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Purdue (WL) Undergraduate Program

Purdue (WL) Undergraduate Program. Programs. 5 Physics Majors programs ( ~187 in Spring 2010) Physics, Applied Physics, Physics Education Physics Honors, Applied Physics Honors Serves ~7,500 students/yr in service courses. Recruitment and retention Curriculum

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Purdue (WL) Undergraduate Program

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  1. Purdue (WL) Undergraduate Program • Programs • 5 Physics Majors programs (~187 in Spring 2010) • Physics, Applied Physics, Physics Education • Physics Honors, Applied Physics Honors • Serves ~7,500 students/yr in service courses • Recruitment and retention • Curriculum • Support/Research opportunities • Climate 1. Majors Current state and challenges 2. Service program state and challenges

  2. Recruitment and Retention: Enrollments • Generally increasing since 1996-97 • Tracks national trend until mid 2000’s

  3. Recruitment and Retention: Degrees • Downturn since mid 2000’s despite increasing enrollment • Tracked national trend (at least until mid 2000’s)

  4. Degrees by Program • By Program • Honors degrees < 10 • Standard vs Applied majors • Applied majors increasing slowly • Standard majors generally level

  5. Enrollment by Class • 60~80 come into and 20~30 graduate from Physics for at best around 40% graduation rate • Purdue College of Science rate is about 30% graduating from the College and 40% from other colleges of Purdue University (total ~70%) • Attrition within the first two years is large.

  6. Curriculum: Current State • First year curriculum (only) revised in 2005-06 • 3 semester mechanics/E&M (Halliday-Resnick style) •  2 semester Matter & Interactions • (Changed Calc I prerequisite to co-requisite as well) • Student survey from Spring 2008 found: • Half have had memorably enjoyable course(s) • Faculty provide challenge & are available, encouraging • More than 75% will choose Purdue again if starting over • Some courses do not carry enough credits or are not well designed or taught • Students not ready for mathematical rigor of upper division courses.

  7. Revised Upper Division Curriculum Since Fall 2008 • Common first two years for all 5 majors programs • Provide good mathematical foundation • Preserve flexibility and encourage taking of specialty and interdisciplinary courses • Modernization of labs remains a future project • Applied electives need better road map • Common Second Year: • 2 new Math Methods of Physics courses • Waves and Oscillations (built on Optics course) • Modern Physics, 4-credtis and redesigned

  8. Honors Program • Independent Project must culminate in an acceptable written report to be deposited with Dept. (Applied Hon. too) • 2 Physics/Astro Specialty Course Electives • Quantum Mechanics to fit entirely in junior year • Grade requirement no longer includes math courses • Regular Program • 1 Physics/Astro Course Elective • Applied Physics Program • 30 Applied elective credits (~ 10 courses) – in process of aligning these to enable Minor in another field simultaneously (e.g., Mech. Engineering)

  9. Career Path After Graduation • About 2/3 go on to graduate school (majority in Physics) • Significant fraction goes to industry Post BS career of 2005-2007 graduates

  10. Support and Research Opportunities • Student survey finds: • Undergraduates overwhelmingly desire to do research with our own faculty here • Ascarelli Fellowships beginning in 1st year • Spots on our Summer REU Program • Not enough gets to do research • Financial support is at low levels • Opportunities not well advertized

  11. Enrollments by Gender/Ethnicity • By Gender • 10~12% female • By Ethnicity • Total URM ~12% 2007-08

  12. Service Teaching • Separate Mechanics/E&M Sequences for: Engineering, Health Sciences, and Technology students • Other courses include: 1 course for agriculture students, 2 astronomy courses, 1 for elem. education students, and 1 remedial course for engineering students.  ~7,500 students/year (half in Engineering Sequence.) (Diagram does not include the course for education students or the remedial one.)

  13. Challenges in Service Teaching • Curriculum modernization • Matter & Interactions curriculum introduced for the engineers about 2 years ago • Assessment of the new curriculum in progress • Staffing: massive need for TA’s • Engineering sequence (172/272/241) alone required 6 faculty, 26 ½-time equiv. TA’s • These staffing needs are controlled by Engineering enrollments, not by us. This can and does create a large problem for us.

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