PHYSICS

The aim of this study was to use activity-based method of teaching to improve students’ academic performance in relative density at Suhum Presbyterian Senior High. Although there are different forms of teaching methods in teaching, the efficacy of activity-based method of teaching has an important role in improving students’ academic performance. In this review of the literature, the various methods of teaching were examined. Although there are various ways of teaching science of which some are inter-related, the emphasis was placed on using activity-based method of teaching. The effectiveness of the activity-based method of teaching has a vital role in improving students’ performance. Form one science class consisting of forty-five (45) students were purposively sampled for this study. The nature of this study was an Action Research. The instruments used for the study were class exercise, questionnaire and interview. The lesson in the pre-intervention and post-intervention findings revealed a remarkable improvement in students’ performance. The findings of this research indicated that activity-based method of teaching not only engages students but also improves students’ understanding of physics concepts. Observation of students revealed that they were enthuse with their performance when practical activities were conducted. It is recommended that teachers consider the use of activity-based method during instruction delivery.

Natural resources in Ghana had been devasted for some years now due to mismanagement of certain rules and regulations laid by our forefathers as a result of rapid cultural change, population explosion etc. There has been indiscriminate logging, annual bushfires, illegal surface mining, bad farming practices, dumping of human and industrial wastes into our water bodies etc. It is estimated that over 40 percent of Ghana’s forest has been logged since the late 1940s. All efforts to salvage the situation over the years have failed to yield the needed results. The purpose of this study was to identify how taboo systems and rituals have been a simple traditional technology for resource management in some communities in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Using primary and secondary data sources, it was observed that the communities have served as classic examples of successful traditional natural resource conservation and management through taboos and rituals. Therefore, we recommend for a holistic approach involving the government through the Ghana Tourism Authority and civil society organizations, as well as religious leaders to encourage people to apply by-laws and other traditional beliefs medium that link human existence to the natural environment.

Natural resources in Ghana had been devasted for some years now due to mismanagement of certain rules and regulations laid by our forefathers as a result of rapid cultural change, population explosion etc. There has been indiscriminate logging, annual bushfires, illegal surface mining, bad farming practices, dumping of human and industrial wastes into our water bodies etc. It is estimated that over 40 percent of Ghana's forest has been logged since the late 1940s. All efforts to salvage the situation over the years have failed to yield the needed results. The purpose of this study was to identify how taboo systems and rituals have been a simple traditional technology for resource management in some communities in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Using primary and secondary data sources, it was observed that the communities have served as classic examples of successful traditional natural resource conservation and management through taboos and rituals. Therefore, we recommend for a holistic approach involving the government through the Ghana Tourism Authority and civil society organisations, as well as religious leaders to encourage people to apply by-laws and other traditional beliefs medium that link human existence to the natural environment.

Physics is our way of understanding the world we live in, of recognizing underlying principles and laws that connect disparate phenomena of our physical world, has more content and meaning. But it gives too much weight to our understanding of this natural world rather than to some essence of the world itself. After all, that natural world existed for billions of years before we, or our most ancient hominid ancestors, or life itself, existed on this Earth to question and account for it. Surely, the laws of physics governed the Earth and Heavens throughout that period as well. There existed an underlying physics separate from us just as there is an underlying Universe and reality that we strain to understand. Moreover, since our physics is necessarily tied to us, our role as biological beings on Earth that have reached a certain stage of evolution and are guided by concepts and intuition shaped from the cradle on, cannot be completely separated. It is important, therefore, to keep always in mind that our constructs and language and how we represent that underlying reality are a step removed from that reality itself. We are constrained to, and cannot but use, those constructs in our own thinking leave alone in communication with others (and science is 'public knowledge'). But, we have to be able to see past them in grasping the underlying reality. Bohr, a founding father of quantum physics, emphasized this clearly. While we can hope that our models get increasingly more accurate, they always remain models and can only be expected to approach that underlying reality as an asymptote. There is an underlying reality and an underlying physics that are entirely indifferent to our presence on this planet at this particular epoch. Whatever may be its intrinsic nature, the world around us is seemingly complex. In physics, we often isolate and simplify in the very questions we ask. We then proceed to give sometimes impressively convincing answers, even to great quantitative accuracy. Thus, when a ball is tossed up, among the myriad of questions that may be asked even as its motion, we focus on a few such as how fast was it thrown, how high does it rise, where and when will it fall back onto the ground. The Canadian humorist, Stephen Leacock, describes well the situation that could pertain to our physics questions when he parodies 'word problems' that are taught in middle schools. If Tom digs a hole in one day and Dick digs the same hole in three days while Harry can do so in a half-day, how long would it take to dig the hole when all three work together? Leacock says that even as a school child, he would put up his hand to quiz the teacher on why it should be that they take differing times; in particular, what is wrong with Dick that he is so slow, is hn;e disabled? Or, is he, perhaps, depressed? He says the teacher would ask him to