tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35039074809456043932024-03-14T07:04:58.078-04:00Observations FirstA ninth grade physics teacher's thoughts.JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-40205154053149637842015-08-03T15:19:00.000-04:002015-08-03T21:14:56.009-04:00Motivation: This is Water<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I now have about month of summer between me and what was without question the most challenging year of my teaching career. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To put it bluntly: this year was emotionally exhausting, physically draining, and forced me to drastically lower the bar for what a successful, productive
teaching day looked like. So, I'm writing this post at least in part to try to take a step back
and wrap my head around what went on this year, and
hopefully raise that bar once again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've taught science in private schools for nearly a decade, but this was my first year in a New York City charter
school. Setting aside the politics of charters for a moment (this post won't be
about charter schools, but there are interesting perspectives <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/05/20/a-dozen-problems-with-charter-schools/" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/ci_18471934" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="http://dianeravitch.net/category/harlem-success-academy/" target="_blank">here</a>),
this school gave me a chance to refocus my private school experience on students from a very
different background. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this sense, my year was a rousing success – I
floundered and drowned and through drowning got some much needed perspective on what I'd
taken for granted in those very privileged environments where I'd previously
worked. While it seems obvious to me now, I don't think I could have
identified this a year ago – everything that I try to do in my classroom hinges on something we rather unassumingly call </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">motivation</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuZ_pMYGQhPqO3o5lT4ijnzW_Gzb3wOlRsw53K2wSs0jSyMWlj94gDKFKJj_Ve4Fy4lE9Ql7avAT-ul56kWEIebHQmoG8xkXTy4W8cGdMfm-3UEAnQjUC6SeI1xMY7qvJOOT8zv4dDugs/s1600/ThisIsWaterFish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuZ_pMYGQhPqO3o5lT4ijnzW_Gzb3wOlRsw53K2wSs0jSyMWlj94gDKFKJj_Ve4Fy4lE9Ql7avAT-ul56kWEIebHQmoG8xkXTy4W8cGdMfm-3UEAnQjUC6SeI1xMY7qvJOOT8zv4dDugs/s200/ThisIsWaterFish.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you haven't ever seen it, or if it's just been a while, take a moment and <a href="https://vimeo.com/68855377" target="_blank">watch</a> or <a href="http://www.metastatic.org/text/This%20is%20Water.pdf" target="_blank">read</a> th</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">e late David Foster Wallace's amazing 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College. Like the fish </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">who asks, "What the hell is water?" </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I as a private school teacher had no perspective on the fluid of hyper-motivation
that I was swimming in. Only now, having tried swimming in some very different water, have I begun to get some perspective on the very thing that buoyed up those hours of lesson
planning and worksheet formatting and helped my students (and me, of course)
feel successful.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Foster Wallace uses the water analogy to suggest that "</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the most obvious, important realities are often</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the ones that are hardest to see and talk about", and I believe that it's helpful to see the landscape of motivation in a classroom through this lens.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Some of my students this year were quite driven </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">academically</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">–</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> motivated in a similar way to many of the students I'd encountered at past school, and t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hese students </span><a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/1746088/neil-degrasse-tysons-latest-tweet-has-education-supporters-in-uproar-but-was-it-misunderstood/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">tended to earn straight A's in all their classes</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.
But the majority of my students felt very little motivation to do the things I suggested would help them succeed </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">–</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> or, at least, they expected this motivation to originate in me, their teacher</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. If your response to this realization is, "Sounds like you're just
describing good teaching!" you're not wrong. But my goal in writing this
post is to ask </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">why</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the motivational
tools that have been successful for me in the past all of a sudden fell so flat, and ultimately to think more carefully about what can replace them in this new environment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It struck me early on that,
at this school, one extremely effective technique for motivating students was
to earn their devotion – to convince students to work <i>for</i> their teacher out of love and allegiance. It makes sense to me how this
would emerge in a "high-stakes" climate (like the middle schools in
my charter network), where consequences for poor performance on a state-standardized
test will often affect the teacher more
concretely than the student taking the test. This year I've been envious of the knack that some of my colleagues have for earning students' devotion. At the end of the year, after regular classes had ceased, two ninth grade math teachers hosted a jam-packed (voluntary<i>)</i>
review session for the Algebra I Common Core Regents test. Peeking my head in, I noticed that a few students
who had barely eked out a passing grade in my class had made the choice to be there, working on math when
they could have been doing anything else. This says something spectacular
about those teachers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For me, earning devotion from students through charm and affection has never come naturally. I admit that I have some work to do to hone these chops and give myself the power to call upon this technique, but the technique itself also raises some deeply problematic implications for students down the road. A few
months into this year, a colleague overheard one of my students say, "I
heard that in college, teachers don't care about you and don't even know your
name. There's no way I'm going to do work for any<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">those</i> teachers..." If success is going to be sustainable, don't
students need to be working for themselves, rather than working for someone
else? What does it mean to work <i>for oneself</i>? Sure, it seemed like my students at previous schools were self-motivated, but perhaps this was just a product of extrinsic motivators more deeply intertwined with life at school, around
their neighborhood, and in their home – the water in which they swim?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Theorists in the field of
language education have categorized motivation into <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">instrumental</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">integrative</i> factors. Instrumental motivation is based in the knowledge that
learning the language will unlock doors to specific desired outcomes, like
obtaining a specific job, while integrative motivation is based in a personal
desire to be a part of the community that speaks that language. What can I as a science teacher take away from this research? Can I make posters around the room that list <a href="http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200911/physicsmajors.cfm" target="_blank">starting salaries for jobs that require a STEM degree</a>? Can I guide students in a conversation about how the tools in this class can help
them break down barriers that may stand in their way of accessing those
positions? (More on this in a later post, but my hope is to create a scaled-down version
of Moses Rifkin's curriculum on <a href="https://quantumprogress.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/guest-post-teaching-social-justice-in-the-physics-classroom-part-1/" target="_blank">Teaching Social Justice in the Physics Classroom</a> to strengthen the connection between science learning and empowerment.) Can I structure class in a way that regularly rewards students who have
shown mastery of skills with more interesting, more challenging hands-on
work – to motivate more students who haven't yet mastered those skills to
prioritize their own practice and unlock these activities? Most importantly, can I redirect my attention as a curriculum developer to things that focus on my students' motivation, rather than focusing on elements of my course that are <i>easiest to see and talk about</i>.<sup>1</sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For now, this is my best stab at thinking about what it means to work for yourself. This question is obviously important but deeply complicated, and I imagine I'll be
puzzling through it for years to come, but some challenges inherent in the question are obvious. If anyone is going to
be convinced that the promise of a $60k starting salary ten years down the road
is worth the choice to prioritize tonight's homework, they need to first believe
that this path isn't just an illusion in the first place. I fear that many of my students don't believe this path actually exists for them, and the reasons for this go far beyond the
walls of my classroom and one charter school.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I think more carefully about what can change next year, I feel
confident coming to two conclusions. First, when I or my students fall short of
my expectations, it will help me to try to think directly and honestly about what role we as individuals
actually played in that failure – how much was it about us fish (me included) and how much
