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1.Introduction1.1.MotivationOne of the paradigms in research; especially multidisciplinary, team-based research; is that characterization of experimental samples is often completed by skilled professionals running a highly sophisticated instrument or facility, and the measurements are then passed to a researcher, often inexperienced, for interpretation and to progress the science. The realities of time-poor, intense working environments around such facilities may preclude the expert who completed the measurements from being actively involved in the downstream analysis. Limitations in pre-planning the measurements, by the requesters, can also limit the subsequent science that can be elucidated. There are risk factors around capturing all the required information for, and, then carrying out robust and correct analysis of results. A plenary speaker on electron microscopy (EM) at an international nanotechnology conference held in Australia many years ago made the observation, from his reviewing of the abstracts at the conference, that of order 30% of the papers involving EM had issues of concern when correlating the interpretation of the results with the settings of the instrument. Such anecdotes reinforce a clear point of principle that any scientist, including early career researchers, need to have a good understanding of the instrument before planning, using, and interpreting & analyzing results from its use. For students completing a masters of research degree leading to PhD research in photonics, we address appreciating this principle through learning about and using a high-end optical surface profiler (Bruker NT9800). The physical optics and working principles of this instrument are core content for photonics students. Several generic experimental research skills are learnt and further developed through a small research project using this instrument. The learning objectives are listed below. Students are made aware that they should take this experience as an example of a process they will repeat as and when they are engaging with planning experiments and then interpreting and analyzing the results from use of any of the multitude of standard characterization techniques throughout their working lives. 1.2.Learning Objectives
Students are encouraged to reflect on how ethics and responsible conduct in research inform best practice and best outcomes from research. They are instructed to create and benefit from opportunities to collaborate which should be duly acknowledged in record keeping. 2.Implementation and OutcomesStudents are supported to achieve the learning outcomes listed through workshops, a tailored library of learning resources (subset of these [1-6]), and a series of assessment tasks. The latter have differed in different year offerings but are selected from: original experimental record keeping; experimental plan; error analysis and critical appraisal of artifacts; communication tasks ( two of: a preliminary partial draft of a letter or note on your results for the scientific literature; a 10 minute scientific presentation with powerpoint slides; a 10 minute public talk with powerpoint slides; or a 250-350 word media release for a magazine or journal such as Laser Focus World or Nature News); and a take home final exam set to test understanding of the instrument and to get students to reflect on their broader learning from the activity. Students work with an expert user of the OSP to complete the experimental research plan they developed. Projects that students have completed have included optical surface profiling of the radial silks of several different species of Australian spiders, profiling adhesive droplets on spider capture silks; determining the effect of long term exposure to air on high quality, polished fused silica; evaluating the flatness or curvature of high quality mirrors; and measuring surface roughness of various surfaces including glasses. All the students, to date, who have enrolled in this component of the Masters of Research (MRes) degree had previously completed a three year undergraduate degree (BSc major in physics or major in astronomy and astrophysics) at Macquarie University (MQU). We regard the MQU BSc program as being strong in developing experimental skills through a substantial compulsory component of experimental physics being embedded in core units of study, in all 3 years of the program. This includes high level experiments carried out over multiple weeks in the final year. Thus, we introduced this advanced experimental research skill learning activity confident that students would be well prepared for it. In general we found this to be the case on the aspects pertaining to learning new core knowledge, confidence to take part in completing the experiments, record keeping and communication. What we learned was how relatively ill-prepared the students were to take responsibility for planning an experimental study. The students required intense support to engage with this process and their reflections on their learning spoke strongly of the lack of confidence they had to engage with deciding on a research question or hypothesis and independently planning to answer or test it. We designed this activity to support student learning of the need to understand a sophisticated instrument in order to appropriately interpret and analyse results that come from its use. The design is fit for purpose in achieving this and we can recommend this, or a close analogue, to others for inclusion in masters programs, for this purpose. But, what we further learned was that our undergraduate experimental laboratory program appears to be under-preparing students to engage with creative research and its planning. Thus, we recommended review of the experimental learning in the BSc degree to incorporate more experiences where students plan, develop, execute and analyze an experiment, at a level appropriate to the year, rather than executing and analyzing experiments without the planning stages. 3.3.ReferencesWyko NT9800/9300 profiler, Setup and Operation Guide, Veeco Instruments Inc. ©2007). Google Scholar
Patricia Gosling and Bart Noordam,
“Designing Good Experiments,”
Mastering Your PhD, 5 Springer-Verlag20062011). Google Scholar
,Suggestions for Keeping Laboratory Notebooks,
(2021) https://otl.stanford.edu/suggestions-keeping-laboratory-notebooks May ). 2021). Google Scholar
,Guidelines for Keeping a Laboratory Record,
(2021) https://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/tools/notebook/notebook.html May ). 2021). Google Scholar
Les Kirkup, Experimental Methods for Science and Engineering Students: An Introduction to the Analysis and Presentation of Data, 2Cambridge University Press,2019). Google Scholar
L. Kirkup and R B Frenkel, An Introduction to Uncertainty in Measurement: Using the GUM (Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement), Cambridge University Press,2006). Google Scholar
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