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Teaching Physics,Personal Views andnot only Personal

Experience

Jiří DolejšíInstitute of Particle and Nuclear Physics,

Charles University Praguejiri.dolejsi@mff.cuni.cz

GIREP 2004, Ostrava, July, 23rd

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Abstract:Author’s opinions (in some respect maybe controversial) on teaching and learning physics in the current world with current means and with current teachers and students will be presented...

From consumer (e.g. student or parent) point of view teaching

physicsis frequently not satisfactory

A hardly objective statement, more probably

an inadequate generalization ...Why do I think

so?

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Why am I not happy with the school physics?• I like physics, it is my work and my hobby, but I

can see children being stressed by school physics.

But there are still many students who like physics and want to study

it ...• Meeting some physics teachers creates

frustration - How can these people explain something, how can they attract somebody to physics??? How can they cope with the world around us evolving so quickly???

But I know personally many teachers who are perfect in my

eyes ...

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• Looking at some physics textbooks creates a surprise – why are they so grey, why do they insist on rigid formulations, why do they contain a “pseudoscience”?

But there are wonderful old and new

books ...

... a standard formulation of Archimedes´law with the following appendix: The law holds only for chemically inert bodies ...

• The school education in physics results after years in remembering just few formulae and few incoherent and unusable pieces of knowledge.

• The school physics is quite well separated from the current science.We heard on Monday about HST

and project dealing with -particles detected by diffuse

cloud chamber

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• The experts in the physics education sometimes have the language different from the language of the physicists. Why don't these two groups communicate?

There are systematic efforts to create links between physicist and teachers (HST at CERN, Physics on

Stage, ...)• The school physics is practically the same for

decades but there are so many new things in the world. Where are the new technologies?

Plenty of contributions at this conference shows new topics, new methods, new

experiments and also some new technologies ...

Danger, skip the next slide!!!

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There are also some other, heretic questions:

• Is Physics necessary at school?

• Is Physics necessary for everybody?

• If yes, in which extent, which topics?

• If yes, what are the reasons?

• Having these reasons, does the school

physics really meet the expectations?

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I can continue with the complaints but I also feel guilty, because I participate personally on education of future teachers!!!

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We are trying to do the best during the studies, we play the role of difficult children at the final exam and we require to be adequately taught.

We are quite frequently unhappy!!

The selfdefence

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I wrote in the abstract:The starting point should not be the existence of a respectable science by itself and the aim should not be only tuning the performance of its heralds. The goal is to help teachers to earn respect with their orientation in the world and science, to offer attractive opportunities to learn physics at school and after it.

These opinions are illustrated with examples of activities within the author’s reach of sight.

I welcome any comments, criticism, suggestions ...

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What to do?In abstract:Author thinks that the desirable features of teaching are the integration of different methods, the employment of different subjects (i.e. attracting excellent teachers and communicative people from science and industry), the courage for permanent experimentation and sensitivity for evaluating the results.

But there is the existing environment, the departments

educating future teachers with their inertial habits, the absence of the

systematic in-service teachers training ...

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Education of future teachers

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Excursions for students –

CERN 2000

education and contact withthe science

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Help for in-service teachers• Seminars on

problem solving (related to the Physics Olympiad)

• Seminars on new technologies and on specific physics fields (Nuclear and Particle Physics)• Contributions to the Heureka project (remember Monday presentation by Irena Koudelková and Leoš Dvořák)

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Heureka in more detail• Regular weekend

seminars on different topics (12 per year)

• Seminars on specific physics fields (Nuclear and Particle Physics)

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Heureka in more detailSeminars should help in basic orientation in given field, they should enhance the qualification of teachers, stimulate the contacts and bring fun.

Nuclear Physics in Czech manner: Teachers measure the decay law of the beer froth ...

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Some of the Heureka seminars are special – here Physics and Climbing

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Excursions for Heureka teachers

From Prague via

Munich to Geneve

and Chamonix

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Physics (Science) on StageGeneva

2000Communication & Collaboration

Dept. of Physics Education, Charles University

Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences

Teachers

PhD Students

Inst. of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Charles University

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Outreach Access to science for students, teachers and anybody interested.

Particle Physics in Czech Republic

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Outreach and Media ( public)

A Break-through in Understanding the Universe?

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Outreach and Media ( public)

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FyzWeb - Web server dedicated to physics and his „Ask the experts“ section

fyzweb.cuni.cz

Outreach

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We aim at building Science Centre in CR - several teams exist in Prague, Brno, Ostrava and Liberec ....

Outreach – some other efforts

But let us turn to teaching again

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Teaching aids

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& outreach materials

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Teaching aids

ScalesParticle Physics

ExperimentLHC, ATLAS, ...

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Conclusions

Too much work to be done, but some results are visible.

I think Europe needs some attractive goals to be aimed at. Maybe good education and “intellectual wellness” might be a good one.

Thanks to organizers for inviting me to this conference.

Thanks to everybody surviving my lecture for patience.