Hello, my name is Joe Taylor. I was a high school physics teacher before
becoming a doctoral student in science education at Penn State University.
This semester, I am teaching a course for prospective secondary school
science teachers. The students in this course are studying to teach either
biology,chemistry, physics, or earth/space science.
As a part of this course, I would like to divide the students in half and
have each half of the class debate the other regarding the wave-particle
duality of light. My hope is that the students will learn not only about
light but also about important aspects of the history and nature of
science. I was envisioning that the students would build their respective
arguments by collecting experimental data that supports one or both
viewpoints.
Here is where I greatly appreciate your advice...
Is conducting such a debate feasible? That is, will the students be able to
collect convincing data for either argument using everyday materials or
low-tech lab equipment? Our science education lab does have a decent amount
of the traditional light and optics apparatus that you might find in a high
school physics lab.
Will the discussion necessarily become so in-depth that the non-physics
majors will struggle with the concepts and become disengaged? In my
experience with conducting other debates concerning science issues, the
dabate seems to break down when the issues being discussed go beyond the
content understanding of the participants. The participants,
understandibly, become less willing to make claims or challenge the claims
of others.
I have eight, two-hour sessions to: introduce the duality issue, facilitate
data collection, facilitate the debate, and help the students reflect on
what they have learned. Does this sound doable? Has anyone tried similar
approaches?
And finally, if you think its doable, what experiments are both possible
and most clearly illustrate wave and particle behaviors?