Repurposing MCNP Use for Nuclear Engineering Demonstrations while Applying Physics Education Research (PER) Best Practices

Bryndol A. Sones

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Conference: 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Publication Date: June 15, 2014
Start Date: June 15, 2014
End Date: June 18, 2014
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Nuclear and Radiological Division Technical Session 2
Tagged Division: Nuclear and Radiological
Page Count: 9
Page Numbers: 24.1040.1 - 24.1040.9
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--22973
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/22973
Download Count: 485

Paper Authors

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Bryndol A. Sones U.S. Military Academy

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Bryndol Sones is Colonel in the US Army and serves as an Academy Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point where he directs the Nuclear Engineering Program. He has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institutes (RPI).

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Abstract

Repurposing MCNP use for nuclear engineering demonstrations while applying Physics Education Research (PER) best practices ABSTRACTThis paper aims to employ best practices in Physics Education Research (PER)while repurposing MCNP from the valued monte-carlo transport code used tosupport research to a powerful demonstration tool for educating students ofnuclear engineering. Thirty years of PER has validated the need to complementtraditional lectures with some activity-based learning. Educators widely acceptthe notion that lectures alone fall short in maximizing undergraduate student gainsin learning and understanding, and the gap is most severe when evaluating studentconceptual learning. Physical demonstrations often help to bridge this gap, butwhen misused they can perpetuate student misconceptions rather than resolvethem. A recent PER study published by the Mazur Group at Harvard Universityobserved that even with quality demonstrations students’ prior knowledge mayinterfere with students observing the demonstration correctly. Those researcherssystematically evaluated demonstration techniques and concluded that the bestpractice is to have students predict outcomes before observing demonstrations. Inthis work, assessment data from our capstone individual oral examinationsadministered in the month before graduation was used to identify shortcomings inconceptual understanding. The five dominant misconceptions were in certainareas of radiation health effects, detector operations, fission cross sections, reactorkinetics, and neutron scattering. Elements of these five broad concepts werechosen to be modeled in MCNP with the aim of complementing MCNP resultswith a simple PowerPoint animation. Specific misconceptions were targeted inthe demonstration. A pedagogical model referred as U-POSE methodicallysequences students through the five steps of these proposed MCNPdemonstrations: Understand, Predict, Observe, Synthesize, and Explain. The finalstep culminates with students explaining the concept by authoring a representativeconcept question with a solution for a peer. This paper highlights products forexecuting these MCNP demonstrations and provides preliminary assessment dataon their efficacy in improving student gains in understanding these topics.

Citation
Format

Sones, B. A. (2014, June), Repurposing MCNP Use for Nuclear Engineering Demonstrations while Applying Physics Education Research (PER) Best Practices Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--22973

TY - CPAPER
AB - Repurposing MCNP use for nuclear engineering demonstrations while applying Physics Education Research (PER) best practices ABSTRACTThis paper aims to employ best practices in Physics Education Research (PER)while repurposing MCNP from the valued monte-carlo transport code used tosupport research to a powerful demonstration tool for educating students ofnuclear engineering. Thirty years of PER has validated the need to complementtraditional lectures with some activity-based learning. Educators widely acceptthe notion that lectures alone fall short in maximizing undergraduate student gainsin learning and understanding, and the gap is most severe when evaluating studentconceptual learning. Physical demonstrations often help to bridge this gap, butwhen misused they can perpetuate student misconceptions rather than resolvethem. A recent PER study published by the Mazur Group at Harvard Universityobserved that even with quality demonstrations students’ prior knowledge mayinterfere with students observing the demonstration correctly. Those researcherssystematically evaluated demonstration techniques and concluded that the bestpractice is to have students predict outcomes before observing demonstrations. Inthis work, assessment data from our capstone individual oral examinationsadministered in the month before graduation was used to identify shortcomings inconceptual understanding. The five dominant misconceptions were in certainareas of radiation health effects, detector operations, fission cross sections, reactorkinetics, and neutron scattering. Elements of these five broad concepts werechosen to be modeled in MCNP with the aim of complementing MCNP resultswith a simple PowerPoint animation. Specific misconceptions were targeted inthe demonstration. A pedagogical model referred as U-POSE methodicallysequences students through the five steps of these proposed MCNPdemonstrations: Understand, Predict, Observe, Synthesize, and Explain. The finalstep culminates with students explaining the concept by authoring a representativeconcept question with a solution for a peer. This paper highlights products forexecuting these MCNP demonstrations and provides preliminary assessment dataon their efficacy in improving student gains in understanding these topics.
AU - Bryndol A. Sones
CY - Indianapolis, Indiana
DA - 2014/06/15
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Repurposing MCNP Use for Nuclear Engineering Demonstrations while Applying Physics Education Research (PER) Best Practices
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/22973
DO - 10.18260/1-2--22973
ER -