World Conference on Physics Education 2012- Physics as a Culture

12th July 2012

Ok....I am back in Singapore.  Have been back a week actually.....but was having jetlag and had piles of work to clear and I could not update this blog.  But I think it is essential, else as time passes, my memory will most likely undergo an exponential decay.  And I find that my half life of my short term memory has been getting shorter over the years as well.  Ok, so I will try and find 30 min to blog about some of the interesting insights or information that I got from the the conference.

Actually this is good, cause I will therefore only blog about the things that impacted me the most.
 

Crossing the Culture in Physics Education

This is the key theme of this year's conference about the role of context and culture in teaching physics.

Prof Edward F. Redish giving his plenary talk to start off the conference.

One glance at the theme, one would actually think that "cross culture" is between the Asians, Hispanics, and Caucasians etc.  Actually, I was surprised that there was another way to think about this cross-culture thingy....i.e. to think about it in terms of disciplines.

Hm, and come to think of it, it is quite true for me as a student.  Let me try to elaborate and summarise the gist of what I find interesting from Professor Redish's talk...and hopefully I don't get it wrong.

1.  Physicists, chemist, biologists and those who study math or literature when given a same problem could think of it differently and also interpret the ideas different.  Hence, they approach a question and solve it in their own unique manners. 

2.  What is therefore important for Physicists and which we seem to think are fundamental - like forces and energy.  May not be so fundamental for students who take biology and medicine,as they belong to another culture.  

Prof. Redish talked about teaching undergraduates not taking Physics as a major, hm...my mind was running through images of my students who are offering literature, history and who has not inkling why they chose to do physics at A-levels in the first place.  Ok....I still think forces and energy is fundamental, I cannot image why not.  I cannot see the value of literature except for enjoyment...(don't throw rotten eggs at me....I do read classics and literature....for fun....but have a fundamental respect for Physics), but I guess my lit. students could possible see no value in Physics for themselves.  I guess this helps me to understand them better and develop an empathy for them and not be so impatient with them.

3. It takes time for students to inculcate the habits for them to think like physicists.  It is not natural to them.  We must articulate our thoughts and constantly show them how we look at things.

3.  Physics is a culture, students are at the edge of this culture, observing and learning more about the culture.  We need to help them to slowly cross over the culture - hm it means starting from primary school I guess - and understand the culture before we can move them in.

4.  Many a times, we do not really understand Physics.  We think we understand Physics.  In reality, it is just that we are exposed to the same concepts many times at different angles and we start accepting the concepts and think we know them.

When I look at my son doing electricity at Primary school, I can better understand the problems he is getting now?  Electricity and many concepts in physics are actually quite abstract to the students, cause these can be seen.  We cannot see forces, we cannot see energy and we cannot see electrons.  We develop these as we go along and with sufficient exposure and experiments, we believe in them.

No wonder my son is having problem with forces and energy and treating them as equivalent and I am pulling my hair out trying to teach him.  

No wonder some students till now still mixes up concepts of forces and motion, as they "see" only the effect.

Hence, I guess we need to also to be tolerant of our students and give them time to explore the concepts till they are able to accept it.

....................................................................................................

Further revelation:

Hence, for those of us who have immersed in physics long enough, when we see equations, we may be able to have mental physical models of what that equations are.  For students, they are at the stage of infancy when to them the equations are algebraic equations with no form or shape or significance.  They do not see mental models, they are often unaware of assumptions behind the equations.  This does not help if the tutorial practices in schools and the assessment questions are choked with plug-and -chug question cause they will only see that searching for the correct no. associated with the symbols and chugging into the magic equations will yield the answer and think that they "understand" their physics. 

Again, we therefore need to get students to interpret their calculations, have more conceptual and explanation questions if we want to develop their thinking in physics.

Ok....I am not saying there is no place in physics for drill questions.  If I look at my own learning and do a self-reflection.  I find that I always start with the plug and chug questions, cause I am gaining familiarity with the concept, then I look at the different ways they are applied and see how they work.  When I have build sufficient confidence, and can use the equations without having trouble even to remember its basic form, I then move on to look at it more conceptually and then applying them to more complex situations.  

