Program
Our primary goal is to meet the needs of those Berea students, both majors and non-majors, who
take physics courses. The physics program is designed to give our physics majors a broad view of the
physics
practiced in the modern world and to help them develop the fundamental skills required to
pursue either graduate study in physics or other technical careers. Commensurate with the size
of the department, it is our goal through staffing and course offerings to provide the student with
both an experimental and a theoretical perspective. A number of our course offerings provide
laboratory experience as an aid in making concrete the many unfamiliar phenomena that physics
treats. The laboratory exercises also help develop skills of observation and data analysis, as well
as introduce certain classical time-honored experiments to the students.
As mathematics is an integral part of the practice of physics, particular attention is given to
cognate courses in mathematics and to the integration of mathematical material into the physics
curriculum. Mathematical skills are developed through repeated exposure and drill in both the
mathematics and the physics curriculum. As in the physics curriculum, the student is introduced
to mathematical techniques at a low level of sophistication and led to increasingly demanding
material.
Computers and numerical methods have become central to the physics curriculum. It is our goal
to expose students to the use of computers in a variety of roles throughout the curriculum,
including use as word processors, in data acquisition and analysis, as analytical tools, in
developing computational techniques, and in information management and exchange.
Research is an essential component to the undergraduate physics curriculum, particularly in light
of the fact that a majority of our students plan to attend graduate school in physics and/or
engineering. We provide our students with research opportunities on our campus through the
UGRCPP program and through the labor program. Our students have participated in projects to
monitor variable stars with the College Observatory, use laser ablation to create and study
buckyballs (C60), and synthesize new materials like half-metals. Research opportunities off
campus are available through internships, Short Term or REU summer programs. Research
opportunities may be experimental, theoretical, or computational. All physics majors had at least
one experience in undergraduate research on or off campus prior to graduation.
For those students who wish to study physics with an engineering perspective, the department
maintains relationships with the University of Kentucky and Washington University through the
3-2 program. We also encourage and advise students who wish to pursue engineering through
their graduate studies. Students who are interested in the 3-2 program through physics work
closely with one of the physics faculty to design an appropriate curriculum that will transfer to
one of the engineering schools.