Computational physics is underrepresented

The subject "physics" can be divided into experimental and theoretical physics. In order to become excellent physicists, students attend numerous classes on these two subcategories of physics. The neverending "battle" between theoretical and experimental physicists on which group of people are the "real" physicists is being fought on (presumably) each and every university campus in this world.

But does the simple division into two categories, theory and experiment, do justice to this large and complex subject termed physics? Not really. How about computational physics?

The syllabus

The syllabus. Americans will probably know what I am talking about, but how about our readers from Germany? Do you know what a syllabus is? And why it is useful? 

Thoughts on a new class named "The Physics of Modern Information Technology"

Currently, I am thinking about a new (elective) class on the physics of modern information technology for both B.Sc. and M.Sc. students that I would like to teach in the near future.  

Technically, this idea isn't entirely new, since, for example, there exists a book and a related class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by Professor Neil Gershenfeld. However, the concept of my own proposed course is quite a bit different with a stronger focus on magnetic recording and spintronics, new devices in information technology (e.g., resistive random access memories and phase change memories) and alternative computing architectures (i.e., non-von Neumann computers based on neuromorphic computing, probabilistic computing, etc.). I also like the concept of the "Information Storage and Spintronics" class taught by Professor Atsufumi Hirohata at the University of York.

Does (condensed matter) physics have an image problem?

Fewer and fewer people in Germany choose physics as their major at a university. 

This is not just hearsay, but it is actually based on a statistical evaluation by the German Society of Physics (sorry, the document is in German only, but you can clearly see the trend in Fig. 1). Also, there are fewer people getting a B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD degree.  

Here are some thoughts on the issue whether physics -- in particular, condensed matter physics, because that is the very discipline I am working in -- has an image problem and why physics as a subject may be less appealing to people nowadays than it used to be some years and decades ago. Certainly, I do not have a simple solution for this problem, but perhaps some of the following points could be important factors in this context.

A few more words on group projects and group dynamics

In my last blog post I have been praising group projects. Group projects in higher education are great. But that is not the whole truth. Be aware of the pitfalls.

One could argue that group projects involve the following issues: When working in teams of several students, chances are pretty high that there may be a subgroup of people who are less motivated and do not want to invest a lot of energy into the project. Or perhaps they are just less talkative than their partners and prefer staying in the background during discussions. Another possibility is that there are other types of students involved, let's call them "control freaks" or "self-promoters". I believe that there is no need to explain these personalities in more detail.

Defining success in higher education teaching

"What are you most proud of to date in your teaching career in higher education?"

That was one of the questions during my interview for an assistant professor position at a primarily undergraduate institution in the United States. 

I think that every teacher, professor and lecturer has had some very positive moments, but also negative experiences in their past teaching activities, no matter how advanced they are in their career. It is extremely valuable to reflect on these experiences, and usually you can draw important conclusions for teaching in higher education in general. I will try to do this in today's blog post by considering one of my greatest achievements thus far as a teacher. Perhaps I am going to do the same in a future post, but with a negative example. 

What is this blog about?

Welcome to the "Teaching Physics in Higher Education" blog! 

My name is Dr. Martin Lonsky and I am currently a research scientist at the Goethe-University Frankfurt in Germany. Aside from conducting research, I have a great passion for teaching physics and materials science. I am always excited about trying out new teaching approaches and to spark students' interest for natural sciences by conveying my enthusiasm for the aforementioned subjects. 

But why exactly did I decide to start writing my very first blog? Does the world really need a blog about teaching, especially in the field of physics? Is there really so much to talk about this specific topic?