LETTERS
Monday, January 22, 2007; Page B02
'Just Good Physics'
Water spilled over the funnel's edge onto the table in my International Baccalaureate physics class. As I scan the room, I see that all eyes are studying the wet stream rocketing skyward from a thin glass nozzle of the Hero's fountain. "So, my anxious scholars of physics," I chime, "just how does this fountain work?"
"Gravity!" shouts Ryan from the back of the room.
"A difference of gravitational potential energy between the two bottles," Derek confidently states from the front of the room.
"Magic," Julia jokes from the center.
"No magic in here, just good physics," I remind them.
This is a typical exchange in my physics classroom, where students learn from a broad, European-designed syllabus. Today is a study on how gas can do work, and the Hero's fountain is an ancient tool that helps students easily see how the movement of air from one container to the next will displace water and make it flow uphill.
The high school physics class is experiencing a new surge of interest. Students realize that a strong science background offers a strategic academic advantage. Even if they don't pursue a career in science, scientific understanding is important to their future. With so many pseudoscientific ideas being propagated throughout society, strong science literacy protects our students from being scammed by charlatans in the future.
Stephen Bartlett
physics teacher
George C. Marshall High School
