Traditional Physics vs "Studio Physics"

[Urnathok]

Looking for a little advice regarding some of the options the university is offering this Fall. I'm a sophomore English major coming out of Organic and looking forward to getting back into some more heavily mathematics-based science with the year of Physics ahead of me.

I'm signed up for the non-calculus based section for this Fall, partly due to my heavy workload in my other classes, but I recently got an email promoting a relatively new calculus-based section called Studio Physics. Rather than the traditional lecture-and-separate-lab model, it claims to combine them into a longer class period that minimizes lecture time and seems to follow the PBL model (Scale-Up, specifically) to some degree with a few more labs.

The description sounds great, but I'm a little hesitant about diving in and risking getting swamped by the workload (this would put it at about 18 hours, four of which are Biology). Does anyone have experience with this sort of class, and for those who have gone through physics, how would you weigh it against a traditional leture/lab model?

Edit: Here is an advertisement for the program, but I'm more concerned with whether there is a significant gap between reality and what's on the label.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdymI61hLPY&list=PLE8C54256779B374D&index=3&feature=plpp_video

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[Espadaleader]

Wow. That is amazing. NC State is like 15 years ahead of the game.

 

[goofball]

Studio is more interesting and helps you retain the material IMO. I did Studio Physics.

 

[Urnathok]

Wow. That is amazing. NC State is like 15 years ahead of the game.

Being in a smaller school comes with a few drawbacks.

 

[def1]

Looks like the physics course I took at my community college. I would have hated to take physics in a large auditorium, definitely go with studio physics.

 

[Urnathok]

Main concern would be being able to accommodate it time-wise. Another physics major friend of mine strongly advised against trying calculus-based physics with 13 other hours. So the model sounds fantastic, but I'm thinking at this point that it wouldn't be worth taking the grade hit.