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Re: [Phys-l] unique opportunity

Hi Mariam;

I was in your position 20 some years ago; I started as a one person department and remained that way for 10 years. It can seem daunting at times. The first year I had to locate lab equipment, count to see if there were enough working pieces (or fix them) and write my own procedures, often the day before the lab met.

Looking back on that experience, here are a few things that come to mind.

Don't bite off too much the first time around; start out with what seems comfortable. You can always change things as you go once you have a handle on the equipment and the level of students you are working with.

Keep trying new things (every semester), a little at a time. You have the great luxury of being your own boss: You can try anything you think will work (with no one to tell you otherwise). Implement one or some of the PER recommendations. I started out with group work (problems and conceptual) and weekly conceptual quizzes (I find Hewitt's conceptual questions can be used for all intro courses) and after some tweaking, these seem to work pretty well for me.

Most students are very different from us; we got through a graduate program by being able to concentrate for long periods of time on one topic; they can't sit and concentrate on a lecture for more than about 15min. at a time. So get them engaged in doing stuff. It came as a great relief to me when I once accidentally tested over material that I forgot to 'lecture' on in class. The students did fine and did not complain because to them, we had covered the material in class (as group work). I learned that you don't have to 'lecture' about everything in the book (almost like a magical incantation) in order for students to learn it.

Find out what math and chemistry the students are being exposed to and modify your course accordingly. I found out the hard way that my algebra based students were not getting any trigonometry (the required math course only did algebra) and that my calculus based students were getting tons of thermodynamics in their chemistry class. I had to add a class on trig for the one class but replaced thermo with intro stat mech in the other.

If it really is a general science course for non-majors I would highly recommend Hewitt's conceptual book still but recommend using at least some math (proportions, scaling, unit conversions, scientific notation, etc.).

I made the decision early on (for better or worse) that labs are mostly about error analysis (and only a little about demonstrating known physical laws). So it isn't so important how crummy the equipment is or which experiments they do; as long as students get good at figuring out where the errors are (which particular piece of equipment, which procedure, etc. causes the biggest problem) and how to deal with data. Some labs are best done in groups, for others students should individually turn in a more formal report.

If you are going to demo something in class I recommend Sokolof and Thorntons lecture demo methods; don't just wow them, get them to think about what they think they are seeing (so they remember the physical principles, not just the wow).

I have found it useful to pick out a small selection of concepts that I think are really important (conservation of energy, Newton's laws, the second law of thermo, electromagnetic fields and forces, Faraday's law etc.) and spend most of the semester(s) in depth on those. Other topics I may give a brief overview on a purely conceptual level. More coverage is not necessarily better. Some things are best introduced in lab (circuits, optics; there is nothing like seeing light bulbs light up or a real image form to get those concepts across).

Probably few of your students will end up as scientists. So (to crib from Leon Letterman) what science do you want them to know as citizens to be able to vote intelligently on science issues or to make good daily decisions about issues involving science? Should they come away thinking science is magic and too hard for the average person, or that everyone is better off knowing more science? What do you wish your division chair knew about science (but evidently doesn't)? Teach that.

Good luck

kyle


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Message: 6
Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 08:57:38 -0400
From: "Mariam Dittmann" <mariam.dittmann@bainbridge.edu>
Subject: [Phys-l] unique opportunity
To: "Forum for Physics Educators" <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>
Message-ID:
<B1C90DED0E9D4B4F840EECCE8F7CAF8A1A7C30@phoenix.bainbridge.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Well, it's unique for me. I was previously at an institution where
courses were well-defined, historically, with lecture and lab each
receiving separate credit. We had a lot of "That's just how we do it
here." I was there for 16 years and was still one of the new guys at
the school when I left. For the past 10 years I have been an
administrator, and have confined my limited teaching to astronomy
(non-majors).

I am now at a different institution. It is much smaller, and, I find
myself in the position, among other responsibilities, of being the only
professor of physics. I may have to teach an algebra based physics
class in the fall, and need to start now to prepare. I am not required
to teach as a part of my responsibilities and the president has
questioned the sanity of this decision. (I am starting to lose sleep
over this, myself.)

The only apparent constraint is the course description -- a standard
first semester of mechanics, thermodynamics and waves, although looking
at what the last (part-time) instructor taught, there is not much
constraint in that. The division chair is in humanities (we are a small
school) and sees all sciences as more or less the same. (Second
semester should be electromagnetism, optics and modern topics.) This
course is billed as a general science, though there may be the odd
science-type major in the class. There does not appear to be a math
pre-requisite of any kind for this course - although algebra and trig
are mentioned in the course description. There is a lab - I think. It
seems to be taught in conjunction with the lecture. I don't know what
equipment is available.

Now, I have an appreciation for PER and all that we learn from that, but
I was more traditionally trained and so am more comfortable with
traditional methods. My question is -- if you can design your own
course - what do you keep in and what do you throw out? What book do
you use? How do you balance the lecture and the lab? What labs do you
use? What other recommendations do you have? As I said, I have never
had the option, before, of designing my own course - it was always
handed to me in detail.


Thank you for your help.

Mariam

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End of Phys-l Digest, Vol 40, Issue 19
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"When applied to material things,
the term "sustainable growth" is an oxymoron."
Albert Bartlett

kyle forinash 812-941-2039
kforinas@ius.edu
http://Physics.ius.edu/
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