Introducing Change in Undergraduate Education (Easy Steps for Junior Faculty)

Bringing change to the undergraduate curriculum -- for example, as new faculty might consider proposing for the education component of their NSF Career proposals -- can be a daunting task. At many institutes classes have been ``taught this way forever'' and even the mention of changing them can induce complaints from students and faculty alike. In this talk I will describe TEAL (technology enabled active learning), a major reform to the introductory physics sequence for non-majors at MIT. I will then focus on a few aspects of the course, such as the use of in-class feedback and real world problems. These relatively small changes (in terms of expense and effort) have been very beneficial, and point to a variety of improvements which faculty (including junior faculty) could make to well established courses while avoiding the difficulties often associated with change.