Professional Plan, Schwartz 2016

Professional Plan, Pete Schwartz Promotion Application 2016
Part of Pete Schwartz’s 2016 application for promotion

Section I
My professional plan is to continue building the activities that I find of value to me, Cal Poly students, and the local and international community. Most of my successful endeavors were not planned five years in advance, but usually about a year in advance. Thus, I will explain how I plan to continue some projects and identify several directions that could well continue decades into the future. Additionally, there is no clear distinction between my Teaching, Scholarship, Service, and Personal Life. As an example, with regard to technologies dedicated to supporting the world’s poor:

  • Since June 2015, 9 students developed a cooking technology initiated at Cal Poly. Six of these students were part of Cal Poly’s Mechanical Engineering senior project class series.
  • The cooking technology is based on the way my family has been cooking for the past 8 years.
  • The research is implemented at the Student Experimental Farm, which I facilitate.
  • Students in my appropriate technology classes studied the technology and implementation strategies in Uganda in collaboration with nonprofit AidAfrica.
  • Four students went to Uganda with AidAfrica for a month this summer to implement a few experimental stoves, and study how people live. We’ve submitted a related manuscript to Development Engineering, and students kept a blog about which COSAM issued this story.

Thus, most of our projects (and our students) are not confined into any single category.

Teaching (and education research)
I will creatively innovate teaching as long as I am a faculty member. Below are my goals for the next five years.

  • Further my education in Physics Education Research (PER), as I participate in Cal Poly’s emerging PER research community
  • Further develop basic mechanics PHYS-141 Parallel Pedagogy student-centered curriculum in the following ways:
    • Revise the timeline to cover rotational motion earlier in the quarter (presently underway)
    • Revise the OpenStax free, online textbook to be consistent with the Parallel Pedagogy (presently underway)
    • Improve the dedicated video library (presently underway)
    • Identify or develop metrics to define student success and implement them in surveys and exams
    • Continue collaborative study of mechanics education with mechanical engineering faculty
    • Explore the role of in-class learning assistants
    • Present at American Association of Physics Teachers meeting
    • Publish quantitative results in The American Journal of Physics, or The Physics Teacher
  • Assuming successful assessment of PHYS-141 redesign, consider redesigning PHYS-132, or PHYS-133.
  • Co-instruct three classes with Mechanical Engineering Professor Brian Self: PHYS-141 and ME-212 in order to further my understanding of introductory mechanics and how it is applied in introductory mechanical engineering. Dr. Self’s letter of intent.
  • Improve lab procedures for PHYS-132 that I recently introduced without detailed instructions, leaving students freer to consider different strategies and the potential outcomes
  • Continue teaching the energy classes: PSC-320, Energy, Society, and the Environment and PHYS-310, The Physics of Energy
    • Improve and update the online video library
    • Consider collaboration schemes with similar classes in engineering and agriculture
    • Present at American Association of Physics Teachers meeting
  • Introduce new class “Path to Net Zero” energy class in collaboration with campus facility efforts.
    • Build the service-learning component with a network of local and international collaborators
    • Connect projects with physics and mechanical engineering senior projects, as with the cooking technology explained above.
    • Further develop collaborative intercultural learning through ongoing student service-learning trips
    • Present at American Association of Physics Teachers meeting
  • Support Agro-Ecology/Permaculture education at Cal Poly through collaborative efforts with local practitioners
  • Continue developing curriculum for kids’ camps (ages 5-14) by the SLO MakerAcademy at the SLO MakerSpace
    • Develop new projects
    • Document present successful projects in videos, or publish in Make Magazine or The Physics Teacher
    • Present at American Association of Physics Teachers meeting

Scholarship
My research with students and collaborators will continue as long as I am a faculty member. I anticipate about one publication per year with students as coauthors.

  • Continue developing off-grid applications for photovoltaic electricity with an interdisciplinary group of students, professors, companies and nonprofits.
    • Continue Collaborations with Taufik (Electrical Engineering – power electronics), Eltahry Elghandour (Mechanical Engineering – composites), and Ashraf Tubeileh (Crops and Horticulture Science – Organic Agriculture), building machinery that is traditionally powered by fossil fuels to be instead powered by electricity – particularly electricity generated by solar panels.
    • Improve solar cooking technologies for poor communities
    • Continue developing solar powered ice production for poor communities with lecturer Nathan Heston (Physics)
    • Continue developing control systems to direct excess solar electricity to loads (such as thermal loads) that are not acutely time sensitive.
    • Implement solar technologies in developing countries with appropriate nonprofits and Engineers Without Boarders
    • Integrate research projects with appropriate technology classes where appropriate.
    • Seek funding for widespread implementation for successful technologies from organizations including the Gates Foundation and USAID for work in poor countries. For implementation in industrialized countries: the US Department of Energy, the California Energy Commission, and private companies
  • Continue evaluating my teaching with analysis supported by physics education research, as indicated above in the Teaching section

