Brian Jones transcript

Hi, I’m Brian Jones. I’m one of the authors on Knight, Jones, Field, College Physics, and I’ve been teaching physics for over 40 years now. I taught in Ohio, I taught in Africa, but I spent the bulk of my career at Colorado State University.

What excites me most about the text is this: we’ve worked really, really hard to make sure that all the problems that we ask in the text, all the examples we ask in the text, are relevant to the real world. We use real numbers, real examples, they’re realistic, and so they teach you something about the world. And that’s really important for the students who take the college physics class.

They aren’t going to be physicists. They’re going to be in other fields, mostly the life sciences. And so, we have problems about jumping whales, and we have problems about blood flow in your body. We have problems about how conduction happens in neurons. And I’m really excited about showing the applications of physics.

First off, there’s the pedagogy. We have a real strong emphasis on pedagogy, understanding how students think about the world and helping them understand how we talk about the world in physics. A real strong basis in pedagogy, and the digital features help to emphasize that because we’ve got all kinds of tools which will help the students learn.

The other thing I’m really excited about, and I talked about this previously, is the applications to the real world, and students love that. They’re motivated to read the book because they understand the problems are realistic, the situations are realistic, and it’s teaching them not just about physics, but why physics is important to their lives and careers.

And the third thing I’ll say is, I’m really excited about the new things that are coming out. So, this is a textbook that is still in production. The authors are still living and breathing and educating. We’re still making stuff. I’m right here in the studio where we make videos for the next edition of the textbook.

And so, we’re making videos about solving problems that relate to the world and most specifically, the living world. And so, I have some of the props that will show up in some of the videos. So, I’m excited that this text is still under development. And the new versions of Mastering Physics in the eText are allowing us to really dream big. We have all kinds of great ideas that you will be seeing in the near future.

I define myself as a physics educator, okay? I came to writing a textbook because I was frustrated about the quality of resources that were available, and so I have made it my life’s mission to create a book which will help support instructors. You know how your students learn. You know what they need, and we’re just trying to provide you with the tools that you need to better do your job.

So, one of the things that I think is most beneficial about our text for instructors is you can trust that anything you find in the book is real and is realistic. You don’t have to learn any biology. We’ve done the homework for you. Okay? Use the text and use the digital features.

One of the big problems I had when I was teaching was, how do I keep my students from just going out and Googling things, or finding a video on YouTube that is of dubious quality? And so, what I did was I just said, look at all the resources that we’ve got. I want you to read this section in the textbook.

And then here’s a video that helps explain this concept to you. Here’s a tutorial you can take that will help you practice this kind of problem. You want a video that explains this concept to you? We’ve got you. We’ve got pre-lecture videos. We’ve got problem-solving videos. We’ve got demonstration videos. All this stuff for students.

And so, I would say use those resources. They’re a cohesive whole. They all use the same terminology. They all use the same concepts. They’re consistent. They’re coherent. They’re a coherent whole that is in support of the mission of helping your students learn physics. And so, you’ve got this whole ecosystem. Use it. Take advantage of it.

One other thing I would say is, if you’re an instructor and you’re using our materials and you have feedback, tell us! We’re still making new things all the time, and we’d love to hear from you to help us make the text even better in future editions.

Thanks very much!

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