so I recently spoke to Henry from the
YouTube channel minutephysics and he was
telling me about some of the concerns he
has with the way physics is taught in
high schools particularly in the United
States he's actually now created a video
letter to the newly re-elected president
and you can see that on his channel I'll
be mentioning again later but what I've
done here at sixty symbols as I've
spoken to some of our professors now as
you know these people teach at the
University of Nottingham so they have a
lot of experience with physics students
who've just come out of high school and
I asked them what they thought about the
way physics is being taught in UK
schools even for those people who don't
go on to physics in university you don't
go on to engineering or math or
chemistry whatever in university we have
to teach the sciences I mean I actually
and actually went back and had a look at
my these are my a level and notes most
of what it is here is old stuff all
stuff that we've known for donkey's
years oh good so this are what's called
the ear and the ear - effectivity ear
level examinations and this is the
curriculum the guts are pretty exciting
physics you've got quantum physics
they've got special relativity for me
that looks like a reasonably good
balance I'm very impressed with the
breadth of physics that they're doing
all this old old old stuff been around
for hundreds of years
rubbish old old old and then right at
the end you do some quantum theory a
tiny little bit of quantum theory but
the downside could be that because they
they try to cover such a breadth of
areas now they still only got two years
in which to do it for their a-levels
then they're struggling to cover things
in the kind - the kind of depth that
we're expecting them to be covered one
thing that might be difficult to see
coming across from that on the screen is
just how much the mathematical level has
dropped over there over the last few
years a little bit of the photoelectric
effect this is about it this is about
all that we did the reason it's really
really frustrated is because this is now
established stuff this has been around
for a hundred years and what really it's
it's reality as well this is I mean
quantum theory in particular is one of
the most well tested theories there is
and also I feel incredibly incredibly
sorry for the students coming in who
come from a level come from
school with a completely different view
of what physics actually is and then
they come here and they get an awful lot
of mathematics and I think why I didn't
sign up to do a mathematics degree I
signed up to do a physics degree and we
have to continually tell them that maths
is the language of physics you can read
popular books on physics and on
cosmology in particular which doesn't
have much maths but if you then want to
actually get into the heart of the
subject you really have to know the
maths this is where I start getting
annoyed with with celebrities and
whatnot I was listening to Radio 1 and
the other day Nick Grimshaw is a radio
on DJ in the morning he's taking over
Chris Moyles which you know I'm happy
with because Chris Moews annoys me but
it's a Nick Grimshaw but he was going on
about somebody said they did maths or
something and he's going on math
economics I don't understand any of that
oh no I don't understand that oh it's
really really hard and this is common
it's cool to to be afraid of maths and
you know when people either like on the
radio or going on about how cool it is
to be afraid of Matt then clearly this
is going to seep through society and
then teachers fear putting maths into
into their physics and it's syllabuses
because you know they don't want to
frighten off students for example
calculus has been ripped out of a level
physics you know the fundamental pieces
of that you know so much of physics I
mean I love coming here and talking
about physics with you but when I look
at what's written on that board behind
you that scares the life out of me and
if I knew I was going to have to talk
about that I probably wouldn't come here
at all is there a danger that you're
going to scare away potentially
excellent physicists of tomorrow by
telling them the hard part too early but
it's not so yes absolutely so if you
just when said loud let's go and prove
Fermat's Last Theorem you know in the
air level and let's introduce you to all
this weird and wonderful maths that you
need you absolutely but I'm not saying
that what I'm saying you just just need
to go into a bit more depth in what
they're already doing you know my
brother was was we were talking about
Schrodinger's cat and there and he
either sort of dismissed it as my
ridiculous theory and I think people
sort of wish it had been my theory but
you know I think people sort of just
think of quantum theory
as being something that you don't really
this is for another world it's something
that it's too too difficult for me but
it's not it's sighs it's the way it is
in nature quantum theory is real
relativity is real and it is important
for everybody's you know daily lives you
know all the computers and mobile phones
are relying on certain aspects of
quantum theory you know you drive it a
car you use a Sat Nav you're using
relativity and you might say okay well I
don't really care that much about that
but you didn't care about it when you're
in a plane if it was really sort of put
in at a at this early stage you know
people who did a love of physics knew
much more about quantum theory and
relativity even the ones that don't want
to study physics University then society
would have this more embedded in their
psyche of course one of the problems is
both quantum theory and relativity they
do rely on a lot of maths and I think
it's maths more anything else that
people fear and that's why and certainly
when we get students coming to to to
Nottingham the one thing that they tend
to struggle with is Matt more than
physics and I think perhaps really it's
the maths a levels that have to improve
dramatically I have this right I went to
university in 1979 I went down to London
and I went to my first maths lesson and
this funny letter
I kept appearing and I thought it was a
one I thought it just couldn't he just
heard funny writing and then I saw this
I squared and it was minus one of course
it's the introduction to imaginary
numbers and I'd never come across and I
had no idea and in fact I felt like
quitting I thought that guy this is
lecture one what chances have I got but
of course you you go and get a textbook
you and you start reading it and you you
go through it and and that's part of
university that self education you've
just got to go and do it and if you're
prepared to do it you'll be fine this is
in the dark by it's a blog by somebody
called Peter Cole's who used to work
here in Nottingham one thing he did some
time ago was to put up his old level
paper from 1979 so you can see the
effect of pressure in the piston stands
for average six by 10 to the 4 Pascal's
use this in the data given in lines 10
and 11 blah blah blah blah blah if we
move down you can see
again numbers little problems set the
might work out what's going on
let's compare to a GCSE paper again if I
can find the right one this is now 2011
science err General Certificate a second
secondary education the diagrams show
four types of power station each power
station uses a different energy source
to produce electricity solar sails ocean
March energy sources air B C and D now
even I could do that this is the point
this is the point what you don't have to
have done this course Dourdan of course
and of course before I get all DailyMail
about this and going on ranting and
raving it's important to note that this
is the first question it's on the
foundation tier of this does this it but
not substantially harder nothing like we
saw for the ol level so you can see what
you're doing is a lot of multiple-choice
a lot of you know matched words a b c
and d with the numbers one to four in a
sentence and this is another problem
because now students this is that you
know it's 1560 students are learning
that instead of writing things out what
they have to do is plug the words in the
sentence and that that again causes huge
problems when they get to university as
much as we want to know about
Shakespeare and that you know I what do
I know about shakes a not a great deal
but I know bait okay and I think people
who read Shakespeare and it
professionally in two shakes beautiful
or whatever should know about quantum
theory at the level I know about
Shakespeare and things like that I think
I think this there's a this is almost a
fear and on coolness almost as well and
so you're not cool if you you start
trying to understand that stuff it's too
weird it's too hard no it's the way it
is
if you'd like to see more from Eadie
Phil or Tony I've put all the interview
footage on my extras channel nottingham
science and there are links on the
screen they talked about a lot of stuff
not covered in this video and it's well
worth a look if you've got a bit of time
on your hands and if you haven't got a
lot of time on your hands there's always
time for a quick pithy minutephysics
video make sure you've checked out
henry's video he's letter to the
president
definitely worth a look