Undergraduate Affairs Committee
10/30/07
The undergraduate affairs committee has been working on changes to the introductory courses in Spring 2008 and Summer 2008.
We have met with the faculty who will teach the courses in Spring 2008 to discuss format and textbooks.
The present plan for Spring 2008 is as follows:
PHYS 1403, taught to two large (~180 students) sections, by Wally Glab and Charley Myles. The text will remain Giancoli. Tutorials will be taught in the lab sections, with the possibility of quizzes given in lab and Mastering Physics online homework will be used.
PHYS 1404 will be taught by Dick Quade, and will remain unchanged in Spring 2008. (Giancoli text.)
PHYS 1408, taught to two large (~180 students) sections, by Tom Gibson and David Lamp. At the last meeting, the choice was to keep Serway as a text, use the UT online homework and teach tutorials in lab. Quizzes will be given in lab. The text and homework system are still under discussion.
PHYS 2401 will be taught by Juyang Huang and will remain unchanged in the sense that tutorials will not be used, however, lab quizzes may be added. Serway and UT online homework will be used.
The plan for summer 2008 is to increase the number of students in each course, if funding is available for TA’s. We would increase PHYS 1400, PHYS 1403, PHYS 1404, PHYS 1408 and PHYS 2401 to 4 lab sections each time they are offered. The number of students is limited to 4 lab sections for each course, based on laboratory availability.
The course offerings would be as follows:
Summer I: PHYS 1400, PHYS 1403 and PHYS 1404
Summer II: PHYS 1400, PHYS 1403, PHYS 1404, PHYS 1408 and PHYS 2401
We may also run a section of PHYS 5300 for TA’s each summer session and do tutorials in some of the labs, if funding for faculty salaries for teaching PHYS 5300 are available.