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Re: HS physics course titles



Herbert H Gottlieb wrote:

I suggest DESCRIPTIVE PHYSICS for the course using Hewitt's conceptual
book
and QUANTITATIVE PHYSICS for the course that includes more algetra and
trig.


I guess it's all a matter of local custom and culture - but the term
DESCRIPTIVE indicates "really dumbed down" in my region - Rhode Island.
Descriptive astronomy and descriptive geology are our "name that planet"
and "name that rock" courses.

We have also spent a long time developing a rigorous course for
non-science majors. However - when naming the course - we deliberately
used the title CONCEPTUAL physics. The chemistry department has a similar
course using the word conceptual in the title. Students, and their faculty
advisors, don't perceive the course as any easier than our General
Physics, just a different mode of analysis.

I'm not sure exactly why the administration in David Strasburger's school
find the word "conceptual" that demeaning - I don't think that renaming
the course will not result in someone, somewhere, belittling whatever name
is chosen simply because the letters AP aren't present.

Bob at PC