麻豆影院

General Physics for Majors course designed by CU 麻豆影院 Professors Eric Cornell and Paul Beale shows students that the furthest reaches of science are built on fundamental concepts

The Nobel laureate was not feeling happy about his minus signs.

He stood back from the blackboard鈥攜es, an actual blackboard on which he wrote with actual chalk鈥攁nd considered the calculus he鈥檇 jokingly hyped just moments before with, 鈥淭his is some of that real calculus sensation. This is why you sat through that whole calculus class: for this moment.鈥�

His team teacher, a noted scientist who this year is marking 40 years teaching physics at the 麻豆影院, called from the back of the classroom, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 right, Eric.鈥�

Advanced math is not always easy with an audience watching鈥攊n this case, about 85 first-year physics, astrophysics and engineering physics students in , General Physics 2 for Majors.

It鈥檚 a class for students who know they want to pursue a field of physics and are newly starting out in it. And it鈥檚 taught by a Nobel laureate.

鈥淚 harken back to freshman physics every day of my life,鈥� explains Eric Cornell, a CU 麻豆影院 professor adjoint of physics and winner in physics for his work with Bose-Einstein condensates. 鈥淚鈥檓 in a Facebook group with people I met my freshman year in physics.鈥�

In other words, there鈥檚 absolutely no reason a Nobel laureate shouldn鈥檛 teach first-year physics.

Basic, foundational concepts

Cornell and Paul Beale, a CU 麻豆影院 professor of physics, created the course six years ago, in part to help students interested in pursuing physics to find community and support among like-minded peers. While other introductory physics courses are open to all majors, this one is specifically for physics, astrophysics and engineering physics majors. Steven Pollock, a professor of physics, and Yuan Shi, an assistant professor of physics, in the fall taught the first half of the course, PHYS 1115, which was created by Professors听Chuck Rogers and Shijie Zhong.

鈥淲e start from ground zero,鈥� Beale says. 鈥淢ost (of the students) have had some physics in high school, most have seen these ideas before鈥攖hey know that same charges repel. But even students who have had really good high school physics classes, maybe even AP classes, we say, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 great! Take our class.鈥�

鈥淏eing with other physics majors helps them relax and get immersed in the field. Everybody in there really wants to be in there.鈥�

A cynic might ask, however, why a Nobel laureate would be teaching a first-year class. Shouldn鈥檛 they be, you know, spending their time in the furthest, most esoteric reaches of physics? Doing the kind of science only a handful of people on the planet can understand?

鈥淚 want to push back on that idea that the basic, foundational concepts of physics don鈥檛 have considerable charm of their own,鈥� Cornell says. 鈥淭his is really fun stuff, and one of the things I like about this course is it gets into really interesting things right away.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 also a hard class,鈥� Beale adds. 鈥淭he concepts are difficult, so the challenge for us is to do everything we can to make them approachable. (The students) have got to get them right even though they鈥檙e hard, because everything else in physics builds on what they learn here.鈥�

Cornell and Beale designed the class not only with beginning physics students in mind, but learning assistants and graduate students as well.

鈥淚n a lot of schools, grad students鈥攚ho might be just one year past undergrad鈥攁re thrown in the classroom and told, 鈥楬ere, go teach,鈥欌�� Cornell says. In this course, however, graduate students assist with weekly tutorials but meet with Beale and Colin West, an associate teaching professor of physics, before each one, because the skills of teaching need to be taught. The same is true for class learning assistants, who are undergraduate students who took the course the previous year.

Cornell and Beale also spend time in the physics help room each week, which is a space where students can drop by for help with anything physics related.

鈥淚 would say that we are a very good teaching department, and not just our graduate program,鈥� Beale says. 鈥淭his is your introduction to physics, and you鈥檙e either going to like it or not, so we put a lot of effort into the first years.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檙e always asking, 鈥楬ow do we do better teaching?鈥欌�� Cornell adds. 鈥淧eople like Paul and me have the advantage of people in this department who have studied teaching and have tried approaches like using clickers, using a conversational approach, using hands-on demonstrations. There are ongoing discussions about how we can be teaching better.鈥�

Physics with a purple crayon

Sometimes, better teaching means an apology: 鈥淚t鈥檚 my sorry duty to apologize for all the sins of physicists who went before me, and electrical engineers. And Ben Franklin,鈥� Cornell said, writing 鈥渟orry!!鈥� on the blackboard and underlining it twice. 鈥淚鈥檓 here to apologize for this thing called 鈥榩otential.鈥� The whole rest of your life you鈥檙e going to be thinking about electric potential. It鈥檚 unavoidable. Your intuition will overwhelm your minus-sign errors.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a 鈥榮orry, but...鈥� though, which is another way to say, 鈥楽uck it up.鈥欌��

While Cornell pivoted to voltage, 鈥渁 happier, friendlier term (than electric potential),鈥� Beale walked slowly among the rows of seats, stopping to sit by students who had questions and prompt them toward their response on class-wide clicker questions.

Pranay Raj Poosa, a freshman majoring in astrophysics who hopes to study black holes and neutron stars, cites Cornell鈥檚 and Beale鈥檚 enthusiasm for physics and their personal, conversational approach to teaching as two of the reasons he likes the class: 鈥淭he fun they generate makes my understanding crystal clear,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he first day of class, (Cornell) made a joke about himself, which I personally felt was clap-worthy.鈥�

Poosa added that he was in 鈥渦tter disbelief鈥� when his advisor mentioned a Nobel laureate would be teaching the class.

For Min Wang, a sophomore majoring in physics and interested in theoretical neuroscience and writing science fiction, Cornell and Beale have shown her that 鈥済reat minds are not the ones who are walking in front of others all the time. They always slow down and let the young generation be on their shoulders.

鈥淓ven though what Professor Cornell taught us is just a tiny piece of knowledge in his mind, he shows amazing patience to every student and shows us how profound even a little, tiny bit in physics can be. And since I have time conflicts with all the office hours, Professor Beale gives me a special office hour time according to my school schedule. It is after class and work time on Friday! They make me feel welcome in the world of physics.鈥�

Wang noted that while learning physics is not without its pains, she doesn鈥檛 feel alone in tackling them because she is part of a 鈥渓ovely and supportive physics community created by the professors.鈥�

Which is good, because it was time to do 鈥渁 very modest amount of algebra, the kind you could do with a purple crayon if you鈥檝e got one,鈥� Cornell said, explaining how they could figure capacitance between two metal plates and then telling the students, 鈥淚鈥檓 going to show you something which I think is very neat. It鈥檚 kind of an advanced idea, giving you a taste of physics to come.鈥�

The key thing to remember? 鈥淭he whole idea of physics is zooming all the way into what does matter and ignoring what doesn鈥檛.鈥�

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