<p>Wabash does a Mythbusters physics course for non-majors. The syllabus shoudl be online. Every lesson they “bust” a myth based on physics. I worked at the Exploratorium for several years, so I think many experiments are out there to demonstrate laws of physics. Personally, I don’t care if it comes from a jr high book or a college textbook so long as the knowledge is there.</p>
<p>Well, my specialty is the underprepared college student! I’m at a 4 year LAC, not a CC, and even though we are not a brutal “sink or swim” kind of place, when teaching the underprepared, you simply have to expect a lower grades, and maybe even more Fs than one finds in other classes. It’s kind of like this, all the students who don’t like science (or math or writing) and are not very good at it are now all in one place. What would ordinarly be a struggling student or two is now a whole class of people, and they know there’s strength in numbers. They feel as if “she can’t fail everybody; the administration won’t allow it!” And so, you may also be experiencing behavior that you don’t see in other classes. What I’ve found is often a refusal to do the work, based on the assumption that perhaps there’ll be a big extra credit assignment at the end of the course of something because I certainly can’t fail everyone. Fwiw, I’ve had very good classes and classes where my failure rate was 50%. </p>
<p>My advice is to set up reasonable outcomes for non-science majors. But, if a student is getting college credit, you have a right to expect college level work. You might ask for some papers on concepts instead of problem after problem, but you do want some kind of experience with physics beyond “show up to class and listen”. Assign homework, keep a few more office hours to help with the math required. Your institution probably has a math requirment in gen ed. It’s not unreasonable to expect the students can do math at the lowest level required for graduation.</p>
<p>Kids have to find the way to get help, lowering standard is not an answer. American HS does not prepare them in math and Physical sciences. My nephew is teaching 2nd year of college math (whichever it is, not sure) at U of Chicago. You would think that only best and brightest will be at this major class at very selective UG. Nope, he has to go over background for this class, his students are not prepared either. My D. was SI to Gen. Chem prof while in UG. Most of the time she was explaining math to her rather large class which has grown to about 40 over time, they liked her, they understood her, so her sessions grew over 3 years. If you want kids with sufficient background, look for foreign students. We have participated a lot in our D’s HS math and science education. We realised deficiencies, most parents do not think so, they thinl that kids are pushed too hard.<br>
Very simple, one year of Physics is way below what is needed to absorb physics at the minimum level. Kids in other countries start in 6th grade and have physics every year until they graduate from HS. The same goes for math, with algebra starting in 5-6 grade and then math is divided into several subjects and continues until they are done with HS.</p>
<p>Happykid took “Physics of Sound and Light”. Almost no math at all in that one, but lots of good stuff for people who cared about sound (music majors) and light (design majors), so I know this kind of thing can be done. </p>
<p>How about this: Pretend that you are Aristotle and you are working with Alexander-the-eventually-to-be-Great and his gang of pals back there in ancient Macedonia, or that you are Archimedes and you are dealing with a bunch of unhappy-to-be-tutored-today kids in ancient Syracuse. What is an inclined plane, and how just exactly does it turn into a screw? What is a lever, and can you really use it to move the earth? What about the motions of the planets? How about what happens to the crash-test dummy inside when the car travelling at 50 mph encounters another one travelling at 50? How about the hydrological principles that describe why water stays in a straw if you cover the top of it with your finger, or just exactly why toilets flush when you push the lever? If you work with a lot of hands-on stuff, they will get it. And so what if it is “Physics Lite”? By choosing the class activities carefully, you can help them learn the kind of physics they need for their real lives.</p>
<p>There are so many sources for ‘Conceptual Physics’ that teaches Introductory Physics concepts without resorting to the derivation of general equations and problem sets that accompany classic algebra-based General Physics courses.</p>
<p>Check out the Berkeley course, “Physics for Future Presidents” ([Physics</a> for future Presidents](<a href=“http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/physics10/pffp.html]Physics”>http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/physics10/pffp.html)) for one.</p>
<p>Another good source is the, “Physics and Everyday Thinking” (<a href=“http://petproject.sdsu.edu/[/url]”>http://petproject.sdsu.edu/</a>) curriculum.</p>
<p>Paul Hewitt originally authored “Conceptual Physics” ([Welcome</a> to Conceptual Physics!](<a href=“http://www.conceptualphysics.com/]Welcome”>http://www.conceptualphysics.com/)) in the 80s, and has refined his approach since then - his text is in its 9th edition now. </p>
<p>Lastly, check out Project-based Physics ([Activity-Based</a> Physics](<a href=“http://www.physics.umd.edu/perg/abp/]Activity-Based”>Activity-Based Physics)) from the U of Maryland.</p>
<p>“even Harvard had a Physics for Poets option. I have no idea what it covered however”</p>
<p>“Matter in the Universe.” I took it. We had to do SAT-level math, powers of ten and so on. A lot of it was about concepts, facts, etc. Typical lesson: different elements burn at different temperatures that show up as different colors of light, so if you split the light from a star into its constituent colors, you can figure out what elements are in the star. Everyone remembers Robert Kirschner shooting himself across the lecture hall on a skateboard using a fire extinguisher for jet propulsion.</p>
<p>As far as I could tell, the course was designed so that an “A” student would graduate with the ability to chat with an astrophysicist at a cocktail party without sounding like an idiot. This came in handy on a couple of blind dates during law school.</p>