Now looking back on our lecture tutorial systems, I feel that more should be done in the area of bridging between the lecture and tutorials.  The lectures often introduces the concepts, and and examples often are looking a plug and chug question.  Then we move on to some self-review question and discussion questions.  But our self-review questions are often not planned through with a clear learning path and purpose in mind.  The bridge between the self-review questions are often not clear as well.  In fact, sometimes the jump is very, very big.  We should try the lay stepping stones and step them from basic and build concepts on each other, before assimilating them with concepts from other areas.  I know that is going to be massive work.  And with us trying to limit the tutorials to about 10+ questions.  It will definitely be a challenge.

Footnote:

You must be thinking...why do I only update the blog now.  Network in Turkey is slow....very slow, and it does not help when the hotel you stay at has network that is intermittent and unreliable.

A Peer Rating Form for Lectures

Screen shot of Website

In the beginning of this year, my Level Head paired each of us up during lectures for us to observe each other.  At my school, the lectures are distributed amongst the teachers teaching the level and each one of us are given lecture loads which correspond to about two to three topics a year.  It is also a requirement for us to sit into the lectures as it serves three purposes - (a)  to monitor the students' behaviour and to ensure that they are paying attention in class, (b)  to ensure that all tutors are updated on the progress of the lectures and (c) to observe the lecturer.  For (c), it serves as a form of professional development for us, as it allows us to further learn what we should do and not do in lectures.

In the earlier years, as a beginning teacher, I always found it useful and amongst the younger colleagues, we used to ask each other for feedback like "What do you think you like about my lecture?", "Is there anything you think I could have done better?", "Would you have taught it this way?"  There were four of us in fact and we used to have these exchanges and enjoyed them thoroughly.  No one was ever offended and we would in fact often enjoy the small bickerings on which was a better method.  In the process,  all of us honestly felt we gained much and learnt alot from each other.

I do not find this culture prevalent in the younger lecturers anymore.  People are not so open to comments or praises, and perhaps this is why my Level Head (who also used to be in our gang of four) has decided to try this peer observation method.

Anyway, I came across this article while doing research on peer and self rating for teamwork today.  It is actually a peer rating form for lectures that was developed by Shapiro Institute for Education and Research at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for their medical lectures.

It is very well-structured and looks into various aspects of a lecture and what we think should make a good lecture.   I feel that this form would also be great for peer observations of lectures in my school or any school that uses the lecture-tutorial system.  It provides a good structure on what to look out for in a good lecture and would be a useful formative feedback to the lecturer involved.

Missing Energy When A Mass is Hung on a Spring?

Today we did a very interesting question in class.  The question goes something like this :

Consider a light helical spring that obeys Hooke's law.  Now, let us hang a mass m on the spring and gently lower the mass till the spring extends to an new equilibrium length.  If the net extension of the spring is e,
(a)  What is the loss in the gravitational potential energy of the mass?
(b)  What is the gain the elastic potential energy of the mass?
(c)  Compare the two answers, why are they different?

Most of the students who did this question, could easily deduce the answers to the first two parts

(a)  The loss in the g.p.e. was mge.  and

(b)  The gain e.p.e was 1/2 ke².  Now, from Hooke's Law, mg = ke.  Therefore gain in E.P.E can be written as 1/2 mge.

(c)  Comparing the two answers, we see that 1/2 mge went missing.....

Most students at this point in time would then ask two questions.  First, "Where did half the energy go to?"  the next is that "Is it possible to show that 1/2 the energy would be lost?"

• So let us try to tackle the first question:  Where did half the energy go to?

You see, this in fact a trick question.  We only considered the initial state and the final state without considering what happened in between. Consider if the mass as just hung on the spring and allowed to fall without any support.  At any point in time, there would have been two forces.  (Figure below)  The upward force by the spring T and the downward gravitational force mg. 

