Abstract
Physics is often seen as an excellent introduction to science because it allows students to learn not only the laws governing the world around them, but also, through the problems students solve, a way of thinking which is conducive to solving problems outside of physics and even outside of science. In this article, we contest this latter idea and argue that in physics classes, students do not learn widely applicable problem-solving skills because physics education almost exclusively requires students to solve well-defined problems rather than the less-defined problems which better model problem solving outside of a formal class. Using personal, constructed, and the historical accounts of Schrödinger’s development of the wave equation and Feynman’s development of path integrals, we argue that what is missing in problem-solving education is practice in identifying gaps in knowledge and in framing these knowledge gaps as questions of the kind answerable using techniques students have learned. We discuss why these elements are typically not taught as part of the problem-solving curriculum and end with suggestions on how to incorporate these missing elements into physics classes.
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Notes
Supersymmetry is a postulated symmetry of nature which states that for every boson (fermion) in the universe there is a fermion (boson) with the same mass and interaction properties (Wess 2000). Physicists say that the symmetry of a theory is “broken” when the dynamical equations of the theory satisfy the symmetry, but the solutions to those equations (i.e., the physical observations) do not (Weinberg 2005, pp. 163–76). Therefore, if our world is indeed supersymmetric—meaning that it is invariant under appropriate exchanges of bosons and fermions—supersymmetry must be broken at every-day energy scales because it is clear that the world around us is not manifestly supersymmetric. Theories of broken supersymmetry can include a particle called the “R-axion” which is itself associated with another broken symmetry called R-symmetry (Nelson and Seiberg 1994). It should be noted that supersymmetry is a conjectured symmetry and has not been physically observed.
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The author is grateful to Suzanne Smith and Harvard’s Graduate Writing Center for help in editing an early draft of this manuscript. The author is also grateful to Amy Gilson and Ajoke Williams for comments on later drafts.
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Williams, M. The Missing Curriculum in Physics Problem-Solving Education. Sci & Educ 27, 299–319 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-018-9970-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-018-9970-2