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Re: Physics First Content



At 9:31 -0400 10/11/02, Edmiston, Mike wrote:

But it obviously takes a whole lot of pressure off that freshman phys=
ics
course if students headed for sciences in college are going to get
another physics course as seniors.

Think of the poor biology profs who have had this problem for
years--they get all these students who want to save the world by
becoming "doctors" after having had exactly one biology course, as
sophomores, or perhaps freshmen, often taught by somebody whose name
is "Coach" (they don't all become physics teachers). Are physicists
any better than biologists that we can demand that our students have
had a "senior" physics course?

The solution, as I think it has been addressed in any school that
offers courses at different levels in the same subject, is that the
course is given a different name, and depending on whether it is
intended as a different level introductory course or a continuation
of a previous course, that name will indicate which it is. Of all the
problems involved in getting physics where it belongs in the high
school curriculum, this seems to me to be the least.

The important issue, at least for the college-bound students, is
getting them to college with an understanding of the subjects that
they will study with a level of understanding that will allow the
college to assume some prior knowledge, so they don't have to start
from the beginning all over again. If we start a three-year science
sequence in the ninth grade, there is no reason why every student who
plans on needing physics, or chemistry, or biology as part of their
course of study in college will have the opportunity to get a
second-level course in that subject while still in high school.
Provided, of course, that the school district bothers to offer such a
program.

And not having to "start over again" doesn't necessarily mean that
they can skip some of the things that were done in the HS course,
only that they can a) look at them from a more sophisticated
viewpoint, and/or b) move through them more quickly. Reviewing what
the students have done before is a pedagogically sound procedure. It
makes sure everyone is at the same point, and it gives the students a
measure of confidence that what they learned before still has some
relevance. But this needn't take very many class days, and perhaps
only a few minutes at the beginning of those classes where a subject
is being introduced that was most likely done in the high schools.

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..
******************************************************

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.