Initially, the spring is unstretched and the mass only experiences a downward force mg.  By Newton's 2nd Law, it would therefore also experience a downward acceleration and causes it to gain speed as it moves down.  However, as it stretches T increases and the acceleration becomes smaller.  Neverthless, before reaching the equlibrium point, it still has a downward acceleration and hence will still gain speed.  As it reaches the equilibrium point, T = mg.  Although net force is zero, it already has velocity and hence should continue to move down.  And as it has velocity at the equilibrium point, it also possesses kinetic energy.  And in fact 1/2 of the loss of GPE would hav been converted to E.P.E at that point. 

The trick in this question is therefore, the point that in reality the mass was "gently lowered" to the point of equilibrium and hence there should have been a 3rd external force acting on the system that is doing negative work on the system so that it dissipates the kinetic energy that could have been gained.

No, conservation of energy was not violated.  The loss in GPE was not all converted into Elastic PE of the spring as this was not a closed system, there was an external force acting on the system and it did negative work on the system, dissipating the rest of the energy.

• 
  
  The favourite question by my better students at this point would often be " Would you be able to further convince us that the work done by this force is exactly 1/2 mge as well?"

Remember, calculus is not a requirement in A-levels, therefore, not to deter my students with the Math, I decide to adopt the graphical approach.  (Though calculus is not required, they are expected to know

is area under the y vs. x graph.  Anyway, they have learnt this in their secondary school math as well.)

So we simplify the problem as such, consider that an external force F acts on the mass (e.g. like a hand) such that it applies a force in such way to lower the mass into the equilibrium so slowly that the mass may be considered to be moving at a constant rate and almost at rest.

Hence, there are three force T, F and mg on the mass m and F = mg - kx, where x is the extension of the spring. 

The work done by the external force F is therefore the area under the F-x graph. 

Now, from F = mg - kx.  The graph of F vs. x is a straight line graph, with y-intercept mg  and gradient -k.  Sketching the graph, and noting that at equilibrium, F = 0 and x=e.  We see that area under the F-x graph which is the work done by F is therefore exactly 1/2 mge. 

F acts in opposite direction  to the motion, and hence this work done is actually negative and it seeks to dissipate the kinetic energy that could have been gained.

Hope this answers the question!

A Useful Site for Teaching College Physics: The Physics Source

Today I would like to feature this website known as the "The Physics Source".  It is a featured by Compadre which is also another site which contains very useful resources for students, teachers and faculty members.  However Compadre is a very large site that contains many, many, many other references to sites, so I will rather review each one as I come across.

I particularly like this site as it contains many materials particularly suited for teaching introductory College Physics.  As there are many topics that are also taught in A-levels, the materials can be easily adapted for a A-level classroom.

All the resources are already classified thematically e.g. mechanics.  Under each theme the resources are further classified topically.  Once you enter into the topics, you will have a view of the available resources.  Beyond the title of the resource, there is a brief description on what each resource is and also the weblink to get the resource.

This will definitely be a website I will be visiting see what are the resources available for the topics I am teaching or lecturing.  This is so exciting!

Why a smaller sphere having a smaller charge can have an electric field that is stronger than a larger sphere having a larger charge?

This is a followup post to my previous post on the misconception that a smaller spherical conductor will have a larger charge and hence there is a greater possibility of it being discharging.

I did the same question with another of my class today.  However, this time, this class of students had more problems in visualising why a smaller sphere having a smaller charge could possibily have a stronger electric field at the surface.  I also had students who told me that their secondary school teachers told them that it was the charge per unit area that mattered and asked me how to reconcile this with the concept of electric field being stronger.

Let us address the first issue first.  To aid in the visualisation.  I drew the following picture.  In this case, we had already made a calculation of 0.3 micro-coulomb on the small sphere and 0.9 micro-coulomb residing on the larger sphere.  So if there is one electric field line drawn for each 0.1 micro-coulomb charge on it sphere, then we see can have:

So from the diagram above, we see that the although there is less charge on the smaller sphere, the electric field lines could be closer, and hence the E-field could be stronger.

