Adding Value to the Advanced Lab

The advanced lab is a staple in many physics curricula. Nonetheless it is in many places under constant threat of extinction because college administration does not see the value, costs are high, and external funding is difficult to obtain. Thus, adding value to the advanced lab is desirable. At the University of Wyoming I have developed our advanced lab into an assessment machine – a fact that is valued by our administration – and into a course that allows for modern forms of teaching and learning, an area into which our university has been investing massively. In addition, I have made the advanced lab part of our University Studies Program course sequence (USP), opening possibilities for new lines of internal funding and shifting departmental funding priorities.

The assessment in the course is done through a Bloom's Taxonomy based extensive rubric which is fed by data from oral prelabs, oral examinations, lab reports, and interactive lectures. The USP criteria involve the development of oral communication and writing in the profession skills. An English department PhD project uses the lab to investigate contemporary questions of writing in the professions.