Here in Utah the legislature recently mandated that all state institutions
of higher ed switch from quarters to semesters. The change-over is proving
to be a nightmare. As far as the physics curriculum is concerned the
state-wide committee I serve on seems to be stuck on the introductory
calculus-based university physics that most engineers have to take.
Currently there are a variety of implementations across the state; here at
Snow we teach one 3-quarter sequence (Fall-Winter-Spring) of 5 quarter
hours each, including the lab (total of 15 quarter hours; 4 lectures per
week, 1 two-hr lab per week). We assume that we'll just keep on doing the
same thing under the semester system and have two semesters of 5 semester
hours each (including the lab), but the bigger schools in the state are
having a bigger struggle. One university is considering chopping up the
course into 5 half-semester blocks, and different brands of engineers would
take different subsets.
Could those of you on the semester system tell me about your curriculum
(particularly the engineering calculus-based physics)?
This request is especially heart-felt if you have recently (last decade?)
switched over from the quarter system.
We're even trying to make course numbers as uniform as possible throughout
the state to facilitate transfer and articulation, while we're changing
everything.
So the next issue is what should we number that engineering calculus-based
physics course. It boils down to a question of when do we think they
should take the course. Should engineering students take physics as
freshmen concurrently with calculus or as sophmores after they've had
calculus? Are the answers any different for physics majors?
Please advise.
Thanks very much in advance,
Larry
Larry K. Smith | Not everything that counts
Dept. of Physics mailto:Larry.Smith@snow.edu | can be counted; and not
Snow College fax: (801) 283-6879 | everything that can be
150 College Ave. phone: (801) 283-4021 x232 | counted counts.
Ephraim, UT 84627 USA | Albert Einstein