was it about the water? Second, while it may be possible to change that water,
this change isn't going to come from a better designed worksheet, or a more
effective paradigm lab for uncovering Newton's Second Law. My best hope is that it's going to come
from giving kids a chance to feel their own inspiration to work through things they find challenging, and experience first-hand that this
hard work can actually translate into success.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of the most poignant elements of Foster Wallace's speech come when he's describing the choice that we have to see the real emotions and struggles behind the things that seem to be </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in our way</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. This past year, there were multiple times daily when I felt the frustration of things </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in my way.</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Sometimes I reacted, understandably but unhelpfully, with anger or exasperation. My hope for myself next year is that I too, both at school and in life, can use that mantra to remind myself what I'm actually a part of: This is water... This is water...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><sup>1</sup> Language education researchers seem to agree that integrative motivation is a much better predictor of success</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">–</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> that students are most likely to acquire language skills if they "like the people that speak the language, admire the culture, and have a desire to become familiar with or even integrate into the society in which the language is used." (</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://iteslj.org/Articles/Norris-Motivation.html" target="_blank">Falk, J. 1978</a>)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I can think of my ninth grade physics class as process of learning how to speak a new language of models and representations, and learning to converse and debate through this language. If I want students to learn the language I'm teaching, don't they need to </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">like the people who speak the language? </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">s the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">only </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">person who speaks the language in the room, I'm basically an <a href="http://billnye.com/" target="_blank">ambassador for science</a>... so I'd better be darn likable.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-85432573926861234372014-06-17T16:52:00.002-04:002014-07-30T19:03:00.485-04:00Physics Class Website Template<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>The class website described here is one example of a successful site that seeks to maximize student access </b><b>to useful resources </b><b>while minimizing updates to the site itself. This website can be easily transferred to a site for use with another class, either by requesting a duplicate copy of the template site, or by applying any individual technique to a site that's already built.</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhMyt_N2alS0QsQWAkZhev9RfQ8D2A7qQq3GKV88-TM9D7tqVZKK6f6YLUePr0eOX-pp98SdBrQ7F-ZiyTg7bx0T0K9FM50hmxmfm8PSaQUBiL74K4ka2iIlAxbYhPZ5cNUpduOxK7oYk/s1600/WebsiteCoverPhoto.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhMyt_N2alS0QsQWAkZhev9RfQ8D2A7qQq3GKV88-TM9D7tqVZKK6f6YLUePr0eOX-pp98SdBrQ7F-ZiyTg7bx0T0K9FM50hmxmfm8PSaQUBiL74K4ka2iIlAxbYhPZ5cNUpduOxK7oYk/s1600/WebsiteCoverPhoto.gif" height="177" width="200" /></a>This is the second year that I've made heavy use of a class website that attempts to host all the resources that students might find useful in the course. Next year I'll be moving on to a new school, and while I plan on taking the template for the site with me, I'm hoping that the current site can remain useful to folks that will be teaching the course I've taught this year. I figured I'd write a quick synopsis of everything that makes the website tick, both as a resource for teachers at my current school and anyone else who wants to use the site as a template. If the basic format of what I've described below seems useful, just contact me by <a href="https://twitter.com/josephlkremer" target="_blank">on twitter</a> or by email (josephlkremer at gmail) and I'll happily make a copy of the site for you! Thankfully, Google Sites makes duplicating sites extremely easy, so don't hesitate to ask if you'd like to use the template as a starting point.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/physicsfirsttemplate/" target="_blank"><b>Click here to see a template of the site I used with my Modeling-based Physics First class.</b></a><br />
<br />
The real success of this site is in the simplicity with which I'm able to update content that's most relevant to students. As the class moves forward and students generate new ideas, I rarely have to make changes to the guts of the website itself to give them access to the information they need. The breakthrough here was to think of the website not as a repository for materials themselves, but as a central hub through which students access these materials.</div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white;">
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<i>(I apologize in advance that the post reads like an advertisement for Silicon Valley, but the details of specific software make specific brands quite unique. In the interest of clarity, I've advocated for some very specific solutions here, but if you have suggestions of alternatives please mention them in the comments!)</i><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<b><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/physicsfirsttemplate/home/designing-an-experiment-and-making-a-graph" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">SHARING HANDOUTS & PRACTICE SHEETS</span></a></b></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
On the right side of the homepage, I've made a dedicated page for each unit/model, and filled it with a few useful links, photos, and videos. I've tried to make these pages full of useful and relevant materials, but I'm not sure how much my students use it at all... Most importantly, these unit pages make it easy for students to access any handouts from class whenever they need them, from their computer or smartphone.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4YsPuBWKWjQ_W3tM5x7wAaEmivKm_zFpTLozvYK_HUCQxRqhCf0GNlRHzTz91Kam2pFh8NQkQyYMTCkB7_tqYiXwagUCi5_SfFLtz_XRxow-SQXN6czZ2yOIek30YkhDzl8onWxy2fGE/s1600/DropBoxPublicLink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4YsPuBWKWjQ_W3tM5x7wAaEmivKm_zFpTLozvYK_HUCQxRqhCf0GNlRHzTz91Kam2pFh8NQkQyYMTCkB7_tqYiXwagUCi5_SfFLtz_XRxow-SQXN6czZ2yOIek30YkhDzl8onWxy2fGE/s1600/DropBoxPublicLink.jpg" height="136" width="320" /></a>To accomplish this, I create a folder in <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/" target="_blank">Dropbox</a> for each unit, and save a PDF copy of every handout in these folders, unit by unit. On your main Finder (for Mac) or Home Directory (for Windows, right?), right click on this folder and click on "Share Dropbox Link". The "Public Link" for this folder will be copied to your clipboard, and you can paste it as a link to at the top of each unit/model page.<br />
<br />
To make a new handout available to students, I just <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/print-to-pdf.html" target="_blank">print a copy to PDF</a> in the folder for that unit. To update a handout, I just write over the PDF file in that folder and the updates show up automatically. With this system, I rarely have to make changes to the website when I make small changes to handouts.<br />
<br />
Thanks to Joe Morin for his Dropbox tip above - the old "Public Folder" sharing method I'd been using was outdated and much less convenient!<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<b><br /><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/physicsfirsttemplate/whiteboard-allstars" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">SHARING CLASS PHOTOS</span></a></b></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQ5yWK1G4LAo_VQeqmtZGE2R02tZQZLARatM_1qDdi0II6k3_Q0Y2rMolJR3-X1k_NCplD9fPpDdR00-Uh-uwMIS-fzDqHNOxE7tIu76vcEIPF_XDGAihn1hUFh5c71TC6YDoed-Fwgs/s1600/PhotostreamCombined3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQ5yWK1G4LAo_VQeqmtZGE2R02tZQZLARatM_1qDdi0II6k3_Q0Y2rMolJR3-X1k_NCplD9fPpDdR00-Uh-uwMIS-fzDqHNOxE7tIu76vcEIPF_XDGAihn1hUFh5c71TC6YDoed-Fwgs/s1600/PhotostreamCombined3.gif" height="177" width="200" /></a>On the iPhone, <a href="http://help.apple.com/icloud/#/mmc0cd7e99" target="_blank">Apple's "Photo Stream"</a> provides a convenient way to share photos of whiteboards and lab activities from class in one consistent location. (If you know of a way to do this on other platforms, please let me know in a comment and I'll update this post.) To set this up for the first time, go to the <i>Settings</i> app, choose <i>Photos and Camera</i>, and turn on <i>My Photo Stream</i> and <i>Shared Photo Stream</i>.<br />
<br />
To share photos from your class with iOS7, go to the Camera Roll, click <i>Select</i> in the upper left, and choose a few photos. Click the box and arrow icon in the lower left, then choose <i>iCloud</i>. The first time you set it up, make a new Photo Stream for the class you've chosen, and give it a descriptive name. After this, simply choose the appropriate stream to add more photos to the collection.</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRPvKPmKBjIRqStJv_6K_hwyvTLpXOnLPYk7VW2rLXoClqVH0vjok1BRr2SRQF_ssulsFiTf8S-4C26zx856P089ikBTwS8PvAOe5KvvAlyNWdMSMU2jCDBG6-6TbwD8Rixv0JBYPLYCk/s1600/PhotostreamCombined4.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRPvKPmKBjIRqStJv_6K_hwyvTLpXOnLPYk7VW2rLXoClqVH0vjok1BRr2SRQF_ssulsFiTf8S-4C26zx856P089ikBTwS8PvAOe5KvvAlyNWdMSMU2jCDBG6-6TbwD8Rixv0JBYPLYCk/s1600/PhotostreamCombined4.gif" height="177" width="200" /></a></div>
To make the Photo Stream publicly available online, you'll need to <a href="http://www.cnet.com/how-to/turn-a-photo-stream-album-into-a-public-web-site/" target="_blank">turn on the "Public Website" option</a>. Go to the "Photos" app (not the camera, the app that's actually called "Photos"), choose the "Photo Stream" tab, and click the arrow next to the name you just created. Switch "Public Website" to "On", and share the link with yourself. This link can then be used as the permanent link from each section on the class website, under the "Class Photos!!" link. Click the pencil icon in the upper right to edit the page and change the links to your own Photo Streams.<br />
