In December 1993 the National Science Foundation awarded Jamestown Community College a Course and Curriculum Development Grant for the purpose of studying several university created curricula in electricity and magnetism and collating parts of them into a coherent curriculum for community college students. In the process several curricula were investigated, including Workshop Physics, developed by Priscilla Laws, (Dickinson College), Alan VanHeuvelen's ALPS kits (Ohio State University), Chabay and Sherwood's Electric and Magnetic Interactions (Carnegie Mellon University), Melvin Steinberg and Marvin Nelson's CASTLE Project, Real Time Physics of Sokoloff, Laws and Thornton, and ways of using the current and voltage probes and other Vernier probes to facilitate the learning process. The idea was to pick and choose among these approaches while incorporating many of the laboratories that we have done in the past and want to continue to do.

Not all of the curricula were used. Some ideas fit together more easily than others. Workshops and conferences were valuable as places to get ideas from other participants as well as from the presenters. Feedback from students was extremely valuable. Every attempt was made to take information provided by students and incorporate it into the class. Spending class time on the workbook activities was a direct result of student feedback, as was incorporating the H-R-W problems into the curriculum.

Physics at JCC:

Jamestown Community College is fortunate to have four semesters of calculus based physics in its curriculum. The first semester is Mechanics, the second semester covers Rotational Motion, Thermodynamics, SHM, Gravity, Waves, and Fluids. The third semester is Electricity and Magnetism and Optics and the fourth semester is Modern Physics. We realize that most instructors are forced to "cover" all of this in two semesters, or three at most. We are convinced that our student population benefits from the modified pace, and in fact are convinced that trying to cover all of physics in two semesters is impossible--thus the "less is more" argument becomes an important one. In any event, we do not as of yet have this problem and we thus have the time to delve more deeply into topics than would be otherwise possible. The down side of this schedule is that approximately half of our students are taking Calculus I concurrently with Physics I. This fact affects the way the material is covered. By second semester, the problem no longer exists as the math has by then "caught up" with the physics. We are convinced that our students would not be as successful at their respective transfer institutions if we were to compress the curriculum.

We teach the calculus-based and the trig-based classes in the "workshop physics" mode. That is we have the students in the lab for three-two hour sessions each week. We try to limit lectures and incorporate as much hands on learning as possible. This has become quite successful in the first two semesters and it is this grant which has allowed us to extend this method of teaching to the third semester. The fourth semester, Modern Physics, is still taught in the lecture mode, with an accompanying three hour lab.

Over the past several years we have seen a decline in the student population in our college in general and in physics in particular. The retention rate in physics has improved dramatically as is shown by the fact that even though the first semester calculus based physics class has declined from over forty students to about 20 students, the actual number of students successfully completing three semesters of the sequence has remained unchanged. Thus the overall retention rate has increased from 40% to about 80%. This dramatic effect is attributed to the hands on active learning and minimal lecture environment used in these classes.

The E&M Curriculum:

The following is the outline of the E&M curriculum that is currently being used. The accompanying labs and investigations are presented in full when such are the result of work developed at JCC. Those ideas that are adopted from other sources are cited and the reader is encouraged to refer to those publications. In some instances, such as with the "Workshop Physics" curriculum, site licenses for use of the material allows one to adopt and adapt various parts of the curriculum.

The main text for the course is Electric and Magnetic Interactions by Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood. (C-S) It was chosen for many reasons, not the least of which was its "desktop" experimental approach to the topics. It is supplemented by additional problems from Fundamentals of Physics, by Halliday, Resnick and Walker

(H-R-W) which is the text used for the first two semesters of the class, and by the ALPS Kits which are written by Alan Van Heuvelen and are purchased by the students. It is also heavily supplemented by labs and investigations from various other sources as will be cited. The currriculum also makes use of various software packages including Electricity by Vernier, EM Field and Electric Field Hockey from Academic Software, Videopoint from Wiley, Electronics Workbench from Interactive Image Technologies, Rotation by Vernier, and Workshop Physics Modules from Wiley.

The purpose of the detailed schedule is to keep students and instructor on course. However, some flexibility is built into the schedule, since the best thought out agenda is often met with unexpected delays. In truth, the agenda we have set forth, is at best very ambitious and at worst impossible. The schedule will be modified as needed.

The class meets three times a week for 15 weeks. Each session is about two hours long (110 minutes). Students are encouraged to come into the open lab area during free times to finish or look more closely at work in progress. Students are required to be in a study group which meets 1.5 hours each week outside of class time for the purpose of working on problems or labs. There is no tutorial or recitation period. Students are encouraged to make ample use of instructor's office hours.

PHY 271: Student Assignment and Exam schedule | Session Schedule

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Last modified 12/4/98 wk