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

[Doug Craigen <dcc@ESCAPE.CA>]

>     But many HS courses (even those that are not A.P.) use college textbooks
> and strive to cover a large chunk of them. What else are they doing besides
> mirroring college courses?

(One of these days I'll have mentioned here all the things I do for a
living.)
Last night I began tutoring another student - this one a girl in grade
10 physics (doesn't exist in most schools around here so I guess they've
got a lot of freedom).  They are covering some interesting material
which is not just trying to get a headstart on the next class (the basic
complaint being echoed above).  Her big problem last night was with
strobe questions.  A sample would be "a strobe light is flashing at a
rate of 12 per second while a two blade fan turns at a rate of 5
rev/second.  Describe what is observed and explain your reasoning."  I
don't think I've ever seen such questions tackled in a physics class
before, but on the other hand she says the entire class is completely
baffled.


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Doug Craigen
          Latest Project - the Physics E-source
          http://www.dctech.com/physics/