Now for the second question, was the secondary teacher right in saying that it is the charge per unit area that mattered.  Two ways to understand this, first the diagram shows fundamentally an essential point in drawing field lines, the no. of field lines are proportional to the charge, therefore have a greater no. of charge per unit area, essentially means more electric field lines per unit area and hence the field lines will be closer and in other word, the electric field is stronger.

Alternatively, those who prefer to see equations will have 

From the equation, we can see that the electric field strength at the surface of the charged sphere can be written as a constant multiplied by  (Q / surface area of sphere), so essentially the secondary teacher who relates the electric field at the surface to the Q per unit area is actually correct.

A Common Misconception: More Charges Accumulates on a Sharper Point...Is it Really True?

[Picture Source: stock.xchng, "Raw Power1" (2008) by gun4fire]

When I was an O-level student, I was often told by my Physics teacher that as more charges tend to accumulate on a point that is sharper and hence there is a greater likelyhood for discharge and therefore, lightning rod are built to be sharper.  As a typical O-level student, I was like my student now, and just readily accepted what my teacher said then.

While teaching electric field at A-levels, we have a typical problem whereby we have two spherical conductors in which we connect a "long" wire across them.  We then place a certain amount of charge onto the system and the charges with redistribute till they come to electrostatic equilibrium.  (A similar problem can be found in Serway's "Physics for Scientists and Engineers"(6th Edition), Problem 25.50, pg 791.)

After the calculation, we may find some interesting results.  The electrical charges collected on the larger sphere are in reality more than that of the smaller sphere.  However the electric field at the surface of the smaller sphere is large.  The electric field represents the force acting on per unit charge, and hence logically the larger the force the higher the probability of discharge.  Hence I guess, the idea of more charges accumulating at a sharper point and hence greater probability of discharging, can be quite misleading....


PS:  This article is a followup on a previous comment contributed which triggered this idea.  It is possible to start off with the Windhurst machine activity and then follow up with the problem above and a discussion of breakdown voltage.

Problem 25.50 in Serway (6th Edition), pg 791:
Electric charge can accumulate on an airplane in flight.  You may have observed needle-shaped metal extensions on the wing tips and tail of an airplane.  Their purpose is to allow charge to leak off before much of it accumulates.  The electric field around the needle is much larger than the field around the body of the airplane, and can become large enough to produce dielectric breakdown of the air, discharging the airplane.  To model this process, assume that two charged spherical conductors are connected by a long conducting wire, and a charge of 1.20 micro-coulombs is placed on the combination.  One sphere, representing the body of the airplane, has a radius of 6.00 cm, and the other, representing the tip of the needle, has a radius of 2.00 cm.  (a)  What is the electric potential of each sphere?  (b)  What is the electric field at the surface of each sphere?

Setting Exam Questions - Beyond Bloom's Taxonomy

  Most JCs are in the midst of setting their prelim questions and promotional examination questions at this time of the year. This is no different at my college, last Friday a colleague who is new in teaching came and seek me advice on how I usually set questions and he asked me if it was alright for a question to contain many different parts on a story line. So, we had a chit-chat and I shared my experience on setting questions with him, in the midst I realised that it may be possible to pen down some of experiences and hopefully, some new teachers can benefit from it.

Usually each examination will have a specific table of specification (TOS). For each question and topic that I am assigned to I have something similar as well. Usually, I will go through the syllabus and identify all the concepts that I need that students to be able to show mastery in. I usually start off by setting the structured question first, unless I have just come across one very particularly good question in MCQ. For the structured question. as I set each part of question, I check off the concept that has been tested. This avoids over testing of one particular concept - as each mark in the paper is very precious. It also alerts me to which other the concepts that have not been covered in the examination. That allows me to set an appropriate question in MCQ to ensure that concept has been tested

Many schools also use the Bloom's taxonomy to guide them. However, I find that a little difficult to use at times especially in physics were almost every question is an application and applications and extrapolation can be both difficult and easy depending on the question. However, I find it useful to follow the following:

(i) I usually start setting the main scenario of the question. For beginners, a good point is always to pick an interesting question from past questions, or a textbook question. I then first solve the question. Usually textbook questions especially the more challenging ones will need to be solved in parts.

