SIX IDEAS THAT

SHAPED PHYSICS

FOURTH EDITION

History

ORIGINS

 

In 1987, the author was invited to serve on the steering committee of the Introductory University Physics Project (IUPP), a multi-million-dollar NSF-funded project under the leadership of John Rigden and Donald Holcomb. The project’s goal was to rethink the two-semester university introductory physics course, whose approach and content had remained the same since the early 1960s. In a series of meetings, participants considered advances in pedagogy, problems with the existing curriculum, implications of physics education research, and so on. The project eventually articulated three (somewhat contradictory) goals for a new approach to introductory physics:

  • "Less is more" (a call to reduce the pace of the course)
  • Include more 20th-century physics
  • Provide a coherent story-line

The steering committee felt that standard introductory textbooks simply had too much material, which led students to experience the course as "drinking from a fire hose," and so called for a significant reduction in pace. At the same time, as the 21st century approached, the omission of the entire corpus of 20th-century physics seemed unacceptable, particularly for 32 out of 33 students who (according to one survey) would never take another physics course. Finally, the committee was also concerned that many students experienced the standard course as being just "one idea after another" (like isolated beads on a string). The committee felt that some kind of story line would better motivate students and help them develop a more coherent and interconnected picture of physics.

In 1989, the project called for proposals for model curricula embracing these principles. The author developed the Six Ideas model as one of the proposals. The model imagined providing a story line based on exploring six core ideas that shaped physics during the last 400 years, ideas that span the full range topics that one might want to cover in introductory physics as well as providing an introduction to relativity and quantum mechanics (satisfying the second goal). The "six ideas" organization would also help students better understand the hierarchical organization of physics concepts (addressing part of logic behind the third goal) and provide a clear focus that could guide the significant cuts necessary to address the first goal.

The Six Ideas model also embraced a core fourth principle:

  • Acknowledge the results of physics education research, particularly about active learning

which the author considered very important. Indeed, as the curriculum developed, this goal became increasingly central.

In 1990, the IUPP selected five models (including the Six Ideas model) for further development and testing with the help of project funds. Four of these were eventually developed into a form suitable for formal testing. The Six Ideas model (in outline form) was tested at the University of Minnesota in 1991-92 and at Amherst and Smith Colleges in 1992-93 (the first year any real text materials were available), as well as informally at Pomona. Papers by the IUPP evaluation staff describing the 1992-93 trials of all four models appeared in the January and February 1996 issues of American Journal of Physics.

The IUPP formally ended in 1996. Of the four tested models, only the Six Ideas model survived to yield a new published textbook (though one of the other models prompted publication of a modestly revised form of one standard textbook). The IUPP process did stir up interest in the community in alternative textbooks, and led indirectly to publication of the Physics for Scientists and Engineers textbook by Knight and the Matter and Interactions textbook by Sherwood and Chabay.

PUBLICATION HISTORY

 

Though the IUPP ended in 1996, several major publishers were inspired by the project to consider possible non-traditional introductory textbooks in the mid 1990s. The author signed a contract with McGraw-Hill, which published a trial first edition (which the author provided in camera-ready form) in 1999. The second edition (a fully copy-edited two-color version) was published (in kind of a rush) in 2002. A revised edition of unit E (submitted in camera-ready form and described as a "draft 3rd edition") was published in 2005.

The author continued development and testing of revised materials (particularly for unit Q) at Pomona College, though a serious illness and a different textbook project prevented much work on Six Ideas in the latter part of the decade. In 2009, Pomona's physics department fundamentally redesigned the course for prospective majors, which required some more reworking the Six Ideas materials to make them a bit more flexible. The author also visited several sites (including an extended stay at Washington University in 2012) to explore with users what should go into a third edition. Work on the third edition began in earnest in 2012, starting with a nearly complete reorganization and rewrite of unit E, which was class-tested by the author in 2013. This was followed by revision and testing of the other units. The third edition (copyrighted 2017 but actually published in January and February of 2016) therefore represented the fruits of more than a decade of teaching experience, consultation, and development beyond the second edition. The fourth edition (copyrighted 2023 but actually published in the spring of 2022) is a less drastic revision, but ironed out some kinks in the wholesale revision that was the 3rd edition.

© 2022 Thomas A. Moore. All Rights Reserved.