<br />
<br />
The steps are the same in iOS6. Try this <a href="http://help.apple.com/icloud/#/mmc0cd7e99" target="_blank">support page</a> if you get stuck.<br />
<br />
Students can access examples of whiteboards from their own section or others, and it's easy to separate sections from each other while giving students a chance to browse work from other sections as well as their own. My AP Physics class had 224 photos by the end of the year! I've also used the Photo Stream to post solutions (one by one) to practice problems for a <a href="http://www.usd416.org/pages/uploaded_files/Rally_Coach.pdf" target="_blank">"Rally Coach" Kagan Structure</a> - one student is working on a problem while their pair coaches them through the solution while looking at a suggested solution online - using a smartphone or computer.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<b><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/physicsfirsttemplate/home/extra-opportunities" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">SKILLS AND EXTRA OPPORTUNITIES</span></a></b></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Skills Based Feedback (or Standards Based Grading as it's more commonly known) has been a crucial part of giving my students the incentive and autonomy to focus their attention where they need it most. I've used the class website heavily to make this information students need most easy to find. Skills are grouped in clusters, arranged by quiz (while I give a few tests throughout the year, new skills are almost always assessed first on a quiz). For each quiz, students have access to an "Extra Practice Sheet" for practicing those skills explicitly, as well as a suggested solution. Once a student has completed and checked their work on this practice sheet (and talked to another person about their work), they can submit a Google form that automatically sends me an email containing that student's "Extra Opportunity Request." I can prepare this reassessment for the student, and they can show their improvement on those skills.</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4qLNeCUeEi2cKMn0qozv8iSkZVkRAhEP-iPuuyWpBTgNWTwk-kN-XT_OaNDudOVjdCjMayRVanDCNFx9whPUkkC3m0uNSQt-zheB4zrGLQjNHUN-HSAod482SBUgRAhrHxC6r4xO-f1U/s1600/SkillsFeedback.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4qLNeCUeEi2cKMn0qozv8iSkZVkRAhEP-iPuuyWpBTgNWTwk-kN-XT_OaNDudOVjdCjMayRVanDCNFx9whPUkkC3m0uNSQt-zheB4zrGLQjNHUN-HSAod482SBUgRAhrHxC6r4xO-f1U/s1600/SkillsFeedback.gif" height="156" width="320" /></a></div>
The website serves as a hub for all aspects of this system. Students can see their current skill grades, download practice sheets and suggested solutions, and submit online forms to tell that they're ready to show their improvement, all from the "Skills and Extra Opportunities" section of the site.</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>Current feedback </b>is updated similarly to handout in the unit sections, via Dropbox. (Instructions on how to create a public link can be found <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/help/167/en" target="_blank">here</a>.) The Skills Feedback link at the top of page itself goes to a public link for a PDF file called SkillsFeedbackSheet. By writing over this PDF, I automatically write over the file that shows when students visit this link from the page. <i>Thanks to Paul Bianchi for sharing the Excel Spreadsheet that I use to make keep these skills grades organized. If you'd like more info on how this sheet is organized, drop me a line!</i></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<b>Extra Practice Sheets</b> and suggested solutions for each quiz type, or group of skills, are also accessed via Dropbox public links, making it easy to update the files as needed without making any changes to the website itself. Unlike the files on the unit page, these have to be linked one-by-one, but if your skill groups stay consistent from year to year, this will only have to be set up once.</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVBawCiZ3kzvYVS3RCr25ArO_X3FKIZvBjLqFjehjL1TLtFGZEVCESSrlpVowmsWjxlHUvsHyFri4WQiINwWwPEVPIpvFiqOP2DP3NbubJIP4IFRpssrm91oH4HzgqX8N_Eq1UJRxb0vI/s1600/GoogleGadget.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVBawCiZ3kzvYVS3RCr25ArO_X3FKIZvBjLqFjehjL1TLtFGZEVCESSrlpVowmsWjxlHUvsHyFri4WQiINwWwPEVPIpvFiqOP2DP3NbubJIP4IFRpssrm91oH4HzgqX8N_Eq1UJRxb0vI/s1600/GoogleGadget.gif" height="107" width="400" /></a><b>Extra Opportunity Forms</b> can be submitted directly from the page. Setting this up for yourself will require first <a href="https://support.google.com/docs/answer/87809?hl=en" target="_blank">making your own Google Form</a> (feel free to use this one as a template), then editing the page so that your own form is embedded in the page. Once you've created your form go to the Live Form page, and copy the link in the URL bar. While editing the page, scroll down to the form, which will appear as a grey box. Click on the Properties icon to the left, and paste the link to the form in the box marked "URL to content".</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
(NOTE: The size of the window is deliberately set so that it doesn't cut off the form when viewed on a smartphone. You may want to check that this size is working correctly when you set up your own page.)</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">One last Google Forms trick, for experienced users: I got sick of looking back at the form responses to see the details on each form submitted, so I modified a script to send me an email with the contents of the form whenever a student made a submission. This is pretty handy if you're getting a lot of forms! </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">A tutorial on how to create this script can be found </span><a href="http://www.labnol.org/internet/google-docs-email-form/20884/" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">, though I found that it took a little bit of troubleshooting to get it working correctly with multiple email addresses for different teachers.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<b><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/physicsfirsttemplate/online-consensus-notebook" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">CONSENSUS NOTEBOOK ONLINE</span></a></b></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
There are a few other elements of the webpage that will have to wait for future posts, but I wanted to briefly describe how the "Contribute Online" section of the class website is structured. This year I've made a lot progress toward a long term goal of making class notes a more reliable and sophisticated resource for my ninth graders. In an inquiry-based class students simply can't rely on the traditional "write down what the teacher writes down" strategy of note taking, because so little of the important information is coming from the teacher. This section of the webpage became an important part of this, in conjunction with a published notebook I called a "Consensus Notebook." (more on this <a href="http://observationsfirst180.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/consensus-notebooks-and-defining-variables/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://observationsfirst180.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/consensus-notebook-test-review/" target="_blank">here</a>)</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
For each unit/model in the course, I create <a href="https://drive.google.com/?authuser=0#folders/0B4zo4sRrCY4oV0RMOGpFNGJObFk" target="_blank">a collection of collectively editable Google Docs</a>, where each document contains a few discrete topics within each unit (BFPM 5: Force Pairs, BFPM 6-7: Components and Analyzing on an Incline), duplicated for each section of my class. Students contribute suggestions of useful notes, ask and answer questions, and post photos of relevant examples (often pasted in from the Photo Stream described above). I'll browse contributions every few days and make my own suggestions, or point out which suggestions I think are especially helpful or problematic. Since each student has an email address that's linked via Google Drive to the document itself, I can send a comment directly to the inbox of the student who wrote a post, asking students who wrote questionable or incomplete suggestions to revise or add to their previous work, simply by adding "+<a href="mailto:name@address.com" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">name@address.com</a>" to the comment.</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
As the sections grow to include suggestions of various degrees of usefulness (to put it kindly!), students need to evaluate the suggestions to determine what's most useful for them. Students keep a paper notebook with the same hierarchical organization as the online documents. Each student individually combs through the examples and suggestions in each section, and decide for themselves what's important enough to write down in their own notebook. While some notes are taken in class, most of the reflection what information is useful happens outside of class, when students have time to think about their work, and identify which suggestions from the online doc they find most helpful to write down in their spiral bound paper copy of the Consensus Notebook.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
_________________________________________________________________</div>
<br />
I hope that this template can be a nice jumping off point for folks who might otherwise be reluctant to start a class website, and that the tips I've stumbled upon can help the savvier teachers improve and streamline a site that's already up and running!<br />
<br />
Do you have any other suggestions of simple ways to make a website easy to use for both teachers and students? Do you have questions about the various aspects of the site described here? Let us know in a comment so we can get a conversation started!</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-21423926872792667592014-02-08T14:53:00.000-05:002014-02-08T16:00:49.102-05:00YouTube Frame by Frame<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been looking for a while for a way to watch YouTube videos frame by frame - to encourage rough quantitative analysis of videos directly online without loading them into a video analysis program like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shNPrswj_kA" target="_blank">Logger Pro</a>. I've had some success with encouraging students to measure position by putting a ruler directly on their screen - but until a few days ago it was quite difficult to get useful clock reading measurements from the YouTube player.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmumrL14o2kiKS6mbeN-L6wyPLivSROknx2HYAOTaDIepwma7CbK0iX2ObA1ebgzRKEwt9ycVnFAtNfwfsUSHBX9MQHQisIDKTZeVOT7RcEbCAGZW2Fk8svNEbbj5tqNi3xE9OnFLHM2c/s1600/RowVidSledder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmumrL14o2kiKS6mbeN-L6wyPLivSROknx2HYAOTaDIepwma7CbK0iX2ObA1ebgzRKEwt9ycVnFAtNfwfsUSHBX9MQHQisIDKTZeVOT7RcEbCAGZW2Fk8svNEbbj5tqNi3xE9OnFLHM2c/s1600/RowVidSledder.jpg" height="184" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="s1">This exercise is MUCH more powerful now, thanks to a simple online app called <a href="http://www.calumjeadie.com/rowvid/search.html" target="_blank">RowVid</a>,</span> originally created by <a href="https://twitter.com/CalumJEadie" target="_blank"><span class="s2">Calum Eadie</span></a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/AHTomski" target="_blank"><span class="s2">Andrew Ratomski</span></a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/busterlj" target="_blank"><span class="s2">Jack Lawrence Jones</span></a> at an <a href="http://www.entrepreneurfirst.org.uk/" target="_blank">Entrepreneur First</a> Hackathon to help rowers analyze training and race videos. Since then, it has developed into general purpose player for frame by frame and slow motion playback of any YouTube video. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I first stumbled across the player, I got in touch with Calum by Twitter and mentioned to him that the player would be even more helpful for physics classes if it displayed the clock reading of the frame. He made this modification in a matter of hours - AND included in the display an estimate of the uncertainty of the clock reading! </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a follow-up email, he mentioned to me that he's</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> "keen to hear how it's being used and are very open to feedback from teachers on how to make it better. Get in touch by tweeting <a href="https://twitter.com/CalumJEadie" target="_blank">@CalumJEadie</a>." This invitation is open to anyone, so please don't hesitate to make your comments and suggestions known!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A ruler on the screen is perhaps not as accurate as point-by-point video analysis, but it's also much less black-boxish. Students are forced to declare their own reference point and positive direction by placing the ruler on the screen. They see first-hand how to think about a "reference point" when <a href="http://www.calumjeadie.com/rowvid/player.html#wmnpxUMMfu0" target="_blank">the camera is moving along with the subject</a>, and forced to think about what <a href="http://www.learner.org/jnorth/search/RobinNotes1.html#size" target="_blank">reference lengths</a> they might use in the frame to scale their measurements to usable values. In other words, they have to everything that they have to do in real video analysis software, but they have to do it by <i>hand</i> - and thereby come to terms with why these steps are important.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For example, one of the essential elements of the "Constant Velocity Particle Model" unit in a Modeling Instruction sequence is determining whether the analytical tools in the model are useful for describing the motion of an object.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In my ninth grade class, I've shown students following video of sledders at Brooklyn's Prospect Park with the following prompt:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Choose a sledder in the video. Is the CVPM useful for describing the sledders motion? Collect and graph position data directly from the video to defend your answer with evidence. If you can, estimate the instantaneous velocity of the sledder at one clock reading.</i></span><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/EK0s1PqKlTA?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Now I can link directly to the video </span><a href="http://www.calumjeadie.com/rowvid/player.html#EK0s1PqKlTA" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;" target="_blank">in RowVid's frame-by-frame player</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">, so students simply click on the link to begin analyzing the motion. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Here's a picture of me collecting data on the motion of a sledder in the video. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIAxNbI8A4_5SgM_FaMUVJOOW_C_fbYXi8oAtOTgL_Wy1oEjnA8xHcOiSBzyqUdkgnTcNKWBU-KZSL4NeSmb2Ex5v9Rg0iTh_n6DbtlLs_ERHXj7bYbqP0MYxn1yCTRAYKZ2gOGuGUrQ/s1600/photo+(18).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIAxNbI8A4_5SgM_FaMUVJOOW_C_fbYXi8oAtOTgL_Wy1oEjnA8xHcOiSBzyqUdkgnTcNKWBU-KZSL4NeSmb2Ex5v9Rg0iTh_n6DbtlLs_ERHXj7bYbqP0MYxn1yCTRAYKZ2gOGuGUrQ/s1600/photo+(18).JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">I chose somebody on a yellow sled who whizzes by at about t = 13s. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">When I assume that the sled is about </span><a href="https://www.google.com/shopping/product/11063049002630114815?q=sled&espv=210&es_sm=91&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.60983673,d.cWc,pv.xjs.s.en_US.3ldMs4GyBFs.O&biw=1219&bih=624&tch=1&ech=1&psi=moT2Uu6NOOissQSljoGQCw.1391887515987.3&ei=noT2UuOVHtTfsASw9ILwDA&ved=0CNQBEKYrMAQ" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;" target="_blank">1.2m long</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">, I get a constant velocity o</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">f 5m/s</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> for the 1s time interval. Seem reasonable?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAPEpYa7WfyUZKIrtqmP_ueHX_c_g0lknj9XY61PwkAjYaVDjsd44nj8VNenclck9425n6aVji8dtTIbPKTUjzhZi5ci1uyDHfWF5C7TjXJsgQIowLEaPHP_sl9a2sLnlz8dNny7fDf9M/s1600/RowVidSledderGraph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAPEpYa7WfyUZKIrtqmP_ueHX_c_g0lknj9XY61PwkAjYaVDjsd44nj8VNenclck9425n6aVji8dtTIbPKTUjzhZi5ci1uyDHfWF5C7TjXJsgQIowLEaPHP_sl9a2sLnlz8dNny7fDf9M/s1600/RowVidSledderGraph.jpg" height="337" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What applications do you see for frame by frame video analysis in your classes? Is analyzing "real-life" motion a theme in your class? What skills does this require that solving "constant velocity" problems from a book or worksheet don't address?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">FYI - RowVid is currently working on a version of the app focused specifically on the </span><a href="http://sochivid.com/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Sochi Winter Olympics</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Let's hope that there are some clips where the camera is steady!</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-4058392053938072472013-02-19T13:29:00.002-05:002014-02-08T17:21:42.100-05:00Practicing Struggle at Home and in Class<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Encouraging students to <i>practice struggling</i> has the potential to promote perseverance that can carry over into life pursuits unrelated to physics class. But the context in which this struggle takes place will influence whether students associate it with success or repeated failure, and this can have great implications for how they approach new challenges in the future.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since I first began teaching, I've tried to make "practicing struggle" an important element of my classes. This was partly a matter of necessity, since concepts would sometimes take weeks to develop and students would have to cope with "not knowing" answers to some very central questions as we slowly worked toward more sophisticated understanding. When I came across </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Modeling Instruction, it seemed to fit in nicely with this emphasis. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd interpreted the focus of Modeling to be on building physics understanding from scratch through experiments and analysis, and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I knew that this</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> would take a <i>lot</i> of struggle and failure along the way. Invariably, I assumed, this would mean plenty of learning from failure, as well as learning to fail, along the way.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjIqR6Dsg6GvlIlR5UpjO9nwZCV3ugVnCgfHZgiEUoc3g0pOJcwmKeqdrfjuGc8CC3B8ItrPPM3VrERPvP2Up6DfQy47wsBPFD4vp1cLLbD78xiAqK0iOpFdbh-H4IoqNQV8knJrHbuI/s1600/TrySuceed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjIqR6Dsg6GvlIlR5UpjO9nwZCV3ugVnCgfHZgiEUoc3g0pOJcwmKeqdrfjuGc8CC3B8ItrPPM3VrERPvP2Up6DfQy47wsBPFD4vp1cLLbD78xiAqK0iOpFdbh-H4IoqNQV8knJrHbuI/s200/TrySuceed.jpg" height="177" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I tried to emphasize this to my students again and again. A</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fter completing <a href="http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html" target="_blank">The Marshmallow Challenge</a> on the first day of school, I posted the diagram on the right on the projector and we talked for ten minutes about what it could mean for our class. I included the diagram</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> on a handout explaining <a href="http://observationsfirst180.posterous.com/sbar-intro" target="_blank">my policy of standards-based grading</a>. I taped a copy to</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the back of my gradebook, and I'd hold it up when new understanding was emerging from our conversation about a tricky new concept that no one had grasped the first time around. When I used a homework assignment to introduce for the first time a problem that required a new concept or technique, I emphasized that students' only responsibility was to <i>TRY</i>. Even if they didn't necessarily <i>SUCCEED</i> or <i>LEARN</i> much the first time around, we'd struggle in small