Posters

Integrating Computation Throughout the Physics Major Curriculum

Author(s):
Shaul Hanany
Professor, School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Need: Using a computer to model, simulate, predict, analyze, and display the behavior of physical systems is a central practice of physics, and computation has played a key role in almost all recent major physics discoveries. Even though computation is central to physics, in most US institutions it is not integrated into the undergraduate major curriculum and is not used as a standard method of solving problems. The overwhelming emphasis in undergraduate courses is, as it has been for many decades, on by-hand, analytical solutions, typically in closed form. In a survey of 357 physics departments and 1246 faculty across the US, Caballero and Merner found that instruction with computation is not part of a coherent, deliberate program with defined learning goals. Nevertheless, most physicists in the same survey agreed that computations should have a larger role in the undergraduate curriculum and there are numerous national reports calling for such integration. Guiding Question: the goal of integrating computation throughout the physics major courses in a sustainable way, especially in large physics departments with thirty or more faculty members, requires both curricular and institutional changes. We have embarked on such a process at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and are assessing whether the specific process is sustainable, and whether it is expandable to other large departments. Outcomes: we will describe our approach, and report on preliminary results from student interviews and surveys, on preliminary faculty feedback, and about lessons learned. Broader Impacts: Finding a sustainable path for large physics departments to integrate computation throughout the physics major curriculum could transform physics education for many US physics BS and BA recipients. If successful, physics BS and BA recipients would be better prepared for their future careers.

Coauthors

Ken Heller, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minnesota; Tom Jones, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minnesota; Joe Kapusta, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minnesota; Sarah McHale, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minnesota

Author(s)

Shaul Hanany
Professor, School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Professor Shaul Hanany graduated from Tel Aviv University in Israel. He has worked on computer simulations of alignment of dust grains for his MS, which is from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and on measuring the polarization of x-rays for his Ph.D., which is from Columbia University. He transitioned to working on properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation when he became a research fellow at the Center for Particle Astrophysics at Berkeley. Hanany continued with this work after moving to the University of Minnesota. Hanany received a Land McKnight professorship, has twice been named by students as 'Best Professor of Physics', is a recipient of the George W. Taylor Award for Distinguished Teaching, and is a Morse-Alumni Distinguished University Teacher. Results from measurements of the CMB that Hanany and his colleagues published several years ago have been named by Science magazine 'one of the ten most important breakthroughs in science' for that year.

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