Calculus Based Physics I
Calculus Based Physics I
Calculus-Based Physics I
Common Course ID: PHYS 205
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait
Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a General Physics course for undergraduate students by Gurmohan Bevli, Ph.D., at California State University, Dominguez Hills. The open textbook provides most of the content generally covered in such a course and is accessible online for free. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was to lower the cost for students. Most students access the open textbook in their electronic device of choice.
Description:
This text runs through most of the content covered in a typical introductory calculus-based physics course. The sequence in which the topics are presented is different from the one conventionally adopted.
Authors:
- Jeffrey Schnick - Saint Anselm College
Formats:
This book is available as a PDF (with and without images) and as a Word document.
Supplemental resources:
There is a variety of supplemental resources available with this book including Symbols fonts, Physics Formula Sheet, Link to Math Resources, Physics Problems, Physics Solutions, On-Line Quizzes, a Syllabus, and some videos. All of these are downloadable from this site.
Cost savings:
The cost of a typical conventional text is over $200. How many students do you teach in a year - so we can calculate total savings. Also, what "conventional text" would you use?
License:
This book is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic license. This means you are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Course Number: PHY 130
Description: Kinematics and dynamics of particles, rigid bodies and fluids. Kinetic theory, temperature and thermodynamics. Calculus-based course. Four hours of lecture and three hours of laboratory per week.
Prerequisites: MAT 191, PHY 130L (concurrent)
GE credit: 4 units
Learning outcomes:
- Use dimensional analysis
- Solve problems involving kinematics (including varying acceleration)
- Understand vectors and general 2-D and 3-D kinematics.
- Be able to explain Newton's Laws and applications
- Explain Momentum and Energy
- Understand Gravitational PE, Satellite morion
- Comprehend Fluids, Bernoulli's Principle
- Be familiar with thermodynamics
Curricular changes:
The main change was in the sequence of topics. The quizzes and tests had to be redone to accommodate the online text. I also had to use an outside source for homework, WebAssign.
Teaching and learning impacts:
Collaborate more with other faculty: No
Use wider range of teaching materials: Yes
Student learning improved: Unsure
Student retention improved: Unsure
Any unexpected results: Yes
Can you please explain the rationale for why you answered Yes to two of the questions above?
Sample assignment and syllabus: Could you please send me a copy of one of the assignments? I also need a copy of the syllabus. If you could just send it in a Word doc or pdf, that would be fine.
OER Adoption Process
The main reason this text was adopted is cost. While this online text is clearly not the best alternative, it was one of the more appropriate ones from the ones that are available.
To address the shortcomings of this book (no end of chapter problems, very few figures and animations) the following had to be done:
- a lot of homework had to be assigned using WebAssign
- students had to be constantly directed to many freely available videos to see the principles in action. Can you please provide some examples of these videos?
Student access:
Students could access the book on any electronic device of their choice - tablets, smartphones or computers. The online book is available in PDF and DOC format.
Student feedback or participation:
Students did not ultimately use this book as much as had originally been thought. There were several reasons for this:
- The book has no end of chapter problems for students to practice. So they had to rely on WebAssign homework which was from the previous conventional text.
- Without any figures, it is difficult for new learners of the subject to understand more complex concepts. So the students used the book initially as long as we were on simple concepts like kinematics but as soon as we studied Newton's laws and beyond, they shifted to the older text
- Students knew that the second part of this course - the PHY132 - would still be using the older conventional book. They felt it worthwhile to spend money on that early since they would have had to spend it anyway.
Gurmohanjeet Bevli, Ph.D.
I am a physics lecturer at the California State University, Dominguez Hills. I teach both the calculus-based and algebra-based introductory physics courses here.
The shortest way to describe my teaching philosophy is inquiry-based learning. Can you elaborate on this a little?