But, for those students who come here, we need to keep in mind that many initially make a career selection without appreciating the extent to which they must have a solid grasp of mathematics and the type of reasoning that is essential when studying the sciences. The mismatch of expectations and performance often contributes to subsequent student dissatisfaction. In recognition of this, the department offers a variety of paced introductions to physics that cover the material at a variety of paces and depths. Thus, we teach service courses that provide essential elements to students in the other sciences and in engineering. And, there are a variety of popular general educational courses offered as cultural enrichment.
Faculty teach the recitation sections and our teaching assistants teach the laboratory components.
The TA's receive an initial intense training at the start of the fall semester and the laboratory coordinator meets weekly with the TA's to review the week's experiments. The TA's are observed while they run the laboratories and feedback is provided. Identified difficulties are brought to the attention of the Course leader and are then reviewed in the lecture. The Course leader communicates regularly with the recitation and laboratory instructors giving details about the weekly assignments, reviewing what is covered in lecture, giving the homework assignments and pointing out particular aspects to be emphasized during that week's meetings. Our instructors are trying new ways to help the students by introducing material in a computer based format so as to provide an alternate mechanism to the classroom setting upon which the students can draw.