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At 9:02 -0700 10/10/02, John Barrer wrote:******************************************************
do
I think the Phys/Chem/Bio sequence makes the most
sense pedagogically. Everyone gets some physics
exposure; the weaker math kids would certainly not
deal with vector components. It would seem easy to
offer an honors 9th grade physics for those who can
the algebra and a conceptual course for those wholots
can't. But the conceptual course must still ask
of "How do you know that" questions.
Physics can be done without trig. There are few
things that require
two dimensions to be understood, and those can be
done without
reference to trigonometric concepts. They need
introductory algebra
and a geometry course (mostly so they understand a
bit about
triangles). They don't need vector components except
in the simplest
form, like an etch-a-sketch. Collisions can be done
in one dimension,
as can kinematics. They can be taught electricity
without Gauss's law
(although I'm not sure you have to do it that way),
and they don't
need to mess with products of vectors. Peridoic
motion doesn't have
to bring in sines & cosines. We really only need to
know about
periods and frequencies, and when they see pictures
of waves they
don't have to be identified as sine-waves. I'm
leaving lots of stuff
out in a one-paragraph summary, of course, but the
point is that
there are very few basic principles of physics that
cannot be taught
in a significant way without getting into the math
that they haven't
had yet.
ninth graders can learned an intellectually
stimulating version of
physics without having to be advanced math students.
And students who
arrive in their chemistry courses with an
understanding of the
physical basis for chemistry can learn a whole lot
more there, and
then when they arrive in biology with an
understanding of the
chemical basis of biology they can learn a whole lot
more there than
they do now. Of course, this sequence may require
that the chemistry
and biology teachers learn a lot more chemistry and
biology than they
now know and may be threatening to them.
Hugh
--
Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>
(919) 467-7610
Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want
to, Windows because they
have to..
This posting is the position of the writer, not that
of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.