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Re: 10 yr old

Say, folks: Did you miss the report "A Nation at Risk" from about
15 years ago? The gist of the report was that we lose kids who
otherwise are interested in science in grades 3 through 5 (roughly,
that's ages 8, 9. 10 years).

Some years back there was much effort to reform science teaching at
the elementary school level. These programs carried interesting
acronyms like MAPS, SKISS, ESS, and now we have FOSS. Most of these
programs were process approaches based on hands-on activities.

If you are looking for some particularly appropriate lessons, try the
ESS from McGraw-Hill, (I believe). In 1984 our newly established
Hands-on Science Museum held summer camps for kids based on the
lessons in those booklets. The kids' biggest difficulty was not the
physics, but that many of them did not know decimals, so they could
not compare numbers like 3.2 and 4.6 to determine which was bigger (a
calculator took care of the division) for them.

You may recognize some very familiar "Physics Education Research
"topics from the ESS titles: "Batteries and Bulbs", "Pendulums", and
"Light" (if I remember correctly). In fact, you'll almost drop your
jaw at the similarity between these booklets, their suggested
experiments, and the current PER handling of those same topics aimed
at "less is more" instruction at the *college* level.

Enjoy, Karl


Jim Green wrote:
For reasons only the pixies know a friend of mine wants to teach physics to
a 10 yr old grandson this summer -- Don't laugh; I think that he is
serious. Of course he never had a physics class himself -- so he has no
idea what to teach. I think that this is an experiment for him to see if
this can be done -- He is a graduate of Stanford's Ed School.

Can someone please propose a sketch/outline of a syllabus? Suggest a
text? If not for the student, at least for him.

TX


Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen

--
Dr. Karl I. Trappe Desk (512) 471-4152
Lecture Demonstration Office Office (512) 471-5411
Physics Department, Mail Stop C-1600 Home (512) 264-1616
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712-1081