(ii) Then I add in parts to the question for ensure that students are guided to achieve the final answers, start off with the easier calculations and slowly lead the students in. There should not be more than two steps in each part.

(iii) Revisit the question, look at if there are any appropriate qualitative questions that can be added in to get the students to explain a new scenario if something in the questions is changed or if what is calculated can be placed at the end of the question. Sometimes, if there are more than sufficient marks to play with I will also get students to sketch graphs pertaining to scenario, this helps to extend students' thinking and also assess students' ability to translating information to abstract representations.

(iv) When the bulk of the question is set , I then assign the marks for each part. (We will talk more about how I assign marks below) Usually each setter is given a certain of marks to play with for the question to be set. For the filling the rest of the marks, I will now go back and place some regugitative questions like definitions to the front or intermediate parts of the question. For example in a gravitation question on dealing with force approaches that utilises Newton's Law of Gravitation, I would put in a "State Newton's Law of Gravitation" in front. If an energy approach is needed later, I may add in the definition of Gravitation Potential Energy of a 2 mass system. This is particularly essential to guide the students' train of thought in examinations.

4. Throughout the whole process, be clear of the learning objectives that you wish to set, this especially important in awarding of marks. For awarding marks in the question, I make sure I tie the points in my question to a particular concept that I wish to illustrate. So beyond just writing down 1 mark - I usually have a remarks column in my own marking scheme to note down also what this one mark is for e.g. illustrating knowledge of application of Newton's Law of Gravitation.

5. From the description of 3, I also note that beyond just setting a question. I do take note that in all my questions, there should not only be just calculations. In all the questions I set for a topic, I always ensure that there is a little bit of regugitative work (10 - 20% of question), a little bit of calculation (30% -40% should be something familiar), more calculation (10% - 20% more challenging), some graphical work (20%) and some qualitative explanations part (20%) -both of which usually proofs to be more challenging for students.

6. Back to the question on whether it is appropriate to have many different scenarios in a question. It depends on how many marks is allocated and what the objective is for the question, for some time is needed for the candidate to explore and understand each new scenario. For example, in the case if we are looking at a synthesis question on how students understand conservation of energy is applied throughout the various topics in Physics, then each part could be description of a different scenario like describing the energy changes that occurs in a spring undergoing simple harmonic motion, a block sliding down a slope, the excitation and de-excitation of an electron when a photon is incident on it etc. Each scenario is however short and familiar. However, if the scenario could be something not familiar and a lot of description is needed to get the students into the story line, then it makes no sense to give a new scenario every two parts. E.g. in the case where Tarzan swings and picks up Jane and swings back again. The scenario should be sufficient to present itself with many questions the setter can set for. Having a new scenario for each one or two marks is very unfair to the candidate as there is in fact more time needed for candidate to truly understand the scenario.

Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey

My friend sent me a research paper on Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey (QMCS).

The QMCS is a survey to assess students' understanding of quantum mechanics and is intened to be used to measure the relative understanding of quantum mechanics.  As with the most conceptual tests used for research, the authors have protected the security of the test by keeping it from becoming available to students.  After administering the test, they do not post solutions or allow students to take the tests home.  They have also administered it online but on a password-protected enviroment with warnings to students not to distribute it.

Instructors or Physics teachers interested in obtaining a copy can request copy at http://per.colorado.edu/QMCS.