groups and struggle as a whole class until we'd figured it out. But to my great dismay, most didn't seem to become any more comfortable with approaching new ideas in this way, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">even after months of practice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've long been convinced that </span><a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2012/08/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Physics First is as much about teaching critical thinking and problem solving skills as it is about teaching physics</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and <i>perseverance</i> through confusion and frustration is clearly a crucial part of this. I'm certainly not alone in focusing on how we might better develop such character-related skills. Some schools have gone so far as to issue </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?pagewanted=all" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">character report cards</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to assess how these traits are developing, encouraged by psychologists' study of the predictive power of traits like "</span><a href="http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/Grit%20JPSP.pdf" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">grit</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">" on performance in and after college. By assigning homework containing material that students hadn't worked with in class, I hoped that I was giving students an opportunity to practice their perseverance, and thereby develop "truer grit." </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But morale among my students was quite poor much of the time, and the pace of the class has been extremely slow. For a while, s</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">tudents frequently expressed frustration that they <i>never</i> knew what to do on homework, that they were endlessly confused, that they couldn't tell when we reached consensus in class discussion, and worst of all that they couldn't even tell when their own thinking was on the right track.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Practicing struggle? <i>Check.</i> But it was clear that my students hadn't been benefitting from this practice as I'd hoped they might...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have a colleague who, l</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ike <a href="http://kellyoshea.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/the-no-homework-experiment/" target="_blank">fellow blogger Kelly O'Shea</a>, is </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">convinced that homework as it's traditionally assigned isn't effective. My colleague teaches two sections of the "Advanced" Physics First course, and rarely assigns required homework. Citing arguments by <a href="http://www.alfiekohn.org/index.php" target="_blank">Alfie Kohn</a>, he feels strongly that students should be free to do whatever they need to do outside the class to succeed, and free to make these decisions on their own. Kohn's arguments are indeed convincing, and my students' comments echo some of his conclusions precisely. In a <a href="http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/edweek/homework.htm" target="_blank">2006 article</a>, Kohn wrote about homework:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It isn’t of any use for those who don’t understand what they’re doing. Such homework makes them feel stupid; gets them accustomed to doing things the wrong way (because what’s really “reinforced” are mistaken assumptions); and teaches them to conceal what they don’t know.</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, ma</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ny of my students in the "Regular" physics sections lack the perspective to recognize when they need more practice, or the maturity to prioritize this practice when it's not due the next morning. Required homework, if it's not graded for correctness, can provide some much-needed guidance and scaffolding of how one might spend time effectively outside the class. I agree with homework critics that busy work promotes a false sense of security (or worse), but </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for a ninth grader, total freedom to choose when and how to engage with a course can be quite crippling. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My students were generally embracing the guidance I was trying to provide, but despite my best intentions it was clear this guidance wasn't nearly as effective as it could be. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rather than teaching students that struggle could be rewarding, valuable, and even enjoyable, I seemed to be teaching them to dread encountering a new idea for the first time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my simple sequence of <i>1) personal struggle, 2) small group struggle, 3) whole class struggle</i>, the <b>most</b> confusing and difficult stage of the process has been taking place in an environment where a student can feel alone,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> insecure and vulnerable. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this context, individual struggle comes to be associated with fear, anxiety, and anger (the list goes on), all of which are detrimental to real learning. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my goal is to teach students to be comfortable with their confusion, this initial stage </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">has</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to come in an environment they have a fighting chance of actually building confidence. Working with others in small groups is beneficial not only because more ideas are brought to the table, but also because students</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> see others like themselves break through from confusion to understanding. But solidarity can cut both ways: students can band together to work together to puzzle through a new idea, or they can feed off each other's anxiety and confusion. <i>This stuff doesn't make sense to anyone... Why should I even try? </i>is a fire I've had to put out many times this year, but it's almost always come at the beginning of a class period, when students have all wrestled with a challenging new idea on their own the previous night.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not to say that students shouldn't be asked to struggle with new ideas on their own - quite the opposite. If <i>struggle</i> is going to be developed as an individual skill, students have to practice struggling individually. To some extent, this will happen with a well-designed practice assignment, where students have to apply and expand on </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">work that began in class when</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> tackling a new problem at home. Moreover, after students have practiced struggling "class first" for a few months (or more, depending on the students), they may build up confidence that can be directed toward working with brand new ideas on their own as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We want students to embrace and enjoy the process analyzing a tricky new situation in an inquiry-based physics class. Since the first stages of this process can sometimes resemble a game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, it's reasonable to think that the teacher should be there to at least point them in the general direction of the donkey and put the tail in their hand, or that other students should be there to offer suggestions and cheer them on. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm convinced that the ability to work through confusion and emerge with better understanding </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is a skill to be honed through repeated practice, and I've come to see that </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the early stages of this practice are crucial in the development of the skill. But i</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">f students are going to embrace the cycle of "TRY - FAIL - LEARN - REVISE - SUCCEED" they</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> need to associate their struggle with success, not repeated failure. Otherwise, there's simply no incentive to bring themselves to new physics assignments again and again. Worse yet, there's no chance of building perseverance for life pursuits that will take much longer to develop than any physics concept.</span><br />
<br />JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-88307830629029002422012-09-29T20:40:00.001-04:002012-09-30T11:01:15.690-04:00VideoLabs as Instructional Videos<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today I made a submission to an instructional video contest/program called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/yt/creators/next-guru.html" target="_blank">EDU Guru</a>, sponsored by YouTube, Google, and KhanAcademy (sorry... not gonna link those). Being somewhat of an instructional video skeptic, I tried to use this as an opportunity to illustrate the value of a genre of instructional video that would be less at odds with inquiry instruction. The video I submitted is here:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BpKCV8POUjo" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: auto;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's also a companion video which shows the force meter readings for 65 mph, so a student who makes the prediction could then check it against actual measurements. I included a link down below<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">1</span></sup>, but I recommend collecting the data and making the prediction yourself before ruining the surprise!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I've called it a VideoLab in conversations with friends. My hope is to create quite a few more of them this year. The relationship depicted here, of course, is less central to most introductory physics courses. We generally ignore air resistance precisely because it's messy, as the uncertainty in these measurements shows<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span></sup>. But I think it's actually pretty remarkable how even a system as gnarly and variable as this one can fit a simple model (as long as you give yourself some healthy error bars). In any case, the model of an "instructional video" that contains everything you need for collecting and analyzing quantitative data on a relationship could be quite powerful. It's no substitute for hands-on work, of course, but students who wouldn't otherwise have access to a proper physics lab (or simply missed class on lab day) could benefit greatly. Imagine if a whole slew of VideoLabs were accessible online... How 'bout it, folks? #videolab?