Preparing Physics Majors for the Future through Intermediate and Advanced Laboratories

Developing and teaching both Intermediate and Advanced Lab courses contain benefits and challenges in the undergraduate program of study. An Intermediate lab provides requisite skills for students to transition from introductory lab experiences to more rigorous experiments appropriate for advanced/capstone lab courses. The AAPT Recommendations for the Undergraduate Laboratory Curriculum¹ and Phys21: Preparing Physics Students for 21^st-Century Careers² reports provide learning outcomes for physics majors beyond the first year laboratory experience. While no one lab course can prepare majors for post-graduate life, be it teaching, industry, or graduate study, efforts at Appalachian State University (and elsewhere) could serve as a guide to other institutions interested in increasing laboratory experiences in their programs of study. An overview of the Intermediate and Advanced lab courses at Appalachian will be presented, along with how effective these courses are in preparing majors for their future careers, including interviews with former students.
1. “Phys21: Preparing Physics Students for 21^st-Century Careers,” Joint Task Force on Undergraduate Physics Programs (2016), available at http://www.compadre.org/JTUPP/docs/J-Tupp_Report.pdf
2. “AAPT Recommendations for the Undergraduate Laboratory Curriculum,” AAPT Committee on Laboratories (2014), available at https://www.aapt.org/Resources/upload/LabGuidlinesDocument_EBendorsed_nov10.pdf