Re: Physics First

[Arlyn DeBruyckere <arlynd@HUTCH.K12.MN.US>]

    I don't agree with Herb that it would be preferable for physics teachers
to teach only physics but not chemistry.  Maybe it is because of my personal
situation (and I freely admit I'm a "strange" guy).  I started out in the
system the Digby described in Minnesota.  I wanted to teach chemistry but
wasn't much interested in physics (probably because my high school physics
teacher was a math teacher and liked multiple choice physics tests).  This
teacher and most of my college teachers taught physics as an applied math
class.  I didn't get any excitement from these classes like I did from
chemistry so I got a full chemistry major and enough physics to get the
license.  After teaching physics for two years (like I had learned it) I took
a PRISMS course at the University of Northern Iowa.  The purpose of the
course was to demonstrate a different way of learning but I learned a lot of
physics and I got excited about it.  The enrollment in my physics classes
doubled.  A few years ago I got my masters degree in physics teaching and
next year I'll be teaching physics, electricity & magnetism, geology and
astronomy, no chemistry.

    My point is this:  don't subject more students to physics as an applied
math class where you do a lab "once in a while" to make it look like
physics.  Students in these classes don't ever catch on to the excitement of
physics.  I'm not saying that a math teacher can't teach physics.  I am
saying in general that given the same training in physics I'd rather see a
"chemistry" person teaching physics than a "math" person because there is a
better probability that the "chemistry" person will at least bring along some
scientific inquiry procedures.

Herbert H Gottlieb wrote:

> I agree that it would be preferable for physics teachers to teach only
> phyiscs
> (and possibly math) but not chemistry. However, consider the many smaller
> high schools throughout the country where there are not enough students
> to warrant the teaching of physics and chemistry every year. It has been
> a custom in such schools to alternate the offering of physics one year
> and chemistry the next year with the same teacher..  In such cases
> it is essential to have the teacher licensed in both chemistry and
> physics.

--
Arlyn DeBruyckere
Hutchinson High School