. Nor is it always made clear where the research frontiers really lie. To this end, we guided a selected group of undergraduates through a national scientific conference, followed by a week of tutorials and discussions to help them better understand what had transpired. The program complemented the basic undergraduate research endeavors by emphasizing the importance of disseminating results both to other scientists and to society in general. Tutors and discussion leaders in the second week were experts in their fields and included some of the invited speakers from the main meeting. A considerable improvement in the understanding of the issues and prospects for a career in physics was discernible among the students after their two-week experience. {copyright} {ital 1999 American Association of Physics Teachers.}
- OSTI ID:
- 355354
- Journal Information:
- American Journal of Physics, Vol. 67, Issue 8; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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