How many of your students come into class on the first day of the academic year excited about learning physics? In my experience, many of my students on the first day are frightened of physics, some excessively so. How can we change that fear to interest in the subject matter?
How about classes beyond the first day? How can we engage students and maintain interest as the academic term progresses? Here are a few ideas that I have used in my classes to “hook” students early in the academic term and at the beginning of each class in order to generate enthusiasm for the material to follow.
Some students may have trouble identifying why the study of physics is important, especially if the class is heavy on equations, theorems, proofs, derivations, etc. It's easy to justify studying the physics material by making connections between the material and concepts with which...