MSU Physics for Molecular and Cellular Biologists
The Department of Physics and Astronomy and Lyman Briggs College have been developing a new curriculum for Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences (ILPS). The idea for the course came from these observations
- Most biology students think taking physics is a huge waste of time. Basically we are still covering 16th century ballistics, 19th century electrostatics and other problems in air. But biology happens in water and the physics is quite different.
- We teach physics to biologists without calculus. This is despite the fact that all bio majors do take at least 1 semester of calculus, usually before taking physics. All the current recommendations for biology curriculum reform include adding quantitative rigor.
- Other physics departments around the country have reformed their physics curricula have done so topically, not thematically. The worst only use trees, skeletons or Angry Birds in a traditional curriculum. The best have still treated the traditional curriculum as the starting point and made tweaks (ie remove rotation and magnetic induction)
- We can solve both of these problems by focusing the class on the physics of molecular and cellular biology, which is central to all life sciences. The math is much easier on the molecular level because basic calculus still works!
- Since physics examples in molecular biology rarely have analytical solutions, we introduce the students to computation using Python to show how real systems can be modeled numerically.
In our new course, we focus the 1st semester (traditionally mechanics) around the concept of diffusion. This concept will come up multiple times in their upper-level courses and is essential for explaining molecular interactions and cellular transport. It can be developed from the introductory concepts of collisions and energy conservation
We focus the 2nd semester (traditionally electricity and magnetism) around the concept of electric dipoles. Dipoles are essential for explaining protein structure in water and photosynthesis and can be developed from the introductory concept of an electric field.
This class is taught in a "flipped" format. Below is a sampling of readings and in-class activities written especially for the class.