Here at Cal State Fullerton we have a three semster introductory
course with calculus for engineering and most science majors. The first
semester is basically all mechanics. The second is all E&M, the third
includes optics, and modern physics. EE's take all three semesters, ME's
take the first two semesters plus the optics part of the third semester.
The civil engineers take the first two semesters. The science departments
have varying requirements. Thermo has been moved to a junior level course
taken only by physics majors (the engineers and chemists have their own
thermo courses). This seems to work reasonably well. However, we cover
less material than we did two decades ago mainly because we have gone from
17 weeks of instruction to 15 weeks (not counting finals week).
Personally, I worry more about how much my students learn than
about how much I cover (since I know the stuff but they don't and I get
paid to help them lern, not to show them how much I know).
Dr. Mark H. Shapiro
Physics Department
California State University, Fullerton
Fullerton, California 92634