Engineering Physics I, Fall 2009, Instructor: Charles Chiu

Textbook: Matter and Interactions I: Modern Mechanics by Chabay and Sherwood, ed Ed

ISBN978-0-470-10830-7

Background notes on our choice of the textbook. Over past two decades, US National Science Foundation has sponsored Physics education Research (PER) projects with the objectives, among other things, to improving the teaching of Engineering Physics. This textbook is written by authors who have been in the forefront in PER. A recent Physical Review article shows that students who learn Physics from MI on average have a better understanding of physics. Our Physics Department has encouraged the use of this textbook at least on a trial basis. I have decided to undertake this volunteer effort. To distinguish this course from all other regular Physics 303K/L courses offered in our department, we will refer to this course and the sequel next semester as Physics 303K/L-MI.

The main difference between Physics 303K-MI from the regular Physics303K/L is as follows.

· Textbook: Matter and Interactions (MI), see above.

· Teaching team: In addition to the instructor and the TA for this course, there will be 3 undergraduate Learning Assistance, LAs, assigned to this course to further assist students to learn. So the total number in our teaching team will be 5. We will be looking for suggestions to be more effective in helping students to learn the course material.

· Students will use WebAssign to work on and submit their homework problems. One feature of the Web Assign is that students can work on comparable practice problems before submitting their homework. There will be homework assignment following each lecture. The goal is to drill students to approach physics problems starting from a few basic principles rather than from a set of “ready-to-go” formula.

· Computer models of Physics problems: About half of the TA sessions in this semester will be devoted in computer models of physics problems. This is an important innovative component of the course. It is intended to help students to visualize the physics they are learning.

Some administrative details:

· Due to lack of lab resource, for the current academic year, students who enroll in Physics 303K/L-MI will continue to sign up for the 101M/N lab sections as students in other sections.

· Midterm exams will be given at the same time as those in the regular sessions as announced in the course schedule.

· Enrollment on Physics 303L-MI will be restricted to students who have completed PHY 303K using MI in Fall 2009, or consent of the instructor.