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Physicists Work on Physics' Uncool Image
WindowsTroll writes "Since it seems that science doesn't appeal to the youth of today, physicists are trying to make physics kid friendly. From the article, 'Bicycle stunts, rap music and modern dance -- all in the name of Einstein.' I am particularly interested in the modern dance, thinking that this is probably a better approach of studying oscillations than the springs that I used when I was in college."
I think they should get MC Hawking to promote physics
:) I still like " F*ck the Creationists" best :)
http://www.mchawking.com/
He rocks
How do you tittilate an ocelot?
Oscillate it's tits a lot!
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To make sciences look cool, you need to fix the problem that causes nerds to be unpopular.
As if
Kids know that science is not entertainment, and trying to dress it up as such tells them that you don't think science itself is worthwhile. Enthusiasm for the subject on the part of the teacher is worth more than a world of interpretive dances and rap tunes.
Sigmentation fault - core dumped
Things you probably cant do nowadays but we did in high school (which was only 8 yrs ago)
1) Play with radioactive stuff
2) Use transformers to run some 14kV distribution lines up and down the classroom to show the decrease in cable loss
3) Show that the high voltage back-emf spikes from a relay closing can jam your nerve signals and leave you unable to move (ala taser)
4) Look inside classmates with ultrasound
5) Find out how much voltage it takes to blow up a capacitor
Even then our teacher had a closet full of 'special equipment' that he'd smuggle home every time the inspectors came round to visit.
I loved physics and i can assure you that 90% of my high school classmates concurred that it was better than chemsitry or biology or social "science". The experiments make it fun.
My graduate fellowship (in physics) requires me to spend two days a week working with the science classes at a local high school, and I can say from experience that gimmicky pedagogical tricks like those mentioned in the article aren't the way to get kids (except maybe very young children) interested in science. The stuff just comes off as incredibly lame, and physicists end up looking like bigger geeks than they already are.
The way to engage kids is simply to show them the physics at work. I've got kids making plasma in a microwave, measuring the temperature of the sun with a cup of water, studying paper airplane trajectories, making stereo speakers. Physics is interesting and it's ubiquitous, so there's always something kind of cool that the kids can relate to. The secret is to let them see what's happening, get their hands dirty, and most importantly, let them ask the questions.
Find interesting (but safe) project, put them in charge, and they're hooked.
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>Real physicists like Stephen Hawking, and fictional ones like Quinn Mallory, are very cool!
The problem is, we think they're cool, while most kids think the opposite.
Raving Lunatic Obviously Took Some Advanced Physics
STANFORD, CA--Known throughout the community for his verbal outbursts and his shopping cart full of trash, area street denizen "Cosmic Stan" must have studied advanced physics at some point, sources reported Monday.
[Photo Caption: Cosmic Stan asks for enough change to take a bus to the Riemannian manifolds.]
"Where's my cheese? Don't take my rowboat! Got no room!" the lunatic screamed from his regular spot near the Campus Drive bus stop. "I need space! Gimme space! Infinite dimensional separable Hilbert space!"
Though his rants seem nonsensical to most passersby, some astute listeners say they contain evidence of higher learning.
"I'd always see him around that bus stop, dressed in his ragged wool clothes, duct-taped shoes, and that plastic sheeting covered over with symbols drawn in magic-marker," Stanford Ph.D. candidate James Willard said. "Then, a few days ago, he was out there waving his tin-foil wand at random strangers, and I heard him yell, 'I demand that you buy me an ice-cream cone! My third-favorite flavor is strange! My second-favorite is top! My favorite flavor is anti-charmed!' Suddenly, I realized the guy was talking about quarks."
Willard said he spent the next several minutes listening to Cosmic Stan's rant.
"Mixed in with the usual stuff about CIA mind-control beams, talking dogs, and monkey-people, I heard him mention beta decay, instantons, density matrix, and subspaces of n-dimensional Riemannian manifolds," Willard said. "I'm not sure where he got it, but he definitely seems to have had extensive schooling in theoretical physics. Man, what could've happened to him?"
Stanford theoretical physicist Carl Lundergaard seconded Willard's theory on the loonball.
"He's definitely had some advanced training, though I'm not surprised that it went unnoticed for so long," Lundergaard said. "It's hard for the layperson to differentiate schizophrenic ramblings like 'Modernity chunk where the sink goes flying on the ping-pang' from legitimate terminology like 'Unstable equilibria lie on the nodal points of a separatrix in phase space.'"
Lundergaard said he first became intrigued by Cosmic Stan in December 1999, when the homeless man threw a chicken bone at him and said, "Components of the Weyl conformal curvature tensor." The professor said he initially suspected that Stan was repeating a phrase "from a textbook he'd found in the garbage." Then, several weeks later, the screaming nutcase shouted some things that indicated a strong grasp of high-level science.
"As I was buying coffee in the quad one morning, Stan came by waving those roller skates he sometimes wears on his hands," Lundergaard said. "I distinctly heard him say, 'I can't be in two places at once! I can't meddle in my own affairs! I can't destructively interfere with my own future plans! What do I look like--the uncollapsed wave function of an electron?' He was referring to the seemingly paradoxical aspects of wave/particle duality as illustrated by the 'two-slit' experiment in electron diffraction. Stan wasn't just mouthing phrases: The crazy homeless man knows his stuff."
Added Lundergaard: "I almost approached him the other day to see if he had any ideas regarding the general solution for the relativistic force-free equation describing the structure of the pulsar magnetosphere, but he was busy smearing a plastic doll with glue."
Cosmic Stan also appears to be versed in other academic subjects, Lundergaard said.
"He seems to have a working understanding of several of the higher maths, including Zurmelo-Fraenkel set theory, category theory, and algebraic topology," Lundergaard said. "He also seems to be quite interested in the subjects of religion, sexuality, fast-food restaurants, Ferdinand de Saussure, malevolent evil, '70s TV shows, and shadowy authority figures."
Lundergaard said he has no knowledge of Cosmic Stan's past, but theorizes that his nickname derives from the physic
Seriously, did he EVER get laid in those 7 years?
Now that you mention it, no. And I don't remember him getting any on Reading Rainbow either.
Enthusiasm for the subject on the part of the teacher is worth more than a world of interpretive dances and rap tunes.
Absolutely!
I'm a professional mathematician. I've had to help a lot of people with their math, and there seems to be a pretty common problem: A bad teacher. Oddly, if you ask most people, they actually enjoyed math for a while, then had a bad teacher and they fell behind or were otherwise discouraged, found it hard, and stopped enjoying it. More often than not the "bad teacher" occurs in early primary school. Ask a few questions about why the teacher was bad and it can be easily tracked to a complete lack of enthusiasm and interest in the subject. They teach it in the most rote, boring way possible, because they (the teacher!) doesn't really want to be doing it. The reason is easy enough: The majority of people who have an interest in primary education are the sort of people who hated math at school. They then help instill this attitude in all the impressionable young kids. Attitude is infectious, especially to young minds, and someone who doesn't care about math will teach the kids not to care either.
The fact is, kids are taught that mathematics is hard and that mathematics is boring from a very young age. Tell people that it is easy, and that they can do it, and present it with a little enthusiasm and interest, and people do get interested in mathematics again. I've had little difficulty in getting people interested in mathematics no matter how old they are - all you have to do is break through the instilled "it's hard and it's boring" attitude, there are no gimmicks required.
Jedidiah.
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