General Education Goal

Course Goal

Part One:

Intellectual Abilities and Dispositions

A.  Conceptual and Practical Understanding of Modes of Learning, Problem-Solving and Creative Inquiry 

To present conceptual explanations for understanding physics. 

To require problem solving in some homework and exam questions.

B.  Information-Gathering, Reasoning, and Synthesizing Abilities

1.  Skill in formulating questions and in setting goals for inquiry. 

To guide students in selecting an appropriate topic for a semester-long experiment. 

2.  Knowing how and when to make generalizations and value judgments.

3.  Skill in generating and evaluating observations and evidence. 

 To make observations of many physical processes.

To use graphs and tables for organizing and presenting data so underlying trends can be seen.

4.  Skill in making deductive inferences.

To look for more than one explanation of why trends appear in data.

5.  Ability to use relevant quantitative methods.

To use various measurement devices to measure physical attributes.  These include: mass balances, force measuring scales, voltmeters, ammeters, clocks, thermometers, etc.

1.  Striving to be well informed and open-minded.

2.  Looking for multiple possibilities and being able to deal with ambiguity.

 To recognize errors affect measurements.

To differentiate errors into random and systematic.

To consider other possible explanations for trends apparent in measured data.

3.  Striving to achieve one’s best with persistence and imagination.

To direct students toward semester-long experiment projects which require regular and consistent data collection.

4.  Willingness to make choices and to evaluate those choices.

5.  Intellectual self-awareness:  being conscious of one’s own thinking process, including the cultural and social contexts of that thinking.

1.  Writing and speaking with clarity and precision for diverse audiences.

 To require oral presentation of semester-long experiment.

To require research paper on a topic which requires consideration of the relationship between science or technology and society?

2.  Making use of computers and other technological tools

To require semester-long experiment data be placed in a spreadsheet and graphed therein.

3.  Interpreting and communicating visual information

To graph laboratory experiment data to see underlying trends.

To present semester-long experiment data graphically.

Part Two:

Knowledge and Understanding

1.  Knowledge of the physical Universe, including its origin and the physical laws governing it.

To present and explain Newton’s Laws.

To show commonality of electrical, magnetic, and gravitational forces.

To present the four basic forces in nature.

To show the universality of the various Conservation Laws in many diverse processes and their power in solving problems.

To present the cause-and-effect chain back to the point where the first cause cannot be physically known.

To emphasize there are physical limits to the extent of knowledge.

2.  Knowledge of living systems, including their nature, organization, and evolution.

3.  Understanding the history and methods of scientific inquiry and alternative explanations of the natural world.

To put scientific discoveries in their historical context.

To show the limits of understanding before significant breakthroughs changed them.

4.  Understanding the multiple influences on scientific inquiry and the consequences of science and technology.

5.  Understanding the ways human choices affect the earth and living systems and the responsibilities of individual citizens and communities to preserve global resources.

1.  Knowledge of the many expressions of culture, including

• Understanding the unique shared ways of thinking, believing, and acting, developed by a people who live together over a long period of time.
• Ability to conceptualize and trace the influences of community, institutions, and other constructions such as class, gender, and race
• Familiarity with the ways in which culture is expressed artistically, through literature, performance, and artifact
• Awareness of and appreciation for the ways in which culture and society influence and are influenced by work and leisure.

2.  Understanding the sources and expression of diverse values throughout the world, including ethical, religious, aesthetic, political, and economic values as well as social and cultural priorities.

3.  Ability to trace the impact of technology on societies and cultures for diverse audiences.

4.  Understanding the ways human choices affect communities, from local to global, and responsibilities of individuals to assume the duties of citizenship.

5.  Understanding the role of government regulation and of legal requirements, political processes, and financial and economic influences on decisions of individuals and society.

To show that “big science” must meet society’s goals to be supported.

To show many technological conveniences had their start as government projects.

1.  Understanding the nature of our humanness and how human beings are like and different from the other beings with whom they share the planet.

2.  Knowledge of individual physical, emotional, intellectual, social and creative development as well as ability to use such knowledge to improve personal well-being.

3.  Knowledge of individual physical, emotional, intellectual, social, historical, spatial, and cultural matrices into which the individual is born; and the influence of the unique set of experiences which the individual encounters.

4.  Ability to perceive one’s own being not only from cognitive perspectives but also from those perspectives which come from exposure to and creative vision of the arts – to imagine the possibilities the future holds and to develop responsible goals for interactions with others, modes of personal expression, and roles in improving the world.