Welcome to the Physics and Astronomy Department!

We hope that this home page gives you a sample of the educational opportunities that our department has to offer. We have been very active in putting efforts into modernizing our curriculum. The highlights of these changes are:

• A "theme-based" introductory sequence has the aim of making courses interesting. It tries to answer the following question: Why is physics an exciting discipline today? Traditionally an introduction to physics starts with 17th century mechanics. However, this is not a topic that we would like to present a student as his or her first or only course in physics. Physics today is a fascinating field because of all the new discoveries involving atoms and their component particles. Therefore, the first course in our introductory sequence gravitates around the theme of atoms. What are they? How do we know about them? These questions take us through many important and exciting themes of 20th-century physics, such as relativity, wave-particle duality and quantum nature. In all is a course that presents in a quantitative fashion a modern and exciting discipline of science.
  The second course has the aim of presenting classical mechanics through interesting examples. It brings an astronomical theme to a treatment of calculus-based mechanics. There are many topics in the forefront of astronomy today that are interesting examples of classical mechanics, such as the rotation of galaxies and the missing "dark" matter, the search for new planets, the expansion of the universe, planetary-system dynamics and space exploration. These and other topics are introduced quantitatively as examples of mechanical laws.
  We are currently working on the theme for the next course in the sequence: electricity and magnetism. The theme is not the only aspect of these courses that makes them different. We also teach the courses in a different way. We get students to participate more in the learning process, by having two weekly hours of lecture and two weekly hours of discussion and group work for solving problems. In addition we have a three hour weekly lab.
• A flexible upper-level course structure departs from the traditional sequence of courses required to prepare students toward graduate school in physics. A few years ago we changed from having three required upper-level courses plus three electives to the option to take three of any of the previous six plus two more courses. All upper-level courses are taught every other year. The result of this is that students who wish to do more applied science can take some of the more experimental options. That is, they can craft their studies around their career interests. In all we find that students take at least two more courses that the required three.
• The third important component of our curriculum is research. Physics and Astronomy are fundamental fields of science where the aim is to understand nature. Therefore, this quest for discovery should be an integral part of the curriculum. All seniors in the spring semester are required to take a research course where they work on a project under the advise of a faculty mentor, who gets course credit for this advising. The aim is to do or learn something new. Projects are mostly experimental, centered around the faculty's research laboratories. However, in the past we have had theoretical projects and even cross disciplinary projects with members of other departments as advisors. The results of many of these projects have resulted in publications and conference presentations.

As a result of our efforts our enrollments have experienced a sustained growth over the last ten years. Recently, an article by Robert Ehrlich in Physics Teacher (Vol. 37, p142, March 1999) studying the bachelor degree output of 750 colleges and universities in the U.S. finds us among the seven "big gainers" in growth of number of majors. Our Astronomy-Physics program is also very strong. Our enrollments in recent years have also grown significantly. An interdisciplinary concentration in "Astrogeophysics," which is quite unique, has become very popular among students interested in pursuing further studies in Planetary Science. Finally, another highlight of  the department is our  Physics and Astronomy Seminar. It is one of the most active weekly departmental seminars on campus, bringing to campus renowned scientists from a variety of fields plus our own successful alumni.

If you are a prospective student, do not hesitate to contact us. We will be delighted to show you our department and tell you about our program. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact information:

Diane Janney, Administrative Assistant, (315) 228-7723 djanney@mail.colgate.edu

Vic Mansfield, Department Chair, vmansfield@mail.colgate.edu