Physics Concentrators Organize To Improve Department Courses

A group of Physics concentrators has been organizing meetings to suggest improvements in the existing course program.

Peter D. Pesic '69 and Henry L. Shipman '69, leaders of the committee, sponsored a "town meeting" for concentrators on Feb. 6, and another on Feb. 20 to discuss problems in the physics program. The students have separated into three working committees to deal with specific suggestions for change.

Most concentrators object to the lack of contact with faculty and to the "passiveness" of physics course work, Shipman said yesterday. No thesis is required, and until this Fall there was no tutorial program.

The department also offers several parallel sets of courses which cover the same subjects, such as Physics 115 and Physics 131-151, but does not effectively coordinate their content. As a result, Shipman said, upper-level courses suffer because students enter with widely differing preparation.

Three Committees

The three working committees will survey improvements in curriculum, tutorials, teaching methods and faculty contact. The curriculum committee has prepared a preliminary version of a totally new program of courses, which was endorsed at Thursday's meeting and will soon be presented to the department. In addition, an H-RPC questionnaire will be circulated to all students, concentrators or not, who have taken physics courses.

Shipman and Pesic said that they hope the committee will have recommendations ready this Spring. The time needed to start the new programs will delay most of the major changes until the 1970-71 academic year.