Engineering Physics I, Fall 2010, Instructors: Charles Chiu and Jim Chelikowsky
Link to Chiu Section: http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~itiq/303KMI/chiu/
Textbook: Matter and Interactions I: Modern Mechanics by Chabay and Sherwood, 3rd Ed
Background notes on our choice of the textbook, which will be referred to as the MI-textbook. Over past two decades, US National Science Foundation has sponsored Physics education Research (PER) projects with the objectives, among other things, to improve the teaching of Engineering Physics. This textbook is written by authors who have been in the forefront in PER. A recent Physical Review article shows that students who learn Physics from MI on average have a better understanding of physics. Our Physics Department has encouraged the use of this textbook at least on a trial basis. During the academic year of 2009-2010, one of us (CC) had volunteered the use of this textbook. Current semester is the beginning of the second year pioneering the use of this textbook.
In addition to the use of the MI text book, we have also adopted other teaching materials provided by the authors:. We have been using following materials from the MI-curriculum:
· We have used the MI-clicker questions and the MI-homework sets both are coordinated with the text on section by section basis.
· In the TA sessions, we have implemented a number of MI-model sessions and MI-recommended small group discussion sessions.
The main difference between MI from the regular Physics303K/L curriculum as follows.
· Textbook: MI textbook organizes course material in a different way as regular physics course. Still over the whole semester the physics topics covered in both courses are about the same, although the emphases on the materials cover are different.
· Teaching team: In addition to the instructor and the TA for this course, there will be several undergraduate Learning Assistance, LAs, assigned to the MI-classes, who will play the role of big brothers as extra help to assist students to learn. During the semester, we will be looking for suggestions to see how the LAs can more effective in helping students in learning the course materials.
· In homework, students will use WebAssign to work on and submit their homework problems. There will be homework assignment following each lecture. Many homework problems are presented in tutorial style. The goal is to drill students to approach physics problems starting from a few basic principles rather than from a set of “ready-to-go” formula.
· Computer models of Physics problems: About half of the TA sessions in this semester will be devoted in computer models of physics problems. This is an important innovative aspect of the course. It is intended to help students to visualize the physics they are learning by fine tuning computer simulation models.
Some administrative details:
· Due to lack of lab resource, for the current academic year, students who enroll in Physics 303K/L using MI textbook will continue to sign up for the 101M/N lab sections as students in other section(s). Please use MI-reference link when MI students do their pre-lab preparation.
· Since 303K/L using MI-textbook covers the same physics materials as the regular section, for the next semester, 303K MI-students can sign up for regular 303L class, the regular 303K students can sign up for 303L MI class.
