Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: Who are we helping...



I in no way meant to say that the ONLY purpose of HS physics is to
prepare for the college course. The point I was trying to make (and
clearly didn't make very well!) is the first one: HS physics need not
and should not be a COPY of college physics.

We serve the larger number of students who are not destined to take
a college physics course better by focusing on concepts rather than
calculational nitty gritty. Detailed experimental statistics are hard
enough to understand, but if HS students come out of a course not
quite believing Newton's 2nd but able to propogate an uncertainty,
then the we've failed. It's much more important for a student to be
able to reason, to make predictions, using the concept of force, than
to be able to defend a decimal place.


Now, the original question was for the proper amount of statistics
in the AP course. The AP course DOES purport to replace a college
course. My experience, anecdotal and not statiscal, is that most
students taking an AP course don't use it to replace a college
course, but as a high-powered introduction to the college level. It
seems that more and more freshman physics students have had AP
physics, but there they are in my intro course.

That is the basis of my statement. AP courses, in my experience,
tend not to be used for their intended purpose. This is, of course,
another issue.



Of course, this is my own idiosyncratic opinion--I see no reason for
the hs physics course to duplicate the college course. The hs
course is preparation for the college course.

John E. Gastineau

John states the above. I expect that many do not even stop to consider the
implications.

Is prep for the college course the exclusivel goal for a HS course? Should
it be? Who do we help when this is the exclusive goal? Is there anyone we
do not really help when this is the goal? Which category has more students
the one we directly serve with this goal or the one not served by this goal?

Just wondering...

Dewey

John E. Gastineau
304 296 1966
Morgantown, WV
http://www.imagixx.net/~jgastin
email: jgastin@imagixx.net