The Introductory University Physics Project 1987–1995: What has it accomplished?

In 1987, one of us (JSR) challenged the physics teaching community to examine the content of the typical introductory, calculus-based, university physics course, with an eye to meshing that content with the contemporary knowledge, level of understanding, and relative importance of the various topics in the field, and to draw upon results of the many efforts to improve that course which have been carried out over the previous 30 years. The consequence of that call to arms was the Introductory University Physics Project (IUPP). This Project, supported by the National Science Foundation over the period 1987–1995, convened several conferences during the years 1987–90 to study how to bring about the desirable changes it envisioned. The Project Steering Committee then organized the conduct and evaluation of classroom trials of four alternate course models during the academic years 1991–92 and 1992–93, at nine different colleges or universities. This report is directed to the question, “What has the IUPP accomplished?” As we shall report, the accomplishments fall into two categories. (1) As a result of the Project conferences, of frequent reports at appropriate national meetings, and reports of the course trials, many individual physics teachers have instituted small or large changes in the content and style of their courses. (2) Evaluation results from the 1991–93 trials demonstrated the importance and effectiveness of giving thematic coherence to a course structure (one of the IUPP goals), and demonstrated the feasibility of a substantial exposure to quantum physics in the introductory course. We expect textbooks based on several of the IUPP course models to be published within the next several years. In addition to studying ways to further the central goals of the Project (more contemporary physics, a less-packed list of topics, a visible theme or “story line”), study of the evaluation materials from the 1991–93 trials yielded a substantial amount of information relevant to all physics instruction at the introductory level. This information came in areas such as effective use of the introductory laboratory, strengths and pitfalls of computer use in introductory courses, and the importance of helping students most usefully allocate the time they have available for physics.