1 Physics, the Fundamental Science 1 What About Energy? 2 The Scientific Enterprise 3 The Scope of Physics 4 The Role of Measurement and Mathematics in Physics 5 Physics and Everyday Phenomena Everyday Phenomenon: The Case of the Malfunctioning Coffeepot Everyday Phenomenon: Scaling a Recipe The purpose of this introductory chapter is introduce the connections between physics and everyday phenomena, including current issues involving energy. The scientific method is introduced as well as an overview of what physics is about and its relation to other sciences. The experimental and quantitative aspects of physics are stressed. The chapter concludes with the philosophy of the text in relating physics to everyday phenomena.
Suggestions for using the PowerPoint Lectures, the Clicker Questions and the Videos One of the lovely aspects of teaching a class for non-science majors is you can pick and choose which topics to cover. You are not generally teaching a class that is a pre-requisite for another physics class so you are free to tailor it to your interests (or even better to your students interests). The best classes get the students engaged and interested in the material. Clicker questions are a great way to engage class and to make students aware of the most important concepts. These questions can be used in a variety of ways, from quizzes to taking attendance to simply assessing in real time the understanding level of your class (and where you might need to go back over something!). A wealth of research has been performed on the value of personal response questions within the classroom setting, and they don’t necessarily require a hardware purchase. We have provided a PowerPoint file of suggested clicker questions for this chapter (and subsequent chapters) in the instructor resources on the website. So that you can easily use the provided Powerpoint Lectures and Clicker questions the following breakdown will help you choose how much to use each day. Always have more prepared than you think you need and don’t hesitate to not cover it all. Also, activities—especially for math phobic students—will help cement these ideas. Students may struggle with the unit conversions and the proportions. An in-class activity related to these topics would be worthwhile to gauge your students understanding. The rest of these paragraphs give some excellent ideas of how you can incorporate demonstrations and activities into your lecture and some discussion points for the classroom.
Several chapters have 1 or 2 videos in the e-book (and also available on the student and instructor websites). It is probably worth your while to show the first couple in class to help the students recognize the value. They are generally about 5 minutes long. Video 1.1 uses pennies to help students visualize how the area increases as the length increases. Section 1.1 Clicker questions 1.1 and 1.2 Section 1.2 Lecture slides 1-9 Clicker questions 1.3 and 1.4 Section 1.3 Lecture slides 10-19 There are no clicker questions for this section. Section 1.4 Lecture slides 20-24 Clicker questions 1.5 to 1.14 Video 1.1 Section 1.5 Lecture slides 25-26 There are no clicker questions for this section.
Suggestions for Presentation To begin the course using the approach relating physics with everyday phenomena, have a coffee pot (or other small appliance) that no longer works on the lecture table. Ideally, the presence of this unusual object will arouse student's interest and will be used later. As you give your introductory lecture it is important to share the enthusiasm that you have for physics with your students. Think about your favorite aspect of physics that lends itself to demonstration, and provide a sort of “teaser” with it. Many students have the idea that physics is dry, boring, impossible, and utterly inapplicable to the average person’s life. You may feel that "Physics is Phun" but to all too many it is really "Physics is Phear". Let students know that they will be able to understand the essential physics and that basic mathematics is really all they need. In fact, many concepts can and should be initially grasped without mathematics. If students need a calculator to do everything, then the concept is being replaced by mathematics. However, it's important to not put down the course as an easy or low-level course. This will rob the students of a sense of achievement when they do master the concepts. After all, just because the course avoids advanced mathematics doesn't make the concepts any simpler. In fact this limitation actually makes for a more understanding-based course. It could be very helpful for you to outline the goal of science; that is, to understand nature in terms of logical selfconsistent sets of principles which apply to all observers. As an example of how we can use the scientific method in everyday life turn to the broken coffee pot (or waffle iron or toaster or…). Going over the six steps presented in Everyday Phenomena box 1.1 is very illustrative. Plug it in, checking
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