My Role as a Teacher in Physics

  To me, the point about Physics education is not just dishing out the facts and expecting the students to do well. I always emphasize to my students, that it is an intriguing subject, because it forces you to learn how to learn, and it forces you to think at different perspectives. Physics is a subject that trains its learner to be logical. Many a times, the exact problem is not even formulated into an equation for your to solve yet. You need to read, interpret, make reasonable assumptions and model the situation to something solvable. Beyond that, you need to have a good grasp of mathematics to be able to tackle the problems. Getting the answer is uninteresting. You must be able to interpret the answer to your calculations, give conceptual understanding to it and then explain in a coherent manner to your peers your interpretation (so some mastery of language is needed). Furthermore, you must try to internalize what you have learnt to put into new context. Isn't this what real world problem solving is about?


  As teachers, I feel that we must therefore be aware of training skills beyond just the academic knowledge, many of our students will not in fact take on physics, JC is the time they are exposed to the rigour of various subjects and through them they learn more about themselves and will go on to further pursue their interests. Learning how to learn in new situations, from various information, is a more important lifelong skill they can apply for the rest of life.

  This is also why I find that putting students in teams that they have not worked with is important. The world has globalised.  Even as a teacher, I find that the soft skills of negotiation, teamwork, conflict management, socialising etc. are important. With the complexity of many real-life tasks, you need not only be competent in knowledge at workplace, but possess the necessary skills to both lead and work as a team player.

  Preparing students sufficiently for their future....isn't this what teaching is about?

Tips in Lecturing 1 : What to look for in The design of Slide.

Preparing my lecture slides for gravitation and my husband is overlooking my shoulders.  He says that " You have nice slides...maybe you should document some tips for lecturing."  Okay...so here I share some things I take note of when I design my slides, in case I forget.

1. 
   
   Ideas on each slide must be clear.  Have only sufficient words to allow you to recall what you want to say.  Point form is great....students can read notes....and they should be encouraged to study from notes and texts. 
2. 
   
   Put the concept that you want to say on the title.  Keep to one concept per slide, too many concepts the student may miss the point.  Only use more than one when you need to review previous concepts or do a consolidation at the end.
3. 
   
   Also put the reference to the lecture notes or textbook on the slide title.  This allows the students to refer to the elaborations when they review the slides.
4. 
   
   Make it aesthetically appealing.  Highlight key words in bold and colour.  Add a diagram, photo when possible.
5. 
   
   Check your font size is sufficiently large to be ready by your last row of audience, you can check it with students in the first lecture and make adjustments.  Usually I keept to trebuchet at least a font size of 20. I avoid Times New Roman cause the words tend to too thin.
6. 
   
   When developing arguments I tend to rehearse what I want to say when I design my slide and animate the points when they come out.

Yap that is it for now.....will write more when I think of more.

US satellite to monitor debris

US satellite to monitor debris (Click on this link to access the article.)

Source: Straits Times
Date: 4th July 2010

This is a great article to include during the teaching of Gravitation. Students learn about how satellites are launched, and are often taught that they will continue to spiral inward as they lose gravitational potential energy and gain kinetic energy and eventually burn up in atmosphere.

However, in reality, we do leave a lot of debris and trash in space and now we are causing problems for ourselves.

A lesson in National Education perhaps? Though not directly related to Singapore, but relates to character development and the care of the environment, and our responsibility as inhabitants of the earth.

Software Recommendation: Dia - A Free Software To Draw Circuit Diagrams

Dia :  A Free Visio-like Software

In teaching electricity, there is always a need to draw many circuit diagrams.  I had initially used the Art box in Microsoft Word to draw the diagrams.  However, I found it a little cumbersome as constant adjustment of the diagrams are needed especially linking between the different circuit components.

I was introduced to Microsoft Visio and I do admit it is useful, but too much an overkill for me as it is relatively expensive considering the fact that I only want to use it draw electrical diagrams.

Recently, I came across a free, open-source software called Dia.  It is a great software, as it contains most of circuit components that you can easily find in the A-level syllabus.
It is a slightly scaled down version of Visio, but definitely serves my purpose.

This is a definitely a good tool to have with you.

[Click on the title of this writeup to access the site to download the software.]

