[Phys-L] Re: What students will do. (was: Physics Solutions Manual)

[Bernard Cleyet <bernardcleyet@REDSHIFT.COM>]

I think more than half the students taking "our" courses shouldn't.  Are
"we" encouraging course members because "we'd" be jobless?

Anecdote:  The year before Sputnik UCSB's intro (majors: Chem and
Physics) course had 50.  The year after about 150! (maybe only 100)  The
following year the number of sophomore majors was about the same, as in
previous years.

bc

p.s. George,  did you readopt a text because their grades plummeted?

Spagna Jr., George wrote:

> A number of years ago we experimented by replacing an adopted textbook
> with a "lending library" of our new and recent textbooks.  Homework
> assignments were written by the faculty, sometimes using textbook
> problems, but often generating "context rich" problem statements.  We
> thought we were doing them a favor by not requiring the purchase of a
> $100+ tome.
>
> Students were encouraged to figure out where we were in their borrowed
> book by paying attention to the subjects we were working on.  If unsure,
> they were encouraged to ask.
>
> They didn't use the books, except perhaps as paperweights.  We've gone
> back to an adopted textbook.
>
> **********************************************
>     "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than
>
>    sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
>
>                                          - Martin Luther King, Jr.
>
> **********************************************
>
> 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
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