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.
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, 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 23 April 2019).
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. 23 Apr. 2019 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14963&DocID=5023>.