Service and University Citizenship
My service dedicated to sustainability and community building will continue as long as I’m a faculty member and thereafter.
Physics Department

  • Continue advocating for equity on behalf of new faculty and lecturers
  • Continue supporting new instructors through dedicated instructor meetings and sharing resources
  • Continue do support departmental activities when needed including
    • faculty recruitment and selection
    • other committee work requested
    • All RPT evaluation and follow ups with junior faculty

Cal Poly

  • Continue supporting communication and collaboration across campus and with external communities
  • Continue supporting student projects at the Student Experimental Farm and forming an Instructionally Related Activity (IRA)
  • Build capacity for innovation through support of a Cal Poly Maker Community, independent from my connection with the SLO MakerSpace
  • Support design, development, and deployment of renewable energy technologies at and by Cal Poly particularly through the reinvigoration of Cal Poly’s Renewable Energy Institute.
  • Continue providing myself to the university and community as an energy and agroecology resource
  • Continue to advise and advocate for reduction in energy consumption and implementation of renewable energy
  • Continue to attend fall conference and the post-commencement college gathering when possible

Local and International Community

  • Continue service as a founding board member of SLO MakerSpace providing services and employment opportunities for the Cal Poly community.
  • Continue to make videos about physics, energy, and permaculture available to the public
  • Continue to plan development of San Luis Obispo, and advocate for bicycle safety
  • Involve Cal Poly students in collaborative global efforts supporting the world’s poor

Section II
Summary: Since returning from my first sabbatical in Berkeley in 2007, I dedicated myself to teach and study sustainability, energy consumption, and collaborative international development. My research objective was originally to develop energy technologies and analyze energy consumption. Since then, my objectives have shifted toward societally oriented challenges including technology adoption and awareness of equity and environmental impact. These interests have grown to include my teaching as well as research and service.

Teaching
I am excited about my recent innovations in introductory mechanics class, PHYS-141 with respect to improved student conceptual learning, student engagement, and student acceptance of the new learning model. I explain in my teaching statement and student evaluation statements how the innovations are not just technical but include empathetic personal reflection that informs curriculum direction; brings students on board with the teaching model, and positively models the reflection process that may serve students both in the class and in their futures. I’m still actively developing fundamental materials to support the new PHYS-141 curriculum, supported by a recent CSU grant in course redesign. I look forward both to further developing this pedagogy innovation with physics majors interested in education, as well as becoming an active contributor of Cal Poly’s new Physics Education Research community. I attended my first AAPT (American Association of Physics Teachers) meeting summer 2016 and was inspired by the breadth of topics covered. I look forward to presenting in the future in several subject areas.

Physics 141, Introductory Mechanics:
In my teaching statement, and in the manuscript in Part II, I discuss the evolution of our novel learning model for PHYS-141:

  • The parallel pedagogy, whereby concepts (momentum, energy, forces, motion) are studied simultaneously;
  • Flipped Classroom, whereby students are introduced to the material via online videos that I create;
  • Activity based classes prioritizing students working in groups and developing supportive relationships;
  • A free online textbook
  • Developing reflective practices that students may be more aware of what they are feeling and evaluate what works for them.

In my provisionally accepted manuscript to The Physics Teacher (see manuscript in Part II), I report the process and some results, which I find to be rather positive:

  • Students accept the novel learning model rather well;
  • Students’ exam performances are good compared to with a standard curriculum (detailed differences remain to be determined);
  • Surveys indicate student growth in conceptual analysis;
  • Student retention consistent with conventional classes;
  • Student evaluations are adequate and have an improving trend.

While this may not seem overwhelming, I find the results very encouraging when considering the level of development of both the learning model and the student learning experience: The conventional physics pedagogy has evolved over the past century with incremental improvements from thousands of practitioners, supported with coevolved resources such as textbooks. Additionally, the teaching model has coevolved with childhood education and what it means to “learn” and “teach”. In comparison, our new learning model has been developed by one practitioner for the past two or three years supported by a textbook made for the conventional learning model. Additionally, the way we are learning often contrasts with what students recognize as teaching. Thus, I find it likely that our learning model can be greatly improved with relatively minor curriculum modification, improvement of resources, and practice:

  • Curriculum: I am introducing rotational motion after the first midterm, in week 4, further delaying components and trigonometry. It is my understanding that we learn iteratively. My observation is that students do the worst on rotational motion, presumably because they often only have between one and three weeks of this family of concepts. By covering rotational motion sooner, students will have more practice with these concepts while invoking motion in two dimensions and trigonometry, subjects that I find less conceptually challenging.
  • Textbook: Funded by a CSU course redesign grant, two students and I are reformatting the OpenStax free online textbook. OpenStax supports this kind of modification and will make the newly written textbook openly available. Additionally, I am free to include any material presently available in OpenStax in writing the textbook. As I build and improve the textbook, the chapters are publicly accessible.
  • Videos: Although presently adequate, my videos leave room for improvement. Besides changing the videos to be consistent with the curriculum change above, I will shorten them and tailor homework questions to be more mutually supportive with the videos.
  • Reflection: I will continue to market our learning model to our students. Time alone will be helpful, because students will see that this model has endured for several years with improving student evaluations, which I make available to students before the class begins. I will continue the practice of notifying students of the novel learning model before the class begins and encourage them to consider if they will be successful in this learning model. While very few students drop the class, I think that offering them the opportunity to reconsider helps bring them onboard as a participant.

