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on 11/9/01 9:39 AM, Michael Edmiston at edmiston@BLUFFTON.EDU wrote:teach
snip
I would answer this by saying it's not important, don't bother to
tostudents any arbitrary conventions. The only reason we would need
communicatememorize arbitrary conventions would be if we ever intended to
understandingclearly with other people. If we are only concerned with
withthings ourselves and we never intend to discuss our understanding
Allpeople, then each of us can adopt whatever conventions work for us.
canthat each of us has to do is be internally consistent, and we each
justfigure out how the world works, right?
Don't limit your decision to quit teaching arbitrary conventions to
Forsigns on work and energy. Don't memorize any arbitrary conventions.
nameexample, don't memorize colors. Heck, green is just an arbitrary
proceedgive to the color that is traditionally used for signaling cars to
rightat a traffic light. If you personally want to call that red, go
drive)ahead. But don't talk to my daughter (who is just learning to
tellbecause she is using a different convention for colors, and if you
isshe should proceed through the intersection when she sees the light
Soyou're going to jeopardize my daughter's life (and others as well).
daughter.have whatever color conventions you want, just don't talk to my
with
Unfair comparison to the question I was addressing.
I need to know standard colors to be granted the privilege of driving
everyone else who drives. I need to know the standard sign conventionsto
granted an engineering license or physics degree so that I cancommunicate
and design. Does a HS student need to know the sign convention forwork to
understand energy conservation? Naaa. Gets in the way.people
All language conventions are arbitrary. Who needs them? Only those
physics.who want to communicate with each other.I developed this problem in college when majoring in chemistry and
Many of sign conventions required for communication were NOTstandardized
(still have to think for 2 minutes when sorting my anodes from mycathodes)
My primary goal for HS students is conceptual understanding. Putting a
question up such as "Is the box doing neg. or pos. work" seems counter
productive.