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[Phys-L] Re: In the Private Universe



Unfortunately, the vast majority of science textbooks (esp. physics) are
too long, too technical, too factual, and too dry. Books should be
readable (like those by Hewitt). I imagine these are hard to write since
science is a difficult subject. College physics texts basically all look
the same. We need more graphics, better explanations, and shorter books.
Who can adequately cover (and comprehend) 25-30 chapters in one year???

Forum for Physics Educators <PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu> on Wednesday,
February 23, 2005 at 9:44 AM -0500 wrote:
I suppose it could be a reading problem for some students, but I think
it may be the power of the picture over the power of the words, as well
as the not clear explanation, in the students minds, as compared to
their easy understanding of the effect of distance.
I'm reminded of the work done in which two groups of students were given
a paragraph to read, and then answer some questions. In one paragraph a
word was changed in the middle to be more complex and less
understandable. The students who read that paragraph did worse on the
questions that related to material after that word suggesting that they
stopped reading or stopped thinking because the conceptual frame was
lost. In the same way, if the correct explanation of the seasons is
opague to them, I can imagine they would go with what seems clearer and
just as true to them based on the picture they saw.
This is more than saying they are not reading...though they are
not...since if I am correct we can begin to find ways to engage the
students so the new ideas are not so opague. We can also introduce new
data, such as in the winter the sun appears larger, so it must be closer.

cheers,

joe

Spagna Jr., George wrote:

David Marx writes

-----Original Message-----
From: David T. Marx [mailto:marx@PHY.ILSTU.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 10:29 PM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Re: In the Private Universe



To me, the source of this mistake is the textbooks. The Earth is


always


shown from a side view with a very elongated ellipse and the point is


made


that the sun is at one of the foci. What other conclusion do we expect
students (and often their teachers) to draw from this other than the


mistaken


explanation for the seasons?



I suspect that the problem is not the textbooks, themselves. Rather,
the students don't read them, or if they do the reading they don't
understand what they are reading. Every intro astronomy text that I've
ever used clearly states that seasons are a result of the inclination of
Earth's equator to the plane of the ecliptic ... and the diagrams and
captions show the difference between northern and southern hemisphere
summer, winter, spring, and fall.

Also, as another colleague points out, I also have written proof that
they don't listen, either!

********************************************
"Eternity is very long,
especially toward the end."
- Woody Allen
********************************************

Dr. George Spagna
Chair, Physics Department
Randolph-Macon College
P.O. Box 5005
Ashland, VA 23005-5505

phone: (804) 752-7344
fax: (804) 752-4724
e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu
http://faculty.rmc.edu/gspagna




--
Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. Ph.D.
574-284-4662, 4968
Saint Mary's College
Dept. of Chemistry and Physics
Notre Dame, IN, 46556