I anticipate that completing the PHYS-141 redesign will take about two more years. I plan to learn a considerable amount in this period of time. If the redesign is found to be compelling I will consider the next step in integrating concepts. For instance: a course redesign for PHYS-132, or PHYS-133, or possibly a three quarter long integrated course using all three classes. This next step is far from my present thoughts, but represents a possible future direction should concept integration distinguish itself as a compelling learning model.

Lastly, I look forward to integrating my understanding of mechanics in physics to engineering mechanics. PHYS-141 is the conceptual foundation for ME-211 (Statics), and ME-212 (Dynamics). While on partial sabbatical in 2013-2014, I attended Andrew Davol’s ME-211 class and Brian Self’s ME-212 class, finding the experience to be very eye-opening. The extension of this opportunity and insight would come through co-instructing the three courses with one or both of these instructors. I hope to do this in the next five years.

Improve PHYS-132 laboratory and MakerSpace children’s camp activities by reducing guidance: Students and younger children will produce a better “result” with detailed guidance. However, I believe that providing detailed instructions teaches students to get something done by following directions rather than think creatively and learn. At the Colorado College, introductory laboratories had vague directions, and I remember creative and vigorous student discussion about the best way to do something. The past two times I instructed PHYS-132 laboratory, I omitted most of the procedure in the activity descriptions, leaving students to explore. Similarly, when guiding rocket making at the MakerSpace kids’ camp, we found that without detailed directions, the kids’ rockets performed differently. As a consequence the kids became more curious about what aspect of the rocket caused the performance outcome. In both cases it is important to frame the questions differently – the objective is to learn, not measure the speed of sound to the highest precision or build a rocket that goes the highest. I plan to develop these laboratory experiences and make them available to other instructors. I also plan on designing a way to evaluate the outcome of this method with Cal Poly’s physics education research community.

The Energy Classes: PSC-320, and PHYS-310
The increased popularity of sustainability in the past decade has introduced considerable changes to these classes. Physical Science (GE-Area F) PSC-320 has been joined by several similar classes offered in engineering and architecture, inviting collaboration opportunities. In particular, BRAE-348, Energy for a Sustainable Society has considerably higher enrollment than PSC-320, taking many students from engineering and agriculture. I give a guest lecture in this class, and they use some of my videos.

PHYS-310 covers the same material as PSC-320, with added theoretical and computational rigor. I will likely continue teaching this curriculum with increased attention on a group research topic.

I have collaborated with Dr. Kurt Kornbluth at UC Davis since 2007 on appropriate technology efforts. He has recently added a “Path to Net Zero” energy class at Davis that is project oriented. I plan to adapt that class to Cal Poly and include resource reduction, especially water use.

Appropriate Technology, Agro-Ecology, Permaculture: These classes and clubs explore the nature of poverty as well as ways to improve all peoples’ lives through community building and holistic design. We explore using natural solutions as well as solutions that are inexpensive, technically accessible to all people, and environmentally benign. We deploy appropriate technologies in the dedicated classes and through collaborations on campus (such as at the Student Experimental Farm) and with outside practitioners including Quail Springs, Tryon Community Farm, Casitas Family Farm, and local green architects. At present, several students are exploring ways to build a program at Cal Poly. I do not see my role as designer and leader because the movement is community-oriented in general. Thus, I will continue to support these efforts by supporting projects from others, providing workshops to the community, and providing students with guidance and access to land and resources.

Scholarship
Innovating a Research Model
Since transitioning from nanotechnology to sustainability in 2006, I have acquired a broad knowledge of energy, infrastructure, economics, and poverty. However, I am not, nor do I ever aspire to become an expert in any one of these fields. Additionally, the landscape in these fields changes quickly, and opportunities seem to arise unexpectedly, so we often find our research in an area that is new to me. Thus, our research model is one of a “learning community” whereby each project provides information to the entire group at each meeting: 3 times a week in the summer, and typically once a week when classes are in session. The research group is interdisciplinary and includes students and faculty from other departments as well as non profit and private companies. My area of research attracts many students and also requires a very small budget for hardware and infrastructure. Many of the students that wish to work with us have decided for a variety of reasons to not work in a field that is traditionally defined by their major. I rarely refuse a student a research opportunity and make considerable effort to find funding to pay them during the research experience.

