IT all started when my wife’s Nissan Micra ate my Talking Heads tape. Wanting some background noise for the journey - a solo flight - I then tried the radio presets. None were set to speech stations so I settled for Classic FM for the sake of trying something new. I found I rather liked it and have been listening off and on ever since.
One of the gimmicks that held me was the Hall of Fame countdown. This was an event that spanned a bank holiday weekend and was a sort of chart rundown of listeners’ favourite classical pieces.
Now I’m a bit of a sucker for these “Top 10” type shows. Even if I’m not particularly interested in the subject-matter, I get hooked on finding out who, for example, the number one seventies disco act were judged to be.
It was while hill walking a couple of days after the Hall of Fame was interrupted by the Queen Mum’s death that it all came together in my head and I had my Big Idea. It was such a good idea that I am now a believer in the Mozart Effect - the intelligence-boosting properties of certain types of music. I could never have come up with this one had I stuck to a diet of Bowie and Blondie. So here it is.
Since the late eighties, physics in third and fourth years has been based around learning the subject through studying its use in various fields, hence the textbook with the most boring title ever: Physics Through Applications.
Inevitably, someone soon is going to suggest that this approach needs an overhaul, so here’s what we should do: teach physics through a series of “top 10” lists.
It could be the top 10 formulae (number 1: E=hf), or the top 10 physicists (number 1: Isaac Newton, number 2: Albert Einstein, number 3: James Clerk Maxwell), or the top 10 experiments.
Take it from me, this is a great idea. It promotes debate and discussion. You want to know why I’ve made these choices, don’t you? Or maybe you disagree with them? If I’d given out numbers 2 and 3 you’d be on the edge of your seat trying to anticipate number 1. Aye, maybe.
The problem with this approach is that it’s a bit laddish, and we’ve got plenty of lads doing physics as it is. Rather than ditch it, I am generously offering the entire concept to modern languages.
Top 10 irregular verbs, top 10 things to say in a German cafe . . . come on folks, you know this will work!
Gregor Steele is compiling a list of the top 10 pointless bits of information at the end of TES Scotland articles. This one isn’t on it.
