{"id":93,"date":"2010-12-22T10:03:29","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T15:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/aplusphysics\/50-learning-goals-for-physics-students\/"},"modified":"2010-12-22T11:38:18","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T16:38:18","slug":"50-learning-goals-for-physics-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/aplusphysics\/50-learning-goals-for-physics-students\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Learning Goals For Physics Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

What are the \u201cbig items\u201d I want my students to take away from my class from each year?\u00a0 It\u2019s a big question\u2026 of course I want them to do a great job on their exams and understand our course content<\/a>, but I realize that a vast majority of them will forget a majority of physics concepts shortly after leaving the classroom.\u00a0 What are the enduring understandings and learnings that really matter? Here\u2019s a list of my top 50. What key learnings are missing or overvalued?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Learn to teach yourself.<\/li>\n
  2. Think critically.<\/li>\n
  3. Appreciate the beauty and patterns in the world.<\/li>\n
  4. Be confident in your ability to attack an unfamiliar problem.<\/li>\n
  5. Utilize the scientific method.<\/li>\n
  6. Learn how to use a spreadsheet.<\/li>\n
  7. Act like a professional<\/li>\n
  8. Work productively in diverse groups.<\/li>\n
  9. The universe is big.<\/li>\n
  10. We aren\u2019t.<\/li>\n
  11. Trigonometry is useful.<\/li>\n
  12. Calculus is just slopes and areas.<\/li>\n
  13. Forces come in pairs.<\/li>\n
  14. Doing work transfers energy.<\/li>\n
  15. Ohms Law V=IR.<\/li>\n
  16. Examine skeptically.<\/li>\n
  17. Use a word processor.<\/li>\n
  18. Learn to recognize what you don\u2019t know (metacognition).<\/li>\n
  19. Learn how to teach.<\/li>\n
  20. Use and understand the metric system.<\/li>\n
  21. Love learning.<\/li>\n
  22. Be passionate about something.<\/li>\n
  23. Estimate using orders of magnitude.<\/li>\n
  24. Work productively, even when your team includes idiots.<\/li>\n
  25. Forces cause accelerations.<\/li>\n
  26. Mass\/energy is always conserved.<\/li>\n
  27. Waves transfer energy.<\/li>\n
  28. Learn to create and analyze graphs.<\/li>\n
  29. Use the Internet as a learning resource.<\/li>\n
  30. Write coherently.<\/li>\n
  31. Learn to study productively and efficiently.<\/li>\n
  32. Velocity and acceleration are not the same thing.<\/li>\n
  33. Learn from your mistakes.<\/li>\n
  34. Draw and use free body diagrams.<\/li>\n
  35. Gravity is an attractional force between masses.<\/li>\n
  36. Momentum is conserved in any closed system.<\/li>\n
  37. Understand the difference between electrical current and electrical potential.<\/li>\n
  38. Transfer theoretical concepts to practical applications.<\/li>\n
  39. Read and understand a technical text.<\/li>\n
  40. Power is the rate at which you do work.<\/li>\n
  41. Charge cannot be created or destroyed.<\/li>\n
  42. Isaac Newton revolutionized our understanding of the world.<\/li>\n
  43. Objects changing direction are accelerating.<\/li>\n
  44. Reflect on your performance, and adjust your future habits accordingly.<\/li>\n
  45. Horizontal and vertical motion are independent.<\/li>\n
  46. Apply problem-solving methodologies in unfamiliar contexts.<\/li>\n
  47. Learn to create and present effectively using Powerpoint.<\/li>\n
  48. Take responsibility for your own learning.<\/li>\n
  49. In the absence of air resistance, all objects fall at the same rate.<\/li>\n
  50. There is nothing you cannot accomplish if you set your heart and mind to it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What are the \u201cbig items\u201d I want my students to take away from my class from each year?\u00a0 It\u2019s a big question\u2026 of course I want them to do a great job on their exams and understand our course content, Continue reading 50 Learning Goals For Physics Students<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[70,67,64,68,69,65,66,26,62,63],"class_list":["post-93","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aplusphysics","tag-class","tag-goals","tag-isaac-newton","tag-learning","tag-majority","tag-ohms-law","tag-orders-of-magnitude","tag-physics-2","tag-physics-concepts","tag-physics-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94,"href":"https:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions\/94"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}