This reports only discusses curriculum issues for undergraduate programs in the Faculty of Science. First year courses, Honours programs and majors programs face somewhat different issues and will be discussed under separate headings. The graduate program and engineering physics are discussed separately.
A very large fraction of our undergraduate teaching takes place in first year courses. There have been a number of changes in overall requirements for a B.Sc. degree at UBC. Separate Biology, Chemistry, and Physics requirements no longer exist for students with grade 12 credits in these subject, while students without, still must make up for the deficit (in the case of Physics by taking PHYS 100). Another change is that the number of credits given for courses with a lab component has been increased. There is no automatic increase in the total number of credits to graduate. (One of the driving forces for the change was a report from a faculty wide committee that among other things recommended that students should take fewer and more challenging courses). As a consequence there is no longer a common first year for most science students, although they don’t declare a major until the second year. The changes will create uncertainty in projections for future enrolment and more competition between the different departments for students. The different departments in the faculty have not reacted uniformly to the challenge.
In the case of Physics and Astronomy we decided after extensive consultations to continue offering the basic courses PHYS 101,102 as 3- credit calculus based courses with a lab. Our Biology colleagues indicated they would not be well served by a non-calculus based “Physics for life sciences” course, and a lab is essential (life science advisors have also indicated that the PHYS 101 grade is an excellent predictor for success in biology programs). We decided to modernize the curriculum in 101-102 by incorporating more life science applications. Through efficiencies we found it possible to go to an alternative week lab without significantly reducing the number of labs. We have so far seen no indication of enrolment slippage (instead it has steadily increased), nor have we noticed any reduction in physics requirements in programs (as would be allowed by elimination of faculty wide requirements). Our current 3 credit pre-Honours courses PHYS 121-122 these have been split into two 3-credit lecture courses and a 2-credit lab effective 2002-3.
As far as our own programs are concerned the recreditation and new breadth requirements has put pressure on the first year, and we reacted by reducing the amount of first year chemistry in most programs to 4 credits (one course).
The department has been successful in developing popular general interest Astronomy courses at both the 100 and 300 level, with a solid enrolment.
Physics and Astronomy has an unusually large fraction of its students registered in Honours programs compared to other science departments. PHYS 200 is a course taken by all Physics and Astronomy students in their second year, and is perhaps the best indication of current trends. Of the 107 students registered 43 are in Honours Physics, Biophysics or combined programs, 34 are Physics or Astronomy Majors, 5 in a General Program with physics specialization, and 25 in various non-physics programs. In upper years some of the Honours students will revert to the Majors program, but the fraction of Honours students remains high.
The largest Honours programs are Honours Biophysics (15 in PHYS 200), Physics and Math (10 in PHYS 200), and Honours Physics (9 in PHYS 200). Biophysics is a new program; the first students graduated only last spring and is a subject of a separate report. The growth in program allowing us the luxury of designing courses directed especially to these students. Two courses PHYS 305 and PHYS 437 can meet this need- although it has not proven possible to give PHYS 437 every year. Mathematics courses plays a large part of all Honours physics programs, and the Mathematics department has been quite cooperative in modifying their offerings to suit our needs. There have been a number of smaller changes over the years to allow students more opportunities for electives in 4th year (including graduate courses), and we have not allowed the credit load to increase. One perceived need is for a new advanced mechanics course covering continuum mechanics and dynamical system theory. A new course in general relativity has proven popular. We are concerned that it should not become too difficult to complete the program in 8 terms, although a significant number of students do choose take an extra year for various reasons.
The combined programs Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Chemistry and Physics and Computer Science have smaller enrolment (3 each in PHYS 200), while no student enrolled in Oceanography and Physics this year. In the case of Physics and Astronomy this may make it difficult to continue some advanced Astronomy courses. Considering the opportunities available for students combining Physics with Chemistry and Computer Science the enrolments in these program are disappointing. One problem, which is hard to pin down, is that differences in “language and culture” of the participating departments. Students may thus feel they are getting a mixed message, and not be able to fully integrate material in the two subjects. On the other hand there is not enough students in the programs to create “bilingual” courses especially for them. Another problem is that because of the necessity of covering the basics in two separate subjects the credit load is too high- in particular there is a large number of time consuming laboratories. Negotiations are on-going to improve these programs and trying harder to identify what is essential and what is not for particular groups of students. In the case of Oceanography and Physics an obvious solution would be to replace it with an Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric, Science and Physics program, but there is little interest in the EOSC department for this. There is not a great deal of “cost” in maintaining the small combined programs, since there are no special courses attached to them, but they do cause time table problems.
As recommended in the last Departmental Review, we have gradually
been removing courses specifically for physics majors in an effort to remove
duplication. All students in our
programs now take PHYS 209 as their second year lab and the Major’s version 215
has been discontinued. Similarly the Major’s electricity and magnetism course
PHYS 311 has been discontinued and students take either the corresponding
Honours or Engineering Physics course.
A few Major’s courses still remain (PHYS 216 –mechanics, 312 mathematical
physics, 313 thermal physics and 412 atomic physics.) Some of these courses are
quite large (PHYS 216) or have a sizeable enrolment from outside the
department, (e.g. 313 is required for atmospheric science students and it
combines thermodynamics and stat mech, which Honours students take in separate
courses). In the case of PHYS 216 it is generally felt that most Majors would
not be able handle the corresponding Honours courses 206. PHYS 312 covers a
number of computational methods not in the corresponding MATH 316. Some
elective courses mainly for Majors PHYS 315, 317, 318 are no longer given on a
regular basis. A next step in upgrading the Major program would be to modify
PHYS 412 to be a second modern physics course given in third year, including perhaps
material from 315 (Physics of materials) which they now no longer have access
to. We could then require the majors to take PHYS 304 (Quantum mechanics) in
fourth year.
The Majors group of students is heterogeneous and it is difficult
to provide a focus for the program. At the moment opportunities are very good
for students going to education, but for some reason the number of students
taking this route is low. Some of the stronger majors combine a physics major
with minor in commerce or double major computer science, or head for a career
in medical physics. Opportunities exist in computational physics and the new
course PHYS 410 is a move in right direction.
The enrolment is the Astronomy Major is very low (1 student in
PHYS 200), in previous years the number has been larger. A possible solution
would be to discontinue the Astronomy and Physics Major’s programs, as
recommended in the last Departmental Review, or one could merge the two
programs offering an Astronomy option within a Physics Major.
November 9
2001
Birger
Bergersen.
Further information about Physics and Astronomy programs and courses is available from the departmental website. Follow links to Undergraduate programs, overview for programs and Courses, courses given 2001-2 for courses. There are also links to the UBC calendar- the web-based calendar is the official one.