Guide to Understanding Introductory Physics & Astronomy Course Changes (Beginning Fall 2024)
What: The Department of Physics & Astronomy has elected to update their introductory courses to separate the lectures and the labs into two distinct courses.
Why: Students completing the courses under the new format will now be able to repeat only one portion of the course should a repeat be necessary.
When: The new course options will become available beginning Fall 2024 term. DegreeWorks has now been updated to reflect the new course options in preparation for Fall 2024 schedule planning and registration in April 2024.
What are the new course correlations?
Please use the chart below to determine new course options for older programs of study requirements. All programs of study beginning Fall 2024 will be corrected to reflect the new course sequence reflected in the table.
*Prerequisites and corequisites are built to require registration for both the new lecture and lab courses. This being said, both courses (lecture and lab) will filter in to fulfill the course requirement in DegreeWorks upon registration.
Current Course (Lecture/Lab Combo) | New Course (Lecture Only) | Corresponding Lab |
AST 1001 | AST 1021 | AST 1011 |
AST 1002 | AST 1022 | AST 1012 |
PHY 1101 | PHY 1121 | PHY 1111 |
PHY 1102 | PHY 1122 | PHY 1112 |
PHY 1103 | PHY 1123 | PHY 1113 |
PHY 1104 | PHY 1124 | PHY 1114 |
PHY 1150 | PHY 1170 | PHY 1160 |
PHY 1151 | PHY 1180 | PHY 1161 |
Key Considerations for Students and Advisors
DegreeWorks
DegreeWorks will be cleanly updated to reflect the new course sequences for Fall 2024 catalog years forward. However, the technology has presented some challenges for older catalog years as a change to move one required class to two required classes does not work well retroactively. For this reason, an “or” statement is visible instead of an “and” statement. We understand the confusion this presents. Our DegreeWorks team is exploring any and every option to update this for a clearer understanding. Provided below is a visual representation of the above description:
In the above example, the former course was PHY 1103. Per the chart above, the student will be required to complete PHY 1123 AND PHY 1113. Again, work is still being done to try and update the text shown to indicate “and” instead of “or” for the courses needed.
Prerequisites and corequisites are built to require registration for both the new lecture and lab courses. This being said, both courses (lecture and lab) will filter in to fulfill the section. Likewise, scrolling over the course in DegreeWorks will indicate the prerequisites and corequisite requirements.
For planning and advising, we understand that the current DegreeWorks representation is problematic, but official registration will require completion of the full sequence. While we work on seeking an option in DegreeWorks to adjust this more clearly, please share this guide for planning purposes.
Grade Forgiveness/Repeats
Given that the former lecture/lab combination course provided one grade only, students who took the original course and seek to repeat for grade forgiveness must repeat both the lecture and the lab under the new sequence numbers. Repeating one portion only is not an option given grading structures.
Moving forward, when a student takes the new PHY and AST course sequence, they will be permitted to repeat only a portion (lecture or lab).