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Re: Recruiting Science / Physics Students



I'm a little puzzled by this. We have had a surge in
enrollment in the sciences, especially in the number of
female students (mostly going into biology, but a few in
chemistry and engineering). We have had to open an extra
section of general physics to accommodate this increase. Is
this an anomaly or are others having similar experiences?

Bob at Providence College

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 8/1/2004 at 7:06 PM Billy T wrote:

I am a retired physics professor /researcher, new to the
group. I want to
introduce a thread I did not find while lurking over past
postings:

Many bright students, especially girls, have little
interest in science
courses. "Science is for nerds and certainly won’t pay
as well as Wall
Street or legal firms" – is their view. Changing this
attitude may be more
important than better instruction in science classes. Some
may consider
this only a self-serving objective of science teachers,
but I think that
everyone needs substantial understanding of the world they
live in. I
note, without any need to do so for this group, that
without
scientifically founded knowledge and the technological /
medical progress
that follows from it, mankind would still be in the dark
ages.