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There's at least one precedent for using video this way, in the <a href="http://paer.rutgers.edu/pt3/" target="_blank">wealth of videos created and hosted by Rutgers Graduate School of Education</a> (where I am currently a student!). Each of the videos on this site is designed to serve as part of a cycle in which students observe a phenomenon, form a hypothesis that explains what they've seen, consider the implications that their hypothesis might have for further observable data, then make a "testing observation" to see whether what's depicted in the video agrees with the prediction they made. The video I've made here is similar, but my goal is more to present students with data that can be analyzed quantitatively, in a style similar to the analysis of data collected during a paradigm lab of a <a href="http://modelinginstruction.org/" target="_blank">Modeling Instruction</a> unit.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizqUrT7qVvILz_XfkJqWIQxS-_696JipY1IoDdheby0In9oHXejtz1OR1FimTU4CTESY0t0yLECh9AKQAMJduatgUyRqqrUz0V6112smXje2FXbo6tkHeeA8mn7WZ8F9bmRJjU40_ha4I/s1600/CDEmpireVideoLab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizqUrT7qVvILz_XfkJqWIQxS-_696JipY1IoDdheby0In9oHXejtz1OR1FimTU4CTESY0t0yLECh9AKQAMJduatgUyRqqrUz0V6112smXje2FXbo6tkHeeA8mn7WZ8F9bmRJjU40_ha4I/s200/CDEmpireVideoLab.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I still plan on making a few more companion videos, including a qualitative "observation-oriented" video that could be used for asking, "What could we change? What could we measure?" before any instruments are shown. I have a lot of footage of stuff sticking out of my car window, and I want to make good use of it!! Maybe the next step is just to upload a bunch of raw footage set to a soundtrack of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjsXo9l6I8" target="_blank">Empire State of Mind</a>.<i> </i>Concrete jungle where dreams are made of... <i>videos about air resistance!</i> So<i> that's</i> how the line is supposed to end!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><sup>1</sup> <a href="http://youtu.be/ZCSUH_B_bNI" target="_blank">65 mph check video here!</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://youtu.be/ZCSUH_B_bNI" target="_blank"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span> </sup>I also did the same experiment with a flat disk instead of a plastic bag (a cd, as you can see from the picture above), but it's a lot less fun to watch and the numbers are no less messy. I'm planning on editing that together too though, for comparison's sake, when I get a moment.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-3893198339162032292012-08-15T14:32:00.000-04:002012-08-15T16:59:57.600-04:00Instructional Resources in Programming<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Khan Academy's new computer science platform is a refreshing deviation from the lecture-based curriculum resources previously offered by Khan, and has the potential to further encourage the exploration of programming as a tool for teaching creative problem solving.</b><br />
<br />
Khan Academy just unleashed a new computer science platform. As somewhat of a KA skeptic, I have to admit that I was doubtful when I got the news, but on first glance it seems like <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/cs/1-welcome-to-codecanvas/882454257" target="_blank">this thing totally rocks</a>. Before I get into the thick of some thoughts I've been having about instructional videos and programming, let me identify a few things that they're getting right in a most beautiful way:<br />
<br />
• The platform is elegantly constructed, and allows for instantaneous feedback on how a change in the code has changed the behavior of the program. (...and the sliders on numerical values are <i>awesome</i>!)<br />
<br />
• The activities are almost completely open-ended. Users are free to mess around with the existing program in any way that that want, or to start their own program fresh. Some of the benefits of this approach are outlined in a <a href="http://ejohn.org/blog/introducing-khan-cs/" target="_blank">manifesto/blog post by KA Javascript-dude John Resig</a>.<br />
<br />
• Instructional narration is left off most videos. When narration is included, it's entirely optional unobtrusive for those inclined toward a more playful approach. Also, the narrator of the videos is a woman - <a href="http://sarabrumfield.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-get-more-women-in-programming.html" target="_blank">isn't it about time we razed this CS boys' club to the ground</a>?</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br />
I've suggested before on this blog that <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2012/02/programming-as-problem-solving.html" target="_blank">programming can be an ideal environment for problem solving</a>. A programming environment offers explicit connections between cause and effect, provided the programmer is able to navigate a ruthlessly picky syntactical landscape. In other words, to succeed at programming, a student needs to both become familiar with the details of the language AND apply this language conceptually in creative ways to solve problems. <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2012/06/concepts-vs-processes.html" target="_blank">The role of instructional videos in the pedagogical balance of <i>concepts</i> and <i>processes</i> is hazy</a>, but this latest resource hits closer to the mark than anything I've seen from KA.<br />
<br />
I found myself thinking about this balance a few months ago, when I made a few instructional videos about programming in Python. In the following video, I've tried to provide instruction on some commands required to code a "<a href="http://openbookproject.net/pybiblio/practice/wilson/guessinggame.php" target="_blank">guessing game</a>" (specifically, the use of the conditional statements <i>if</i> and <i>while</i>), but withhold some details that are necessary for completing the task. In making the video, I remember struggling with the puzzle of
where to draw the line between giving student the support they need to
go forward and leaving some freedom to explore the programming challenge as an outlet
for creative thinking: </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/woVKNThLQqE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Rather than demonstrating outright how to complete the task, my goal was to provide what a student might need to get started programming and troubleshooting. I tried to provide a concrete foundation for why the basic design of the program is valid, and to model good programming behavior in my presentation. (For example, I put the program together in small chunks, frequently testing the individual chunks to confirm that they did what I expected them to do, and I consulted the internet for the answer to a specific question about Python syntax.) It was interesting to me to compare my video to the new <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/cs/if-statements/836708402" target="_blank">KA tutorial on <i>if</i> statements</a>, since the KA tutorial does some things much more effectively than mine. For example, the KA tutorial targets the <i>if</i> command explicitly, making it a more efficient resource than my own somewhat rambling contribution.. More importantly, the KA tutorial introduces the <i>NEED</i> for an <i>if</i> statement before the introducing the command itself. This seems similar to the <a href="http://www.modelinginstruction.org/" target="_blank">Modeling Instruction</a> tenet of introducing and defining a concept before giving it a name. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Some time ago, <a href="https://twitter.com/mpershan" target="_blank">a math teacher in New York City</a> created this excellent video, called "What if Khan Academy was made in Japan?" to contrast KA's "Watch. Practice. Learn." approach with a more effective "Struggle. Struggle. Learn." approach. That is, in countries like Japan and Finland, where math education programs are <a href="http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/why-other-countries-do-better-in-math-520.php" target="_blank">more successful</a> than most programs in the US, students spend most of their class time working through difficult problems, rather than being told how to solve such problems by their teacher. At the end of the video, we're given an example of what a more effective instructional video might look like.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/CHoXRvGTtAQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
The main takeaway from this video is that learning takes place when students struggle with questions, not when they sit through an answer. While it's clear that instructional videos are useful for absorbing
procedures, they have questionable value as tools for facilitating real
conceptual learning, and for this reason most of Khan Academy still stands at odds with inquiry education. Drawing a line between concepts and processes is perhaps easier in programming than in math, but the KA Computer Science platform is a refreshing change, even from <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/science/computer-science/v/introduction-to-programs-data-types-and-variables" target="_blank">previous KA programming resources</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXtXcmAGVqrvq8Ga0EFvhsgNrZE1v-mfuIthBxKojLCPpgpPCXCZu3Cro6NklQc5aWgN9H-jM_8dYsjFlEkOVcqCIL1uBtzGaTrsk1DCNN4BvNX9Bucz6WtqM6sbEbwFKKHx0LYPjIQKo/s1600/Radar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXtXcmAGVqrvq8Ga0EFvhsgNrZE1v-mfuIthBxKojLCPpgpPCXCZu3Cro6NklQc5aWgN9H-jM_8dYsjFlEkOVcqCIL1uBtzGaTrsk1DCNN4BvNX9Bucz6WtqM6sbEbwFKKHx0LYPjIQKo/s200/Radar.jpg" width="200" /></a>One hugely promising feature of the new KACS platform is that there aren't really any questions and answers to begin with, so it's up to the users of the site (teachers and students alike) to decide how to direct this sandbox experience. In the spirit of guided inquiry, I can imagine a series of "mod prompts" designed to identify unique or significant elements of the code. For example, in an assignment based on this cool little KA program that draws a <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/cs/radar/909871673%20" target="_blank">radar screen from ellipses and lines in a rotating reference frame</a>, a teacher could assign various challenges,* from "Change this program so that rotating bar is shorter in length" to "Change this program so that the trail on the line takes more time to fade away." Solving either of these prompts requires the alteration of only one value in the code, but identifying which value needs to be altered can be a non-trivial conceptual challenge. (I struggled with that second question for a little bit, but figuring it out gave me a much clearer picture of how the program was constructed. I'll leave you to figure it out on your own!!)<br />
