Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: contribution of mathematics...



I was converted several years ago to the belief that knowing the concepts
and principles behind a problem is just as important as knowing how a
problem is done, and realized that if you don't make the students
responsible for this aspect of learning, they will ignore it. Therefore, I
now require for every problem on my exams, that the students include a two
or three sentence description of the principle or concept from which the
problem flows. It only takes one try for them to get over telling me
something like " the concept here is that mass times velocity squared
divided by the radius is equal to centripetal force". It is not surprising
that many of them can solve a problem perfectly and yet have no clue as to
what is going on conceptually. It also helps to clear up misconceptions--on
the exam I gave yesterday, one student identified the photoelectric effect
as an example of pair production. Well--the photon goes in, the electron
comes out--sounded good to him. . . .

Margaret J. Clarke,
College of St. Scholastica
Duluth MN