[Phys-L] Re: In the Private Universe

[Joseph Bellina <jbellina@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

When I was on the edge, frankly I didn't read many articles because I
was in good communication with colleagues in the field so I knew what
they were doing long before it appeared in print.  When I did find
articles that surprised me, I would work to find out what was behind
them, because much of the finger-tip knowledge was not in the article at
all.  Similarly at meetings, if a paper was presented and I was not
familiar with the work, I sought out one of the authors to just chat
about it, so I had a more thorough idea of what really was going on.

Print is a good record of what people want us to think about what
happened, but not such a good way to learn it.

I distinquish private science, where it really happens, from public
science, where we talk about it in a well-edited way from school science
which is a distillation of public science.  The texts are school
science, but to learn students need to do some private science, yet the
educators frequently don't know private science exists, they think
science is public science.

Anyway, that's my spin.

joe

Dan Crowe wrote:

> Then why do scientists spend so much time reading journal articles?
> There has to be a balance between reading text, direct discussion,
> measurement and calculation.
>
> Daniel Crowe
> Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics
> Ardmore Regional Center
> dcrowe@sotc.org
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Forum for Physics Educators [mailto:PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu] On
> Behalf Of Joseph Bellina
> Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 9:42 AM
> To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
> Subject: Re: [PHYS-L] In the Private Universe
>
> Au contraire, we need less textbooks and more active engagement.
> Science is learned by scientists in discussion not by reading some
> text, why would we expect more of our students.
>
> joe

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