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Students should use words (their own words) to learn physics,and that is why it is important for students learning introductory physics to write as they learn. To teach physics badly, teach it as a bunch of equations with no underlying meaning, or make it scary and nearly incomprehensible. Physics is really about subtle ideas and concepts--it is difficult because the ideas are new to most students. Writing helps students in introductory physics courses to deepen conceptual understanding; allows them to think in multiple ways; and entices them to enlarge upon an idea and connect it to other realms. Teachers should show students the relationship in symbols after the concept is firmly lodged in the mind; otherwise, students become focused on memorizing relatively sophisticated but intellectually limited procedural skills. (A figure describing the concepts of motion, force, and energy and consisting of nothing but mathematical equations illustrates introductory physics when it is taught badly; and a figure expressing the same concepts entirely in words illustrates introductory physics when it is taught well. (RS)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert