length of freshman physics, was Re: Aims of a Freshamn Physics

[John Gastineau <johng@pcep-physics.physics.ncsu.edu>]

Ah yes, the length of course. Trying to cram all this into two semesters is
very hard. Here we're trying to incorporate more interactive activities (to
achieve some of these goals) into the standard course, but are fighting an
uphill battle because the traditional transmissionists insist on _coverage_.
Some long-time readers might remember a topic line of "fire-hose physics"
when I described having to teach in a wretched situation of covering all of
mechanics, E&M and thermo in a ten week calc based course for physics
majors. (That was not a summer course.) It was not a good experience for the
students, as you might imagine. 

Looking at more reasonable paces, I wonder what fraction of schools take a
full three semesters to do classical intro physics as opposed to two
semesters. As we move toward taking more care in instruction, is there a
reaction to extend the length of intro physics from two to three semesters?
Has anyone done that successfully?  


At 11:04 PM 4/10/96 -0400, Bob Carlson wrote:
> In a message David Bailey writes:
>
> > I have put together the contributions from other readers and come up with
> > this as a suggested list of goals for Freshman Physics.
> >
> > Goals for Freshman Elementary Classical Physics
>
> After reading the goals, and they do sound good, I have a question.  How long
> is this course?  I've been personally trying to achieve these goals for
> twenty plus years now and still haven't succeeded.
>
> rac


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John E. Gastineau                                PV34PV3P
North Carolina State University Physics
Physics Courseware Evaluation Project
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