1

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

2

Recruitment and Retention: Enrollments

• Generally increasing since 1996-97

• Tracks national trend until mid 2000’s

3

Recruitment and Retention: Degrees

• Downturn since mid 2000’s despite increasing enrollment

• Tracked national trend (at least until mid 2000’s)

4

Degrees by Program

By Program

• Honors degrees < 10

Standard vs Applied majors

• Applied majors increasing slowly

• Standard majors generally level

5

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.

6

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

10

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

11

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.