introductory physics course is misnamed

[Chuck Britton <britton@NCSSM.EDU>]

And many H.S. physics teachers blame any number of earlier courses.

Trust me - kids come with preconceived notions that are totally
independent of any formal course of instruction. Sure, there IS some
'wrong' instruction, but the biggest hurdle to our successful
presentation of the material is addressing misconception from MANY
sources. Teachers/instructors are giving too much credit to our
educational system if we think that curriculum/pedagogy is that
effective.

Avoiding the word 'acceleration' for as long as possible is the
technique that _*I*_ find to be useful. Axiomatic/theoretic
presentations do not address ingrained misconceptions.



At 7:46 PM -0800 11/23/03,  Ludwik Kowalski wrote:

> On Sunday, Nov 23, 2003, at 15:31 US/Pacific, Leigh Palmer wrote:
>
>  > . . . The since
> >  it is not a first course. Students in this course come
> >  from diverse high school physics courses. . . .
>
> I wish this was also typical for the US; for most
> of my students the first physics course is in the
> university, not in high school.


--
Chuck Britton                                   Education is what is left when
britton@ncssm.edu                       you have forgotten everything
North Carolina School of Science & Math         you learned in school.
(919) 416-2762                                  Albert Einstein,        1936