Teaching Facilities

Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories
The Undergraduate teaching laboratories are comprised of four general-purpose rooms and five specialized computer labs. The teaching laboratories staff provides equipment and facilities for the laboratory component of PY103, 105, 106, 211, 212, 241, 242, 251, 252, 313, 352, 371, 408 and 681, along with several School of Education/College of Arts and Sciences courses for high school physics teachers. Each of these courses has up to eight laboratory experiments per semester. The lab rooms are set up to accommodate up to twenty-four students (typically working in pairs) and most labs are two to three hours long.

Microcomputer Based Labs (MBLs) make up three quarters of the experiments done in the Introductory Physics I courses and approximately two thirds of the Introductory Physics II courses. This allows students to spend more time experimenting, letting the computers capture the data. Upgrading the computers used in these labs has been an ongoing project. Since much of the equipment in the labs can be used for multiple experiments, the laboratory staff has been busy ensuring that there is enough equipment available to accommodate all the classes at the same time with minimal impact on scheduling. This has been particularly important since it was decided to offer PY105 and PY106 both semesters.

The Advanced Lab, PY 581, received additional attention this year with several of the experiments upgraded or modified.

During the summer term, the introductory physics courses are implementing new studio-style laboratories, which combine multiple labs and discussion sections into a comprehensive unit. These studio experiments provide simple, hands-on experiments that lend themselves to a clear understanding of physical principles rather than a more traditional, idealized black-box apparatus. In many cases the experiments are directly based on lecture demonstrations and homework problems. The development of these new laboratory experiments will provide new options for the introductory physics courses throughout the year.

Undergraduate Lecture Demonstrations Facility
This academic year, the primary project has been the continued reorganization and refinement of the demonstration facility. The accessibility of the demonstration collection continues to improve, despite limitations on the existing space. The online database continues to grow to more accurately match our existing collection and to provide background information about the demonstrations. The database, a detailed list of the most popular demonstrations, has proved invaluable for faculty when preparing lectures. One of the new demonstrations has been uploaded to Youtube, a tool which could be used in the future for housing a video database of available demonstrations.

Throughout the year, our demonstration and laboratory staff has lent equipment and expertise to a series of courses taught by Physics and School of Education faculty outside the department, primarily for Boston Public Schools. As part of BU’s Freshman Fridays, the demonstration staff, along with faculty and graduate students, participated in developing and providing physics demonstrations. The demonstration and laboratory staff also assists the Chemistry, Biology and Astronomy Departments, Core Courses, Boston University Academy, numerous local elementary and high schools through the LERNet program and many individuals in the greater University community.

Continue reading: Supporting Facilities