Matter & Interactions: Models & Modern Concepts in Introductory Physics

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

We are developing educational materials to bring modern content into introductory physics. With the aid of previous NSF funding we have created a new calculus-based introductory textbook on mechanics and thermal physics that addresses the following problems: 1) Many students have already studied mechanics in high school and are bored by repeating nearly the same material in college. 2) Students and instructors are unhappy with the lack of contemporary science in the traditional course. 3) Students in the traditional course are not involved in the modeling of physical systems, including making idealizations, approximations and simplifying assumptions. 4) Thermodynamics and mechanics are traditionally treated as completely separate topics, rather than as an integrated science based on a small number of fundamental principles. The new curriculum emphasizes atomic-level description and analysis, and physical modeling including computer modeling. The material deliberately looks to the students very different from what they had studied earlier. Thermal physics is integrated with mechanics throughout the textbook, climaxing with an accessible statistical mechanical treatment of the Einstein solid. We believe that the new textbook provides a needed alternative to traditional texts, but it is not yet pedagogically robust and transportable. It already works well with exceptionally strong students; this is important because such students are at special risk of boredom, and we do not want to lose them. However, we would like to make this interesting subject matter accessible not just to the honors student but also to the average student who has had a decent high school physics preparation. It is also important to make the curriculum teachable by other instructors; this requires the creation of additional kinds of materials, including an instructor's manual and support packages for introducing computer modeling into the course. We propose to continue work on pedagogical aspects of the reform, with further revisions of the textbook in response to our teaching experiences and ongoing formative assessment activities. A key component will be a national beta test in Fall 1999 for which we are currently recruiting participants. We believe that we now have something well worth teaching but we need to address shortcomings in how well we and others can teach it. We also propose to revise and extend our earlier E&M textbook to match the new material, thus providing a coherent, modern one-year introductory physics textbook. We propose to engage in additional evaluation and dissemination activities.