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Re: [Phys-L] Conceptual Physics Course

I know I'm late getting into this discussion, but this is the first opportunity I've had.

Lot's of good ideas and suggestions, but........

1) This is the most difficult course to teach, but arguably the most important.

2) Don't get carried away with your goals--pick two or three and concentrate on those. It will be difficult enough.

3) If you do (2) the challenge is to prioritize and choose the most appropriate goals, but that will be more or less a personal choice.

4) Using 'Themed' courses makes this easier. My choices have been MOTION and ENERGY.
MOTION--while the course is really about Physics (Science) as a way of knowing, keeping the focus on something that everyone can easily relate to helps. I also can attack the common misconceptions and do so both through lab experiments and doing a broad historical overview--Aristotle to Newton. The one motion we focus on throughout the semester is a ball thrown straight up and then caught (but I sometimes 'miss' the catch with the bowling ball--especially when someone has fallen asleep!)
ENERGY--this is topical, current, and attracts considerable student interest. Does allow for dealing with some Thermo, E&M, Nuclear, and a little Modern physics.

5) Don't underestimate the difficulty these students will have even with what we might think of as 'simple' concepts. ACCELERATION is a very difficult topic (and pretty essential to the Newtonian model!). Once acceleration has been defined, measured in lab, differences from constant velocity described, shown, measured, graphed--quiz questions that present a 'new' motion that ask if the motion is accelerated remain difficult. Extending to the direction of the acceleration and ultimately to the existence and direction of a net force provides a semester long challenge.

6) Concerning assessment--don't attempt too much until you are reasonably sure that the very basics have been mastered. The FCI questions are much more difficult for this level of student than we might imagine (WE after all, got it 'easily'). It is very clear to me that a week, even two, on Newton's laws won't be enough for most to master this material despite that being the amount of coverage in most texts.

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My chosen goals:

1) That students attain an understanding of how important Science and Technology are to their daily lives--in fact their very survival. I have an exercise that I think works well in this regard. About midway through the MOTION course, I have the students keep a 24 hour log of their use of 'modern' technology. [We don't get too formal with the 'modern' term--if they think it is modern (my definition is 20th-21st century) list it. [Two years ago it provided me with the statistic that the average student used her cell phone 50 times a day--surely higher now.] After making their list, they are to right a short paper analyzing the list and their dependencies and then imagine losing all that technology for a week, a year, or forever. Most feel they could handle a week (they've been camping), but few can imaging much longer. [Also most miss things like medications, contact lenses, and almost all of the technological infrastructure.] Of course, the ENERGY course is almost ALL about this.

2) That students see the differences between the way Science approaches 'knowing' versus their other courses and majors. Emphasis put on experimentation and the testing of new ideas. A classic lab exercise for this is the simple pendulum--starting with NO THEORY, collecting data, working up dependencies, ultimately getting to an equation that 'almost works' except for an unexplained dependency on the angle of swing, and then even later, an explanation finally emerging from SHM that covers all.

My ultimate charge at the end of the class is that trust that when the next important scientific issue requires political/societal/economic action, they will make their decisions on the issue based on what information they can gather (Time/Newsweek levels) and not because the latest-greatest rock/sports/Hollywood star endorses a position.

Rick Tarara

Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana

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www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
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--------------------------------------------------
From: "Jeffrey Schnick" <JSchnick@Anselm.Edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 12:24 PM
To: <Phys-L@Phys-L.org>
Subject: [Phys-L] Conceptual Physics Course

On the occasions when I have read of the struggles of other participants
in this list when they are teaching an introductory science course to a
mixed group of science majors and non-science majors I have reflected on
how lucky I am to be teaching at a college that offers three one-year
introductory physics courses: a conceptual course for non-majors, an
algebra-based course for biology and natural science majors, and a
calculus-based course for chemistry, engineering, and physics majors.
Every student at the college is required to take two semesters of one
and the same physical science course with lab. They can choose between
biology, chemistry, physics, and a course offered by the chemistry
department called Principles of Physical Science. Physics has always
been the least popular choice among the incoming freshmen non-science
majors. I used to get about 35 of the roughly 500 freshman at the
college in that course (it's up to 40 now). In that they were a
self-selecting group there were always an appreciable number of students
that were genuinely interested in the subject matter. I have always had
a great deal of freedom in that course, but I don't think I have taken
advantage of it in the past. I typically used an edition of Hewitt and
addressed the same topics that I would in one of the math-based courses
but at a different level. About the only constraints on the course are
that it has to include a two-hour laboratory session each week along
with three 50-minute classroom sessions (at this point I don't have the
option of combining those--the the three lab sections are scheduled for
Tue/Thur morning meetings and the classroom sessions with the entire
group in the afternoons MWF), and the course has to be consistent with
the rather brief catalog description:

111-112 Conceptual Physics I - II
A conceptual physics course offered to non-science majors. The
mathematical
knowledge necessary for the course is studied and reviewed as required.
This
course can be used to fulfill the general College requirement of a
freshman
science for non-science majors.
Three hours of lecture a week and two hours of laboratory each week for
two semesters. Four credits, each semester.

Also, it would be inappropriate of me to assume that the majority of the
incoming students can already do algebra.

It has been over ten years since I last taught the course [the course
has always been a very positive experience for me (and I think for the
majority of the students) in the past] and I am in a position to devote
a significant amount of time this summer to preparing the course to be
the best possible educational experience for the students. My question
is, what would you do?

I'm just getting started with the planning. So far, I checked on what
the participating can be expected to be like--about 40 students
including 35 freshmen, from 10 different majors in numbers reflective of
the sizes of the majors at the college--a third of them will probably be
business/economics/accounting majors, with the next biggest group being
CJ majors but with quite a few of the other majors represented by about
4 students.

The only other thing I have done so far is to jot down a tentative list
of my goals for the course which I include here for your criticism,
addition, and subtraction:

-------------

As compared to where they were prior to the course, I would like
students who complete the Conceptual Physics course:

1. To be better readers, in particular, to have improved technical
reading skills. This includes not only enhanced capabilities of
comprehending written prose but also enhanced ability to interpret
quantitative information represented in various forms such as graphs,
tables, and diagrams.
2. To be better writers and speakers, in particular, to be better able
to mean what they say and say what they mean. This includes being able
to use diagrams, graphs, tables, and equations to communicate what they
mean.
3. To know some physics well enough to be able to use their knowledge of
physics to interpret data and to make some correct predictions and
explanations of physics phenomena, by means of and in terms of physics
models.
4. To be able to use their hands, tools, and apparatus as applicable to
do things like assemble apparatus, make measurements, cause physical
phenomena to occur, and to take data.
5. To have better puzzle-solving skills. (To have improved analytical
thinking and abstract reasoning skills.)
6. To have improved mathematical skills.
7. To have more knowledge of the relevance of physics.
8. To be able to apply some of the knowledge and skills gained in the
physics course to other fields.
9. To be more familiar with the limitations of models and values. For
instance, to be aware of the conditions under which specific models
discussed in the course apply, and where they don't, and to be familiar
with the idea that a value typically is one parameter in a corresponding
distribution of values.
10. To view, if not the course as a whole, at least some aspect of the
course, as a positive experience, especially in terms of personal
growth.
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