Physics dept. needs chemistry

There aren't many schools in the country better than Tech when it comes to engineering programs, and even our non-engineering programs are gaining credibility. But what is Tech's selling point?

"Look at the person to your right and the person to your left," they tell you during orientation. "Only two of you will graduate from here."

At first, this might seem to be quite an impressive statement; Tech is a public institution whose classes are as rigorous as those taught at well-respected Ivy League schools-not bad, you might think. But after attending a class filled with over 200 students (take introductory chemistry classes, for instance) with an instructor who is brilliant in every aspect besides teaching, you begin to wonder what exactly Tech is selling. Is it beneficial to the school to fail a quarter of a class and pass three-quarters, who may or may not have a solid background on the subject being taught?

Instead of focusing on "weeding out" as many students as possible, it is better to encourage professors to work harder on getting through to students. Certain students may know how to study-or use exams from previous semesters-and pass a class, whereas other students who may be much more skilled in the subject may fail because they missed a few more multiple-choice questions on a multiple-choice only exam.

Currently, this is the problem with Physics 2211. Imagine taking an exam with ten questions worth ten points each. Only a scientific calculator is allowed, making long computation difficult (many of the questions require more than a dozen steps to solve completely). On two questions, you forget to divide by the final term because there is hardly enough room on your paper to see your work-this delays your progress and leaves you to guess on two questions. Your score is a 60. Your neighbor, on the other hand, knew half as much as you but scored higher thanks to random guessing.

Although the School of Physics has made numerous changes in the structure of this course over the past few years, these changes have not been reflected in a significant manner in terms of average GPAs. Physics 2211 has had surprisingly low average GPAs over the last couple of years. For instance, according to SGA's Course Critique, GPAs were as low as 1.97 in spring of 2003, 1.81 in spring of 2004, and 2.27 in spring of 2005.

Admission standards are getting stricter every year, with average SAT scores and high school GPAs of admitted students on the rise. According to an article posted last June on Tech's website, ".Tech is admitting one of the smartest classes in its 119-year history. Students who've committed to becoming freshmen this fall [of 2004] currently boast an average grade point average of 3.75 and an average SAT score of 1337."

It is evident that administrators need to take a closer look at how professors are teaching the class. Not only should administrators change the format of the tests to check conceptual understanding rather than just computational skills, they should also take into consideration the fact that oftentimes professors are just not getting through to students. This is true not only for physics, but for other classes as well. Take calculus classes, for example. Some professors who teach calculus classes allow students to use notes and books on their exams and let students exempt the final exam (such as a Calculus II class last semester), completely omitting certain concepts. In one Calculus II class last semester, students who had an "A" in the class before the final exam were given the privilege of exempting the exam. As a result, they were not tested on eigenvalues and eigenvectors, among other linear algebra concepts fundamental to advanced mathematics and engineering courses.

Uniformity is another problem. The solution is not to standardize exams, which has proven very unfortunate for some students in introductory physics, but to establish better standards for teaching. After being in a class taught by more than one professor and hearing experiences from fellow students, it is easy to see that some professors copy-and-paste the textbook onto slides and recite from them, while others explain concepts with a different approach, making it easier for students to grasp complicated, abstract ideas.

As a whole, Tech needs to set a stronger and more uniform standard for teaching introductory classes. Administrators need to take a closer look at how professors are teaching introductory classes; the focus needs to be on learning concepts, and learning them thoroughly and completely.