Physics and Science
Let's Talk About Physics and Science!
Physics is one of my favorite subjects!
It has always come easy to me and I've always
enjoyed reading about physics on my own, my
favorite author being Asimov. Physics is simple
like math but much more full of color!
It has much of the drama and fascination
of history because it has a history of its own
(which is part of social studies). Hence,
Physics and science offer opportunities
for integrated learning with other subjects.
Physics was one of my strongest subjects
in high school. I always found it easy
and fun. I was fascinated as a young boy
when my oldest brother came home from high school
and explained that we could determine how high
an object was tossed by timing how long
it was in the air.
I took a Physics course in college
and I did a lot of reading on my own, my
favorite author being Asimov, a prolific
writer who was incredibly clear and
interesting. I never read his very popular
fiction works, because I found the factual
science fascinating enough and I really
wanted to understand the way things are
and not be confused by the fiction.
When I taught Physics as a student teacher
I was shocked that, in mid-year when I
took over the class, the students didn't
understand simple Mechanics, which is,
to be redundant, simple. Yet, it is
fundamental to all of Physics: the concepts
of mass, motion, force, kinetic energy.
All of Physics is built upon a few very
simple concepts: Mass, Distance, Time.
So I started with a review of the
fundamentals.
A Physics classroom should be decorated
with charts, formulas, photos, diagrams,
biographies. Visuals and demonstrations
are important in Physics. I would have visuals
and charts pertaining to a chapter on display
in the classroom at all times, and when we move on
to another topic in the next chapter or section,
I would keep previous visuals on display
in a smaller area, opening up a bigger area
for the current chapter's displays.
Some concepts and formulas are so important
and so relevant to the entire topic that they
should be displayed from the beginning and left
on display throughout the entire year, much like
the alphabet is above the blackboard always
in elementary classes. An equivalent idea
in Chemistry would be the display of the
periodic table. I cannot overemphasize
the importance of displays, charts, formulas,
graphs, photos, etc. on display in the classroom
at all times. It should be like walking into
a planetarium or imaginarium, or museum.
The standard day in a physics class
would closely resemble the standard day
in a Math class.
I am not a believer in regular weekly
or twice a week or daily labs. I have found
as a student that they are often just
busywork. I prefer demonstrations performed
by the teacher, or good videos where they
professionally conduct a lab beyond a school's
means. I think the important thing is that
the students understand the concepts.
I do, however, strongly believe in
PROJECTS performed by teams of students
or by individual students. The difference
is QUALITY. A student has a lot more grade
riding on a once-a-semester project,
and they have to demonstrate it to the
entire class. They usually put a LOT
more effort into a project than into
routine labs and they learn a LOT more
and they are MUCH more interesting for
the whole class and the teacher than
boring, routine, monotonous busywork
labs, where students are so busy trying
to follow the detailed steps that learning
is lost. Most of the class usually just
copies each others' answers with modifications
or write in the results they know are
expected.
A similar style of presentation,
with modifications, would work well
for other science classes, as well!