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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.