THE ENGLISH CLASS THROUGH MY EYES

I know, it is late to post something but while reading my blog, i realised that there were some lessons that i did not describe. The first lesson in the M1 physic group is missing as well as my first english lesson of the year.!!! fortunately, I wrote about these lessons immediately after class and kept them in a file. here is what I wrote:

Monday 2008-01-28

Today I had my first English period in my new group.  A new teacher, Elizabeth Anne, and new colleagues, most of them are M1 physics’ students.  We were 4 newly arrived pupils and as an oral exercise, Mrs. Anne asked the group to tell us what they did in the former 2 classes that we missed. Shyly, a few guys murmured some words and I could manage to drop a couple of lines in my note book. Apparently, they did the self service program on computer the first Monday and discussion group last week where they made a survey of the class by draying statistics diagrams.

Today’s lesson:

A very difficult exercise was given to us: taking notes while listening to a short TV program entitled “no ordinary genius”. Of course, in an English class for scientists, the genius could not be someone else than a scientist, Richard Feynman. Like George Clooney would have said: “who else?”. We were asked to use the “cornell method” for our notes: that is, dropping a large margin on the left of our sheet of paper for key words, a margin at the bottom for the summary, and the space on the left for notes taking. It’s a quite interesting method!  I succeeded in taking a few notes but it was difficult to understand everything from what was said because the speakers in the film had a very pronounced accent. Fortunately, I got the general idea and could participate in the second part of the exercise that was: discussing the key points with my friends. Finally we answered orally 10 questions written on a transparency and that was the end of the exercise. As we had some time left before the end of the class, (and as we were not fed up with the film), we resumed the film were we had stopped and watched it till the end.

Questions asked: 

 What was the name of the project which took place at Los Alamos?

Manhattan project

Why did he get married in 1941?

His wife was ill with tuberculosis and marrying her was the only way of taking care of her.

What did he think about the bomb one day in New York?

He said that the bomb will one day or the other destroy everything in this town so there was no need of constructing buildings in New York.

 What agreement did he make with his artist friend? How long did the agreement last?

The agreement was that every Sunday they would teach each other science and art. The agreement took place during 8 years.

 Who explained the principles of matter and radiation in 1982?

Heisenberg and Dirac

What did Feynman add to their theory?

He added mathematical solutions through diagrams known today as Feynman’s diagram.

How are/were electrons “represented”? What did Feynman ignore?

e+.  Both electrons and positrons were considered as particles.

 Freeman Dyson said the greatest Physics of the time needed convincing that Feynman work was valid. Who was that?

Oppenheimer

 Why did 3 people get the noble price at the same time?

It is common that many scientists work separately on the same projects at the same time. This is what happened: Feynman worked alone and two other scientists worked together. They all made their discoveries at the same time.

 What happened between Feynman and the National Academy of science?

Feynman was accepted in the NA of science but after a while he resigned.

Vocabulary learned from this lesson:

Bragging about it

I’ve been kicking myself ever since

An agreement hold (and not last!!)