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[Phys-L] Re: In the Private Universe



Have you looked at any of the stuff from the modelling program at
Arizona State?

Anthony Lapinski wrote:

If anyone has one, please send me a list of "readable" high school physics
textbooks.

Forum for Physics Educators <PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu> on Wednesday,
February 23, 2005 at 10:29 AM -0500 wrote:


But you do the students no favor by not searching out or demanding
textbooks
that they can read and can learn from, especially if you are sending them
on
to College or even out into the world to (hopefully) continue learning
throughout their lives. A critical skill that SHOULD be worked on in High
School is HOW to read and learn from a text book.

Rick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Anthony Lapinski" <anthony_lapinski@PDS.ORG>
To: <PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 10:24 AM
Subject: Re: In the Private Universe




In my experience with high school students, few kids can UNDERSTAND
physics textbooks. They're too complicated, dry, or impractical. The


real


learning comes from innovative teachers. Books are secondary or
unnecessary. Teach a great class, do demos and labs, provide
notes/handouts -- little else is really needed.

Forum for Physics Educators <PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu> on Wednesday,
February 23, 2005 at 10:10 AM -0500 wrote:


----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Bellina" <jbellina@SAINTMARYS.EDU>




Au contraire, we need less textbooks and more active engagement.
Science is learned by scientists in discussion not by reading some
text, why would we expect more of our students.



BECAUSE...to be effectively functional in modern society you need to


know


more (by age 21) than one has time to learn through 'active engagement'.
SOME, and probably LOTS of material needs to be digested through


reading.


If we are to produce 'life-long learners' much of that learning will


come


from READING. So I think we have every reason to expect students to be


able
to learn from reading a text. That is not to diminish the importance of
using active engagement to get at some key concepts, to reinforce some
ideas
that have been read, to broaden the scope of knowledge and


understanding,


BUT....learning through reading must still be a key component of any
educational process.

Rick

*********************************************************
Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana
rtarara@saintmarys.edu
********************************************************
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www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
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www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/ENERGY_PROJECT/ENERGY2100.htm
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--
Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. Ph.D.
574-284-4662, 4968
Saint Mary's College
Dept. of Chemistry and Physics
Notre Dame, IN, 46556