I don’t think I should have to apologize for insisting on excellence.
I want the students in my own introductory calculus-based physics classes to build a deep understanding of the concepts of physics and to develop the ability to use the tools of calculus to apply them. I reward students who achieve that ideal with good grades, and I don’t award good grades to those who don’t get to that level.
In my classroom, I deploy research-based tools like the SCALE-UP classroom environment and exercises developed by physics education researchers to give every student the best possible opportunity to succeed. Learning happens best when students are working together in small groups in which the members respect each other. So my assistant instructors and I watch the small group interactions and move students who are being excluded to other groups where we hope they will be more welcome.
It also helps when the students can tell that I and my assistant instructors value them as human beings.
But the bottom line is this: My goal is for my students to learn physics with understanding. I shouldn’t have to apologize for that goal.
Of course, there is a problem with this approach. Students who arrive in my classroom knowing some physics start way ahead of those who don’t. And every year I have way too many students, about one-third of the class, who come in without any high school physics background.
Clearly I should do something about this problem. Should I lower my expectations for students who come in without any high school physics? I’m going to give a hard “no” on that. Some will be offended by that, but that’s too bad.
So what should I do?
What I choose to do is plead with parents, teachers and educational leaders to make sure that students who might choose college majors in STEM fields take a high school physics class. You might ask, “Which STEM fields require college physics courses?” It’s a long list, and you can get a start on it on this page in this blog. But just to give you a taste, the students in my course are majoring in engineering, computer science, math, chemistry, biochemistry, meteorology, biology, neuroscience, physics and astrophysics.
On the large scale, this pleading isn’t going particularly well. The number of students taking physics in Florida’s public high schools has dropped 20% since 2014-15, and 6.6% just in the last year alone (from 2021-22 to 2022-23). I find some consolation by convincing myself that I reach some individual high school students who then make good course-taking decisions that they wouldn’t have made without my intervention.
I will add one more point here, and it may seem cryptic (and it probably is). Every educational reform that Florida’s educational leaders pursue seems to erode the readiness of the state’s college-bound students for bachelor’s degree programs in fields like engineering, computer science and the physical sciences. And these leaders seem clueless about that, maybe willfully so. Being able to read and pass a civics test seems to be all they care about. Or maybe that students have industrial certificates in [checks notes] cybersecurity.
The economic future belongs mostly to STEM professionals with broad and solid educational backgrounds, not those trained narrowly in a few specific skills. Denying that basic truth isn’t pro-Florida economy. It’s just anti-university. And maybe that’s the point.
Bridge to Tomorrow 