PHYSICS PROGRAM SUCCEEDS WHERE OTHERS FAIL

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — At a time when physics undergraduate programs nationwide have shrunk to all-time lows, the University of Arkansas’ program has soared six-fold.

Dr. Gay Stewart, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Arkansas, attributes the higher numbers to reforms in the introductory course, where students now demonstrate scientific principles in the labs and explain their findings in writing.

As a result, the number of physics graduates jumped from an average of 2.5 from 1990-1997 to 12 in 1998 and 17 in 1999. Furthermore, the university has a rising number of women graduates in this male-dominated field. Six of the 17 physics graduates in 1999 — or 35 percent — are women.

Stewart will present her results tomorrow afternoon (March 23) at the American Physical Society Meeting in Atlanta.

In an era when physics research has contributed to the development of everything from personal computers to heart transplants, the number of students seeking physics degrees has declined nationwide. In 1996 U.S. institutions awarded 4,173 bachelor’s degrees, down 17 percent from their peak in 1989 — the lowest number since the 1950s, according to the American Institute of Physics.

To do something about these declining numbers, physicists have started looking at physics education reform. Stewart’s work, part of a National Science Foundation grant, has already attracted the attention of other universities, which have adopted her lab-based teaching methods in hopes of revitalizing their own physics programs.

Traditionally, physics professors lecture to students three to five times a week and

hold separate weekly laboratory sessions where students perform experiments.

In the University of Arkansas’ reformed introductory physics course, lecture and lab intertwine, with labs based on principles learned in lecture. Students attend two lectures and two lab sessions weekly.

In the lab, Stewart often relies on everyday household items to drive home scientific principles.

She found the most popular laboratory experiments included making a speaker and microphone using Dixie cups, building a generator and motor and measuring the earth’s magnetic field using a toilet paper tube and wire.

"We look at things people don’t quite understand," Stewart said. By building things that explain certain physical principles, the students learn the assumptions they make about the physical world.

Stewart has her students try to answer homework questions before she lectures on the subject matter. She says this way students come prepared to ask questions and understand where their weaknesses lie. Lab experiments follow the lectures, so students can measure things they have calculated in class.

When students make calculations, however, they have to do more than just crunch numbers. Stewart and the other professors teaching the course make the students explain why they used certain equations and how they got the results, using full sentences and paragraphs.

"Writing explanations really seems to help them retain the information over the long term," Stewart said.

Both the students and the department are benefiting from the physics education reform. The students from Stewart’s reformed physics courses perform better on standardized physics tests than their counterparts nationwide, she said. Not only did they score higher, but when questioned they felt more confident about their answers to test questions than did their traditionally-taught counterparts.

The increased number of physics majors helps the whole department because more upper level electives can be offered and more students can work in professor’s laboratories.

"We’ve made some real progress here," she said.

Crystal Bailey, one of the first undergraduate students to graduate since the course reform, plans to go on to get her Ph.D. in physics. She switched from engineering to physics because "physics explained the universe at a more fundamental level."

She eventually wants to study alternative energy sources to limit the use of limited fossil fuel supplies.

""I have a better chance of affecting the world through physics," she said.

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