-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Tarara
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 10:53 AM
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] breadth +- depth (was: Practical Physics)
The sentiment and logic here are fine, but the practicalities are
overwhelmingly against this. The only chance here is to incorporate
some
more 'real-world' physics into existing science and engineering courses,
but
those courses are already burdened by 5 kg textbooks, students poorly
prepared to do the math and critical thinking and unwilling to put in
the
hours needed to really learn the material, pressures from engineering
departments that either take over the physics courses or demand more
focused
courses, etc.
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However, this is exactly what has been done in K-12 science. Most of
the NSF funded materials are modular in nature, with a single topical
focus. For a review of inquiry based modular K-12 science/physics, see
the APS Summer 2007 Forum on Education newsletter:
<http://units.aps.org/units/fed/newsletters/summer2007/>