Another year has past and with it a lot of changes to my 131 efforts. This year has represented the first time I have taught P131 since Spring 2017 and coming back at it with fresh eyes has been very illuminating. There will probably be a lot of discussion on what I did this past year and how it can inform where I am going in the next iterations during the 2023-2024 school year.
One thing, which has become apparent as I publish my 132 Textbook: What is an Electron? What is Light? to the Living Physics Portal has been the inclusion of sections from OpenStax Biology, OpenStax Chemistry – Atoms First 2e, and the occasional selection from some of my peers in the disciplines here at UMass Amherst into that text. These sections are, almost by definition, authentic representations of the language and modes of thinking which characterize these disciplines. Including them in the physics text serves a two main purposes:
- Such sections help ensure that students see the physics material as connected to their majors’ courses. After all, right there, in the text, is some information straight out of a biology or chemistry class.
- Such sections also provide an equity role: not all students in 131/132 have the same major background; some students may have not been required to take certain classes for example while others may, due to the differences in the semesters in which different majors take physics, have taken these courses several years ago. By including them in the text, I am making sure that the needed biology or chemistry information is fresh in each person’s mind.
As I said, such sections are already exist in the 132 textbook, and submitting it for review has re-impressed on me the importance of such materials. Also important are homework questions that test the material. I remember as a student skipping these introductory/motivational chapters in my intro texts (Young and Freedman’s Sears and Zemansky’s University Physics with Modern Physics 13th ed.). Simple economic factors were at play: I had a limited amount of time and the material in these sections was never assessed in any way. Thus, I skipped them. Recalling this economic thinking shows the importance of having homework assessment of the material.
So, what am I thinking with regards to such biology/chemistry sections? Which should I perhaps include? Well, I am sure that this list will change as I go this summer developing the materials for fall, but a few already come to mind:
- Entropy – Some discussion on the importance of entropy to biology and chemistry? Perhaps more on the Gibbs Free Energy? Also some comments about some of the examples we work such as the alignment of cytoskeletal fibers in cell division?
- Energy – Some overview of the ideas of energy from a biology text?
- The ATP reaction – I use this a lot in my discussion of microscopic energy and during the past semester a few students’ comments demonstrated that a review of this material would probably be beneficial.
- Some discussion on ground reaction forces for when we get to simulations etc from a kinesiology resource? A discussion of force plates could also be good.
Just a few thoughts I figured I would get down.