The Department of Physics provides discipline-specific offerings for beginning students in physics, the dual degree in physics/engineering and pre engineering

Students who complete the second course in calculus based Physics will be able to apply foundational concepts, particularly in the areas of (1) proofs and derivations, and (2) translation of written problems into mathematical equations.

Students will complete a faculty-developed comprehensive exam in Physics 1411 assessing the common foundational concepts in Physics.

Eighty percent of students completing the exam will score 70% or higher on the comprehensive exam.

This report documents the differential pre/post examination performance of 32 students enrolled in Physics 1411 during the Spring of 2014.  These students are partitioned into two approximately equal subgroups, consisting of A: 17 students (primarily physics and pre-engineering majors) who had previously completed the new “Physics Bootcamp” (PHYS 1401), and B: 15 students (equally mixed among phys/pre-eng, mathematics, other) who had not.

 

Group A was somewhat academically younger than group B; the respective classification index (Freshman = 1, Sophomore = 2, etc.) averages were 2.3 and 2.7.

 

Group B was substantially more experienced in formal mathematics, with 1.9 average semesters of calculus completed, as opposed to 1.0 for group A.

 

Groups A and B exhibited parity (0.6) with regard to previously completed semesters of physics education, awarding a half point for high-school credit, general science exposure, and incomplete college terms.

 

The exam consisted of 15 multiple choice physics questions appropriate to the study of introductory classical mechanics at the university level.  A quarter point deduction was made for incorrect answers in order to subtract out statistical background noise associated with guessing, and negative values were zeroed out.  Normalized results will be reported in units of the inclusive (all students) standard deviation associated with raw scores on the pre-test.

 

Group A out-performed group B on the pre-test, with an average normalized score of 1.2, as opposed to 0.5.

 

Groups A and B performed identically (2.0) on the post-test.  The class as a whole experienced an improvement of 1.1 standard deviations, more than doubling their averaged raw pre-test score.

 

Conclusions:  The “Physics Bootcamp”, which functions largely as a quantitative leveling and preparatory agent, has successfully compensated for a full semester deficit of formal training in calculus, when gauged by final outcome.  It moreover provides an effective “head start” in specific physics knowledge, although this advantage becomes washed out by the end of a full term of focused physics study.  The results presented are preliminary and additional statistical support is required.

 

Students are required to take physics 1401, physics boot camp, before taking 1411.  It is anticipated that Physics boot camp will give students the necessary quantitative skills for success in physics 1411.

Seniors studying Physics will demonstrate competence to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Physics

Students preparing to graduate with a BS in Physics will demonstrate comprehension of fundamental principles and the ability to apply these principles in solving problems.

Students will complete a common earlier version of the Graduate Record Subject Exam in Physics related to PHY 4370 (Classical Mechanics ) under GRE standardized conditions.  Faculty will have classified the questions into domains specific to the major principles in this area.

Students will score above the 50th percentile determined as a result of the graduating seniors' scores from the common exam. A raw score of 50% is in the 74th percentile for the Physics GRE with a ¼ penalty for wrong answers.

In the pre test (first day of class) , the average score was 1 out of a maximum score of 17.  On the post test, (last day of class), the average score was 3.9 out of 19.

We plan to work harder problems (for example problems in the book on mechanics by Kleppner and Kolenkow) where using free body diagrams and Newton's law is a better approach then the Lagrangian.