Physics Literacy to the Rescue

For much of the day we now have students working at the reference desk. They can answer the straightforward questions, but are instructed to call us when there is a complicated reference question. I was at a meeting in the faculty commons when I received a phone call that my assistance was needed. The student was looking for information about the public perception and understanding of physics. I first showed him how to find books on the general topic of science literacy. There was nothing specific about physics so we looked in Academic Search Premier and Omnifile and found a few articles specifically on physics literacy. The student was happy with what I found for him.

When I first started at NJIT, President Fenster spoke to the new hires and said it was always more important to talk to our students than it was to talk among ourselves. He compared it to going to a department store and just seeing the employees talk among themselves, while a customer could not get help.