|
In response to
"heh, so now everyone is going to paste their emails into ST to read them first? :) -- nm"
by
Beryllium
|
Hang on a sec...
|
email
--
There's a few different strands of thought I have:
1. To make sure that we know what is taught in 160, I asked Jim for the Math department's standardized 160 final exam. It is attached. They seem to get farther into integrals in 160 than they used to when we made the Physics prereqs.
In looking at that final exam, students now cover in 160 everything that they need to know for PHYS 212. I do indeed make my 212 students do lots of integrals, both definite and indefinite, areas under the curve, etc. If they can do decently on this attached integrals exam, they can do the math I ask them in 212. Since Math revamped the Calculus sequence, it�s been increasingly apparent that there�s no honest way for us to say that they need 161 to be prepared for 212.
1b. (We're of course going to leave aside the question of whether a student can actually do the math if they've made a C in the class. But that goes for every class they take here.)
2. This also comes back to the question of whether to offer more than one level of PhysO. For the level of PhysO that we teach in 301, knowing Calculus through integration is completely sufficient. (I always toss in a few partial differential equations, but I know no-one�s had that, and so teach it to them.) If we teach any sort of advanced PhysO class, though, I would like to be able to do more advanced math in there. But if we stick to a model of everyone taking the same sequence, we can�t really expect that.
3. Anyone planning on going to grad school in Marine Science should indeed take a lot more math than that. They�ll need it.
My bottom line is that I think that the changes that Math has made to 160/161 to include more integration in 160 make it sufficient for PHYS 212�
--
great, thanks! so much easier to read in ST.
|
Responses:
|