Chapter 4 Designing and Teaching a New Sophomore Course: Physics of Contemporary Challenges
During spring term 2016, the Paradigms 2.0 committee had met to review the current upper division physics curriculum and to generate suggestions for improvement. From these discussions emerged a plan to initiate a new course for sophomores: Physics of Contemporary Challenges. This was one of two new courses designed to ease the transition from the introductory physics courses to the junior level Paradigms in Physics courses. A member of the Paradigms 2.0 committee assumed responsibility for developing this new sophomore course, to be offered Winter 2017.
The University's course catalogue describes this new 3-credit course as “An introduction to thermal and quantum physics in the context of contemporary challenges faced by our society, such as power generation, energy efficiency, and global warming.” It lists a prerequisite, Physics 211, the first course in the calculus-level introductory physics sequence (Physics 211, 212, 213). The assumption was that students would have completed or be concurrently enrolled in Physics 212 or 213.
The course met Monday, Wednesday, Friday for an hour for ten weeks during winter term 2017 in the department's “studio classroom” described above. Thirty-eight students enrolled, including students currently in the introductory physics courses, some engineering students, and some upper level physics majors enrolled in Paradigms in Physics courses.
Discussed below are the goals of this new course, challenges in undertaking this effort, surprises experienced, and aspects that went well.