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Re: TA Problems



I'm all for creative, but like anything in life, sometimes you'll have to
get down and dirty :)

Frankly, the labs here don't help much...the neat ones that shine and
glimmer are more successful...and then there are the ones that require quite
a bit in thought and students get lazy and write those generics I talked
about...

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Whatcott" <betwys1@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 7:54 AM
Subject: Re: TA Problems


At 12:58 AM 1/30/2004, Fernanda, you wrote:
I hope you enjoyed the AAPT meeting here in my home town of Miami!

I had a question posted at APF and I thought you guys are probably the
best
ones to help me out on this one.

http://www.advancedphysics.org/viewthread.php?tid=304

I appreciate any constructive criticism! And thanks in advance...

Fernanda

Fernanda seems to be fully subscribed to the physics education ethos.
Some of her charges - engineers, architects, it appears, are not.

Why not?
It is possible that they endorse rather concrete and creative ideas.
They might not be so prepared to embrace the maths-intense models
that a physicist comes to know and like.

It is no accident that competitive contests to build barrel hoists
and the like, from a constrained menu of balsa sticks, cotton thread and
model glue, feature so prominently in the Engineering school at MIT
and most other colleges. Students there will suck up a lot of beam theory
if it means they have a shot at winning a popular contest using objective
measures of merit.

You can see this is a rather different paradigm than the replication of
defensible lab book entries from well-worn lab experiments.

If you are still with me, you will see I am offering no solutions.
Still, getting over the idea that 'abstract' means superior may
permit more concrete routes to success.


Brian Whatcott Altus OK Eureka!