I have taught science for a few years now and I could not have failed to notice that many kids hate graphs and graph drawing. You can (when you do the experiment at A-level) linearise the graph's equation by plotting the square of the time period, and then the gradient tells us 'little g', the strength of the Earth's gravitational field. Our graph, which is probably still in my parents' attic somewhere, plotted length of pendulum against swing time, which unfortunately yields an exponential curve that's hard to work with. "Let's draw one anyway." and he showed me how. "We weren't told to draw a graph" I replied. When I had finished it, I must have shown my Dad, as he asked why there was no graph. One of our early experiments was The One With The Pendulum (turns out that in the UK this is an A-level practical! I guess in those days secondary school wasn't all OMG exam in 5 years PANIC), and our homework was to write it up. *he needn't have worried: evidence of my geekiness was not in short supply. I remember that he noticed me examining the monthly night-sky chart pinned to the classroom door, and thereafter would print off an extra copy specially and wordlessly hand it to me if he saw me in the corridor (never in class, not wishing to embarrass me*) Our first lessons tried to tell us what the subject was all about, and a poetic but confusing article telling me that it was about, among other things, not being able to push a blade of grass into the trunk of an oak tree demonstrated clearly that some things are better learned by seeing and doing than by reading. Fortunately, my elderly teacher had an infectious affection for his subject. When I started secondary school I was mildly apprehensive about 'physics', an unfamiliar word that elicited an actual shudder from my mother.
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