This summer, our research community of 19 students, 5 faculty, and 6 outside collaborating companies (AidAfrica, Sanga Energy, JLM Energy, SLO Guild Hall, Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, and Social Ice Cream Company) investigated 7 different projects. The research takes place at various laboratories on campus, outside companies, African villages, the Student Experimental Farm, and at my house. In particular, Nathan Heston (who is independently advising three research students with solar ice) has become a valuable collaborator, attending most of the meetings and providing some of the groups with significant lab and field guidance. Besides the three weekly meetings in the summer, we met with the individual research groups as needed. Thus Dr Heston and I and our students learn from and support each other. We plan to continue developing this research model. More information can be found at our summer research website.

General Motivation for Off-Grid Solar Panel Implementation
The price of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and dropped by more than a factor of 200 since the 1970s. Already the retail cost of solar panels is less than $1/Watt and constitutes only about 20% of the cost of roof top PV installation (see figure below); and solar electricity is less expensive than many forms of conventional electrical generation and distribution in many parts of the world. The continued decrease in production costs in solar panels (see figure below) will increasingly impact both industrial and poor countries in very different ways. In industrial countries, PV will increasingly displace conventional electrical generation, presenting the challenge of adapting the grid to the increasing contribution of variable power sources. Additionally, traditionally fossil-fuel driven technologies will become electrified: transportation, heating, and outdoor power tools for instance. In poor countries, inexpensive PV will bring electricity to communities for the first time. The challenge in poor countries is to help finance the capital cost and provide the hardware and education necessary to best serve society with this new technology. Our research intends to be part of these transformations in both worlds.

Because the culture, wealth, and history in poor countries are very different from ours, their development of electrical deployment may be different as well. Additionally, developments in poor countries are less encumbered by entrenched technologies and societal infrastructure so the way electricity develops in poor countries may well provide a looking glass into our future development.

California PV Solar trends JPEG.jpg
Left, the price of solar panels (blue line) has decreased and presently constitutes only 20% of the cost of installing solar panels with the rest of the cost being installation and the hardware and permitting associated with connecting to the grid. Right, the California load curve illustrates the demand on conventional electrical generation facilities throughout the day. The largest demand used to be about midday with another small spike in the early evening when people return home. The increasing contribution of solar electricity drastically reduces demand in the day, presenting the utilities with significant challenge in ramping up generation to meet evening demand.

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Solar Cooking
Cooking with open fires kills more of the world’s poor than AIDS and malaria combined (4 million annual deaths according to the World Health Organization), causes deforestation, and contributes to climate change through the emissions of black soot and CO2. After developing and implementing insulated solar electric cooking (ISEC) in the past year, we will continue to collaboratively develop this technology with poor communities and facilitate proliferation. At present, the technology costs less than $5 plus the cost of a solar panel, which presently costs about $80 for 100 W. This price is still unaffordable for most of the world’s poor. However, the cost will come down over time, and there are financing mechanisms that can help. Our collaborator AidAfrica is negotiating an agreement with the international carbon market to receive $30 per year per stove that replace the conventional inefficient stoves. Similar financing would reduce this cost burden. Additionally, poor people pay considerably for fuel over several years, but do not have the resources to drop $100 on the capital cost of a stove, even if it saves them money over several years. Thus, there is the opportunity to support the purchase with proper financing.

The next step in technology development is to build inexpensive thermal storage capacity allowing users to deliver heat to a thermal load at a very high rate as well as cook well into the evening. We will also be manufacturing heaters and develop a control system. Cal Poly students have begun experimenting with nichrome wire – based heater construction as outlined in their webpage. We will expand this research to build immersion heaters to directly heat food in an insulated container as well as for domestic water heating.

The implementation in July 2016 in Uganda went well, and we are seeking funding to implement about 100 stoves next summer again with AidAfrica in Uganda. As the technology is very broad (Solar Panel + Electric Heater + Insulation), there are many deployment options, and we look forward to collaboratively developing the implementations with the community of women who will use them. Our long term goal, which we hope to achieve in five years is to demonstrate through collaborative technology improvements and financing innovation that building these stoves is a financially sustainable enterprise and see it speed the electrification of the world’s poor.

Solar Ice Production
Two students (1 physics, 1 electrical engineering) worked with physics lecturer Dr. Nathan Heston and myself this past summer to power a freezer from a solar panel. The ability to make ice in poor countries considerably improves the standard of living as well as enhances local food industries. The perceived necessity to have constant electrical power increases the cost of a solar freezer by about a factor of 5, but is unnecessary if insulation is sufficient and the freezer is full: ice can be made when the sun shines and stays cold at night supported by the thermal storage of phase change materials such as salt water. We implement prototypes at the Student Experimental Farm and on the ice cream truck of a local enterprise. Dr. Heston is active with Engineers Without Boarders and plans to deploy several prototypes in Thailand December 2016. We anticipate several years of continued collaboration on the hardware development. Our present prototype still converts the solar electricity to AC to be used in an standard freezer adding considerable unnecessary expense. We are exploring several direct DC freezer technologies including low cost solid state Peltier devices.

