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 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 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.

7  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

8 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)

9  Career Path After Graduation About 2/3 go on to graduate school (majority in Physics) Significant fraction goes to industry Post BS career of graduates

10  Support and Research Opportunities Student survey finds: Undergraduates overwhelmingly desire to do research with our own faculty here Ascarelli Fellowships beginning in 1 st 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%

12  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.)

13 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.