Introducing Meteorology in a topic based curriculum of Secondary Education Physics

Various studies get to the conclusion that, amongst the main four school sciences, Physics seems to be the one that obtains the poorest educational results. These conclusions apply at an international level, as well as at a Spanish level, where not even after the introduction of the new Spanish Education system can it be said that the situation concerning Physics has improved: At present Spanish students do not perform any better in Physics than a few years ago, and what is even worse, they seem to show no progress in Physics between 14 and 16 years old. In trying to find a solution for such a problem, the development of a topic based Physics curriculum was considered to be an interesting alternative approach to those tried before. This kind of curriculum design was introduced and tested during two years in a group of 40 students (14 years old at the start). Finally, results were statistically compared with the ones obtained by the traditional teaching of Physics. The main aspects we based our approach were: 1. Bringing Physics education closer to the students’ reality. 2. Selecting and sequencing contents in a suitable way. In our educational proposal Meteorology is included as one of the five topics that integrate the Physics curriculum. A summary of the structure we introduced in comparison with that of traditional curricula is shown below: TRADITIONAL PHYSICS: Mechanics, Waves, Thermodynamics, Electricity, Magnetism, Modern Physics. TOPIC BASED PHYSICS: Communication, Energy, Meteorology, Machines, Observing and Detecting. Above all, results of our study were specially good during the third semester, when the third topic (Metorology) was introduced. But not only the assessment of students was more positive for this topic, also the opinion expressed by the students during interviews clearly favours Meteorology over the other topics. The contents of the Meteorology block include concepts related to Thermodynamics, Electricity, Waves and Mechanics, structured according to a series of activities of a different nature whose aim is to promote certain pre-established skills, knowledge, understanding and attitudes in the students. The particular learning effects that our approach to Meteorology had in our students are too extensive to be detailed here, but at least it is interesting to mention that our proposal was effective enough in producing the desired conceptual change. The initial missconceptions found, very similar to those decribed by other authors were clearly reduced. We could then say that when a topic based approach is taken in the teaching of Secondary School Physics, Meteorology seems to be an excellent topic to be included as part of the curriculum. The nature of this particular field of Science offers a great number of educational advantages, which could easily facilitate the teaching and learning of Physics. At least the following could be mentioned: Meteorology is close enough to the students’ reality. The natural phenomena described in Meteorology are found motivating by the students. The topic is wide enough to develop a consistent amount of physical concepts through it. Experimental skills can be easily promoted. Environmental values can be developed. A scientific attitude to life is also reinforced.