The study of physics enables students to develop the important skills of deductive and analytical reasoning. It provides an understanding of natural phenomena and demands that the student be able to express an intuitive model of nature in mathematical terms. In short the study of physics is the study of problem-solving. The skills developed help prepare the graduate for the ever-changing technical world in which we live and for life in general.
The department’s faculty members are dedicated to undergraduate teaching. The introductory course for majors is Workshop Physics, where the class meets in the laboratory for an in-depth experimental investigation of physical principles. Advanced physics courses have typical class sizes of four to eight students, which are small enough to allow the kind of individualized teaching which physics really requires. Nearly all the advanced physics students engage in individual research projects with a faculty mentor. Recent research projects have included work in areas of experimental high energy physics, the physics of music, observational astronomy, remote sensing using satellite data, and physics pedagogy.