🚀 go-pugleaf

>David,
I teach the AP mechanics C course to first year students.

I think your data is interesting.  What I think the AP course does for
those students at Penn State and in my classroom  is teach them to think
and use their intellect so that they are practiced when they get to Penn
State or to any other institution.

 My students get no Electricity and Magnetism in the first year course
because we follow RealTime Physics developed by Laws, Thornton and Sokoloff
and find that to do the depth of this course eliminates the time available
to do a broadscope course.  The authors do have all topics in the college
course but we do not have the time in high school  to do it all.  We do a
lot of hands on which translates into time.

I have always felt that once a student realizes what they have to do to
learn that we have accomplished a lot.    We give them a solid grounding in
the fundamentals of mechanics so they can go on.  Actually, I use to feel
that it wasn't good to skip their freshman course but  now I am confident
that they have a strong foundation and that they know how hard they have to
work to gain an understanding so placing out is  OK for some.  And after
the initial courses, students are really learning new material in college.
So, this means to me as an educator that in their freshman year they have
gathered a fundamental understanding of the material and that they have
learned how to study and learn.  As a senior teacher, I think this is an
important part of my job-teaching kids how to operate at that higher level.


Maxine
mwillis@oberon.hs.gettysburg.edu
Maxine C. Willis
Physics Teacher
Gettysburg Area Senior High School
Gettysburg, PA 17325
PTRA-PLUS Agent