Introductory Physics is taught in `workshop' format that emphasizes active learning rather than the passive approach of strictly lecture courses. In a given class meeting, there can be a combination of activities including laboratory work, lecture, discussion, problem solving, and demonstration. The goal is for students to discover for themselves the laws of nature instead of simply hearing it from a professor or reading it in a text. For example, to understand Newton's Laws they use special sensors to measure the forces on different objects when they collide. Next, they apply this knowledge in a 'theory lab' where they build a mathematical model of a gas and establish the links between the pressure exerted by the gas and the collisions of the molecules that create this pressure.

The two, introductory teaching labs have been renovated in recent years to make student and faculty collaboration easier. New equipment has been added so that no more than two students use each experimental station and the maximum number of students in each integrated lab-lecture session is 24. Some samples of the experiments can be found here.

General Physics I-II is a year-long sequence that introduces the student to most of the major topics in physics including mechanics, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and light. We also support a course in astrophysics and liberal arts physics.