Introducing Students to Nonlinear Model Fitting with Jupyter Notebooks Through a Quantitative Diffraction Experiment
written by
Jerome Fung and Lauri Wardell
The sophomore-level laboratory at Wellesley College emphasizes the development of data analysis and visualization skills. We use the Jupyter notebook computational environment, which combines code, output, and commentary into a single document. Here, we describe the experiment that introduces our students to nonlinear model fitting. Students translate a photodiode across a diffraction pattern to measure the spatial dependence of the pattern intensity, fit values predicted by the Fraunhofer approximation to their measured data, and determine parameters like the width of a diffracting slit with ≈0.5 µm precision. We discuss how Jupyter notebooks encourage data transparency and foster student sense-making.
2018 Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College
Part of the BFY Conference series
Baltimore, MD: July 25-27, 2018
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<a href="https://advlabs.aapt.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=14963">Fung, Jerome, and Lauri Wardell. "Introducing Students to Nonlinear Model Fitting with Jupyter Notebooks Through a Quantitative Diffraction Experiment." Paper presented at the 2018 Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College, Baltimore, MD, July 25-27, 2018.</a>
J. Fung and L. Wardell, , presented at the 2018 Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College, Baltimore, MD, 2018, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14963&DocID=5023).
J. Fung and L. Wardell, Introducing Students to Nonlinear Model Fitting with Jupyter Notebooks Through a Quantitative Diffraction Experiment, presented at the 2018 Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College, Baltimore, MD, 2018, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14963&DocID=5023>.
Fung, J., & Wardell, L. (2018, July 25-27). Introducing Students to Nonlinear Model Fitting with Jupyter Notebooks Through a Quantitative Diffraction Experiment. Paper presented at 2018 Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College, Baltimore, MD. Retrieved October 3, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14963&DocID=5023
Fung, Jerome, and Lauri Wardell. "Introducing Students to Nonlinear Model Fitting with Jupyter Notebooks Through a Quantitative Diffraction Experiment." Paper presented at the 2018 Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College, Baltimore, MD, July 25-27, 2018. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14963&DocID=5023 (accessed 3 October 2024).
Fung, Jerome, and Lauri Wardell. "Introducing Students to Nonlinear Model Fitting with Jupyter Notebooks Through a Quantitative Diffraction Experiment." 2018 Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College. Baltimore, MD: 2018. of BFY Conference. 3 Oct. 2024 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14963&DocID=5023>.
@inproceedings{
Author = "Jerome Fung and Lauri Wardell",
Title = {Introducing Students to Nonlinear Model Fitting with Jupyter Notebooks Through a Quantitative Diffraction Experiment},
BookTitle = {2018 Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College},
Address = {Baltimore, MD},
Series = {BFY Conference},
Month = {July 25-27},
Year = {2018}
}
%A Jerome Fung %A Lauri Wardell %T Introducing Students to Nonlinear Model Fitting with Jupyter Notebooks Through a Quantitative Diffraction Experiment %S BFY Conference %D July 25-27 2018 %C Baltimore, MD %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14963&DocID=5023 %O 2018 Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College %O July 25-27 %O application/pdf
%0 Conference Proceedings %A Fung, Jerome %A Wardell, Lauri %D July 25-27 2018 %T Introducing Students to Nonlinear Model Fitting with Jupyter Notebooks Through a Quantitative Diffraction Experiment %B 2018 Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year of College %C Baltimore, MD %S BFY Conference %8 July 25-27 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14963&DocID=5023
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