Physics courses (132, 141, 310, 320)

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID: 
PHYS 141: Foundational Introductory Mechanics
PHYS 132: Intro to Waves, Thermal Physics, and Optics
PSC 320: Energy, Society, and the Environment
PHYS 310: Physics of Energy
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a Physics course for undergraduate and graduate students by Peter Schwartz at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. 

Course Title and Number
Brief Description of course highlights: PHYS 141, 132: Randy Knight, Physics for Scientists and Engineers, a Strategic Approach, PSC 320, PHYS 310: Ristinen and Kraushaar, Energy and the Environment, 2nd edition, John Wiley, 2006

PHYS 132 - Oscillations, waves in elastic media, sound waves. Temperature, heat and the first law of thermodynamics. Kinetic theory of matter, second law of thermodynamics. Geometrical and physical optics. 3 lectures, 1 laboratory. Crosslisted as HNRS/PHYS 132. Fulfills GE Areas B1 and B3 (GE Areas B3 and B4 for students on the 2019-20 or earlier catalogs).
PHYS 141 Fundamental principles of mechanics. Vectors, particle kinematics. Equilibrium of a rigid body. Work and energy, linear momentum, rotational kinematics and dynamics. Primarily for engineering and science students. 

PHYS 310  Physics and mathematics applied to broad energy topics. Efficient usage, transportation, solar energy, nuclear fission and fusion. Plasma, hydrogen economy, fuel cells, wind wave, tidal, and geothermal energy. Transmission, storage, fossils. National planning, and energy economics. 

PHYS 320 - Introduction to the mathematical techniques of theoretical physics with applications from classical mechanics, optics, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics. Maxwell's equations and vector calculus. Waves, the wave equation and Fourier analysis. Green's functions. Physics applications of complex contour integration and series 

Student population:   PHYS 132: 50; PHYS 141: 50, PSC 320: 50, PHYS 310: 35

Learning or student outcomes: "I’ve collected extensive data from surveys at the end of class and weekly. Probably the most interesting is that students don’t regard me as a source of information anymore. They indicate that they learn more from each other. They come to office hours rarely. They work in groups – even when they come to office hours. See one of the questions from a survey."

Key challenges faced and how resolved: "The biggest challenge by far is students’ reluctance to accept the flipped classroom as a viable learning model. I have considerable data indicating that often an entire class rejects the model with really bad results as measured by performance and moral. When they accept the model, it is wonderful.

Another challenge is that the free online physics text is just not as good as Randy’s text (in my opinion). Additionally, it is not for the calculus based physics… and is nonetheless different from the text everyone else is using. This has all required me to work extra hard finding other resources to make this work."

Peter Schwartz, Associate Professor
Department of Physics

Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option. "My motivation was largely pedagogical. I wanted to flip the classroom. I also noticed that the students didn’t make much use of the textbook, and I find the cost of the books and the way they are distributed (requiring students to buy new ones every year) a sham. The way I changed the physics curriculum is summarized in this video.

For the energy class, there really was no good text in my opinion, and the students were not going to read it anyway (or so I thought). I made a comprehensive set of videos for the course content. eduCanon is key to making these work, because the students are accountable for watching the videos."

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? I wrote it. Authors: Pete Schwartz (me).
Please see: http://sharedcurriculum.peteschwartz.net/textbook---mechanics-in-parallel/

Sharing Best Practices: "Everything is different, but it’s hard to say what caused what. We can talk sometime. Being in SUSTAIN has also brought a huge change in that I am respecting my students as equals in making decisions about how they want to learn. I see them make poor choices (in my opinion), but sometimes I see that this is only my opinion." earlier.

"This is hard to say because I changed so many things at the same time. Probably the biggest change is flipping the classroom. I think that the biggest benefit is that the students are becoming self learners, are getting to know each other, and are working in groups."

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: 

Student access:  I provide the website to the students.  However, because it is also a workbook, it leaves spaces to answer questions.  Thus, I also print out the chapters one by one as we cover them, and distribute them to the students that use hardcopy.  About 20% of the students only work on electronic screens.  There are 7 chapters, each is about 10 pages long.

Cost Savings:  This is hard to say.  My understanding is a standard text is more than $300, but I think no one pays that much any more.  Additionally, most students have to buy the standard text anyway for the next physics class.