In the Sunday San Jose Mercury News editorial page, an engineer who
tutors at a private school castigated high school physics courses
because "there was no math." He had looked at one of his tutees(sic)
text. It was probably Hewitt's Conceptual Physics. I have had a similar
discussion with my student teacher. She has a Physics degree.
I have a background in engineering before I became a teacher and my
degree is in Physics. However, when I began to teach I was confronted
by the fact that (1) very few of my students were going to walk out of
my class and become rocket scientists on the day of graduation, (2) for
many of them my course would be the last science course they might ever
take. So which would be better. Prepare a few good men/women for a
career in Physics or give a larger group and good, broad understanding
of the physical universe.
I chose the latter. I believe that the role of high school Physics is
not to prepare students for college physics. We do have honors and AP
courses for that. I believe that we are part of a comprehensive
educational process that gives every student a background in liberal
arts and math and science.
Does this mean that we don't work copious F=ma problems. No. I have
designed my course so that there a balance between concept and math. I
think that a student should be able to succeed in a high school physics
class from either a conceptual or a mathematical approach and so my
assessment tools contain both.
What it comes down to is who do you want for clients? If you want only
future scientists then you will design your course for them. If you want
a general population then you will design your course that way, and BTW
it is not a "watered down" version of physics, just a different
approach.
We have a school population of 4200. We are a minority, urban, Title I
school, primarily Hispanic and Asian. We have 17 sections of Physics
which includes Physics of Technology, Conceptual Physics, and 2 sections
of AP Physics B.
Ray Rogoway
Independence High School
San Jose, CA
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.