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Re: Projectile Motion



It's too easy to plug and chug on the problems. By the way - we have the
luxury of untimed exams - we do them during the lab periods.

Ah, but you can deal with this more effectively by giving more data in the
question than is required to work the problem -- then the students can't
plug and chug -- they must solve the problem conceptually and then
mathematically and THEN plug. During problem solving they must continually
ask themselves "If I attack the problem this way, do I have enough
information to continue profitably -- if not, how should attack the
problem???" This is teaching physics -- ie teaching the way a physicist
thinks -- ie should think. It is also the way most successful professional
people think -- which is the point of their taking the class.



Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen