I often work with students who have a strong preference for either the humanities or STEM and struggle to see the relevance of one subject to the other. As a physics tutor, I can attest that reading comprehension is a skill that is vital to understanding textbooks, parsing word problems, and crafting explanations to conceptual questions.
The Trouble with Textbooks
Physics textbooks are often dense and technical, and not necessarily the easiest resources to use when attempting to learn a concept for the first time. Many students prefer to be introduced to a topic via a lecture, a video, or a lab demo (fair!). That said, I do recommend that students read the relevant chapters of their textbooks as a way to review leading up to exams, as most textbooks do an excellent job of presenting information in a logical order, explaining concepts fully and correctly, and providing representative worked-out example problems.
Additionally, nearly every physics textbook, test, or AP problem is a word problem to a certain extent. You have to be able to understand the scenario described, extract relevant information from the question, and identify what you are being asked to solve in order to have a chance at arriving at the correct answer.
Lastly, many physics problems ask for a written explanation to a conceptual question, as opposed to a numerical answer or derived expression. Students have to be able to communicate their ideas using complete sentences that reference relevant physics principles, and there is a plethora of evidence suggesting that reading comprehension is a critical prerequisite to higher writing assessment scores.
Making the most of Summer
Given that it’s the start of summer, if you’re wondering what to do academically before the start of the next school year, my number one (#1!!) recommendation would be too pick up a few books that interest you and read them for fun. These books do not need to be nonfiction; they don’t even need to be particularly rigorous (although reading more complex texts will likely lead to further gains in reading comprehension). They just need to be engaging enough to hold your attention.
While I am a fan of many genres (fantasy in particular), in the spirit of further connecting reading with physics, below are a few of my recommendations for novels that range from sci-fi to science fantasy to speculative fiction. Many of the books listed are the first in a series, and most are fast-paced and quite accessible for high school students!
Book Recommendations
The Martian by Andy Weir
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh O’Brien
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Recursion by Blake Crouch
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
A Winter’s Promise by Cristelle Dabos
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
The Humans by Matt Haig
Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik (short stories, mostly fantasy, but I’ve read every book she’s ever written and love them all)
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
There is No Antimemetics Division by qntm
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Exhalation by Ted Chiang (short stories)
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (short stories)
Divergent by Veronica Roth
