Re: College nowadays - What "should" students know?

[Richard Tarara <rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Allen Miller <amiller@SUHEP.PHY.SYR.EDU>
> In my view, high-school physics should not pay any attention to what may
> help out a student in college. That is not its purpose. Most important,
> the students need to be stimulated and to feel the beauty of science. It
> does not matter what you teach, as long as you are stimulated by it, and
> feel you can transmit this excitement to the students.
>
> Allen Miller
> Syracuse University

This is what should be happening from K-8.  If this were done, then by
grades 11-12 we might expect some more 'serious' physics to be done with a
view towards preparing those students going to College (which are 70%--from
another thread) to be able to handle College level physics*.  To say this
another way:  If we had really good science courses in the elementary and
middle schools, then we could have HS physics courses at the level we are
now seeing our Intro College courses retreating towards.  The College
courses could then return to the levels of 'yesteryear'.  We wouldn't be in
the dillemma of whether to cut way back on the content of these intro
courses because the majority of the students need to be intensely confronted
with  basic conceptual ideas such as the meaning of acceleration, Newton's
Laws of Motion, the basic gravitational force law, etc., etc.

Whatever the cause--poorer preparation or just a broader range of students
(due to more students), we seem to be moving towards a situation where it
will require a Master's degree to have gained the knowledge and skills that
a Bachelor's degree once indicated.  IMO, to reverse this trend, we have to
start back at the beginning and upgrade the educational process from
Kindergarten upwards--and, heaven forbid, may actually need to 'track'
students according to their abilities.

*Of course the vast majority of HS students do not take College Physics, and
for them, your comments hold.  Unfortunately, not all HS programs can
separate the future science/engineering students from the future
accounting/history majors.  Better to aim high for all--IMO.

Rick

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Richard W. Tarara
Department of Chemistry & Physics
Notre Dame, IN 46556
219-284-4664
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

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