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Re: forces



I personally think it would be hard to do this but your concerns are
well taken and the need for a longitudinal study, which you seem to
be suggesting, is apparant. My gut feeling is that a carefully chosen
set of topics that are well-understood will hang around a great deal
longer than a broad set of topics covered superficially. The recent
report from the NSF seems to bear this out -- other countries cover a
smaller set of topics in greater depth and their students outperform
ours. So it seems to work out at least for K-12.

I tend to think of my job as more one of teaching reasoning skills
applicable across a broad range of problems than one of teaching
specific problem analysis techniques in great detail. I don't teach
bridge design but I expect that the force and equilibrium ideas
taught in my class will assist my students in qualitative analysis of
their designs should they end up in that career.


I think educational innovation is fine, and there are many reasons for
trying new techniques. We must, however, be careful that we don't end up
producing graduates that are less competent some years later.

Roger


Paul J. Camp "The Beauty of the Universe
Assistant Professor of Physics consists not only of unity
Coastal Carolina University in variety but also of
Conway, SC 29528 variety in unity.
pjcamp@coastal.edu --Umberto Eco
pjcamp@postoffice.worldnet.att.net The Name of the Rose
(803)349-2227
fax: (803)349-2926