Download - Purdue (WL) Undergraduate Program
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Purdue (WL) Undergraduate Program
• Recruitment and retention• Curriculum• Support/Research opportunities• Climate
Programs
1. Majors Current state and challenges
• 5 Physics Majors programs (~187 in Spring 2010)
Physics, Applied Physics, Physics Education
Physics Honors, Applied Physics Honors
• Serves ~7,500 students/yr in service courses
2. Service program state and challenges
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Recruitment and Retention: Enrollments
• Generally increasing since 1996-97
• Tracks national trend until mid 2000’s
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Recruitment and Retention: Degrees
• Downturn since mid 2000’s despite increasing enrollment
• Tracked national trend (at least until mid 2000’s)
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Degrees by Program
By Program
• Honors degrees < 10
Standard vs Applied majors
• Applied majors increasing slowly
• Standard majors generally level
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Enrollment by Class• 60~80 come into and 20~30 graduate from Physics for at best around 40% graduation rate
• Purdue College of Science rate is about 30% graduating from the College and 40% from other colleges of Purdue University (total ~70%)
• Attrition within the first two years is large.
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Curriculum: Current State• First year curriculum (only) revised in 2005-06
3 semester mechanics/E&M (Halliday-Resnick style)
2 semester Matter & Interactions
(Changed Calc I prerequisite to co-requisite as well)• Student survey from Spring 2008 found:
Half have had memorably enjoyable course(s)
Faculty provide challenge & are available, encouraging
More than 75% will choose Purdue again if starting over
Some courses do not carry enough credits or are not well designed or taught
• Students not ready for mathematical rigor of upper division courses.
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Revised Upper Division Curriculum Since Fall 2008
• Common first two years for all 5 majors programs
• Provide good mathematical foundation
• Preserve flexibility and encourage taking of specialty and interdisciplinary courses
• Modernization of labs remains a future project
• Applied electives need better road map
Common Second Year:
2 new Math Methods of Physics courses
Waves and Oscillations (built on Optics course)
Modern Physics, 4-credtis and redesigned
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Honors Program Independent Project must culminate in an acceptable written report to be deposited with Dept. (Applied Hon. too)
2 Physics/Astro Specialty Course Electives
Quantum Mechanics to fit entirely in junior year
Grade requirement no longer includes math courses
Regular Program
1 Physics/Astro Course Elective
Applied Physics Program
30 Applied elective credits (~ 10 courses) – in process of aligning these to enable Minor in another field simultaneously (e.g., Mech. Engineering)
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Career Path After Graduation
• About 2/3 go on to graduate school (majority in Physics)
• Significant fraction goes to industry
41%
26%
5%
7%
21%
Grad. Sch. (Physics)Grad. Sch. (Other)TeachingGovernmentIndustry
Post BS career of 2005-2007 graduates
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Support and Research Opportunities
• Student survey finds:
Undergraduates overwhelmingly desire to do research with our own faculty here
Ascarelli Fellowships beginning in 1st year
Spots on our Summer REU Program
Not enough gets to do research
Financial support is at low levels
Opportunities not well advertized
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Enrollments by Gender/Ethnicity
By Gender
• 10~12% female
By Ethnicity
• Total URM ~12% 2007-08
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Service Teaching• Separate Mechanics/E&M Sequences for: Engineering, Health Sciences, and Technology students
• Other courses include: 1 course for agriculture students, 2 astronomy courses, 1 for elem. education students, and 1 remedial course for engineering students.
~7,500 students/year (half in Engineering Sequence.)
(Diagram does not include the course for education students or the remedial one.)
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Challenges in Service Teaching
• Curriculum modernization
• Staffing: massive need for TA’s
Matter & Interactions curriculum introduced for the engineers about 2 years ago
Assessment of the new curriculum in progress
Engineering sequence (172/272/241) alone required 6 faculty, 26 ½-time equiv. TA’s
These staffing needs are controlled by Engineering enrollments, not by us. This can and does create a large problem for us.