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[Phys-L] Re: First Day Activities or Demos



I never thought of the second half of working with horses. I have
another horse thing. Years ago I trained horses for dressage and what
I learned was that horses, those great big powerful things were really
timid. If you frightened them they would never trust you, or at least
not for a long time. So I had to learn tact. I have come to see
students the same way, like horses they are easily frightened, or as
you point out, already frightened and need to be drawn in.

Seems to me by provided enough salt you done make the horse drink,
rather you created a situation where they want to drink. In a similar
way, perhaps we reveal to them the pleasure and excitement of taking
responsibility for their own learning. You are correct they don't do
it in the beginning, but by placing them in the situation where they
can, they have the opportunity to learn it. That is part of what is
behind the process that I suggested some notes ago.

cheers,

joe
On Aug 10, 2005, at 1:08 PM, Sheron Snyder wrote:

In the below I am assuming the first day is for a High School course in
Physics, standard US model i.e. no previous class in Physics.


I did the Bowling ball demo in the class, but later during my energy
unit.

THE FIRST DAY was to intrigue my incoming students.
Every Student all summer has said.....Your taking PHYSICS! That will
be
hard.....or you must be smart....or I hated Physics....

so the students coming in are frightened ....but few are intrigued...

I used more than the two mentioned, in fact I used one from each
unit.......

My philosophy then was and still is

You can lead a horse to water, and you CAN make him drink IF you feed
him
enough SALT.

Again this was high school and I plan to do the same in my CC college
course.
Explaining is not for the first day of class.

Joe-After 12 years of today's ed system, going directly to a student
centered approach will not help the student accept the responsibility
for
their learning....Growth is a gradual thing with spurts along the
way....In
fact after the mid point of the school year the students were doing
all the
work, I 'lectured' only when asked.

Sheron



Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. Ph.D.
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556