![]() ![]() These can include group problem solving ( like this), conceptual questions, physics demonstrations, or just plain answering questions that students bring up based on their notes from reading.įor students, after the lecture, go back through the chapter and it might make more sense. That will make you prepared to ask questions in class and help you map out the important ideas (even if you don’t fully understand them yet).īy the way, here's a tip for teachers: If you use class time to just go over what’s in the textbook, why would students even read it? I prefer to assume the students have looked at the book and then do more student-centered activities. Write down both the stuff that makes sense and the things that aren't clear. You don't have to fully understand all the ideas, but it really does help to have been exposed to things before they are discussed in person. Instead, I like to think of the textbook as a "pre-lecture." Read through the relevant chapter sometime before the class. Sometimes this strategy can give you an answer to a certain problem, but it doesn't always help you understand the underlying material. It's as though the homework was a lock and the textbook was a box of keys. Then when they get to the homework, the first thing they do is to open the book and hunt for an equation that would solve some particular problem. Unfortunately, I see quite a few students who use the textbook in the wrong way. Those books can get super expensive, but they can also be quite useful. Pretty much every course has a required textbook-maybe even two. (Here is a secret: You learn the most when you are teaching. Explain stuff and let others explain to you. No matter what, don't just form a study group that shares notes and answers to homework questions. If you can, try to meet them in the real world-but if you can’t, online discussions are better than zero discussions. So, if it's possible, start meeting other students and working with them outside of class. But once you learn that everyone is in the same boat, you can start feeling better about your position and start making some real learning gains. Everyone thinks that the rest of the class is completely in control of the material. ![]() Guess what? Everyone is probably just as lost as you are. Everyone else has it together, but not me. It's super easy to be in a classroom and think to yourself, " Oh wow. ![]() Working with other students makes you realize that you are not alone and that you are not special. The Society for Physics Students (Sigma Pi Sigma) has a whole series dedicated to these “hidden physics” careers, including in oceanography, video game design, and medicine. But you might use these skills if you go into careers that are impossible to predict-in fact, physicists are notorious for landing all sorts of jobs that you wouldn’t even think of as being related to physics. After all, there’s no such job as a quantum mechanic. Some of the exercises you’ll do as a student in physics and other STEM topics are a kind of practice, but they don’t exactly mimic what you will experience later in your career. But 10 years from now, what will that letter grade even mean? By the time you get to college, grades can have an effect on your future options-but they don't matter nearly as much as what you learn. You would probably be happy to finish the class with an A grade. Are you trying to learn something, or are you trying to get a particular grade for your academic transcript? ![]() But no matter why you are here, you need a goal. Or maybe you always wanted to learn about, say, quantum mechanics, so you enrolled out of curiosity and not practicality. The first things you need to consider are: Why are you in this class, and what do you want to get out of it? Sure, it's very possible that this course is required. ![]()
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