Variant 2 abstract (347 слов)

The graduation project consists of an explanatory note on _______ pages, including ___ figures, ___ tables, the list of ___ references including ___foreign sources and ___ appendices, and the graphic part on ____ A1 sheets.

The goal of this diploma paper/ graduation work/senior thesis/ graduation project is to broaden our understanding of interactive teaching strategies, in the context of the introductory physics classroom at the undergraduate level. The diploma paper/ graduation work/senior thesis/ graduation project is divided into four main projects, each of which investigates a specific aspect of teaching physics interactively. All four projects look toward improving the effectiveness of interactive teaching by understanding how pre-course student characteristics affect the way students learn interactively.

We first discuss lecture demonstrations in the context of an interactive classroom using Peer Instruction. We study the role of predictions in conceptual learning. We examine how students' predictions affect what they report having seen during a demonstration. We also examine how student predictions affect what they recall as the outcome of the demonstration at the end of the semester. We then analyze student response patterns to conceptual questions posed during Peer Instruction. We look at the relationship between a student's tendency to switch their answer and pre-course student characteristics like science self-efficacy. Next we elucidate response timing to conceptual questions posed over the course of the semester, in two introductory physics classes taught using Peer Instruction. We look at the relationship between student response times and student characteristics like pre-course physics knowledge, science self-efficacy and gender. We study response times as a way of gaining insight into students thinking in Peer Instruction environments as well as to improve the implementation of Peer Instruction.

Finally, we present work on the role of NB, an online collaborative textbook annotation tool, in a flipped, project based, physics class. We analyze the relationship between students' level of online engagement and traditional learning metrics to understand the effectiveness of NB in the context of flipped classrooms. We also report the results of experiments conducted to explore ways to steer discussion forums to produce high-quality learning interactions.

Variant 3 abstract (338 слов)

Paper (and other cellulose-based materials) are underexploited as materials for the construction of “high-tech” and “lab-on-a-chip” devices. One major drawback of paper is its tendency to absorb water from the environment and, to change its mechanical properties. The goal of this thesis is to develop paper as a substrate for a range of applications— microfluidics, substrates for electronic systems and MEMS, low-cost diagnostics, cell biology, and optics. The approach involves chemically modifying the surface of the paper to provide new functions without altering any of its defining properties: mechanical flexibility, foldability, light weight, gas permeability, and low cost.

The first part of my thesis describes the modification of paper by silanization with organosilanes such as alkyl- and fluoroalkyl trichlorosilanes in the gas phase. Chapter 1 and Appendix 3 demonstrate that the combination of long fluoroalkyl chains of grafted siloxanes with the micro-scale roughness and porosity of paper yielded a material that is omniphobic . Appendix 3 shows that features of omniphobic paper can be used to construct microtiter plates and liquid-filled gas sensors using standard paper folding techniques, while Appendix 4 shows that new type of microfluidic device fabricated by carving microchannels into the surface of omniphobic paper.

The second part of my thesis is focused on engineering the surface of paper to enable efficient immobilization of capture and target molecules for bioanalysis. In one approach, described in Appendix 5, we exploit the ease with which the surface chemistry of paper (i.e. the surface of the cellulose fibers making up the paper) can be modified. In a second approach, described in Chapter 2, we developed of an efficient procedure for assembling microarrays of ssDNA and proteins on paper, at the lowest practical cost.

The third part of my thesis describes the simple, inexpensive fabrication of electrodes for paper-based electrochemical systems. A first method describes, in Appendix 6, the development of inkjet printing as a method for high resolution printing of conductive patterns on omniphobic “RF” paper. A second method, described in Chapter 3, circumvents the need for printing.