Physics 204A – Physics for Students of Science and Engineering: Mechanics

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID: PHYS 204A
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a physics course for undergraduate students by Dr. Nicholas Nelson at Chico State. The open textbook, University Physics, Volume 1 by OpenStax, provides free access to introductory physics, which is taken by almost all STEM majors . The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was to provide all students with a free textbook in place of the expensive commercial textbooks commonly used. Most students access the open textbook in a web-based format.

Physics 204A – Physics for Students of Science and Engineering: Mechanics
Brief Description of course highlights:  A 4-unit, calculus-based introduction to mechanics for science and engineering majors. Topics include vectors, kinematics, forces, friction, work, energy, power, momentum, rigid body dynamics and statics, oscillations, gravitation, and fluids. This is the first course of the introductory physics sequence. The course is taught in a studio (combined lab/lecture) format.

Student population: Students taking this class generally come from engineering, computer science, chemistry, physics, and mathematics majors. Roughly ⅔ of the students are engineers. For most students this is one of the first university-level science course they have taken.

Learning or student outcomes:  At the conclusion of the course, you should be able to:

• Design an experiment to test a theoretical prediction of the motion of an object
• Quantitatively decide if data are consistent with a mathematical model
• Apply Newton’s Laws to describe and predict motion
• Use conservation laws to describe interactions and collisions
• Explain basic concepts of gravity, harmonic motion, and rotational dynamics

Syllabus and/or Sample assignment from the course or the adoption- Slides for in-class activities can be found at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wvVQyoG_jTBsTPsWvThfznGn3_psrv8w?usp=drive_link

Key challenges faced and how resolved: The main challenge of adapting to the new, open textbook was some variation in the notation used compare the the commercial textbook that has been used by other instructors, as well as the ordering of topics. This was resolved by reviewing the course materials, adapting notation, and re-ordering some topics. 

Textbook or OER/ Title: University Physics, Volume 1 

Brief Description: This textbook, published by OpenStax, follows the scope and sequence of most two- and three-semester introductory physics courses. For mechanics, it follows the widely-used sequence of topics that focuses on understanding motion. It provides both an accessible and mathematically rigorous approach. The structure and presentation of the materials were refined with input from physics education researchers.

Please provide a link to the resource 
https://openstax.org/details/books/university-physics-volume-1

Authors:  Ling, Sanny, & Moebs

Student access:  Students can access the book through the web-based reader linked above.

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  Depending on the format, the commercial textbook previously used can cost as much as $199. For a course of 36 students this yields a savings of $7,200 per section per semester.

License: Creative Commons Attribution License v4.0

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option.  I consider the ability to read and learn from a written resource to be an important life skill and learning goal for all students. Informal anonymous polling of my students has shown that when I use a commercial textbook roughly one-third of students do not buy the textbook (and hence cannot do the reading), even when I use reading quizzes every class to motivate students to read the assigned section. This problem seems particularly acute for my students from low income backgrounds. By moving to a free textbook, I remove that barrier.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? I have used OpenStax books in other courses, and found them to be of very high quality and very easy for students to us.

Sharing Best Practices: Moving to an OER is not difficult when there is a high quality, easily accessible free or low-cost textbook available. OpenStax, for example, has high quality, free textbooks for many introductory-level courses.

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned. This program motivated me to start early in preparing course materials, which made the process of adopting an OER much easier. 

Instructor Name - Nicholas Nelson
I am a physics professor at California State University, Chico State. Please provide a link to your university page.
https://www.csuchico.edu/physics/people/faculty/nicholas-nelson.shtml

Please describe the courses you teach I teach a variety of courses in the physics program, including introductory and advanced mechanics and electricity & magnetism, as well as computational physics and introductory astronomy. I also teach a variety of courses at the general education, introductory, and advanced undergraduate level. I strive to integrate computational, theoretical, and experimental components into all of my courses.

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.  I believe that student engagement is key to learning. Students cannot learn material they do not connect to something that is important to them. Often, a professor’s role is to help encourage the building of those connections. In my classes, I seek to provide students with opportunities to connect — to the ideas, experiments, problem-solving techniques, and to each other.