Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Undertoad
"And I got the Physics prize, for being the best Physics student," she said.
|
So did I. The "George W. Plummer Physical Science Award"....highest score in physics and chemistry this was. But it wasn't the class work that fed that success...it was the fact that the teachers decided I (and my buds) could be allowed to play around in the labs doing whatever we wanted to
as long as when challenged we could explain what scientific principles we were exploring .
Since this was an old school, they had *good* toys in the back rooms. A scintillation counter and radiation sources. An *analog* computer (with vacuum tubes, no less; let it stabilize thermally before setting up a problem!). An extensive chemistry lab, with a decent stock room. And access to modern (well modern for 1968) digital computers. None of it part of the "official" curriculm.
I think what prepared me to take advantage of this was that when I was five or so, my daddy was an elementary school science teacher. After school every day in first grade I met up with him to take me home...and in those magic hours he would play
and just show me stuff in the lab.