Introducing Research-Based Curricula to Rochester Institute of Technology

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Explorations in Science is an activity-based physics course for non-science majors. Developed during mytenure as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education (PFSMETE), Explorations in Science uses the study of common, natural phenomena and student-directedgroup projects to stimulate interest in a population traditionally quite apathetic towards physics. Activitiesuse sophisticated computer tools to take, display, and interpret data. I would like to bring this curriculum tomy new, permanent, institution, the Rochester Institute of Technology. While RIT is an institution oftechnology, it has a significant population of students who will benefit from Explorations in Scienceincluding students of imaging science, business, and the social sciences. Faculty from the College ofImaging Arts & Sciences have already expressed interest in Explorations in Science, particularly theprojects dealing with human body motions as these are relevant to students studying computer animation.To successfully offer Explorations in Science at RIT, computer sensors (e.g. force sensors, temperatureprobes, and light sensors) must be purchased. Roughly half of this proposal is for equipment that are notcurrently available in our existing labs.A necessary condition for the successful implementation of new materials is faculty support. To facilitatethe implementation of a research-based curricula, I would like to begin a new project on faculty objectivesfor introductory physics courses. RIT has a national reputation of excellence in engineering and theimaging arts. Therefore, an overwhelming majority of students taking introductory physics at RIT are notphysics majors. It is important to understand why other departments require these students to take physicsand what they want their students to take from the class. The traditional answers, including "how to think"and "problem-solving ability," are too vague to be useful. Recent work in physics education has attemptedto uncover exactly what is meant by "how to think," i.e. what we the physics community see as thefundamental diamond in the physics rough. By using the ideas and vocabulary from this research, 1 hope tobe able to better characterize how other departments see physics. This will allow physics departments tobetter suit the needs of the majority of their students and make it easier to introduce new curricula such asExplorations in Physics.