What are the “big items” I want my students to take away from my class from each year? It’s a big question… of course I want them to do a great job on their exams and understand our course content, but I realize that a vast majority of them will forget a majority of physics concepts shortly after leaving the classroom. What are the enduring understandings and learnings that really matter? Here’s a list of my top 50. What key learnings are missing or overvalued?
- Learn to teach yourself.
- Think critically.
- Appreciate the beauty and patterns in the world.
- Be confident in your ability to attack an unfamiliar problem.
- Utilize the scientific method.
- Learn how to use a spreadsheet.
- Act like a professional
- Work productively in diverse groups.
- The universe is big.
- We aren’t.
- Trigonometry is useful.
- Calculus is just slopes and areas.
- Forces come in pairs.
- Doing work transfers energy.
- Ohms Law V=IR.
- Examine skeptically.
- Use a word processor.
- Learn to recognize what you don’t know (metacognition).
- Learn how to teach.
- Use and understand the metric system.
- Love learning.
- Be passionate about something.
- Estimate using orders of magnitude.
- Work productively, even when your team includes idiots.
- Forces cause accelerations.
- Mass/energy is always conserved.
- Waves transfer energy.
- Learn to create and analyze graphs.
- Use the Internet as a learning resource.
- Write coherently.
- Learn to study productively and efficiently.
- Velocity and acceleration are not the same thing.
- Learn from your mistakes.
- Draw and use free body diagrams.
- Gravity is an attractional force between masses.
- Momentum is conserved in any closed system.
- Understand the difference between electrical current and electrical potential.
- Transfer theoretical concepts to practical applications.
- Read and understand a technical text.
- Power is the rate at which you do work.
- Charge cannot be created or destroyed.
- Isaac Newton revolutionized our understanding of the world.
- Objects changing direction are accelerating.
- Reflect on your performance, and adjust your future habits accordingly.
- Horizontal and vertical motion are independent.
- Apply problem-solving methodologies in unfamiliar contexts.
- Learn to create and present effectively using Powerpoint.
- Take responsibility for your own learning.
- In the absence of air resistance, all objects fall at the same rate.
- There is nothing you cannot accomplish if you set your heart and mind to it.