Over the past three decades I have taught a number of students from
various countries in Africa, most of whom went through a British
educational system. Without money, space, and supplies for labs the
education they had was essentially all "book-learning." The book
learning was often very good, and these students often write better and
speak better than my traditional students. But their lab skill are
often really bad, and there can be a pretty strong "disconnect" between
what they know fact-wise and how they interpret those facts
"real-world-wise."
In a modern physics lab a junior student from Kenya picked up a lead
brick being used for shielding and nearly dropped it. He was absolutely
floored at the weight of the thing. He exclaimed, in beautiful British
accent, "My goodness! What is this thing?" I responded that it was
lead. He asked why it was so heavy. I asked him if he knew the density
of lead. He responded, "Lead... Atomic number 82, atomic mass 207,
density 11. But why is it so heavy?"
He essentially had most of the periodic table memorized, and knew many
physical properties of elements by heart. But he didn't have any
experience of what density meant in the real world. He had never done
any density experiments nor had he handled a variety of different types
of materials.
These students are also bothered by errors in their experiments. They
might repeat a lab several times hoping to get the error down to near
nothing when that particular experiment routinely yields 10% error.
Some are so troubled by data that don't fit theory perfectly that they
resort to fudging the data in order to get perfect results. That
behavior is particularly alarming. Oh that I could blend these students
with the traditional students who are sloppy, get 20% error, and say,
"Oh well, that's the way it came out."
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu