| 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] |
Ahh, but let me point something out here. What you describe happening in the
UK is not, IMO, anything even close to "physics first". It's more like the
way science SHOULD be taught in the first place. Those kids are being
exposed to a grand scheme of science. Not segmented, usually disjoint,
clumps like we do here. That is fine! In fact, as I stated, it's the way
science should be taught.
Physics first is a totally different animal. It is trying to re-shuffle a
poker deck to see if you can play pinochle! We have some serious issues in
sci ed in USA. But re-ordering of the "Big Three" is not the answer. The
solution IS more like Matt describes. Teach science. Not just parts of it.
Daryl L. Taylor, Fizzix Guy
Greenwich HS, CT
PAEMST '96
International Internet Educator of the Year '03
NASA SEU Educator Ambassador
www.DarylScience.com
This email prepared and transmitted using 100% recycled electrons!
-----Original Message-----
From: Forum for Physics Educators [mailto:PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu]On
Behalf Of Joseph Bellina
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 10:08 AM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Re: Math and Physics Teacher partnership?
Well said,
joe
On Mon, 8 Nov 2004, Matt Harding wrote:
For all of you who are opposed to the notion of 'physics first', take a
look at what your colleagues overseas are doing. How many of you have
been impressed by the content knowledge possessed by foreign students?
The reason is simple, they don't encounter physics for the first time in
their final year of secondary school. Rather, they've had bits and
pieces all along. Part of my student teaching was at a sixth form
centre in the UK. If I compare the depth of understanding those
students had to that of my current US high school, well, there's no
comparison. The UK students (weren't all British, one class had
representatives from five continents) had experienced physics throughout
their education. As a result, when we studied electronics, we looked at
the behavior of RLC circuits, where as in the US, I'm lucky if we can
distinguish series from parallel.
Certainly there are some topics in physics that don't require
knowledge of advanced math concepts and therefore could be dealt with
prior to the real 'physics' course. Or at least, there are ways of
approaching some concepts that won't doom the concrete-reasoners to
certain failure. This would allow the 'physics' teachers to spend more
time on real physics instead of devoting a large chunk of the year to
things like kinematics(algebra). I too would blow this off as some
idealized situation if I hadn't seen it in action.
Cheers,
Matt
"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a
very narrow field."
- Niels Bohr