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Re: What to "cover" (Was dimensionsless units etc.)



...The "ultimate" solution is to promote middle school curricula which
promote better thinking ability. This makes more possible l
ter on.

John M. Clement


Why wait to start there? It is clear that children think and quite
powerfully from birth (at least). They accomplish the major intellectual
feat of figuring out language FROM "SCRATCH" so to speak.

There are good examples that illustrate we do not have to wait for children
to be able to think in math ed (see articles by Paul Cobb and group) and in
science ed (in particular the work of Sr. Mary Gertrude Hennessey in Wisc
who was a student of Peter Hewson's). While the "science might not be all
that great" it is clear that children in Karen Gallas' book, Talking Their
Way Into Science, are thinking quite well, too.

Dewey


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)426-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)426-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)426-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@email.boisestate.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper: GHB, Uilleann

"As a result of modern research in physics, the ambition and hope,
still cherished by most authorities of the last century, that physical
science could offer a photographic picture and true image of reality
had to be abandoned." --M. Jammer in Concepts of Force, 1957.

"If what we regard as real depends on our theory, how can we make
reality the basis of our philosophy? ...But we cannot distinguish
what is real about the universe without a theory...it makes no sense
to ask if it corresponds to reality, because we do not know what
reality is independent of a theory."--S. Hawking in Black Holes
and Baby Universes, 1993.
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