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Re: Am I teaching what I should in HS physics?

The first step I tell all my students in problem solving is first to read the question. You'd be amazed or maybe not that most don't do that. I then ask them to look and make sure they know what all the words in the problem mean. If you don't know what a word is, that doesn't mean you should skip it and think it is unimportant.

Tina


Conventional problem solving as put forth in many books is explained as
finding the correct formula and then plugging in. This is a big mistake.
Expert problem solvers first go through a process of looking at the physical
situation, making drawings, diagram ... and the last step might be using a
memorized equation. <<<

Tina Fanetti
Physics Instructor
Western Iowa Technical Community College
4647 Stone Ave
Sioux City IA 51102
712-274-8733 ext 1429