Our Modified M&I curriculum

Homepage: http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~itiq/303LMI/chiu/index.html

Lesson plan.

We are using the textbook M&I vol II, 3d edition by Chabay and Sherwood. Our lesson plan is the second link near the top of our homepage. A comparison between our plan and the table of content of the textbook indicates the goal of this course is to cover most important physics in the textbook.

This course is divided into 4 units. Each unit ends with review sessions and a midterm.

o Clicker questions: There is a default set of clicker questions associated with each lecture. These questions help us to define the highlights of each lecture. Selection of  clicker questions is an important part in our curriculum development. The present default set is expected to be modified and improved upon during the semester. Instructors/TAs, please contact me if you would like to share your newly developed clicker questions. Selected contributions can be incorporated for future use.

· Clicker questions are organized based on the lectures of Spring2012. Each lecture contains several slides. They are collected in 4 unit folders.

· Caution: The lecture label of the slides is based on Spring 2012 lesson plan. Since total number of lectures varies from semester to semester, the lecture labels for the slides do not match the lecture labels of the current lesson plan.  

· HW assignment and extra examples: There are hw-problems to go along with each lecture (except those lectures devoted to the review of unit materials). We also post extra examples with solutions along with the hw-set in quest. The extra examples are intended to provide students with further application problems. There is no homework credit associated with the extra problems.

· Course summary: For each unit there is a course summary page which defines the physics content of the unit. Students are encouraged to refer to the summary page frequently while studying the course materials and doing their homework. The updated version of the course summary page will posted before each midterm. The same page together with pages of earlier units will be distributed during the exam.

Midterm is designed to test student’s understanding of the unit materials. A student who has the general knowledge of the textbook, understands the hw problems, the extra-problems, and the clicker questions are expected to do well in the exam.

Our TA sessions are designed to reinforce the learning of the same physics content of the unit materials as defined by the course summaries. We will refer to the organization of TA sessions in a separate discussion.

Modifications on the original M&I curriculum.

While we use the M&I textbook as the basis of this course, we have made several modifications.  We are still in the developing stage. Suggestions from instructors, TAs, LAs and students are very welcome. Below is a partial list of the modifications.

1. We require students to learn specific math skills not covered in the MI-text book. Here are two examples

o The small argument expansion: It is a useful skill in understand e.g. dipole interactions. (see clicker question: Lec1-3).

o We require students to follow the mathematics required to arrive at all the  textbook results.

2. Earlier introduction of Gauss’s Law and Ampere’s law in our lesson plan. We find it is more convenient for us to introduced Gauss law for symmetric charge distribution cases in unit 1 and leave the general discussion on Gauss law to unit 3. Similarly we introduce Ampere’s law for symmetric current configuration in unit 2 and leave more general discussions in unit 3.

3. In our lesson plan we have reduced the discussion of chapter 19 to one lecture.

4. On the discussion of Faraday’s law, we follow the traditional approach, where the discussion of Lenz’s rule is a part of the main presentation of Faraday’s  law. In the textbook, the Lenz rule is left to the very last section of the chapter.

5. In the derivation of the radiation field due to acceleration of point charge, the authors treat it as an optional topic. We have a different perspective. We consider it as an important achievement of the classical electrodynamic. We go into the details in lecture 36. (See clicker questions: Lec36-1,2,3,4)

6. On the geometric optics, the textbook motivates the thin lens formula using the results of  computer simulation, that the angle of deviation is independent of the incident angle theta, provided theta is small. We present an analytic proof to justify the theta-independent results. (see clicker question: Lec38-4)