At 5:51 PM -0700 9/25/2001, Hugh Haskell wrote:
We need to examine the European "spiral" approach to see how it ought to be
done. It isn't that we have to "dumb down" physics so that it can be taught
as a terminal course to ninth graders; we need to teach the early concepts
to kids starting as early as they can be expected to grasp them. As time
goes on, these concepts are revisited each year, but each time at a
slightly higher level, conservation of volume becomes density, which then
delves into liquids and gases, Then into things that intermesh with each
other, so suddenly volume is not conserved, and so forth. Each topic
becomes a bit more complex with each return, and new topics can be inserted
as the students become ready for them.
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This effort (concept mapping from K to 12) has specifically been part of
the AAAS Project 2061 Atlas of Scientific Literacy: http://www.project2061.org/tools/atlas/default.htm
In general, this has been the whole idea behind the National Science
Education Standards and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy. The NSF
sponsored science curriculum development efforts for grades K-12 are all
consistent with both the Standards and the Benchmarks.
The idea of revisiting concepts every year is done in Belarus, which was
part of the Soviet Union. Each year, students study physics, chemistry, and
biology.
One request for the list in general:
The language of English is as important as the language of physics to
convey proper meaning.
Let's try to use the following words correctly:
effect and affect
their and there
it's and its.
For a good reference on writing, see "The Write Way" by Richard Lederer and
Richard Downs.
Thanks.
Larry
Dr. Lawrence D. Woolf; General Atomics, 3550 General Atomics Court, Mail
Stop 15-242, San Diego, CA 92121