PHY 105 Physics by Inquiry

Semester: Spring (alternate year)
Credit Hours: 4
Prerequisite: none

The goal of this course is to provide the students with direct experience in the process of science. The design of this course is based on the belief that science can not be learned by reading, listening, memorizing and problem solving, but requires active mental engagement. The students will start from their own observations, develop basic scientific concepts, use and interpret different forms of scientific representations, and construct explanatory models with predictive capabilities. The students will develop scientific reasoning skills and gain experience in relating scientific concepts, representations, and models to real-world phenomena. Topics that are covered in this course are physics and astronomy. To achieve the goal of active involvement, the lectures will be given in a computer equipped classroom in which each student (or pair of students) has access to a computer and is able to carry out data analysis during lectures. Simple experiments can be carried out by each student individually. More sophisticated experiments are carried out by the instructor, and the data collected are available to each student via the network. For example, complicated two dimensional motion can be videotaped and digitized for immediate analysis by the students. As a consequence, registration is restricted to students from the humanities and social-science departments. Students from science departments can petition to take this course, and will be able to register if there is room.

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