Introducing Research-Based Curricula to Rochester Institute of Technology

Rochester Institute Of Tech, Rochester NY

Investigators

Abstract

Explorations in Science is an activity-based physics course for non-science majors. Developed during my tenure as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education (PFSMETE), Explorations in Science uses the study of common, natural phenomena and student-directed group projects to stimulate interest in a population traditionally quite apathetic towards physics. Activities use sophisticated computer tools to take, display, and interpret data. I would like to bring this curriculum to my new, permanent, institution, the Rochester Institute of Technology. While RIT is an institution of technology, it has a significant population of students who will benefit from Explorations in Science including students of imaging science, business, and the social sciences. Faculty from the College of Imaging Arts & Sciences have already expressed interest in Explorations in Science, particularly the projects dealing with human body motions as these are relevant to students studying computer animation. To successfully offer Explorations in Science at RIT, computer sensors (e.g. force sensors, temperature probes, and light sensors) must be purchased. Roughly half of this proposal is for equipment that are not currently available in our existing labs. A necessary condition for the successful implementation of new materials is faculty support. To facilitate the implementation of a research-based curricula, I would like to begin a new project on faculty objectives for introductory physics courses. RIT has a national reputation of excellence in engineering and the imaging arts. Therefore, an overwhelming majority of students taking introductory physics at RIT are not physics majors. It is important to understand why other departments require these students to take physics and what they want their students to take from the class. The traditional answers, including "how to think" and "problem-solving ability," are too vague to be useful. Recent work in physics education has attempted to uncover exactly what is meant by "how to think," i.e. what we the physics community see as the fundamental diamond in the physics rough. By using the ideas and vocabulary from this research, 1 hope to be able to better characterize how other departments see physics. This will allow physics departments to better suit the needs of the majority of their students and make it easier to introduce new curricula such as Explorations in Physics.