Re: What to "cover" (Was dimensionsless units etc.)

["John M. Clement" <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>]

Density is one of the cognitive treatments in Thinking Science.  One of the problems with density is that the formula involves 3 variables, and as such it is difficult for students to understand it.  TS treats it in activity 27 and the last one #30.  The main barrier to implementation of it is the issue of teacher training.  The TS curriculum has a specific model of training which provides a coupe of hours inservice one a month for 2 years, coupled with observations.  TS is not actually physics, but treats many of the problems which are a barrier to physics.  Many TS activities resemble chemistry or biology, or even a mixture of physics, chem, and biology.  You could order the TS material, and try a module or 2 with some middle school teachers.  For the really gung ho person, you could get funding and go to England to train as a trainor.

John M. Clement

> Middle school would be a GREAT place to start, but Herb Gottleib's point
> about teacher availability is well taken. I'm doing some research
> on student
> understanding of the concept of density; early results indicate that there
> are many misconceptions among most students, from middle school
> through high
> school as well as seniors in college who are preservice elementary school
> teachers. This being the case with such a fundamental concept, I wonder
> about asking middle school teachers to introduce physics.  Where
> would they
> start?
>
> bob yeend
> once and future high school physics teacher
> (now goofing off in grad school)
>
>
>  --
> Bob and Kathie Yeend <ryeend@earthlink.net>