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RE: .. Conceptual Physics courses





*If* the Conceptual Physics course is intended to be a cultural course
for non-science majors, one of whose purposes is to raise the level of
scientific literacy; often used to satisfy core science requirements;
then
I'm of the opinion that it shouldn't exist as such. I'd rather see an
interdisclipinary course (or sequence) that would fullfill this role and
be call something like "Science 101". This course ought to be a year long

and involve Physics, Chemistry, Biology and probably earth science with a

little astronomy thrown in. I just don't think it is appropriate for a
student to take a one semester conceptual physics course and then bless
them as being now scientifically literate.
Joel

I disagree. The text I am using for the second year now (Conceptual
Science by Hewit, Suchocki and Hewit) was written for the course you
suggests. It has everything you say but I have only one semester for it.
Even if I had the whole year I would have no time to cover many topics.
Focusing on Part 1 (Mechanics) and Part 2 (Heat) is very appropriate to
present a SAMPLE for an "appreciation of science" course. Even non-
physists would agree that there is something very unique and universal
in this selection of topics. If I had another semester I would do light
and electricity only. Physics is a queen of sciences and mechanics is
the prince of physics. The cultural depth of mechanics, and its numerous
technological and philosophical links, are worth exploring in a cultural
curse.

I'm not familiar with the above book. It sounds interesting to me.
Re-reading what I wrote above, I see it seems to talk about covering large
exhaustive lists of topics, and that is not quite what I intended. Those
were areas where some topics could come from. In my chauvinistic moments I
to say things like "physics is the queen of sciences" and have no doubt that
a course like I'm vaguely envisioning would have a heavy physics component.
But I'm not sure I believe mechanics is a great place to start for such a
course. A cultural appreciation course intended to develope a modicom of
science literacy is rather different then learning the difficult concepts of
physics. Remember the concepts are often the hardest things, taking years
to learn, just look at some of the discussion on this list. I'm suggesting
a course that at its core should be interdisciplinary in nature, I say
ideally team taught. I'd rather my liberal arts majors learn a little more
accurate information about DNA and origin of life problems than mechanics.
So they might have some basis for judgement concerning the Human Genome
project. Is "Jurassic Park" at all plausible science fiction?? What's the
difference in scientific methodology between what a paleontologists does to
what an astronomer does, compared to a high energy physicist at CERN??
What's an exponential function, and what does it have to do with constant
per cent growth rates?? Is Evolution scientific theory or fact? I could go
on forever . . .

I think we are being awfully chauvinistic and narrow minded to think that a
semester some physics mechanics concepts and heat fits the goal of giving a
start to science literacy (rather than physics literacy, which it may do
quite well). I say "start", because I think that even a two semester course
under the most ideal circumstances I could envision, would not produce a
scientifically literate individual. If I had only one semester, I think I'd
keep the unit on Heat, throw out the mechanics; work closely with a
biochemist to team teach the course and have the other unit be about DNA,
information transfer, and origin of life problems. The two units would
obviously be related and perhaps could be interwoven.

Disclaimer: All the above is just an opinion and is written perhaps more
strongly than I really believe, in order to spark discussion. Ludwik,
thanks for entering the fray.

Joel