Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: impulse/momentum



I never meant to say that we should do only useful problems in
classes. It is impossible to teach physics in a graded manner
without modelling and idealising. What all I meant to say is that we
have to keep in mind the limitations of our teaching.

regards,
Sarma.

On 14 Dec 2003, at 19:52, Jack Uretsky wrote:

I disagree. Suppose you gave the students nothing but "useful"
problems to solve. At the end of 4 years the student will - if diligent -
have a notebook full of standard solved problems. The guarantee is the
student will never have to confront one of those problems in real life,
because we can only give problems that have already been solved.
What we are endeavoring to teach - no! What we are endeavoring to
make available to the students is the opportunity to attack problems that
they have never seen before, because that is what they will be doing in
real life. We can model for them how we attack such problems, but the
actual solutions are irrelevant.
Regards,
Jaack



On Mon, 15 Dec 2003, D.V.N.Sarma wrote:

On 13 Dec 2003, at 17:18, Bob Sciamanda wrote:


We never solve real problems - only models of real situations.


and this accounts for the lack of usefulness of what students study
in schools and universities in their jobs in industry etc..
( cf.Discovery learning thread)

A statement which every teacher should always keep in mind.

regards,
Sarma.


--
"Don't push the river, it flows by itself"
Frederick Perls