We recently started exploring ways to naturally cool the ice making facility. High ambient temperature lowers efficiency in three ways: (1) heat more quickly enters the freezer through the insulation, (2) high condenser coil temperature lowers the coefficient of performance of the freezer, and (3) solar panel power output decreases with increased solar pane temperature. An architecture student is designing and building an aquaponics pond for the next solar ice facility at the student experimental farm. The hot side of the heat pump will be directly immersed in the water, and the shelter and solar panels will be cooled by air coming through pipes immersed in the water. We plan to grow fish (tilapia and catfish) as well as passion fruit to provide shade and food. My appropriate technology class is assisting in the project studying this project’s potential implementation in a poor country. The project will be amply supported by Cal Poly’s thriving aquaponics club, boasting the world’s largest collegiate aquaponics facility located in the student experimental farm’s greenhouse. Inspired by our students, my family has also built a facility in our hot tub where we are growing hydroponic passion fruit plants to be read to install in the facility at the Student Experimental Farm, when it is ready for plants.

Aquaponics at home.png
Left, the Cal Poly aquaponics club inside the greenhouse at the student experimental farm. Plants grow from the gravel soaked in water rich in fish excretion. Right, at home plastic fencing protect the tilapia and catfish from the bass, and passion fruit is growing in clay pellets with the bottom of the roots below water level.

Electrical Priority Switchboard – November 2015 and again in January 2016, I filed a provisional patent for a device that would directly use solar electricity without connecting to the grid but draw on grid electricity when solar electricity is not sufficient. We are developing the ability to sense electrical capacity and demand, process priorities, optimize electrical conversion, and control and record electrical power. In the coming year, we plan to develop this technology while investigating the viability of the patent and business opportunity with collaborator Sangha Energy. We have developed expertise in the use of small, inexpensive computers often called Arduinos. We are making our own data loggers and intend to expand the functions to include control of switches to manage electricity use in off-grid buildings. Future projects are electronic control of our inexpensive cookers and freezers, logging the use of solar cookers for carbon market verification, and developing remote financing methods whereby users pay daily for the use of electronic products. I anticipate to continue these projects over the next 5 years or more.

Photovoltaic DC Water Heating – Two students (1 physics, 1 mechanical engineering) developed away to electrically heat water in a natural gas hot water tank. Electrical demand for heating and cooling is not as acutely time dependent as electrical demand for your television (for instance). Thus, utilities could use electric water heaters to absorb electricity spikes resulting from the variations in grid power caused by renewable energy generation. Already, many people in Texas receive free electricity at night because plentiful wind electricity production exceeds electricity demand at night. In the summer of 2016, the Cal Poly students worked in Sangha Energy’s San Luis Obispo shop innovating a way to insert an electrical heater through the drain port of a natural gas water tank and control the temperature with an added thermostat. The entire process costs less than $100 and is presently deployed at my house. The water heater is powered by solar panels provided by Cal Poly’s IME department and were installed in June as part of Alex Little’s Cal Poly senior project. We filed a provisional patent in September, 2016 and at present seem to be done with the technical development. I have initiated communication with business professors to explore business opportunities with entrepreneurship classes.

Solar powered Outdoor Tools
Mechanical engineering professor Elthary Elghandour and I are developing electricity-powered outdoor tools to replace the gasoline-powered tools traditionally used in both industrialized and poor countries. Compared to gasoline engines, electric motors are lighter (for the same delivered power), easier to maintain, and less expensive. We presently have a contract with a local company developing an electric vacuum for organic pest control run by a battery charged with solar panels; allowing day-long operation without any supply-line challenges. The project was suggested by collaborating professor Ashraf Tubeileh of horticulture and crops science and was built by three mechanical engineering students this past summer. Dr. Elghandour and I plan to expand to other farm/outdoor power tools and have recently submitted a new design challenge for the year-long mechanical engineering group senior project class series. This general research should also interest the military as solar electric power can reduce dependence on expensive petroleum supply lines. The recent availability of inexpensive solar panels, batteries and powerful, brushless DC motors opens the door to use solar electricity anywhere gasoline-powered tools are presently used. Professor Elghandour and I are planning to continue developing solar electric power tools in the coming five years.

Solar Powered Mushroom Production – One recent graduate in agriculture is presently building a mushroom production facility at the Student Experimental Farm after learning that when mushrooms grow in the shade of vegetables, the vegetables are more than twice as productive. Other students at the farm are interested in joining this project and collaborator Professor Ashraf Tubeileh (Horticulture and Crops Science) will study the resulting vegetable productivity. Mushroom production requires sterilization of the spawn before inoculating it with the desired mycelium. Rather than heating steam with fossil fuels, we will use a large insulated solar cooker. The project should only take one year to complete. However, we may continue to develop other solar electric agriculture technologies that are presently fossil fuel powered.

