Vision and change in introductory physics for the life sciences

Abstract

Since 2010, the Yale physics department has offered a novel calculus-based introductory physics for the life science (IPLS) sequence, that re-imagines the IPLS syllabus to include a selection of biologically and medically relevant topics, that are highly meaningful to its audience of biological science and premedical undergraduates. The first semester, in particular, differs considerably from traditional first-semester introductory physics. Here, we highlight the novel aspects of Yale's first-semester course, and describe student feedback about the course, including a comparison between how students evaluate the course and how they evaluate courses with a traditional syllabus, and how students' perceptions of the relevance of physics to biology and medicine are affected by having taken the course.