Related papers: Modern physics courses: Understanding the content …
Even though quantum mechanics has existed for almost 100 years, questions concerning the foundation and interpretation of the theory still remain. These issues have gathered more attention in recent years, but does this mean that physicists…
The frontiers of physics related e-print archives (1994-2002) at http://www.arxiv.org/archives/physics web service are explored from 7770 submissions. No. of e-prints in the six research disciplines besides physics (5390) were: Condensed…
Lecture script of a one-semester course that aims to develop an understanding and appreciation of fundemental concepts in modern physics for students who are comfortable with calculus. This document contains the last part of the course…
Introductory undergraduate courses in classical physics stress a perspective that can be characterized as realist; from this perspective, all physical properties of a classical system can be simultaneously specified and thus determined at…
Learning advanced physics, in general, is challenging not only due to the increased mathematical sophistication but also because one must continue to build on all of the prior knowledge acquired at the introductory and intermediate levels.…
Along with weaving together observations, experiments, and theoretical constructs into a coherent mesh of understanding of the world around us, physics over its past five centuries has continuously refined the base concepts on which the…
We offer second year students the opportunity to explore Current Topics in Biophysics in a course co-taught by a physicist and a biologist. The interdisciplinary course allows university students to engage in analytical thinking that…
Computational physics is a key part of what it means to do physics in the twenty-first century. However, upper division computational physics remains a largely understudied area. We set out to understand the experiences of students in an…
Between 1984 and 2011, the percentage of US bachelor degrees awarded in physics declined by 25%, in chemistry declined by 33%, and overall in physical sciences and engineering fell 40%. Data suggest that these declines are correlated to a…
We conducted a literature review and expert interviews to determine the most common methods being used to teach quantum physics and quantum computing concepts to primary and secondary students. Based on the findings of this review, we…
This introductory text on the basics of quantum mechanics is intended to serve as a kind of travel guide through the quantum world. It starts by asking whether quantum physics is important, or weird, or incomprehensible. It explains why…
Both magnetic materials and light have always played a predominant role in information technologies, and continue to do so as we move into the realm of quantum technologies. In this course we review the basics of magnetism and quantum…
The traditional pedagogical paradigm in physics is based on a deductive approach. However, with the recent advances in information technology, we are facing a dramatic increase in the amount of readily available information; hence, the…
Physics curricula across the US fail to prepare students adequately to solve problems, especially novel problems. A new curriculum, Matter and Interactions (M&I), was designed to improve student learning by organizing concepts around…
We discuss and analyze the fact that physics is generally losing its ability to captivate students who may possess the potential to enhance the quality of our future in this age of technology. We have tried to investigate the reasons behind…
During the last decade we have witnessed an impressive development in so-called interpreted languages and computational environments such as Maple, Mathematica, IDL, Matlab etc. Problems which until recently were typically solved on…
An active learning physics course (treatment) was re-organized in an attempt to increase students' problem solving abilities. This re-organized course covered all of the relevant concepts in the first 6 weeks with the final 4 weeks spent in…
Quantum mechanics, one of the most successful theories in the history of science, was created to account for physical systems not describable by classical physics. Though it is consistent with all experiments conducted thus far, many of its…
A key question in physics education is the effectiveness of the teaching methods. A curriculum that has been investigated at the University of Central Florida (UCF) over a period of two years is the use of particular elements of The Physics…
The goal of these lectures is to introduce readers with a basic knowledge of undergraduate physics (specifically non-relativistic quantum mechanics, special relativity, and electromagnetism) to the `current theory of everything': the…