Purdue (WL) Undergraduate Program
 Programs
• 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
1. Majors Current state and challenges
• Recruitment and retention
• Curriculum
• Support/Research opportunities
• Climate
2. Service program state and challenges
1
 Recruitment and Retention: Enrollments
• Generally increasing since 1996-97
• Tracks national trend until mid 2000’s
250
18000
16000
200
14000
12000
150
100
10000
8000
6000
50
4000
2000
0
Total Enrollment
Jr/Sr Enrollement
Nationally
0
2
Recruitment and Retention: Degrees
• Downturn since mid 2000’s despite increasing enrollment
• Tracked national trend (at least until mid 2000’s)
50
6000
40
5000
30
20
10
0
4000
Physics BS Total
3000
Physics BS/BA
Nationally
2000
1000
0
3
Degrees by
Program
 By Program
• Honors
degrees < 10
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Regular
Honors
Applied
Applied
Honors
Teaching
40
 Standard vs
Applied majors
• Applied majors
increasing slowly
• Standard majors
generally level
35
30
25
20
PHYS BS
Total
Reg+Hon
15
10
5
0
4
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.
90
80
70
60
Fall '08
50
Fall '09
40
30
20
10
0
Freshman
Sophomore
Junior
Senior+
5
 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.
6
 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
7
 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)
8
 Career Path After Graduation
• About 2/3 go on to graduate school (majority in Physics)
• Significant fraction goes to industry
Post BS career of
2005-2007 graduates
21%
41%
7%
5%
Grad. Sch. (Physics)
Grad. Sch. (Other)
Teaching
Government
Industry
26%
9
 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
10
Enrollments by
Gender/Ethnicity
250
200
Femal
e
Male
150
By Gender
100
50
• 10~12% female
 By Ethnicity
• Total URM
~12% 2007-08
0
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
International
White and Other
Hispanic
American Indian
Asian American
African American
11
 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.)
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Other
Engineering
(Diagram does not include the course for education students or the remedial one.)
12
Challenges in Service Teaching
• Curriculum modernization
 Matter & Interactions curriculum introduced for the
engineers about 2 years ago
 Assessment of the new curriculum in progress
• Staffing: massive need for TA’s
 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.
13