Spring 2027

Physics Today

Physics Today features weekly presentations and discussions on current physics research topics led by scientists directly involved in the studies.

offering recorded1 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.98 GPA, 98.1% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.84 GPA, 94.0% A/AB (n=83 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.97 GPA, 97.5% A/AB (n=79 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe open questions in current physics research.

  • Prepare questions for research presentations.

  • Summarize the material covered in a research presentation in a concise, clear manner.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

PHYSICS 202 or concurrent enrollment,PHYSICS 208 or concurrent enrollment, or PHYSICS 248 or concurrent enrollment

PHYSICS 301

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1000

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.98 GPA, 98.1% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.84 GPA, 94.0% A/AB (n=83 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.97 GPA, 97.5% A/AB (n=79 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Current research topics in physics
  • Open questions in current physics research

Skills

  • Describing open questions in current physics research
  • Preparing questions for research presentations
  • Summarizing research presentation material concisely and clearly

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

5 earlier forecasts · 0.12 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
PHYSICS 301 · Spring 2027

Physics Today

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:754:015611",
    "course_id": "PHYSICS 301",
    "course_uid": "course_a18059db0036a93a723bc48f",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "015611",
    "source_subject_id": "754",
    "title": "Physics Today",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 1,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

No records available.

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "9df41581f6f56d97d76349c682dfcfe1abd6015c4ca087b9e9811128f3f59841",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}