Amok said:
I'm not sure if this is the best forum for this post, but here we go. This guy (who usually makes great videos) posted this on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGL22PTIOAM&feature=g-all-u
First of all, is it true (I'm not American)? Second, do you agree? Any comments are welcome :D
I personally think that some modern physics should be taught in high-school, but only to show students that physics didn't stop in time. I certainly do not think that a high-school physics curriculum should be centered around modern physics. I think modern physics is irrelevant (compared to classical physics) to most people who don't go into science and engineering (and even to a lot who do go into those domains). More importantly, I feel that one could only go so far into relativity or QM when talking to people who don't know what a gradient is. I'd rather have people learn the basics well than just learn a lot of trivia about lasers and how a gravitational field bends light. The guy makes a point about people like Carl Sagan. Fair enough, but I don't think Carl Sagan really taught physics (I'm a great admirer of the man, don't get all up in arms) as much as he talked about what wonders doing physics has enabled us to discover. This is great, it sparks interest for physics, but it doesn't really make people understand physics. If anything, people should learn more maths, and then learn physics more in-depth (without necerssarily going into modern developments).
I was exposed to modern physics in high school, so I'd have to disagree with a number of assertions made in the video. I'm not sure to what school district/system the narrator is referring, but requirements do vary considerably across the nation, and even within each state.
At my high school, I was able to take two years of chemistry (grades 11 and 12), in which we studied the structure of the atom and molecules, among many topics. I took physics and calculus in my senior (last) year. We did some basic review of SR and had some exposure to QM in physics. However, what I did notice was a disconnect between the math program and the physics class. I would have preferred a more integrated program in math and science. The physics teacher at the high school during the two years before I took physics was an alumni of the school and a PhD physicist from Caltech. Unfortunately, he left for a research job in industry the summer before my senior year.
During a my summers in junior high (grades 7-9) and high school (grades 10-12), I would take a 6 week program of 3 courses in various subjects at a local university. The classes I enjoyed the most were math and science. Between 10 and 11th grade, I took a class in physics in which we learned both theory and application/experiment. The class was taught by the same Caltech PhD physicist who was teaching at the high school I attended in grade 11 and 12.
During the summer between grades 11 and 12, I took an 8 week course in electrical and nuclear engineering at Colorado School of Mines. The electrical engineering was pretty standard first year university material, but the nuclear engineering was a blend of engineering and modern physics topics to which one might be exposed during the first two years of university. We also received a short course in differential and integral calculus. I was one of 40 students in that one program, which was part of a national program for thousands of students. Another PF mentor did the same program but at an earlier time. One of the students in the program as CSM was Andrew Lange, who went on to make significant contributions to observational cosmology (CMB), and who became chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy at Caltech.
My first memory of nuclear energy is from second grade when I read an article on the hydrogen bomb. It was quite an impression upon me. In fifth grade, I studied topics in mathematics, chemistry and physics, and I began to explore the periodic table, and topics in nuclear physics (proton, neutron, electron and subatomic particles) and astrophysics (stars, planets, galaxies, . . .). In grade 6, my science project was the design of a nuclear powered aircraft based on adapting a submarine reactor to an aircraft geometry. My interest in nuclear and astrophysics, and nuclear energy, has continued undiminished.
However, the vast majority of students do not learn much with respect to modern physics, which is very unfortunate in my opinion. I think it important to establish an integrated approach to math and science as early as possible, even to the first years of school. That's when students can be exposed to basic or everyday phenomena, e.g., such as rocks and minerals, structures/statics, perhaps some dynamics/motion, heat, optical phenomena, etc.
My parents actively encouraged my education through interaction and buying various books on math and science. In elementary school, I had access to a library of 'How and Why Wonder Books' (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_and_Why_Wonder_Books). I very much enjoyed reading those books, and in some cases, doing experiments found in some books on physics topics like Science Experiments, Light and Color, Magnets and Magnetism, or simply devising my own experiments based on what I read.
The education system in the US (and I imagine other countries as well) certainly needs improving, as does the teaching of math and science. Beyond the schools, parents play the most critical role in the education of their children, and often a child's education is limited by the education/knowledge of the parents.
I cerrtainly agree about the awesomeness of mathematics and physics!
