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Re: Comic books as classroom resource



At 11:09 AM 5/13/02 -0500, you wrote:

Do you remember the Peanuts strip several; years ago in which Snoopy is
lying prone on his roof looking down into his dish. He says "Objects under
water always look deeper." This confused the hell out of my students when I
tried to correct it.
In fact I used this just the other day. I think it is a great example to
use to get them thinking. I like to keep my eyes open for comics that I
can somehow find a way to use to introduce a physics concept. Physics
tends to be our student's least favorite topic and perhaps comics can
lighten it up a bit.

In addition to comics, I often throw out two or three physics problems,
often from every-day life, for the students to figure out. I am not too
helpful but do give hints. Then I often give them for a bonus question on
an exam for a few points. Some recent examples from optics: rear-view
mirror reflection optics (inside mirror), Fresnel lens, Mirage mirror
apparatus. These are all things they can figure out if they put their
minds to it.


poj

----- Original Message -----
From: "Hugh Haskell" <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2002 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: Comic books as classroom resource


> Comic books and comic strips have provided lots of fodder for physics
> teachers over the years. Calvin and Hobbes has lots of
> physics-related stuff, some of it quite droll. So does Foxtrot. I am
> particularly partial to the Roadrunner cartoons. Wile E. Coyote has
> so many non-physical things happen to him that you can confront
> almost every student misconception in any one episode. And all the
> super-heroes do so many things that lend themselves to interesting
> calculations, that I'm not surprised that someone has finally decided
> to build a whole course around comics.
>
> 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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Ivan Rouse, Physics Professor
Physics Department, La Sierra University
4700 Pierce St., Riverside, CA 92515
email: irouse@lasierra.edu
phone: 909-785-2137, FAX 909-785-2215