RE: supplementary S.I. units

[Joe Baughman <joebau@blueridge.cc.nc.us>]

At 08:22 AM 9/23/98 -0600, you wrote:
> Joe,
> What's the point of having a prerequisite if you don't insist upon it;
> excepting, perhaps, rare cases? Perhaps the prerequisite should be removed
> if it is regularly ignored, that would certainly be more honest.
>
> Joel Rauber
> ----------
>
>
>
>
> Most of the students I have have in
> physics never have taken chemistry or physics in high school nor, for that
> fact, taken more than two years of math (usually have Alg 1 and Geometry).
> We do have a pre requisite of College Algebra to take physics, but if I
> insisted on this, I would have no students at all.  Around here we have
> problems having students take physics in high school much less in a
> community college.
>
> I shall think about this some more and I appreciate all the discussion on
> this board.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
> --
> Joe Baughman 


POWERS THAT BE, INCLUDING ANY COLLEGE OUR STUDENTS TRANSFER TO, INSIST ON
THE MATH PRE REQUISITE.   I contend that I can teach physics to people who
have very little algebra or math ability.  It takes lots of patience on the
part of students and me--and the course is very lab orientated-they learn by
doing.  It really works.  Students who transfer to 4 year schools and take
physics or other technical courses do well.  I feel they do well because
they are now comfortable with physics, they know how to use lab
equipment-and they have learned that all human beings learn by doing and not
just reading and calculating. (although they do much better if can can read
and calculate)

I use the PT physics and about 80 per cent of the course is spent in lab.
The rest is spent doing lab reports.  I do not lecture at all.  I am around
to answer the many questions that arise and I am patient in answering the
same questions over and over again. 

A definition of a lecture that I once heard is "a lecture is a meeting of
the instructor (we don't have professors around here) and the students in
which the instructor answers questions that the students never asked". 

I get the students to ask questions that arise from their attempts at hands
on lab work.  Once they ask the question I have their attention and their
interest.  Together we can note the prejudices that we all have about our
world.  Pre-Judgments are a curse to learning and physics.  Things just
don't work the way we think they do.

I have an open door to the physics lab-and I don't want to send any away
because they can't handle the math (at the moment in time when they come in
the door-you'll be surprised how much math they learn while in physics).
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Joe Baughman                              e-mail:  joebau@blueridge.cc.nc.us
Science & Mathematics Instructor
Blue Ridge Community College           Telephone: (704)692-3572 x301
College Drive                                Fax: (704)692-2441
Flat Rock, NC  28731-9624

                 Web Server:  http://www.blueridge.cc.nc.us/
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