Vision Statement

Physics is the connection of explanatory concepts, principles, theories and hypotheses to the physical world. These connections are often made in a quantitative way using the language of mathematics. Verification of the accuracy of these conceptual connections rests in measurements made of the physical world. 

It is the actual process of how the scientific community makes the connection between concepts and physical measurements which insures that scientific knowledge is reliable. This is science's most important feature. Communicating an understanding of this process to students is the primary goal of all physics courses taught at IUS.

Student Learning Goals

A student successfully completing the AA degree should:

1. Have some familiarity with the process by which scientists go about constructing scientific knowledge.
2. Be able to evaluate the degree of confidence we have in our current scientific knowledge.
3. Have participated in, on at least a small scale, the critical thinking involved in the practice of the scientific process.
4. Be familiar with at least a few paradigm examples of the fundamental theories which underlie our current understanding of the physical world.
5. Be able to state why scientists have come to think these few simple ideas accurately explain most physical phenomena in the physical world.
6. Be able to analyze paradigm physical situations described in words and/or pictures; and apply the relevant concepts in a quantitative way to predict or explain, when appropriate, the behavior of the system being examined.
7. Understand that the science worldview is not a belief system but is a very useful tool for understanding, explaining and predicting how many events in the world around us occur.
8. Have some concept of the limitations of science and acknowledge that scientific answers do not yet exist for many phenomena in the world.
9. Understand that the limitations of the application of the scientific world view are primarily those of our own imagination and creativity.
10. The problem solving skills learned in the course should be seen by the student as transferable to other venues.

 Laboratory Goals

After finishing the AA degree, students are expected to be able to:

1. Estimate how much error is in inherent in each measurement made in paradigm experiments.
2. Identify which measurements are critical to arriving at an accurate result ; and which are not as critical.
3. Determine if the measurements are accurate enough to conclude that the experiment successfully measured what it was supposed to measure.
4. Critique the experimental design and procedure to identify how improvements in accuracy and precision could be obtained with the same or similar equipment using a different procedure or approach.
5. Understand the statistical certainty with which scientists can make claims about the world; for example why we can say that smoking causes cancer even though the exact mechanism is not known at present.

Degree Requirements

See “General Requirements for Undergraduate Degrees at IU Southeast” and “General Requirements for the Associate of Arts Degree” for General Education requirements applicable to Associate’s of Arts students.

Core Requirements

15 credit hours required, as indicated below.

Elective Requirements

Select 15-18 credits from the courses below to reach the 60 credit hour requirement.