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The Soapbox




In the firm belief that everybody is entitled to my opinion. :-)
I'd like to comment on a few of the threads that have surfaced in the last
several days.

First an anecdote related to the posting about bi-modal scores being related
to students having had or not having had physics in high school. I assume
this is germane even though it is regarding the freshman Calculus course.
Calculus is in a similar situation where a lot students have or have not
had calculus in high school. (at least at the college I attended). The
math department being curious decided to run statistical tests to see what
effect there was in the college calculus course for students who had
calculus in high school. They found no, I repeat no, correlation on success
in the college calculus class (as measured by grades) with whether or not
the students had had calculus in high school.

I suspect that the bi-modal distributions are not so much due to having had
high school physics or not (although I imagine it has something to do with
it), but is more related to general preparedness for doing college work.
Students who had good math, chemistry, and even humanties instructors who
demanded excellence from their students in high school will probably do well
in college physics; if they learned in high school how to work hard, learn
independently and that learning requires active participation in the course,
(even if it is a lecture course) to be successfull.

My guess, is that students who actually take the high school physics course
are generally better off in the general preparedness area. Taking the HS
physics course in more the sign (symptom) rather than the cause of this.
Students who take that course are probably more interested in academics in
general, may have parents that encourage education more, so forth and so on.

I have more to say, but this has gotten too long already. Thanks for your
patience and listening.

Joel Rauber
rauberj@mg.sdstate.edu