Discusses the need to include studies of reliability and maintainability during the design of any system. Topic areas addressed include availability calculations, complex systems and standby redundancy, availability and malfunction levels, design techniques, fault trees, functional maintenance, and others. (DH)

Suggests that electronics be taught using a systems approach, although this reverses the order of stages in the traditional approach by studying complete systems first. Also describes the hardware needed to implement a systems approach and the four stages of a course in which the equipment is used. (JN)

This paper suggests that present-day curriculum, based on Newtonian thought, has been rendered obsolete by the holistic and interactive "post-modern" world view based on quantum physics, nonlinear mathematics, general systems theory, and Ilya Prigogine's nonequilibrium thermodynamics. The Newtonian world view, which is linear and…

The syndicate study is a group approach to solving problems. Students are involved in fieldwork, research, discussion, and reporting on a particular problem dealing with the interaction of scientific technology and society. Some syndicate topics include physical control of the environment, low impact technology, and social implications of nuclear…

One of the difficulties encountered by novice problem solvers in introductory physics is in the area of problem solving. It has been shown in other studies that poor problem solvers are affected by the surface aspects of the problem in contrast with more efficient problem solvers who are capable of constructing a mental model of the physical…