Discovery Methods in Physicsat UTexas

R. N. Little 1913-1986

The Man Undergraduate at UT in Aerospace Engineering in 1929 Serious medical accident required return to Houston and

Rice Unable to manage engineering curriculum changed

major to physics and math Ph.D. from Rice in Low Energy Nuclear Physics

Planned a career in industry In 1946, joined UT faculty in Physics Two lifetime projects:

Guided DiscoveryDevelopment of Science education in Latin America

His Mission Create more physicists

Post Sputnik Physics (Physical Science) first

9th grade Taught in local middle and high schools

Developed Guided Discovery Create a cadre of teachers

Teach 9th grade as Guided Discovery

Our Mission Teach the scientific method

Observation, Hypothesis, Testing Teach quantitative analysis

Dimensional analysisQuantitativeConnectionsDescriptions

Use highest levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Our Clientele

Freshman non-technical studentsNeed a science course (area requirement)Need a labQuantitative tag

Generally no science backgroundLittle interestFear

Our resources

Graduate student instructorsExperiencedThe best that we haveMotivated

Laboratory rooms Laboratory equipment support The University of Texas

The Offerings

Two semesters of introductory physics1/3 take only first semester

Meets for 2 hours 2 times a weekOne two hour meeting per week

for instructors Capacity of space and instructors

three teaching lab roomstwo long term semesters and summer

Goals

The world is a knowable placeSimple instrumentation

Observations have implicationsConnections

SubtleAristotelian

World is quantitative World is reasonable

Educational Effectiveness

Student demand is greater than capacityWe operate at capacity

Three classrooms 12 hours/day Course evaluations very good

Better than faculty Grading rigorous

GPA lowering Alumni interviews very favorable

Cost Effective

Other Benefits

Long term support for AIs Valuable teaching experience

Different than taughtNo sage on the stage

answer a question with a questionEngagement teaching

Recent Additions

New room renovated New course developed for education majors

Elementary education methods incorporatedOther sciences incorporatedFour semester sequence

We are still at capacity