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In today's society, even non-scientists need a basic understanding of how science works. Physics and education professor Les Blatt develops physics courses designed to educate non-science majors to be scientifcally literate. |
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Meet the participants: Discovering physics
Interview with Matthew Colpitts and Elizabeth Henry
"It was a fantastic class. I saw first hand, many students grasp difficult concepts because we had such a hands-on understanding of them. It was fun, but more importantly it was informative."
--Shawn LaCount, MA '98 in Theater Education from Clark University and artistic director of Company One
Two other Discovering Physics students, Elizabeth Henry '05 and Matthew Colpitts '05, agreed to share their thoughts (via email and a face-to-face interview, respectively) about the course. Elizabeth is majoring in sociology with a minor in Spanish while Matthew is double-majoring in philosophy and English.
Elizabeth:
Why did you decide to take Discovering Physics?
I needed to fulfill my science perspective. I had heard that Discovering Physics was the most hands-on, and that there would be many wonderful in-depth class discussions and helpful experiments. Moreover, I had never enjoyed science before, but was kind of intrigued by physics. Also, I am interested in becoming an administrator in the field of education and I thought some extra insight into what students would be learning couldn't hurt me.
How did the hands-on approach work for you?
I loved the hands-on approach. I was able to actually do all the experiments and learn from my mistakes. I enjoyed the fact that there was always discussion about the experiment we were going to conduct when the class began; that we would conduct the experiment in small groups; and that to wrap-up the class we would go over what we had observed and tie it to the previous and future lessons. I never walked out of the class not having participated in some form, and never did I leave without having gained some insight into the field of physics and my overall understanding of the nature of light. Each experiment challenged my previous thoughts and conclusions regarding light, but expanded my ideas about the different theories of light. And the professors were always there, willing to lend a hand or answer some of our uncertainties-boy, did we question ourselves a lot!
What did you like about the course?
Overall, I really enjoyed the course and learned a lot. I would say that my favorite part was the ability to work in a small group of people that I felt very comfortable with, and having professors that only encouraged and never discouraged us. And they were always willing to accept suggestions as to how to improve the class. Furthermore, I loved the atmosphere of the classroom; it was a very relaxed environment and there was never the feeling that if you asked a dumb question people would treat you differently. We all took the class because of our lack of knowledge in the field of physics and because we were interested to learn more. Finally, I loved the final project. As a group we took our knowledge into a 5th grade classroom at The Goddard School and taught students about sound waves. It was a wonderful way to wrap-up the semester and relay our knowledge to another group of inquiring minds.
Do you think that a non-science major would have a good idea after taking the course of how science works?
I think this is the perfect class for a non-science major because everyone is on an equal playing field. We all entered and admitted that we knew very little, but all left feeling that we had really learned something about the nature of light and about how a certain facet of science works. All of the homework assignments and experiments were applicable to the real world. There have been times since when I see a ripple in a lake and think about the degrees of refraction and reflection!
Matthew:
Did you take Discovering Physics to fulfill your science perspective requirement?
Yes. It had a reputation for being humanities-friendly. And Les Blatt, who originally taught the course, has a great reputation. Through philosophy I've always been interested in the philosophy of science, so I thought this would be a good chance to look at some basic physics. It was a great class.
Is Discovering Physics a hands-on course?
Yes, it's all experiment based. As the course goes on, the labs get harder, but the professors kind of ease you into it. The professors were great. I often found myself asking Dr. Landee or Dr. Mukhopadhyay more about physics. I spent a lunch hour with Dr. Landee, talking about different stuff we were doing. That's the most important thing, having a good professor. It doesn't matter how hard the subject is, it can still be learned if the professors are great.
Students in the course work in small groups. Do you personally prefer to work in groups or individually?
Generally individually, but this kind of work was good to do in a group because it brought together people with different backgrounds. We had somebody studying gerontology, we had a philosophy/English major, and a journalism major. So we had three people who had no idea what was going on in the world of physics coming together to try to figure it out. We'd have interesting conversations. We often went to lunch together after class, so the group scenario worked out really well for us.
Do you think that someone coming into this class without any science background would gain a pretty good understanding of how science works?
Definitely. The nature of scientific questions and methods is really well addressed at the beginning of the course, and is gone over in a very basic way so anyone can understand it. I guess I'd call the course user-friendly. And anyone who goes to that class is going to come out with a good understanding of light.
Usually each group completes a final project designed to teach some aspect of the physics of light to other students. What did your group do?
What our group did was to guide a bunch of college freshmen through a shortened version of our labs, and then we studied how well they retained the information. We had three humanities majors teaching physics to other humanities majors, and they understood it.
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Additional Resources
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Matt Colpitts and Elizabeth Henry
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Reaching out to non-science majors