For those wishing to see how San Diego City School (which adopted Physics
First for all schools in the district) is addressing many of these issues
including professional development of teachers: http://www.sandiegophysics.com/documents/newsletter_fall2001.pdf
(warning: this site loads slowly)
and for good measure, an example of a San Diego community wide effort to
improve science education: http://www.sdsa.org/
Larry Woolf;General Atomics;San Diego CA
92121;Ph:858-526-8575;FAX:858-526-8568; www.ga.com;www.sci-ed-ga.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob LaMontagne
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 12:00 PM
Subject: Re: Why Physics First?
This frightens me. Most elementary teachers not only have incredibly poor
science
skills, many are openly anti-science. I've taught evening courses for
elementary
teachers who needed science credits - and I've also taught a high school
physics
course - I'd rather teach the high school students any day! The elementary
teachers
were only interested in getting a passing grade so they could get their next
pay
increment. There was no curiosity of any kind - it was just "tell me what to
memorize
for the exam". I'm really scared of the idea of these people teaching
science to
elementary students - they're far better off waiting until high school where
the
science teachers actually have some science in their undergraduate course
work.
This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.