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Re: AP Physics Students



I'm not sure where this debate is heading. I suspect that no one will
dispute that, however acquired, a successful physicist needs *both* a
firm conceptual understanding of the subject *and* considerable
quantitative problem solving ability. For this subset of our students
the question seems to be "which should they get first?" I wonder if
the questions shouldn't be "which can they successfully absorb
first?" There are those who will argue vehemently for both sides. But
I suspect there is no single answer to the question--some students
will do better getting the conceptual ideas first and the QPS later,
and others will do better starting with QPS and letting the
conceptual understanding come later. Since, it seems to me that the
understanding is much the harder task, perhaps the latter sequence is
preferable for most students. I'm pretty sure it was that way for me
(but of course, it is impossible to go back now and figure out if *I*
would have done better under the other scheme).

On the other hand, this group of students is a small minority of all
our students. Expecially for high school teachers, but also for
teachers at other levels, the large majority of our students will not
become practicing scientists or engineers. For a goodly number your
course will be the last science course they take, of any stripe. What
does this group need? Is it possible for them to come away from a one
year or one semester terminal course with much of either? Personally,
I don't see how conceptual understanding can happen if you don't, at
some point, start looking at the numbers, nor can I see that any
problems other than the simplest of exercises can be solved without
at least some conceptual understanding.

Where is it written that we have to live with this situation where we
get students at the beginning of the year who know no physics
whatever (regardless of whether they are in high school or college),
and are expected to make them have some degree of understanding of
one of the most complex of sciences in one year or one semester? I
agree that we cannot change this situation overnight, and we are
going to have to live with things as they are for a while, but we are
shovelling against the tide if we think we can make a significant
inroad into the ignorance of physics and the concepts of our science
in one year or one semester. All we are doing is allowing the
students to check off a box in their requirements for graduation
document.

It is time that the physics community (in concert with our colleagues
in the other disciplines of science) rise up and demand that students
start getting introduced to the ideas of physics and chemistry as
early as the fifth grade, and that they see some aspect of the
subjects every year until they graduate from high school. By that
time, some of the conceptual ideas will have had time to mature a bit
and can be cemented home by a good teacher of the subject in college.
By that time the student will have a good enough understanding of the
subject that they can make an intelligent decision as to whether they
want to continue with it or not. After all, this is the way we have
taught mathematics and reading for decades at least. Why can't we do
it with science?

Is this a big job? You Bet! And time's a'wastin'. We need to get on
with it now. We need gobs of new science teachers for middle schools
and high schools, we need new curricula for middle schools and high
schools, we need instructional materials that are useable by these
new teachers and students, we need parents who are engaged in their
schools and insist that they do something besides teach them how to
take standardized multiple-choice tests all year long. It isn't going
to be easy, but unless we take the task on, it won't ever get done,
and our children and grandchildren will be having the same debate we
are having now, 20 and 40 years down the road.

The ideas of physics are not trivial, nor are they intuitive. If we
want them to understand them we have to give them time. If we wait
until they are 17 or 18 before exposing them,we can't be surprised
if, when they are 18 or 19, they still don't understand.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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