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Re: [Phys-l] _Physics for Game Developers_



The enrollment might go up if the name is changed to Physics for Game Designers, but some students could suffer in the process.

In the 1970s the professor teaching the Physical Science class for general-education renamed the course as "How Things Work." He essentially taught physical science the way he always had, but gave it a title that was less intimidating to students. Enrollment mostly had been teacher-education students who were required to take physical science. Other students primarily completed the science general-education requirement by taking biology courses. After the name change, the enrollment in How Things Work went up, and gen-ed biology enrollments went down.

At some point someone in the State Department of Education discovered our teacher candidates weren't showing Physical Science on their transcripts, and they threatened to deny issuance of teaching certificates to our graduates. It took some time to convince the State that How Things Work was a legitimate physical science course.

Then we started having problems with our out-of-state students, and also our in-state students who went to other states to teach and needed licensed in other states. It became obvious we had to change the name of the course back to Physical Science.

To some extent we didn't mind, because the name change was partly a 70s thing. But this example shows that name changes to make a course more popular can have the desired effect on enrollment, but maybe other effects that are negative.

Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu