Introductory physics courses are repelling students

What evidence is there that students are repelled?

In Sheila Tobias' "They're Not Dumb, They're Different," a student taking an introductory physics class, Eric, reflected that "The instructor gave the class the impression that since he had to make it through the 'elementary grind,' so must we." (p. 20)<bibref>Tobias:1990Theyre-not-dumbAA</bibref>

What is repelling students?

This from a November 6, 2011 article about students' exodus from introductory engineering and science courses in college:

But, it turns out, middle and high school students are having most of the fun, building their erector sets and dropping eggs into water to test the first law of motion. The excitement quickly fades as students brush up against the reality of what David E. Goldberg, an emeritus engineering professor, calls “the math-science death march.” Freshmen in college wade through a blizzard of calculus, physics and chemistry in lecture halls with hundreds of other students. And then many wash out.
...
Other deterrents are the tough freshman classes, typically followed by two years of fairly abstract courses leading to a senior research or design project. “It’s dry and hard to get through, so if you can create an oasis in there, it would be a good thing,” says Dr. Goldberg, who retired last year as an engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is now an education consultant. He thinks the president’s chances of getting his 10,000 engineers is “essentially nil.”

References

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