<br />
I'm still fascinated by the potential of programming to serve as a tool for exploring creative problem solving. I'm struck by the degree to which the environment adopted by KACS, which emphasizes the modification of existing programs over building programs from scratch, eliminates the need for a lot of direct instruction on programming language process. As KACS goes forward, I hope that we'll see more programs and tasks emerge, similar to how an educational community has been built up around Python. If the inspiration behind this branch of Khan Academy someday finds its way into the other curriculum resources they offer, Khan Academy users will be better served indeed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*A few of the introductory programs on the KACS site include prompts to <i><a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/cs/chompy-and-friends/882986876" target="_blank">Change this Program</a></i>, but this is (for the time being) left off most programs. I'm not sure whether I think it'd be a good thing for these prompts to be a more dominant part of the KACS experience. Certainly it would make for a more self-contained curriculum, but it may also excessively limit creativity. I guess we'll have to wait and see whether this expands as KACS grows further.</span></div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-52373031465487464342012-08-07T18:14:00.003-04:002016-07-02T17:56:42.241-04:00What We Talk About When We Talk About Physics First<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Any conversation about Physics First will tend to revolve around a few distinct motives, priorities, and assumptions. In order to communicate successfully about the benefits or limitations of inverting to a Physics First sequence, it's crucial to explicitly identify what we're bringing to the table in these conversations.</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvsU-cOMlwkPtZhXww19bWBWRzJ1Zzj8bDLB4Di3owCjS85LlYhl70NPeqQKc0ZfICCS9WgovcH4MYiyliyC6wYPR60yRlY7ePkiAjWHU0I3c9U8UEAnOcYJ-aRhHE8FWkkLADvjE7IOU/s1600/PFHypotheses.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvsU-cOMlwkPtZhXww19bWBWRzJ1Zzj8bDLB4Di3owCjS85LlYhl70NPeqQKc0ZfICCS9WgovcH4MYiyliyC6wYPR60yRlY7ePkiAjWHU0I3c9U8UEAnOcYJ-aRhHE8FWkkLADvjE7IOU/s200/PFHypotheses.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
I recently watched online a recording of a <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/24397855" target="_blank">fantastic talk given at the recent AAPT conference by Dr. Philip Sadler</a>, this year's recipient of the Millikan Medal for "<a href="http://www.physicstoday.org/daily_edition/we_hear_that/philip_sadler_named_as_recipient_of_the_2012_robert_a_millikan_medal" target="_blank">educators who have made notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics.</a>" A very small portion of this talk is devoted to Sadler's characterization of what he called <i>The Physics First Hypotheses</i>: 1) physics knowledge can inform a study of chemistry and 2) chemistry knowledge can inform a study of biology. (A slide showing Sadler's wording is shown here.) This characterization of the potential benefit of Physics First is much narrower than my own, and it got me thinking about the motives, priorities, and assumptions that have come to be associated with an inverted science sequence. Sadler is explicit in identifying his own narrow interpretation of the term, but it strikes me that we rarely do a good job of clarifying exactly what we're talking about when we talk about Physics First.<br />
<br />
The focus of this blog has been to investigate more closely the diverse mix of ideas that get lumped together under the Physics First umbrella, so it seems useful to try to summarize some of this diversity explicitly in a single post. In the paragraphs below, I've tried to characterize a number of ideas often linked to Physics First, along with a few personal thoughts and reactions about each. I'm sure I've missed some stuff here, so please get in touch (via comments, email, or <a href="https://twitter.com/josephlkremer" target="_blank">Twitter</a>) if you can suggest anything that should be on the list!<br />
<br />
<b>A. Physics for All:</b> Many schools that have implemented Physics First offer physics as a required course for all ninth graders. Rather than a physics course taught only to self-selected, highly-motivated students, physics as a required course means that physics is taught to <i>all</i> students. Among folks who are passionate about physics this opportunity to reach more students is one of the most popular arguments for Physics First, but it requires conceiving of the physics course as a fundamentally different classroom experience. I'm convinced that this is an extremely good thing, but it makes some traditionalists nervous. Though most Physics First schools offer physics for all, some instead offer physics as an "Honors" option for students who have passed out of a ninth grade biology course (or have otherwise demonstrated a capacity for high-achievement in science). In my limited experience such courses tend to be taught in a more traditional, lecture-based style.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br />
<b>B. Physics Helps Develops Mathematical Proficiency: </b>This is a popular motivation for Physics First in districts where student struggle to achieve high scores on standardized tests in math. These schools or districts can see an early physics class as an opportunity to provide relevant context to students' study of algebra and geometry, or even simply to teach more math earlier. This motivation has positive and negative aspects, of course. In some schools, the Physics First course has led to greater communication and cooperation between the science and math departments, and students have as a result come to see the math as a powerful tool for solving real-world problems. In <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-december-i-drove-down-to-baltimore.html" target="_blank">other schools</a>, physics teachers are asked to take time out of their study of physics to drill algebra problems in preparation for students' upcoming state-standardized test in math, or the physics curriculum itself is centered around around drilling traditional pencil and paper problems, devoid of scientific context.<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup>1</sup></span><br />
<br />
<b>C. Conceptual Physics:</b> In environments where improving performance on standardized tests is less of a priority, some ninth grade physics teachers teach a physics course that contains as little math as possible. Teachers of a <i>Conceptual Physics</i> course will select topics that require only rudimentary algebraic or graphical analysis. Paul Hewitt's "Conceptual Physics" text is often used as a resource in such courses.<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup>2</sup></span> In my opinion, any good physics course should emphasize conceptual understanding over rote memorization or blind problem solving, but teaching concepts without computational context can be quite challenging. Answering a question like, "Why does it hurt less to fall onto grass than to fall onto concrete?" requires an abstract appreciation of the relationship for impulse (<b>F<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sub>net</sub></span></b> • ∆t = m • <b>∆v</b>) that is significantly more sophisticated than that required to solve an algebra problem. In other words, removing math from a physics course doesn't always make the course easier. (The complexities raised here have been on my mind for a while, but they'll have to wait until a future post!)<br />
<b><br />D. Physics is a Foundational Science:</b> The classic <i>biology uses chemistry and chemistry uses physics so teach physics first</i> line of reasoning is probably the most common argument for inverting the <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/p/glossary.html" target="_blank">BCP sequence</a>, and in my opinion the least salient. Though Sadler's data are are only questionably connected to the Physics First discussion,<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup>3</sup></span> they do show that content knowledge in physics (at the novice level of an introductory student) doesn't seem to translate to greater success in biology and chemistry. Whether this is because of too little crossover of content between these respective courses or simply because of a disconnect in representation and terminology, it's clear that simply having taken a physics course will not, statistically, impact an individual's success in a chemistry or biology course.<br />
<br />
<b>E. Inverting the Sequence Can Spur Pedagogical Change:</b> <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2012/07/modeling-physics-first-for-modeling.html" target="_blank">My most recent post </a>identified the potential for inversion to a Physics First sequence to bring about greater change within a science department. I argued that, since inverting a sequence necessitates changes to all high school science offerings, greater cohesiveness throughout the high school science curriculum can be achieved. A similar argument can be made within the physics class itself. A transition to Physics First is an opportunity to upset the status quo at a school, and can serve as incentive for teachers accustomed to using lecture-based instruction to try something different and potentially more effective.<br />
<br />