Collaboration with the Grange Hall in San Luis Obispo
The Guild Hall (formerly “the Grange Hall”) in San Luis Obispo has announced the mission to become a showcase for sustainable energy and resource use. We have secured about 15,000 Watts of Solar Electric panels from Cal Poly through SunPower’s donation and plan to deploy them on new construction in collaboration with emeritus architecture professor Ken Haggard and Sangha Energy. Among the technologies we plan to deploy are direct DC office commodities, water heating, and Direct DC-DC EV charging. This past summer one physics student explored ways to charge electric vehicles directly with solar electricity. Like water heating above, charging electric cars represents an electric load that is not crucially time dependent and thus can be a stabilizing component of a DC microgrid, consistent with electricity use from our electrical priority switchboard above. Presently electric vehicles rectify AC grid electricity to charge DC batteries. We are exploring ways to directly charge electric cars from the DC electricity provided by solar panels. for a number of reasons including challenges in building permitting and because there are many more compelling projects, this project is of low priority but will remain an option if things change.

Deployment Strategies Initiated in Appropriate Technology Classes
The dissemination of our technologies and societal innovations are often initiated in our appropriate technology and energy classes where student groups learn about challenges of a poor community and design an appropriate technology or innovation to meet the challenge. The challenges are open ended and we don’t know what we will learn in the process. A minority of students continue on a project and build deeper relationship with the target community or non profit. However, most of the students learn new perspectives and document them in the class website for subsequent groups to build on. For example, Maddi from the Winter 2016 Appropriate Technology Design and Build class studied with the Solar Electric Cooking Group and continued on to become the lead organizer for the four students that went to Uganda for a month this past summer.

Physics Education Research (PER)
I never intended to do research in Physics Education, but found myself naturally pulled into it as I sought to improve my teaching. I plan to learn from and contribute to the quickly growing PER community Cal Poly has assembled around the new hire of Stamatis Vokos. I have already joined the “critical friends” of the PHYS-133 redesign. Additionally I will continue refining PHYS-141 as described in the teaching statements in both Section I and Section II above. Refining the PHYS-132 labs (explained above) provides another stepping off point. One goal is to identify or develop meaningful success metrics for introductory mechanics and evaluate the learning model I am developing.

Funding
Appropriate technologies are inherently inexpensive, so our financial needs are primarily to fund students for internships. Thus, we can continue our work reasonably well with the support we receive through the College of Science and Math. We have received additional support through other internal and CSU grants. I have applied for larger external grants, but so far have been unsuccessful. Please see resume for past successful and unsuccessful grant proposals. This past summer has resulted in technical progress that will make the next round of external grant proposals more appealing. Nathan Heston and I plan to apply for a CSU Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activities Grant to develop an integrated Solar Ice Facility with Passive Cooling, and also seek external funding from other agencies such as USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dissemination of Findings
It is reasonable to expect about one publication and several conference presentations a year which include student authorship.
We will likely publish our findings in Development Engineering, a peer reviewed, open access journal that in 2013, I recommended be initiated. and we submitted our manuscript describing our solar electric cooking technology.
We plan to present our work at the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Meeting. I found my first AAPT meeting in July of 2016 in Sacramento inspiring in both the depth and breadth of interests represented. I gave a presentation regarding the parallel pedagogy I describe above. However, I found myself actively engaged in session discussions related to many of my other interests and intend to give talks in many of these other fields in the future. Besides Physics Education Research, there were sessions dedicated to Sustainability, Making Videos, Active Learning, the Maker Movement, Appropriate Technology, Energy, Equity, and Social Justice. Consequently, I intend to visit the AAPT again with students to present several talks and posters.

Service
My service is primarily to support societal and environmental sustainability locally and world-wide, consistent with the Cal Poly mission statement that includes, “Cal Poly values free inquiry, cultural and intellectual diversity, mutual respect, civic engagement, and social and environmental responsibility.” It is with the intention of supporting and teaching social and environmental responsibility that I will continue to dedicate myself to meetings, participation in supporting new faculty, sustainability efforts on campus, interdisciplinary faculty capacity building, student projects at the Student Experimental Farm, and supporting cross-campus, local, and international collaboration. Cal Poly is deeply committed to sustainability with activities summarized in their sixth biennial sustainability report with updates on the dedicated website. My service is often a response to an acute need, such as my participation in the Sustainability Subcommittee for Cal Poly’s Master Plan from October of 2014 to January of 2015 or the more recent call to reinvent Cal Poly’s Renewable Energy Institute. Consequently, it may be more instrumental for me to summarize some of my comparatively impromptu service over the past few years and indicate my interest to continue in these efforts as well as describe how continuing service may look.

