I just want to briefly (hah) argue that discussions about teaching H.S.
and Gen-Ed physics and communicating science (and about science) to the
general public are legitimate topics for this list. The esoteric,
grad-level topics (which almost any topic seems to morph into) are fine,
but hopefully these have not driven away all but the die-hard High
School teachers or those like me who teach intro and gen-ed courses at
the College level. Wrapping up a 35 year career I can attest to the
fact that the Gen-Ed courses--those for the artists, philosophers,
English majors, etc. --are at one and the same time the most difficult
and the most important to teach. In these, whether the electrons move
along the outside or inside of a conductor is of absolutely no
importance, but getting across what science does know, how it knows it,
and indeed what the limits of that knowledge actually are is crucial if
students are to make reasoned political/economic/moral decisions in the
future when scientific issues play crucial roles--Climate Change just
being one example.
rwt
--
Richard Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College