{"id":1895,"date":"2014-05-02T09:59:13","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T13:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/physics-astronomy\/?page_id=1895"},"modified":"2014-09-25T09:59:52","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T13:59:52","slug":"physics-department-educational-goals","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/physics-astronomy\/academics\/physics-department-educational-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Physics Department Educational Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For all students served by the Physics and Astronomy curriculum, including those participating in general-education or introductory courses as well as those participating in advanced courses and the senior thesis, the Department aims to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Develop students\u2019 appreciation for the workings of the natural world through qualitative and quantitative description, analysis, and understanding<\/li>\n<li>Build students\u2019 problem-solving skills and capability for analytical thinking through the construction of mathematical models and where appropriate verification of the models through experimentation<\/li>\n<li>Foster an appreciation for the core intuitive and creative elements of physics \u2013 analogous to the creation of art, music, and literature<\/li>\n<li>Instill the importance of constructive skepticism, which guides the posing of substantive questions about the natural world given a foundation of general understanding of empirical inquiry and scientific truth<\/li>\n<li>Convey a sense of the practical or \u201creal-world\u201d role of physics and its foundational role in the structure of our modern technology-driven society<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Additionally, the Department strives to ensure that Physics majors should be able to:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Grasp the fundamental principles of core topics including classical mechanics, electrodynamics, and quantum mechanics<\/li>\n<li>Demonstrate their understanding via oral and written communication<\/li>\n<li>Describe the physical world using mathematics, and by extension, perceive the physical content of the abstract expressions used in such descriptions<\/li>\n<li>Perform measurements on the physical world and independently verify fundamental ideas through the design and construction of experiments<\/li>\n<li>Understand the nature of error and uncertainty in physical measurements<\/li>\n<li>Appreciate the historical development and unity of the intellectual construct of physics<\/li>\n<li>Conduct and complete an independent project through participation in the senior thesis<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For all students served by the Physics and Astronomy curriculum, including those&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":360,"featured_media":0,"parent":105,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_batesModPostContentOverride_prepend":false,"_batesModPostContentOverride_append":false,"_batesModPostContentOverride_append_before_footer":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"class_list":["post-1895","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/physics-astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/physics-astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/physics-astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/physics-astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/physics-astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1895"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/physics-astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1901,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/physics-astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1895\/revisions\/1901"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/physics-astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/physics-astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}