The role of bridging courses of mathematics and physics on an undergraduate physics program.

Abstract

We present the evaluation of a physics reform that is based in one-year bridging courses of mathematics and physics. This reform was undertook in the Academic Unit of Physics of the Autonomous University of Zacatecas Mexico in 2002 in order to give the physics and mathematics grounds to the freshman students that, for multiple reasons, not acquired them in the high school preparation. We compare the data of four generations of the five-year program (propaedeutic) and the four-year program (traditional) finding practically no difference in the students performance between both programs. Even, in most cases the students performance of the propaedeutic program is slightly better than the traditional one. However, rates like graduation and efficacy are worse in the five-year program. We also asses the 2010 selection process analyzing the pre and post two-week course scores. We obtain that only the top five scores show good accordance between the selection process results and the 2010 official ranking of aspirants in physics (EXANI-II-CENEVAL, spanish acronyms). We also find that a score of 70 % is the reference that determines if the aspirants go to the five-year or to the four-year program.

Keywords

• bridging courses
• bacherlo’s physics program
• mathematics courses
• physics courses
• selection process.