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Re: AP Students



But, Tim:
On Sun, 22 Apr 2001, Tim O'Donnell wrote:

Hi Dick-
Then you will agree that if a high mark on the physics AP (say a
5) is a good predictor of "some worthwhile trait after graduation" you
will eat your words?
If so, then this sounds like a doable research project.
Regards,
Jack


I don't know about Dick, but I sure would like to see "some worthwhile trait
after graduation" demonstated with the taking of AP courses.

But you have just transmogrified the discuss by changing "a high
mark on the physics AP" to "the taking of AP courses". Are there physics
teachers who can both read and carry on a logical discussion? Are there,
for that matter, physics teachers who can both walk a straight course and
chew gum?

I think if you
get a 5 you have chosen to studyand do the work necessary and would do well
anywhere in about anything.

Yes, of course, that is part of my point!

I have resisted offering AP physics (although
there has been some administrative pressure). I feel, at least in my
district, AP classes are a social thing; my son is in AP history, my
dasughter is in AP chemistry; our school system offers 25 AP classes, etc.
I have notice over the years the number of tests taken have declined, even
though the number of classes has increased.

But the issue with regard to AP classes is that many universities
accept an appropriate AP grade for credit in the corresponding university
course. Is that an important consideration or not, in you thoughts?

I think a student who does well
in my regular physics class will do well in college just because they have
learned the skills. Haven't there been studies that show students that have
taken high school physics do not always do well in college physics? I want
my students to learn what they can learn about the physics during the short
time I have them. I cannot possible prepare them for the future, which
seems to be changing daily.
Well, I don't know about that. You can help prepare them to think
for themselves in the future!

Regards,
Jack

--
Franz Kafka's novels and novella's are so Kafkaesque that one has to
wonder at the enormity of coincidence required to have produced a writer
named Kafka to write them.
Greg Nagan from "The Metamorphosis" in
<The 5-MINUTE ILIAD and Other Classics>