Open Online Educational Resources (OER) Cal Poly prioritizes two OER initiatives to bring down the cost of education: Affordable Learning Solutions (a CSU-wide initiative) and AB 798 (California Textbook Affordability Act). I plan to continue supporting OER development by posting education videos, producing an online textbook for introductory mechanics, and supporting Cal Poly’s OER learning community.

  • I’ve posted over 200 videos on my YouTube channel to support education in basic mechanics, energy conversion and society, sustainability, and bicycle safety and have recorded as of September 1, 2016 over 86,000 views, the most popular (with over 14,000 views) is solving the one-dimensional elastic collision by changing reference frames rather than using algebra. While many of these videos are watched by students as part of assigned class preparation, many are used by others in the global community. We can get an idea of this usage from the data provided by Youtube for dates when Cal Poly is not in session. From a graph of views over the summer, YouTube recorded 2486 views for the 10 weeks of summer indicating about 35 views per day. Additionally, only 14% were from California and only 41% of these views were from the United States; 18% of the views come from India. As I develop this video resource for my students, I will organize it for public use as well. If physics teachers take up the parallel pedagogy after the publication of my paper in The Physics Teacher, this video resource could become important. Consistent with the CSU Course Redesign grant I received for this year, I purchased a good video camera and look forward to improving many of my videos for students at home and far away. Besides the improved sound quality and visuals that the new camera will provide, I intend to shorten the videos, as I’ve been encouraged to do from many students and E-commerce experts. Presently, videos average about 10 minutes, and should average about half that per the market research on attention spans. I plan to break some of the videos into two shorter videos and also find a way to direct people watching the videos to the curriculum and directory of the other videos.
  • I am building a online textbook for the parallel pedagogy I’m developing that again may be an important resource for physics teachers. Two students and I plan to launch the textbook on OpenStax in January, 2017 and will work to improve it on an ongoing basis.
  • I will continue to be active in Cal Poly’s OER community that resulted in our recent book chapter to be published in December 2016.

Advocating for Bicycle Safety
This article provides an empathetic insight to bicyclists to understand the perspectives of women and underrepresented minorities in a white male culture. As someone who feels vulnerable and concerned for my family in a society not made for bicycles, I advocate for bicycle safety locally to the city counsel and planning committee meetings. Additionally, I record videos during my bicycle commute and send clips to the police department identifying safety hazards for bicyclists such as obstruction of safe bike ways, opening car doors into the bike lane and motorists running bicyclists off the road. The police department has a practice to not issue tickets for violations not directly witnessed, but evaluates the videos and notifies the motorists of the violation they have committed; encourages them to watch the video and contact me if they like; and to be more observant in the future. The police department’s goal is to elevate bicycle safety and the legal responsibility of motorists to the public and the police. Surprisingly, considerable correspondence was required to clarify that responsible signaling before making an illegal turn in front of a bicyclist did not make the turn legal. I plan to continue advocating for safe bikeways in order to support San Luis Obispo’s and Cal Poly’s promotion of bicycling as a important mode of transportation.

Facilitating of the Student Experimental Farm
Cal Poly’s two-acre Student Experimental Farm (SEF) has seen many changes. Originally a one-acre site dedicated to experimentation and projects in low-input and alternative agriculture, it was established in 1989 by a group of graduate students from the now defunct International Agriculture masters program. The intention was to explore farming practices suitable for developing countries and the host of resources provided by the SEF over the past quarter century is summarized on the website. Many of the projects from the appropriate technology classes I have directed since 2007 were built at the SEF, with permission from the Department of Horticulture and Crops Science. The end of the ADAPT (Afghanistan Pre-Deployment Agricultural Training) program in 2013 essentially closed the SEF to all activity except my classes.

In early 2014, I was given permission to use the SEF for summer research, building solar concentrators for cooking. Students approached me requesting access to the SEF for their own projects. We began holding meetings to see how this might work. We continue to meet every Sunday from about 11 AM until 1 PM, and often have meetings during the week. I act as a facilitator between student groups and Cal Poly’s Risk Management office to vet projects. In the past two years, the number of student projects has grown and the site is being used by an increasing number of classes including my own appropriate technology and energy classes, AEPS 327 Vertebrate Pest Management and Religion and Wine (Stephen Lloyd-Moffett); and there are plans for project-based biology and agriculture classes to use the SEF in the coming academic year.

Many students, faculty, staff and local residents find value in the interdisciplinary projects supported by the SEF and the web of relationships between students, faculty, and interested outside organizations. I look forward to further supporting student activities at the SEF, or wherever the students and university direct me to provide this service. In early October 2016, I met with five representatives from Cal Poly’s Risk Management, Environmental Health and Safety, and Buildings in order to develop a way to best vet student projects at the SEF. In the coming year, I will propose the SEF as an IRA (Instructionally Related Activity) that we may gain a more official status and acquire more support for our activities.

