Re: Syllabus for AP physics

[Rick Tarara <rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

It may well be that 'repeating everything over and over again' that makes
the successful physics student (one who has survived all of the repetitions)
a little more skilled in their knowledge than those from some other
disciplines.  General educational research does point to MULTIPLE
repetitions as being necessary to the internalization of knowledge and the
standard physics curriculum does build heavily on a spiral
approach--repeating the same general material at higher and higher levels of
sophistication.  What I personally feel is lacking in that approach is
fundamentally two things:

1)  The purely conceptual, 'first look' approach that we use for many
non-science/engineering students is usually never experienced by those with
the math tools to 'jump into' our algebra/calculus-problem solving courses.
Hence, the first loop in the spiral is missing for our science majors.

2)  Few instructors at the higher levels specifically point students back at
their previous experiences in the same subject area.  How many instructors
of QM or Goldstein-level mechanics ever tie these courses back to the
student's previous courses.  Usually it is just assumed that the students
have the built-in ability to do this (when few actually do).

Of course it would be advantageous if the first two loops of the spiral were
really accomplished BEFORE student got to college, but there is much work to
be done in the K-9 science curricula (especially teacher preparation) so
that HS students could really 'learn' in from taking first a conceptual then
an AP level physics course.


Rick

-----Original Message-----


> Good point, Jack. I didn't mean to commend or condemn math teaching in
> general, only that they and other disciplines have achieved some sort of
> continuity in their progression that we in science have not been able to
> achieve. Thus we simply repeat everything over and over again, just as if
> the students had never seen it before, which, of course, is the case for
> many of them at each level. This does allow for students to enter the chain
> at several points, but if we had some sort of progression starting earlier
> in the educational process, it would not be necessary to allow for this
> situation.