Back to Department of Physics Homepage Back to Deparment of Physics

A Novel Curriculum

Paradigms in Physics at Oregon State University Physics Department is a novel, NSF-supported, quarter based, upper-division physics curriculum overhaul designed to:
  • be flexible enough to accommodate students with a wide range of career goals.
  • introduce quantum mechanics in the junior year to prepare students for the GRE and/or to take specialty classes in the senior year.
  • emphasize the connections between the fields of physics.
  • promote the development of problem-solving and mathematical skills.
  • accommodate non-traditional students entering our physics and engineering physics programs.
  • incorporate modern pedagogical techniques and information gained from physics education research.
The Paradigms in Physics program consists of ten Paradigms courses during the junior year and six Capstone courses in the senior year. In an effort to encourage students to draw connections between the subdisciplines of physics, the structure of the Paradigms has been crafted to mimic the organization of expert physics knowledge. Thus, students are presented with a model of how physicists organize their understanding of physical phenomena and problem solving. Each of the courses focuses on a specific paradigm, or class of physics problems, which serves as the centerpiece of each course and on which different tools and skills are built. The ten Paradigms courses are:
Symmetries and Idealizations, Static Vector Fields, Oscillations, Waves in One Dimension, Quantum Measurement and Spin, Central Forces, Energy and Entropy, Periodic Systems, Rigid Bodies, and Reference Frames.
In the senior year, students resume a more traditional curriculum, taking Capstone courses in the traditional disciplines and other specialty courses. The Capstones and specialty courses are offered in the traditional lecture style as quarter long courses.
In the design of the new curriculum we have incorporated and developed modern pedagogical strategies to help improve student learning. Group activities are common in Paradigms courses.
These activities allow students to learn from each other and work together in constructing their understanding of physics. They also help students to stay actively engaged in the classroom. Computer resources are used frequently to help students visualize the systems they are studying. Integrated labs in the Paradigms range from single two hour lab sessions with appropriate follow-up work, to exclusively project-based courses. Integrated labs allow us to incorporate inquiry based activities in the upper-division curriculum.
We have found that a mix of traditional lecture and modern pedagogical techniques, if smoothly integrated, is effective for most of our students. Students are significantly more comfortable with a mixture of notations and with drawing information from a number of sources.
Complete overhaul of the full curriculum is not realistic for most institutions, particularly large research institutions. However, the flexibility of new methods used in the Paradigms can be easily incorporated in a more traditional semester based curriculum format. The Paradigms team have teamed up with Prof. Jairo Sinova at Texas A&M University to adapt parts of the Paradigms program's techniques and methodology to sophomore and junior level courses. This is the TAMU APPEAL program. Any other institution interested in merging or fully incorporating the program is welcome to contact the Paradigms in Physics team or the TAMU APPEAL team for further information.

Texas A&M University Physics Department
College Station, TX 77843-4242  |  (979) 845-7717  |  Fax (979) 845-2590