Last night, my daughter asked me for help with her Foundations of Science homework. She had to define and apply some very basic physics concepts. I did not study physics in high school, although I did do advanced math and biology. In college I thought I would major in Physiology (I don't even think they have a major called Physiology any more) and took the science majors versions of Calculus, Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Biology, and Physiology. I enjoyed them and did well. At the same time, I was happily completing the requirements for a Comparative Literature major. Why did I end up not finishing a science major too? The adviser told me I had too many credits, and I took Physics. ARgh! I think I got a B (which for me was crash and burn) and I'm sure I memorized all the definitions and equations, but I didn't really "get it" enough to make the lab anything but brutal. Who knows, if I had taken physics earlier, I might have ended up being a science nerd instead of a book nerd.
In retrospect, I see now that if I had had ANY kind of introduction to physics at the high school level, as my daughter is having now, it wouldn't have been such a surprise when I took the class in college. I was also reminded last night of how my particular learning style needs a different approach than the dry traditional approach of all my science classes in college, except for Physiology I in which our professor, Richard M Eakin, dressed up as famous scientists and acted out his lectures about their most important ideas. There were probably 500 students in that class, and we were mesmerized. We loved it, and we learned. (The series was filmed and archived here as Great Scientists Speak Again)
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2 comments:
How I loved Physics ("for Poets") when I finally took it at 34 y.o. to finish the tag end of my drawn-out undergraduate career (mercifully not to be followed by a graduate career).
My math skills are nonexistent, but I loved the ideas, and luckily the prof--a relatively young woman--was good at translating the natural language of Physics (calculus?) into English. And, like your physiology guy, she acted out some of the concepts (tho not in costume), greatly impressing me when she accidentally shocked herself with electricity, thus demonstrating that theory and reality are Not The Same Thing At All!
Anyway, good luck to you and Daughter as you launch into this!
Your story is chillingly like mine, except I was thinking of double majoring in Math/English, and it only took my first math class for me to get a B, though that was because I didn't do the homework and choked on the final. I used to be able to breeze through integrals, now, I can barely do addition.
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