Re: [Phys-L] rote versus understanding ... grade versus understanding

[Bill Norwood <bnorwood111@gmail.com>]

Richard,
- Majoring in physics in the late 1960's changed for a lifetime for me how
I perceive the world around me.
- - The real estate, insurance investment etc crooks (free seminars etc)
have not had a chance with me, because of the statistics I learned.
- - No unusual truck goes by without an automatic analysis on my part in
terms of the physics and engineering.
- - I am developing over the decades an improving assessment as to how
energy is conserved in the human body. Examples:  If one drinks a glass of
ice water the body must expend energy to heat up the water. If one depletes
energy in exercising (esp when old!) then less energy will remain for
healing. If one consumes excess food, then the stomach will have to work
overtime digesting food that will not be needed, wasting energy, since the
stomach is a huge consumer of energy. And on and on. I surely wish someone
would write a useful book including this concept, for us seniors.
- - The gradient of snow melting near a building has a reason.
- - The Baltimore light rail train squeals on tight turns for a reason.
- - My cat does physics presumably without even knowing it, or even
perceiving that I am partially understanding her physics of movement.
- And it goes on forever . . .
Bill Norwood, U of MD at College Park


On Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 9:35 AM, Richard Heckathorn <geepaw@wowway.com>
wrote:

> Greetings, One of the primary goals I had when I began teaching was to
> have a demonstration for each physics concept that I taught. The  number
> grew as the years went by. Some were made, some were purchased, etc. The
> list has grown to over 500.
>
> Students would be motivated and the concept better understood when the
> demonstration was performed either by me or many times by a student.
>
> In many cases, the demonstration took physics out of the classroom, so to
> speak, and into the real world.
>
> And in every class, there were some students who were on the lookout for
> physics in the things around them and were quick to report when they found
> something.
>
> Being able to see the physics around them really, in my opinion, enhances
> the life of a person that could do so.
>
>
> Have a Great Day
>
> Website rheckathorn.weebly.com
>
>
>
> > On Jun 9, 2016, at 5:08 PM, David Craig <craigda@lemoyne.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Thank you for the thoughtful feedback, I’m interested to hear more.
> >
> > I lost interest a long time ago in worrying about what students SHOULD
> do.   (As John D has noted, this is probably not the same for every student
> anyhow.)  I am more concerned with what they DO do, based on some years of
> observation and corresponding efforts to shape student responses to what is
> asked of them.
> > The best students by and large take care of themselves.   It is the
> behavior of middling and even struggling students that I hope to socially
> engineer to achieve, to the greatest extent that I can, the outcome that I
> want: meaningful learning experiences.   Across the board, but most
> especially in more advanced courses, my starting point is the premise that
> most meaningful learning in physics comes from DOING physics, usually
> through thoughtful engagement with problems and projects.  I’d be hard to
> convince that problem sets, projects and the like are not ESSENTIAL to
> meaningful learning — though it might be interesting to hear arguments to
> the contrary.   With that as my starting point, the question is then, what
> course structures are most effective at promoting genuine engagement (as
> opposed to simple answer-seeking) with the course material by MOST (likely
> never all) students in the course (not just the “good” ones.)
> > To observe that students “should” do this or that, for the love of
> learning or because it will help them in the future or because it’s part of
> being a mature learner or whatever else, may be valid — if a bit smug — but
> is not especially helpful.  Rather, I contend that this is largely a
> structural matter.   It’s not exactly revolutionary to note that students
> respond differently to different sets of requirements and expectations.
>  What kinds of requirements and expectations are most effective at
> achieving the desired outcomes?   John D is quite right that students often
> live up to our expectations, and indeed, those expectations are
> communicated, both directly and indirectly, by what a course asks of them.
> My aim in posting was to probe what others have learned about possible
> answers to this question.
> > My experience is that offering no incentive to do homework beyond the
> fact that they “should” do it to learn the materia
>
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