Students warm to cold concepts
Charles J. R. Williams · Physics World · 1992
By the time physics undergraduates begin their final year they have studied among other things thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics and the solid state. The principal purpose of the final year is to develop a student's knowledge of these areas into understanding, thus transforming the subjects from abstractions, useful only for getting through examinations, into tools that they will use throughout their careers. Projects, practical or theoretical, are one means to this end and I have become convinced of the effectiveness of this approach after an informal survey of some physicist acquaintances revealed that, although they could easily describe their own third-year projects from years ago in considerable detail, only with the greatest difficulty could they recall the name of their boyfriend or girlfriend from the same period.