Recommended Textbooks for Advanced Level Physics Part 3 : United Kingdom Text - Advanced Level Physics by Nelkon & Parker

Textbook Reviewed :  Advanced Level Physics (by Nelkon & Parker)


This was the classic text used by most Singapore schools at the time that when I was still a student.  The current edition is much better than the 6th Edition, which I felt the paper was so thin that I was so afraid to tear it.  It is still one of the key British texts that I constantly refer to, maybe I was familiar with the lay out.

What I Particularly Like About The Text:

This is a text particularly suited for the A-level syllabus.  It contains much information especially on experiments that students particularly need for the A-level examination.

I always recommend this as a reading text for my students, as I find it helps the students to hone the way they write  (in a scientific manner).  Language and arguments are done in a formal manner and it does improve the quality the students write.  Since the A-levels are set by UK examiners, it is best to understand what the examiners are saying.  This helps in understanding of the questions set in the A-levels examinations as well.
  
This is also a good text as it covers everything and also beyond the A-level syllabus, which is good as A-levels do expect the student to be informed beyond the syllabus and provides good grounding.  (Btw, the O-level text - "Principle of Physics" is particularly good...helped me score my distinction in Physics when I did my O-level....was utterly grateful for it.)


What I feel needs to be improved:

The same with all other British texts, I hope to see a version of text with :

• more colour
• highlighting of the more important points in boxes esp. the essential definitions and explanations.
• Layout can be more friendly and aesthetically done
• More pictures (hopefully colourful ones)
• Have scaffolding questions before dumping the students with the examination style questions which are nevertheless important.

Recommended Textbooks for Advanced Level Physics Part 2 : United Kingdom Text - Advanced Physics by Tom Duncan

Textbook Reviewed:  Advanced Physics by Tom Duncan

This is another textbook which I commonly refer to when I prepare for lectures and tutorials. 

What I particularly like about the Textbook:

Explanations are very detailed and clear.  Definitions are again very precise.  I also particularly like the detailed descriptions and well-labelled diagrams of the experiments and all essential experiments are given.  The drawings were often traditional clipart drawings which you could easily duplicate for exams using your pencils, unlike the diagrams nowadays in US texts which tend to replace them by real objects and students may not know the skill to draw the schematic diagrams which they need to produce in examinations.

Areas that can be Improved for the textbook:

  I was first exposed to this text when I was an A-level student - this was the other recommended text besides Nelkon and Parker.  However, I found it a little difficult to follow as the concepts and ideas were not introduced in the sequence taught by my lecturers or tutors, this was further complicated by the fact that the tutors did not point out specifically where I could refer to for each chapter of the text.  To give you an example, for the study of thermal physics I had to look at one chapter for the various bonds of the materials to see how they affected specific heat capacity and another chapter for example on gas laws.  Examples in the texts were also too few and so I found it difficult to scaffold  my learning and found it difficult to apply what I have learnt to the questions given for tutorials.  So eventually, I still stuck on to my Nelkon and Parker.  As a teacher, I got around this problem, as I was familiar with the instructional objectives of each topic, so I usually search for the information I need through the glossary, e.g. suppose I was looking for information on Conservation of Energy, I would then go to the glossary and read through all the relevant pages on Conservation of Energy.

 As usual, end of chapter problems were usually UK A-level examination questions,  therefore they pose difficulty to a student new to the topic as there was too great a jump from the concepts to the application of concepts to exam-style question.  It would have been better to have some simpler questions that were first relevant and arranged according to the concepts introduced and then the slightly more difficult ones that were more at the examination level, and then finally the examination style questions.

[Note:  Diagram is taken of http://www.amazon.co.uk/.  In the case that anyone wishes for me to remove it I can easily do so.]

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Bargains for Members at AAPT

The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) is having a great booksale for their members. Just choose 5 books for the price of USD 30 (excluding statement), maybe that is sufficient motivation to entice me to renew my membership....I stopped renewing when my school subscribed to "The Physics Teacher".

If you are interested, you may go to http://www.aapt.org for more details