Re: teaching vectors

[Tom Ford <tomford@THESCIENCESOURCE.COM>]

It is important to remind students that they did not know they had been
speaking prose all their young lives until they were introduced to poetry,
and that they have been using scalars until they needed vectors. Play with
scalar quantities. Play with directions (only) -- I have used a weathervane
looking device that would drag along a table or chalkboard tangent to the
path. Play with vectors as a notation first. Play with a "rubber vector"
(bungee cord tied to the "center of the universe" which might be the door
knob for instance). Using the rubber vector to locate each student. Notice
that the difference between any two student position vectors is the same no
matter where the bungee cord was tied. Establish several forms of notation
so that vectors can be recorded and compared. Ask students to use graph
paper to devise a treasure hunt game, where the paper is already marked as
to the starting point and the location of the treasure. Make projection
transparancies of student work and stack them on the overhead projector.
Move to the graphic forms of vector addition and subtraction, using the
established notation to represent, refine and report the results. Move to
mechanical REPRESENTATION of vectors using a force table with hanging
washers to represent magnitudes. Process vectors in equilibrium. Parce them
into components, using trig as needed. Write computer programs to add and
subtract a large field of vectors.

Then, with vectors as a familiar mathematical notation that is somewhat
pliable, start the exploration of position, time, velocity, acceleration,
momentum. Give appropriate attention to the basis for the direction and the
magnitude of each, including the eventual need to scale vectors and perform
some sort of multiplication.

Creative is in the mind of the beholden.  (not a misprint)

Tom Ford

At 06:49 AM 10/3/02 -0700, you wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Oct 2002 17:46:07 -0500 Raeghan Graessle <rbyrne1@LUC.EDU>
> writes:
> > I am looking for a creative way to teach vectors
> > to my conceptual physics class (high school level).
> > Any suggestions?
> >
> > Raeghan Graessle,  Student Teacher  University of Chicago Laboratory
> Schools
>
> *** Please explain what you mean by "creative ways."
> There are several ways to teach vectors.
> Personally, I like to use curtain rod , adjustable length, magnetized
> arrows that stick to the chalkboard.
>
> Herb Gottlieb from New York City
> (Where none of our physics teachers still have not found "creative ways"
> to teach vectors)
>
> This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or
the AAPT.
>

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.