Re: Graphing by Hand

["Donald E. Simanek" <dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu>]

On Wed, 24 Sep 1997, Dewey Dykstra, Jr. wrote:

> In my experience many students who have constructed graphs by hand, haven't
> the foggiest idea either.

Being somewhat acquainted with Dewey through his other postings, I'm sure
he's not suggesting that "Therefore we might as well let them use
computers."

One might observe that *some* of those using computer graphs will trouble
themselves to think while doing so, and come to understand what's going
and how to interpret the printed results. Most will do it blindly, with
brain disengaged--as they do any other *process* they are required to do
in a course. (Emphasize that last part.) This won't change until we
*insist* that they learn the principles behind the process, and gain a
higher level of 'understanding'. Insisting isn't enough, we must structure
the evaluation instruments to test for that level of understanding, and
the evaluation must be of a sort which clearly convinces students that
they *will* be evaluated in that manner and *must* achieve that level of
understanding. Right now they know that in most courses they don't need to
know much to get good grades on the exams, and since other things are far
more interesting to them, they will put in just enough effort to get the
grade they want. Sometimes they misjudge that, though.

But Dewey's observation has broader application. Whether we use math, or
conceptual physics, most students will come to the university with no
obvious evidence that they'd ever had a physics course. But they also come
without the foggiest idea of American or world history. And hardly any
know how to use a library effectively. Whatever philosophy of education we
espouse, whatever new strategies of instruction we devise, whatever
innovative classroom activities we implement, many students will go
through the motions without the foggiest idea of what's going on--if we
let them. It just illustrates Simanek's first law of pegagogery: "In
education, nothing works if the students don't."

P.S. I just annoyed quite a few of my Intro Physics students with an
assignment on calculation using exponential notiation, unit conversions,
etc. But what annoyed them was that I asked questions which required them
to dig facts out of the library, and use them with some insight. Just two
are worth mentioning, which you can test your students on:

1. Derek de la Sola Price and others have said that 9 out of 10 scientists
who ever lived are alive today. To put this in perspective, how many
humans who ever lived are alive today? Express this numerically and as a
percent. By the way, what is World population and the population growth
rate right now? How do we know? Is someone counting as each baby is born?

2. What is a snail's pace? Find the speed of a fast land snail eagerly
heading toward a juicy leaf. Express that in miles/hour, cm/sec,
and furlongs per fortnight.

They were allowed to use the internet, which presented *very* interesting
difficulties in pursuit of these facts. Try it yourself.

	-- Donald

......................................................................
Dr. Donald E. Simanek                            Office: 717-893-2079
Prof. of Physics                    Internet: dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu
Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA. 17745          CIS: 73147,2166 
Home page: http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek            FAX: 717-893-2047
......................................................................