In 1966 Richard Feynman gave an interview about teaching physics. He described a problem with physics teaching: often students did not know where they were:
In other words, there always should be some kind of a map. – Feynman
The book I am writing for novice teachers is built around a map. I started by writing the text for a timeline for five big ideas of physics: space, electricity, forces at a distance, particles and energy. It was tricky, because several of the timelines intersected at points. So this morning I designed my physics metro-map. I have written a text for each of the stops, some of which I have already published (e.g. here, here, here).
A Metro-Map style map of physics – each stop has a short text to explain the physics.
The book containing the interview is Feynman’s Tips on Physics. It follows on from his lectures. He deserves his reputation as an excellent teacher. One of the fascinating things in Tips on Physics is his emphasis on solving problems. In other words, Feynman was bang on Cog-Psy message 50 years ago.
