A praise for a Teaching Co course: Physics

[Margaret in CO]

Just wanted to put out a thumbs-up for the Teaching Company course, Physics in Your Life. My 12yo is fascinated by it--it's great!

[periwinkle]

Would this work for a non-science high school student? Is it comparable to a Conceptual Physics course? I realize the 18 hours of lecture would have to be supplemented somehow...

Thank you for the recommendation!

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

Just wanted to put out a thumbs-up for the Teaching Company course, Physics in Your Life. My 12yo is fascinated by it--it's great!

Oh Margret, you just made me spend $120 so we can watch it this weekend (I'm just up the road from the Teaching Co.!). My dh and youngest are physics nuts.

[Michelle in MO]

am I beginning to understand and appreciate subjects like physics that I thought were so boring in high school! One thing that helped me to get interested was in reading good biographies of famous physicists. I read one about Richard Feynman and also read E=MC2 a couple of years ago. They both fascinated me. Also, I loved "The Elegant Universe," the Nova special that aired several years ago.

Our library carried a series of 5th-8th grade biographies on famous scientists that was excellent. If I can find the title and list, I'll post it here.

Thanks again!

[Margaret in CO]

It is designed to use Conceptual Physics (Hewitt) as a textbook. However, as we're not doing it for any credit, we're not. I just want him to say, "Mom, did you know???" I just want him to have the introduction to it. Wolfson has lots of cool gadgets to demonstrate principles. I have an ulterior motive--he's not showing much interest in working on some of the Boy Scout badges that I KNOW he would love--now when I suggest that he contact a friend that runs the physics lab at our local college, he'll think it's a good idea... :D

[periwinkle]

That is so cool that the course goes along with Hewitt's book!

I understand about motivation for your ds! Another encouragement for him to work on those BS merit badges while he is younger...my oldest ds just finished his Eagle (1 month shy of his 18th birthday!) and this last year or so it has been difficult to find time and motivation. I wish he would have finished it sooner when there weren't college applications and other stuff pressing on his schedule.

[Michelle in MO]

They're from Oxford University Press, and I believe the series is called "Portraits in Science." Our library had a few of these, and they looked really good! I would say they would be appropriate for 5th grade (a very advanced reader) through 8th grade or so.

Here's the link:

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/?queryField=keyword&query=Portraits+in+Science&view=usa&viewVeritySearchResults=true

[Margaret in CO]

The Eagle rush at 17 is part of the motivation. He's done really well so far--just one more elective badge and 8 Eagle-required left to go and he's only First Class. He'll be Star in April. I'd like to keep doing Scouts as parts of hsing.