MIT's Open Courseware

[dhudson]

My ds is very motivated and finished Apologia Physics this year as well as Barron's Physics SAT Subject Test and is taking the test next week. I am looking into Physics courses for next year to take and I wondered if anyone had used MIT's Open Courseware programs.

 

We are looking at ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01sc-physics-i-classical-mechanics-fall-2010/, which looks like it would also prep him for AP Physics C.

 

We are also looking at PA Homeschoolers but this is free and I think might peak his interest more as he wants to go to MIT.

 

Thanks!

[Kathy in Richmond]

My kids didn't use them, but I went through the whole series of MIT OCW physics 8.01 & 8.02 this year using edX. Walter Lewin actually offered both courses online, and they were fantastic. Part of the coursework was watching those videos you linked. He embedded quiz questions into the lectures, along with homework sets, tests, and some online investigations. Even though these courses aren't slated to run again soon, they're still archived on edX. You can just sign up and have access to the materials & textbook to work through on a self-paced basis.

 

I'm fairly well versed in physics & took the classes as a refresher. My assessment is that they were taught *much* better than anything I'd had in the past, but also that they were *extremely* challenging. Lots more topic coverage (I felt like I had a whole astronomy course before I was done) and greater depth, too. Problems often felt similar to AoPS "challengers"...lots of satisfaction in cracking them, but some took a few days' thinking and pondering!

 

I'd recommend also that you get a physical copy of a textbook if you go this route. It was too difficult for me to find what I needed scrolling through the online one. You could go with any of the standard calculus based physics books for most of the material. That way you'd also have a source of more reasonable problems if the online problems prove to be too much. Or get the Barrons AP Physics C review book. That's another terrific source of problems on an appropriately challenging level.

[dhudson]

Thanks, Kathy. I think it might just be what we are looking for. On a side note, we are planning on our ds taking AoPS Calculus online next year.

[Kathy in Richmond]

Yep, I remembered that your son liked AoPS. Good choice of calculus course; hope he enjoys it! A kid who likes AoPS would probably also love the MIT material. And if he does complete the MIT OCW physics classes, I think that the Physics C tests would be a breeze afterwards!

[Julie of KY]

I agree with Kathy. The physics courses by Walter Lewin are excellent as well as very challenging. I have an engineering degree and took most of the course this year, but had to abandon it after one of my kids had a big trauma and needed multiple surgeries - just couldn't keep up with everything. I'll finish it out and I plan on having my oldest do the course in another year.

[dhudson]

Thanks, that helps!

[flyingiguana]

The Lewin lectures are good, up to a point, but the homework they used for the edx courses was just too hard for an intro course.  It took forever to do and needed a good tutor.  If all you want to do is that physics course, then it might be worth struggling through the problems, but the student won't get much else done.

 

We did a couple of the hw sets and then gave up on them.  We continued with the Lewin lectures and the embedded quizzes on edx and I came up with hw problems of our own from various physics texts we have around.

 

I'm guessing that the people who were putting that course together didn't want people "cheating" (not sure who that would be cheating on) so they came up with devilishly difficult problems that one couldn't find help for on the web.  That might work in a situation where you have a professor and TAs and tutors and fellow students to provide help, but it makes self learning a bit difficult. 

 

I suspect many of the people who were doing well in that course had already had college physics and were reviewing the material.

 

Also, the Lewin lectures start out great, but then kind of wander off into harder material that isn't explained very well.  I finally made the decision that most of that end of semester material didn't need to be covered in an intro class -- and if it was something that was needed, it could be explained better.  So I had to do the explaining.

 

However, I would definitely recommend the lectures for the earlier in the semester material.