Bridging physics to electronics - An outreach effort

Abstract

Physics has been an important part of the science curriculum in high schools. Without the appropriate high school physics background, it is difficult for a student subsequently to pursue an electronics engineering program at the university level since a good understanding of many concepts in physics is required to comprehend the material covered in electronics-related courses. Unfortunately, a phenomenon observed in today's high schools is a clear diminution of student interest in physics, leading to dwindling physics class sizes compared to a decade ago. The lack of interest in and passion for physics at the high school level ultimately leads to smaller intakes at the university level for electronics engineering courses and/or lower qualification cutoffs for students entering the programs. This results in a significant reduction in good students graduating from engineering programs. This paper will first share survey results that reveal possible reasons behind the decreasing number of students entering engineering programs. Two concerted efforts launched from the National University of Singapore (NUS) to arrest the declining interest in high schools will then be presented. © 2009 IEEE.