Supporting Campus Connectivity and Equity
My activities have always been interdisciplinary since my arrival at Cal Poly in 2000. Nanotechnology is inherently interdisciplinary, and much of my work brought me into contact with chemistry, materials, and biology. During my participation with the SUSTAIN initiative from early 2010 until 2015, this interdisciplinary community increased to include the arts as well as entities outside of the university; and we paid considerable attention and intention to building and understanding relationships to support a diverse network. I’ve come to greatly value this community, the resources it provides me and our students, and the education I gain thereby. I continue to meet with this interdisciplinary group unofficially and in summer of 2016, I hosted meetings, although not many people attended in the summer. Through this network, I have been able to access physical resources and valuable expertise for myself and others in physics as well as provide the same for students outside of our department and college. I have also engaged in governance issues in an effort to promote equity among the faculty and staff as well as inquire into the role of faculty in university governance. In this process, I’ve met with University President, Jeffery Armstrong, various deans and department heads, CFA representatives and students and faculty and established a website to promote university discussion.

Responding to a call from my students to better understand the impending strike this past spring, I posted information here, which I understand other instructors used to help their students understand the situation. Additionally, having found the protest of spring of 2015 in front of the administration office distasteful and unproductive, I met with other faculty to plan non-confrontational protest options during the strike whereby faculty could meet with students, community supporters, and the press in a non-hostile environment. My priority in these interactions is to authentically engage and acknowledge conflict while maintaining respect and empathy for each person and each party’s position. My intention is to continue this engagement with these same priorities.

This past year, I’ve negotiated on behalf of new faculty and lectures in my department as a contrast became increasingly evident between the way new faculty and lectures were treated last year compared to when I came here in 2000. Sixteen years ago, new faculty and lectures had similar introductions: covering 12 WTU each instructor taught each of the three introductory physics classes each quarter so that they had only a single prep each quarter and at the end of their first year were familiar with the three foundational classes. In their second year, all faculty were welcome to choose an upper division class with equal priority as seasoned faculty. Last year, I voiced concerns that some new faculty struggled with 14 WTU and multiple preparations while establishing a research record, applying for a permanent faculty positions, and raising a family. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with Bob Echols in his first year as the physics department chair in mending this situation. While I had no official department responsibility in this matter, I interacted with Bob in an atmosphere of mutual respect and collaboration, although we didn’t always agree. I think that supporting new faculty is important for the betterment of the department, but can be overlooked or even disapproved of by senior faculty, as illustrated in some contrasting Email response I’ve received from full professors and junior faculty / lecturers with my efforts to improve equity in the department. Thus the academic evaluation process may overlook value in our top down evaluation as opposed to the “360 review” that is gaining popularity in business circles. As I go forward, I intend to continue novel discussions in a way that is genuine and still respects other faculty.

The SLO MakerSpace provides Cal Poly students and the San Luis Obispo community with construction, manufacturing, and craft resources as well as a vibrant creative community. Cal Poly students find support for projects including senior projects as Cal Poly shops are sometimes overwhelmed by student demand at the end of the (especially spring) quarter. Additionally, students find opportunities for employment and friendship. I’m one of the founding board members of the MakerSpace. I have the title of Chief Sustainability Officer. Although I have improved energy use through reduction of excessive lighting and improved ventilation by venting the skylights, my primary role is to liaison between the MakerSpace and Cal Poly. In particular, I recruited and interviewed 14 Cal Poly students this past April and May to fill two teaching jobs for the MakerSpace kids’ camp. A Cal Poly engineering student and recent graduate in biology and teacher training ran the camp for 6 weeks, netting a profit of close to $14,000 for the MakerSpace while providing a formative experience for 81 kids. My participation in the larger activities of the board have been reduced allowing my attention to be dedicated to building educational capacity and building connection to the MakerSpace for Cal Poly students.

Sustainability and Global Equity
Through our classes, research, and personal lifestyles, our community optimistically explores solutions to our living challenges as we share the planet. Although I have no plans to continue Guateca, the collaborative Cal Poly / Guatemala summer school in San Pablo Guatemala (2010 – 2012), I look forward to building connections between our students and international experiences. I intend to strengthening relationship with AidAfrica hosting students for summer volunteer work and implementation of appropriate technologies. My family and friends will continue efforts at home by building agricultural and technological resilience as we field test interesting technologies our students are studying. And I will continue to speak locally for government and private organizations, and provide myself as resource whenever requested. I have recently met with both mayoral candidates, Jan Marx and Heidi Harmon to explore options of how they may collaboratively share mayoral responsibilities regardless of who wins the election next week. Both candidates look forward to working toward the betterment of San Luis Obispo regardless of the election outcome and requested my assistance in supporting the implementation of our Climate Action Plan, which I intend to do as my next step in community service.