Sorry Ken. I was one of the ones who changed the subject, but that was
because I needed to know whether there is still a senior physics course.
It sure seems to me that Colorado is expecting one of two things...
Option 1: Physical Science in the freshman year consisting of some
physics, chemistry, earth/space. Then general biology in the sophomore
year. (It sounds like this is what you're doing.) Note that this is an
"integrated course" for freshman (minus biology) and then a straight
biology course for sophomores.
Option 2: A truly integrated two-year sequence with physics, chemistry,
earth/space, life science integrated throughout. Note this plan
(integrated science, perhaps even over four years) has as many or more
supporters nationwide as physics first.
Call me old fashioned, but I still like option 1. In that case, what
should you include?
I am not necessarily a fan of Hewitt, but I do like the table of
contents for his book called Conceptual Physical Science. This book is
intended for college, but the table of contents is good for high school
freshman, you just have to change the presentation to their level.
Anyway, the gross divisions are Mechanics, Heat, Electricity and
Magnetism, Sound and Light, The Atom, Chemistry, Earth Science,
Astronomy. Sounds wonderful to me. There's room to play around with
topics within each category, but this ought to prepare HS students for
HS biology, chemistry, physics in the traditional manner, and also gets
the earth/space stuff in.
25 years ago I started teaching "PHY101 Physical Science" as a gen-ed
course to Bluffton College students. I did not use a text, but had lots
of self-written handouts and lots of demos, and also labs. I did things
exactly in Hewitt's order through Sound and Light. The chem, earth,
space were available in other courses. I hadn't taught PHY101 for about
10 years, but resurrected it last summer for 12 adult students trying to
finish up a college degree. They loved it.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.