<p>I was a business major many moons ago. One of my favorite classes was Intro to Physics. There was little to no math. It was a survey of various physics ideas. Momentum, velocity, leverage, pressure, and eventually discussing the theory of relativity. It was a great overall introduction. The lab section was a complete drag. A grad student taught it and seemed to think that one unit lab should take as much work as a 4 unit course.</p>
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<p>Still, there is some math. In a physics class for non-majors, you should be able to assume familiarity with basic algebra. For instance, you should be able define that pressure is force/area rather than just use a descriptive definition. My impression is that even this appears above the understanding of the OP’s student.</p>
<p>A “physics for poets” class seems like a different animal entirely than physics for non-majors, and it doesn’t appear that this was the task assigned to the OP.</p>
<p>Maybe you get some participation and possibly even some fun with a bunch of hands-on experiments, I’m thinking of the kind done with everyday apparatus as in [The</a> Joy Of Physics](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Physics-Arthur-W-Wiggins/dp/1591025907/]The”>http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Physics-Arthur-W-Wiggins/dp/1591025907/).</p>
<p>Students will still need some algebra, etc. but it is hard to see how to avoid this completely.</p>
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<p>Wouldn’t typical college level physics courses for those who need them for their majors use calculus as well?</p>
<p>Most colleges have two distinct year-long physics sequences; an algebra-based General Physics sequence, and a calculus-based Engineering Physics sequence. There is also typically a one-semester (or quarter) Introduction to Physics that tends to be more conceptual and less quantitative. This is the course commonly derided as, “Physics for Poets”, and is the course that I presume the OP is teaching. Both the General and Engineering Physics sequences have a generally agreed-on series of topics that must be covered, but that is not necessarily the case for the Intro course. A such, teachers have much more latitude in the pedagogy and content of the Intro course.</p>
<p>I’ve been in the science education field for 30 years, and during that entire time, every Physics, Chemistry and Engineering professor that I have met wrings their hands over the poor math preparation of their students. I encountered the same problem when I taught my classes (Oceanography & Meteorology). It is my opinion that most students are reasonably capable of performing algebraic operations, but they never really learned how to apply those skills to the real world. Sure, they can calculate when two trains traveling in opposite directions at different speeds will meet, but they can’t seem to figure out the air temperature at the top of a particular mountain, given the local lapse rate ([NOAA’s</a> National Weather Service - Glossary](<a href=“http://www.crh.noaa.gov/glossary.php?word=lapse%20rate]NOAA’s”>http://www.crh.noaa.gov/glossary.php?word=lapse%20rate)). This is an easy calculation, but many students can’t seem to set it up.</p>
<p>Math is a language that needs at least the same time in K-12 as English, and in many other countries it is given more time, since they have several math subjects, sometime taught at the same time in different classes (geometry, algebra, trig…). Until math is taken seriously in k-12, all college profs will experience the same problem at all levels, except if they deal with foreign students. There is no kids out there who are not capable, there is defficient k-12 program that deprives them.</p>
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<p>Hmmm, when I went to school, the physics for biology majors did list a semester of calculus as a prerequisite, although calculus for biology and business majors was acceptable. The physics for physics and engineering majors required more math, such that students who were not advanced in math had to keep taking math courses concurrently with physics.</p>
<p>^Med. Schools do not require calc. base physics, I am not sure about Harvard, but many other top Med. Schools are OK with non-calc based physics (2 semesters). Also, Med. School math requirement could be fullfilled by taking only one semester of Calc (or AP credit), another one could be Stats, which is much more useful for pre-meds as Medical Research Lab procedures are based on Stats.</p>
<p>^In my day, med students had to take a physics course with labs. The only course that fulfilled the requirement was calculus based physics. I remember waiting for most of the course for an opportunity to actually use the calculus.</p>
<p>Yes, still physics with lab, but non-calc is OK, unless student wants to take calc-based, which is also OK. Math is very easy for my D., always effortless A, but it is not in her area of interest and math seems not to be used at Med. School, maybe some stats, but I have never heard of calc. I myself is another story, I have always loved math.</p>
<p>At the CVS Pharmacy today I saw a whole shelf of “as seen on TV” gizmos that would make the base for a really nifty Physics with Little or No Math class. I especially liked the unspillable cereal bowl with gyroscopic features.</p>
<p>I am kind of fond of “The Flying Circus of Physics” (or something like that) by Jearl Walker (or something like that). It comes in two versions, one with answers and one–earlier–without. If you use it, you may as well use the one with answers, because the students will locate that anyway. But it is very light on the math and has a number of interesting “everyday” applications of physics. It came out in the 1970’s–which is the reason I bring it up; it was very popular at the time, but I am not sure if it’s widely known now or not.</p>
<p>And I’m thinking of cartoon physics. The Roadrunner does not really hang in mid air until her looks down!
A college level class should be able to expect basic 9th grade algebra. If they can’t do the algebra FLUNK THEM. They shouldn’t even be in college. I think the person who said a room full of slackers thinks you can’t flunk them all is on to something.<br>
I would make the class very hands-on lab intensive. What happens when we do this? A cross between myth busters and kindergarten.</p>
<p>OT–@Hanna–I took two semesters of Intro Astronomy from Kirshner at UMich way back before Harvard lured him away (we’re talking 30+years ago.) What a fantastic lecturer–I dont think he shot himself across the room, but I remember many ideas and concepts from his class decades later because he was so smart, funny, and engaging.</p>