Re: How not to do math. (Re: dumbing down of physics)

phil scott wrote:

<snip>

I believe I mentioned the case of one of my last students. He was in my
hydraulics course and I assigned a class project. One day he came to me
and asked whether a pipe which has xx feet of head loss had to be xx feet
long. That by itself wouldn't have been so bad if my course was the first
time he had seen that concept, but he had taken a fluid mechanics course
the previous year.


amazing. I knew it was bad, but not nearly to the extent we have been
discussing.

There is a solution though. and easy one at that. Ive been pushing
it on occasion, so far its not flying, but eventually it will.
testing.

Before you hire a secretary or engineer, run em though a standard
test, theory and then performance. then you know what you will
get. If the engineer is clueless you know that there is a good
chance he wlll bankrupt your firm or a client with a bogus design.
the approach has been heavily resisted in some quarters, its
supposedly illegal in some cases, a few contractors though who get
nailed badly by errors have shown some interest.

After having taught at the post-secondary level for many years, I know that's the only way to do it. Too many employers believe that if one graduates from a certain institution with official credentials in a specific discipline, one is qualified. I wouldn't hire anyone unless I gave them an exam using, say, sample problems that person would be working on. I'd be paying for what the applicant can do and not how sensitive he or she might be to the feelings of co-workers.


Mainly I think the fear from management is that they know for a fact
that they couldnt score 10% on most S and E type exams... having them
around, or the pracctice established is a direcct threat to their
career...and leverages those who score highest into influence... cant
have that just now at least.

Seldom in an interview was I ever asked how I would approach a particular technical problem. Almost always it would be questions along the line of "Describe how you would react if somebody came over to you and broke your toy."


as the mess goes deeper into collapse mode, a company will be forced
to hire brains or fail.

Outside brains cost money. That's why they conduct focus groups.

Bayer Inc (the asprin people) is testing
I know, a battery of tests quite comprehensive.

Many HR people would be put out of business by testing... the smartest
people are often the ones that do least well on the bogus HR screens.

Talent and intelligence is of no consequence in being hired nowadays. Playing well with the other kiddies in the sandbox is. Then again, that may be one reason why most new businesses nowadays fail within five years.




The most egregious cases of something like this happening which I'm
familiar with, were specialized junior/senior undergraduate courses on
nuclear physics and/or particle physics, where some students never
even saw special relativity previously. (For some students, they
couldn't even remember any of the stuff from quantum mechanics
either). Both courses required a previous understanding of special
relativity and basic quantum mechanics
All of that gets shoved onto the next prof or instructor and so he or she
is then expected to teach a course and some change.



I shudder to think of how many students graduated with incomplete
educations because of that policy.

over 90% is my guess.... half of those without the faintest clue...
20% to passable levels, these at least know how to do research.

Here's a scary thought. I shared an office with someone who first started teaching at our institution shortly after it opened for business. He told me that the first few years were great times to be an instructor. Then the place started hiring its own graduates. He suggested I imagine what it would be like taking on people who barely passed (in other words, they learned about 50% of what they were supposed to know) and who, in between time, forgot half of what they graduated with....and they're supposed to be teaching there.

<snip>
.

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