What Joel Rauber describes is certainly observed. I have found (via
Internet surfing and direct e-mail) that calculus-based physics (with lab)
can be 2 semesters or 3 semesters, or it can be 3 or 4 or 5 quarters.
Sometimes lab is integral and sometimes separate. The lecture portion can
be 3 or 4 or 5 hours. At this point we're beginning to compare a specific
course rather than semester-lengths in general, but maybe that's okay. If
that's what we're going to do, then we need to start asking ourselves what
the goal is. What is the curriculum?
It is my goal to "cover" most chapters of a calculus-based physics text
(Tipler, Halliday, etc.), up to but not including modern physics (because we
have a separate modern physics course). I think you have to fly through the
material to do this in 120 lectures, regardless of whether these lectures
are packed into semesters or quarters or whatever. I used to have 120
lectures (4 per week times 30 weeks) and for two years now I have had 112
lectures (4 per week times 28 weeks). In my opinion this cannot be done
unless I am resolved to have a high failure rate and an angry class. I
don't see how anybody could get by with 84 lectures (3 per week times 28
weeks). But I acknowledge the pressure is there to do this... partly from
administration and partly from students.
The Science Department here lost the fight to keep 15 class weeks in the
semester. We won the fight to keep physics at four lectures per week.
There was initially an edict that every (repeat... every) class would meet
for 50 minutes three times a week. That makes the daily schedule easy for
administrators to handle. The fight for some classes to meet four or five
times a week was fought by math and science. The fight for some classes to
meet twice a week (for 75 minutes each) was fought by humanities and
social-science profs. The edict that every class would meet three times a
week therefore got little support from a broad range of faculty, and science
and math got their 4 and 5 hour classes and others got their 3-hour classes
meeting twice a week. Of course, the daily schedule can be a nightmare even
before you try to fit labs into it.
At Bluffton College I think our 4 and 5-hour science and math courses are
secure, and I hope our semester length will not be further reduced. But I
think the battle could leap back to life at any time. It's amazing how
strongly some people want to "simplify" things by trying to make everything
fit into nice neat packages. The daily schedule, calculation of teaching
loads, student schedules, meeting times, etc. would be easier if every
course met three times a week (and I guess we would just have to do away
with labs). At the present, those who would push for further erosion our
educational system are being held at bay.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D. Phone/voice-mail: 419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics FAX: 419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department E-Mail edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817