Re: [Phys-l] Students' READING abilities

["Anthony Lapinski" <Anthony_Lapinski@pds.org>]

I agree. At my private school in Princeton. only 2 sciences are required.
Most student take 4-5 years to get into a "competitive" college. We have 3
APs and 4 electives, so there are plenty of science courses to choose
from. Some of my students are disinterested or unqualified to be in
physics (regular or honors). I always survey my students why they signed
up for physics (an elective). The final grade is really all they care
about as they are under much pressure to "do well" and get accepted into a
good university. Our grades are inflated her, but that's a whole other
story. Require homework, and they copy. Make it optional, and few do it.
But ultimately students are responsible for their understanding. As
teenagers, they'd rather text message than study physics. Learning for the
sake of learning applies to only a few students. Still, they need to be
responsible for their academics. We can only do so much.

Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:
> > In most cases, the traditional high school physics course is an
> > elective.  It is therefore self-selective.  Student enrolling in the
> > course generally have some interest in the subject or else they wouldn't
> > take it.  I know this is not 100% true because some take it because they
> > know they want to be engineers; some take it because they know they want
> > to major in science in college; and so forth.
>
> Actually, it is not just self-selective.  A lot of students take it
> because
> they think it will help them get into a "good" school.  The vast majority
> of
> these students either will not, or can not pursue a career in math or
> science.  TX is requiring 4 years of HS science next year in the belief
> that
> this will improve student learning.  This will probably just put more
> unwilling students into science classes, and swell lower level science
> classes.  Only a very few are actually interested in it or seriously plan
> to
> pursue science or engineering.  Some private schools require physics for
> all.  So actually most students are really not interested in it in HS.
>
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Forum for Physics Educators
> Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
> https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l