The undergraduate biology curriculum has undergone a revolution in the past 50 years that reflects the advances in the larger field. In contrast, the content of the introductory physics curriculum is essentially the same as what was taught 50 years ago, mostly 17 th century ballistics and 19 th century electrostatics. Because biology-related applications on the macroscale are complex and require mathematics beyond introductory calculus, the focus is entirely on applications from molecular and cellular biology. In designing the new curriculum, I started with the basic question: “What physics will a life-science major encounter later in their undergraduate studies?” The curriculum is designed around two main themes, diffusion and electric dipoles. Diffusion illustrates the concepts of conservation of momentum and energy and provides the framework for introducing entropy from the perspective of statistical mechanics. Electric dipoles illustrate the basic concepts of electromagnetic theory and provide the framework for understanding light waves and light interactions with biomolecules. These themes are supported by small computational activities to help students understand the physics without advanced mathematics. This curriculum has been piloted over the past decade at Michigan State University in an active learning format and a lecture-based textbook is forthcoming from MIT Press.
Lisa J. Lapidus (Sun,) studied this question.