Lack of Response May Endanger New Program Of Middle-Level Nat Sci

Sparse student turnouts for new middle-group Natural Science courses offered this year are endangering the future of that section of the General Education program.

Only two undergraduates took Nat Sci 100, "The Nature of Certainty in Physical Experiments," for credit last Fall and Nat Sci 113, "Crystals, Quanta, and Electrons," has an enrollment of just 20 this Spring.

The fate of these courses threatens to make Faculty members reluctant to offer similar courses in the future, according to Edward T. Wilcox, director of the Program of General Education.

If the General Education program fails to set up a diversified assortment of middle-group Nat Sci courses, then a principal part of the new Gen Ed program would be undermined -- the attempt to write a Gen Ed requirement that would work for students with widely-differing levels of high school preparation.

'Finished'

Wilcox said that if the middle-group courses, including new offerings such as Nat Sci 114, "The Flow of Liquids and Gases," do not get a better response next year, the concept would be "finished" in the Natural Sciences.

The assumption behind the middle-group Nat Sci's, Wilcox said, was that a large number of students had both the training and the desire to take courses more advanced than the old lower-level offerings such as Nat Sci 2 or 4. He estimated that there are 500 entering freshmen each year with advanced placement in mathematics.

Wilcox said that the courses' problem might be in communicating their nature to undergraduates. Even though the middle-group courses are expressly designed for non-scientists, he said, students seem to shy away from them automatically.

Natural Resistance

He said there was no such "natural resistence to the whole area" in either Social Sciences or Humanities.

"Some people say it's fear of science courses in general," said Richard V. Jones, Gordan McKay Professor of Applied Physics, who is teaching Nat Sci 113. "Perhaps something labeled as a middle-group course would be additionally terrifying."

"It will certainly dampen future enthu- siasm," Jones said, if the first of the middle-group courses fail. He said his own course would have to have a larger enrollment to be successful.

One of the middle-group courses, Nat Sci 112, "Information Theory and Coding," has had no difficulty in attracting students. But "there is a fascination with the computer that is directly involved in this course," Jones said.

Frederick H. Abernathy, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering, said his new Nat Sci 114 would be aimed "not at practitioners, but rather at appreciators."

Abernathy said the middle-group courses would have to capitalize on the undergraduate "information system."

"How do people know of the reputation of Nat Sci 5 within a week after they get here?" he said