Re: PER textbook suggestions

[Aaron Titus <titus@MAILAPS.ORG>]

My only two suggestions are: (1) Matter & Interactions by Chabay and
Sherwood and (2) Physics by Randy Knight (as you've already mentioned).

I began using M&I by Chabay and Sherwood this year. I cannot adequately
express how much I like this book. I personally find the topics it
covers and the order in which those topics are covered as the most
appealing aspects of the book. It feel like I'm teaching "physics" and
not "an encyclopedia of physics topics". It focuses on fundamental
principles and application of those principles in building scientific
models.

AT



On Thursday, February 19, 2004, at 07:45 PM, Larry Smith wrote:

> Phys-L'ers:
>
> I think I'll need to select a new textbook for our calc-based
> first-year
> University Physics for scientists and engineers for next fall.  I've
> been
> using Serway and Beichner 5e and liked it fairly well, but it's getting
> harder to find copies of the 5e now that the 6e is out.  I could just
> move
> to the 6e, but Beichner isn't on that one, so I'm also open to more
> radical
> moves.  What I'd like is a textbook written from the ground up based
> on PER
> principles, but Beichner's own book isn't due for a couple of years
> yet.
> Since I'm at a two-year college where transfer to universities is very
> important for our engineering students, I can't do something too
> radical
> that the universities would frown on.  Is there a PER-based book that
> isn't
> so radical as to make the course untransferable?  I'd still need to
> cover
> the standard topics in the two-semester sequence, and probably even in
> the
> same general order since all University Physics sequences in the state
> articulate and have the same course numbers (students can easily
> transfer
> after one semester and pick up the second half of the sequence).
>
> For example, the brochure for Randall D. Knight's book "Physics for
> Scientists and Engineers" (Pearson/Addison Wesley) claims the text is
> "built from the ground up for more effective learning."  It further
> says,
> "We are proud to present the first calculus-based physics text built
> from
> the ground up based on educational research into how students learn
> and can
> be taught more effectively."  This is exactly the kind of thing I'm
> looking
> for, but I'd like the opinion of the rest of you about this text and
> also
> on other similar competitors.
>
> Thanks,
> Larry