On the use of MI-curriculum: Selected comments from students

I believe that this course is superior to the traditional course in every way except one. This course tends to actually teach physics whereas it seems that the other course seems to encourage pushing symbols around in equations to get a correct answer for one specific problem.

The reason I say this is because I took the final from the traditional course. While I was outside of the classroom where the final was to be held, I was listening to students speak amongst one another. Most of them were reciting formulas from memory. I did not hear any theory in any of the conversations. Simply "V=this and B=that, right?" I am not sure any of them really knew what they were saying. For all I know they could have had a deep understanding of physics, but it seemed like most of them memorized formulas.

The traditional course does focus more on computing than our course did, and it is the only area in which I think the traditional course is superior. I found that our webassign homework was usually very easy. I understand that this was done to ensure that we understood fundamentals, but I also think there should be some "tougher" problems. If both courses were to somehow mesh together, I believe students would have a deeper understanding of physics.

I believe students who take MI are capable of tackling harder problems with some practice.

    I rather enjoyed the course the semester and all the resources that came with it. The MI approach allowed me to focus on the physics rather than spend an hour on one homework question. Now, that's not to say that a strong mathematical background is unnecessary, but rather to say I know how to approach a problem now. Instead of asking the question, "what formula do I use". I know ask "what are am I dealing with (the physics of the problem) and how should I approach it." I thought it funny for I have seem many other physics problems from students in other classes and realize the student get caught up in the mathematics of the problem rather than analyzing the underlying physical principle of the problem. I do, however, enjoy difficult problems, such as the two spheres connected by a wire problem. That is the type of problem in which one must know the physical principles in order to solve it.

   The funny thing is that most would say that the non-numerical problems on an exam are easier, I would counter by saying, at least with the numerical problems you know if you are correct or not.

As for the TA's and the LA's. They were of great assistance. That type of support is what can enable a student to truly learn and keep up with the material.

The Modeling sessions were fascinating. It allows for insight to concepts which can be difficult to understand for they might me abstract (curl, flux, vector fields).

The only thing that I am at issue with is the incoherence between the labs and the class. This is not a criticism to the instructors, but rather to the flow of learning with the course text and the lab sessions, in short its discontinuous. I do understand that the logistics to work around such an issue might make such a change improbable, but it would be nice.

This course really turned me onto physics and for that I am grateful.

I really enjoyed the course. I took the regular physics class last year and did not like it as much as the matter and interactions course. In addition I felt like the hws were structured in a way to really help you understand the physics. Anyway I would def recommend the class to other people who are deciding on taking it. Have a good summer.

Q: If you took non-MI 303K, how would you compare MI curriculum with non-MI curriculum? Would you recommend your friends to take the class with MI textbook? Why?

A: Honestly, it's still tough. I would have to say WebAssign is easier to understand and learn from than any textbook I know. The homeworks were helpful regardless that they were three times a week. You learn more than if you received one homework with more questions due once a week. The only downside is that there are no answers to the problems located at the back of the book, but you can always go to office hours to get the answers you need. The tests are not impossible if you study right. This MI physics curriculum isn't necessarily easier in material, but it's taught to be more understandable. I would recommend it.

 Q: Would you like to comment on the role of  our TA and LAs in this course?

A: The LA's were definitely helpful and if the TA (Matt) was busy with another student they were available. They all knew what they were doing and it's better to have more teachers if students have questions.
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Hello Dr. Chiu and Matt Haley:

At first, I was apprehensive in going thru with this course once I realized that the class was much different than the regular eng. physics courses offered.  The fact that I had not taken the MI approach for my first semester of eng. physics was of great concern, however, I took a chance and proceeded with your course.  I am very afraid of "physics" courses to begin with and the thought of some experimental physics class did not peak personal interest. 

Thank goodness I took the chance and I am extremely pleased that I did.  This is not so because I got a B- in the class.  From a scaled of one to ten my overall understanding of the physics in my first semester is a 4 or 5 and your second semester is a 6 or 7.  I am one of those students which must study long and diligently to succeed.  I feel I learned much more in your class.  A key factor for this success is the way dr. Chiu and Mr.. Haley communicated the information.  I am very impressed with both of yours day to day modification of the material that needed more or less attention.  It was apparent that dr. Chiu did not create a course schedule at the beginning of the semester and just went thru that line by line.  You both adapted to the needs of the students and what and when the material would be taught.  I could go on and on.  Two thumbs up.  CAUTION!  I feel that this is crucial for other classes like this one taught in the future.  Not only the material is important but who and how it is taught.  I am extremely impressed with Matt and his ability to articulate the information.  The book was very nice and explained microscopic concepts in a tangible manner. 

My only negative criticism is that we go over basic concepts thoroughly, however, the students may be surprised in the difficulty of the test questions.  I know they are similar to the ta and homework and etc. but I see a small gap from class and homework concepts to understanding the tests questions.  Overall I am pleased with the course and better yet I took many key physics concepts with me for future academic and professional needs. Thanks

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I took both semester of the matter interactions course under the advice of a physics faculty member at UT who taught me for an unrelated class. I approached him saying that I was really concerned with taking physics because I had tried taking physics several years ago and dropped the class because I felt it was too difficult. I should also add that I am NOT an engineering major, but a biology major, and specifically took this class due to the fact that it was taught in a different matter then the course I had tried years back. As a biology student I would say that this class could be offered to non-engineering majors without problem and perhaps could get them interested in physics as it did me.

The textbook is excellent in the way that it breaks down complicated physics problems to basic algebra and geometry. In particular, the way that we learned how to figure out the electric field contribution of various shaped objects at specific observation points was very well explained.  In fact, approaching it as the summation of many contributing point charges and showing the steps to setting up the integral through algebra and geometry gave me a deeper understanding of integrals. The way the textbook explains concepts from a microscopic level out to macroscopic is great. It was cool to see the physics concepts applied down at the basic unit of matter and then work out from there to objects comprised of many such atoms.

The homeworks coincide with the readings and work to reinforce the key concepts from the readings. This really helped focus my attention on what I was supposed to be taking away from each reading assignment.

One last strength of the textbook that deserves some merit is the way that it provides applications of physics in modern technology and scientific techniques. The textbook used light wavelength/frequency and resonance to explain why we see color. I understood this concept from the perspective of other classes by talking about chemistry and different rhodopsin molecules. But looking at the underlying physics behind why we see color gave me a real understanding of the mechanism. In short this course and book got me interested in physics, a previous fear of mine.

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