<b>F. Physics Helps Develops Scientific Reasoning and Critical Thinking Skills:</b> Some physics curricula, such as a those built on <a href="http://modelinginstruction.org/" target="_blank">ASU's Modeling Instruction</a> or <a href="http://pum.rutgers.edu/" target="_blank">Rutgers University's PUM</a> (Physics Union Mathematics), are based on the notion that students can only effectively learn science by doing science. The relationships, representations, and conceptual understanding in each unit of the course are built from the ground up by the students themselves, through analysis of empirical evidence and class consensus arrived at through discussion. Aside from being an effective method of teaching physics (no small thing, of course!), this approach instills in students the unique supremacy of empirical observations. In other words, <i>students learn that evidence matters</i>. Physics is especially suitable for a course in "evidence-based problem solving" because the systems and relationships we study can simultaneously be both gorgeously simple and puzzlingly counter-intuitive. Not all science teaching methods emphasize this skill, but some methods do, and a transition to Physics First presents a golden opportunity to transition to using such a method (<i>see motivation/assumption E</i>).<br />
<br />
In my opinion, this last motivation is the single strongest argument in favor of both inverting a curriculum to Physics First and teaching physics to all students. By designing and analyzing experiments, students learn a scientific approach to problem solving - not just a <i>figure out how far the ball goes</i> type of problem solving, but a broader and more relevant <i>figure out whether this pill can do what it says it does</i>, <i>figure out whether this politician can do what he/she says he/she can do</i>, or <i>figure out how to turn this rope into a rope swing</i> type of problem solving. Students learn to always look for relevant evidence, and to be thoughtful and critical in interpreting that evidence. They learn that failure is an essential part of any problem-solving process, and that successful problem-solvers keep an open mind as they learn from their mistakes through repeated trials and errors. They experience first-hand the immense benefits and inevitable challenges of collaborative work. In designing a syllabus for a Physics First course with this emphasis, the question is not, "What physics content is essential for my students to know?" (As much as I hate to admit it, evidence suggests that zero physics knowledge is essential for leading a fulfilling life!) Instead, the question can be, "What physics content will be effective for developing critical thinking skills in my students?" What better time to start explicitly developing such skills than in ninth grade?<br />
<br />
Sadler points out in his talk that a crucial piece of education reform is looking for evidence that indicates whether motivations and assumptions such as I've outlined here are statistically significant. Of course, it's up to teachers and education researchers to provide this evidence, and in the case of Physics First this evidence has been particularly slow in coming. I'm convinced that this lack of evidence is partly due to the great diversity and resulting disconnect between various implementations and advocates of Physics First. Sadler's data seem to refute the notion that familiarity with physics concepts promotes success in chemistry and biology (motivation/assumption D above), but I have not yet seen evidence to confirm or refute motivation/assumption F.<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup>4</sup></span> In advocating for Physics First, it's not enough to point to decent <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/p/glossary.html" target="_blank">FCI</a> gains in ninth graders as a reason for the switch, but with no consensus of priorities within the Physics First movement it's hard to figure out where to point. I'm hopeful that a synergy between progressive teaching methods like Modeling Instruction and the Physics First movement can provide direction toward the motivations I've advocated for here, but until we see some real numbers we'll just have to call it a hunch...<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1: There is a subtle distinction to be made here. Students drilling quantitative problems involving graphs and algebra can often look similar to students using these same graphs and algebra as tools to solve a scientific problem or make a prediction. <a href="https://njctl.org/what-is-psi-pmi/" target="_blank">In some curricula intended for use with ninth graders</a>, students might even develop those "drilling techniques" through small group and whole class discussions, somewhat similar to a scientific inquiry process. The difference, however, is in the students' motivation for doing this work - whether they're doing math for the sake of getting through the worksheet, or for the sake of building more sophisticated conceptual understanding. The best way to tell these apart, I'd say, is to look at what happens before and after the graphs and algebra: are students collecting data about a situation, then using the analytical techniques they've developed to make, test, and revise predictions, or are they just doing more algebra?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2: Paul Hewitt
has said that he originally intended Conceptual Physics to be used with
ninth graders. His publishers, he claimed, refused to promote the book
as a Physics First course, since so few schools taught Physics First. Therefore, various different editions of the book have come to be used in courses for a
variety of age levels, from middle school to undergraduate university
students.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">3: Sadler says in his talk, "We needed large numbers and there aren't large numbers of people who do Physics First. So what we looked at was how much of each of these sciences kids took in high school, and then used it to predict their college grades in these other fields." Though this approach may measure the conceptual connections between high school science courses and university level courses, it doesn't seem to me to be all that relevant to the potential benefit of Physics First.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">4: I don't really know what we might use as an effective measure of
gains in the rather ambiguous area I've identified as my primary focus, but I'm looking for something. A pill-purchasing or rope-swing-construction pre/post test doesn't really seem like the right way to go, so if you have suggestions, please include them in the comments below!</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">PS: Tim Burgess' comment below should link to <a href="http://myphysicsfirst.blogspot.com/2015/07/physics-first-experiences.html" target="_blank">the following page </a>- a great wealth of physics first research.</span></div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-34265345914116787992012-07-30T13:46:00.000-04:002012-07-30T13:52:31.827-04:00Modeling Physics First for Modeling Chemistry<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>A Physics First course based in Modeling Instruction provides an opportunity to rebuild a science curriculum school-wide, with stronger conceptual connections across subject lines and a more cohesive high school science experience.</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMzAYg0wRI7BOhZqB9OfR9Jlr24j5QLC-mUQEVsUE9mp_80kyqmyeipchUuaM8xv3UHPZlB_QCMGK__qQbvB4OX_LOvIlvh29t7ABmlDEMU4RXDWuzg33E4LWRjKN3U0YVy9GfFvzHAjY/s1600/SchoberPosterGraphic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMzAYg0wRI7BOhZqB9OfR9Jlr24j5QLC-mUQEVsUE9mp_80kyqmyeipchUuaM8xv3UHPZlB_QCMGK__qQbvB4OX_LOvIlvh29t7ABmlDEMU4RXDWuzg33E4LWRjKN3U0YVy9GfFvzHAjY/s200/SchoberPosterGraphic.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
As I mentioned in <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2012/07/notes-on-consensus.html" target="_blank">my latest post</a>, I just finished a Modeling Instruction workshop last week, and my head is still buzzing with new ideas on physics teaching. Some of the other workshop participants are lucky enough to be attending the <a href="http://www.aapt.org/Conferences/sm2012/index.cfm" target="_blank">2012 AAPT Summer Meeting in Philadelphia</a>. Due to some extremely poor planning on my part (misinterpreting the "6" in the advance registration deadline date to mean <i>July</i> for one... <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaSP7ZnnMlw" target="_blank">doh!</a>), I won't be attending the conference itself, but since I've got a few friends down in Philly that I haven't seen for a while, I decided to take a short pilgrimage to the City of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP3MFBzMH2o" target="_blank">Rocky</a> (and say hello to some physics teachers while I'm down there, of course!). In any case, I wanted to make a plug for a poster presentation (tonight, Monday 7/30, at 8:30 at the Houston Hall Bistro) by one co-leader of our NYC Modeling workshop, AMTA President Mark Schober. The poster is titled, "Physics Education Through the Lens of Chemistry Education," and its focus is on examining the benefits of Modeling-based Physics First as a foundation for larger transition within a science department.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKEEpz01OUNIcAI5zKDLMn1Ff-0YCBrFY7OXjddJuImE7-7CxG__tdLMX5mEp44v3T3dCdC_mbmbDSArNdAqP0dcGwF2dRAX7tjXQxmxewKqMg4_uWQWmv_E1lwjxzRfX0lhCD4z60teI/s1600/Bulb+Puzzler+Giancoli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKEEpz01OUNIcAI5zKDLMn1Ff-0YCBrFY7OXjddJuImE7-7CxG__tdLMX5mEp44v3T3dCdC_mbmbDSArNdAqP0dcGwF2dRAX7tjXQxmxewKqMg4_uWQWmv_E1lwjxzRfX0lhCD4z60teI/s200/Bulb+Puzzler+Giancoli.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
I visited Mark's school last spring, and sat in on both some physics and chemistry classes taught to Sophomores and Juniors, respectively (Mark's been advocating for a shift in sequence to full Physics First, rather than the rather unique BPC ordering currently in place, but this transition may take some time to implement.). This past year was Mark's first at the school, and although the chemistry classes have been taught by Modelers for some time, Mark is the first teacher to teach physics using exclusively a Modeling method. In the physics class I saw, Mark began with some discussion about a test on the just-completed circuits unit, in which students got into a heated discussion about a question about a classic circuits puzzler similar to arrangement shown here. Mark gave students time to discuss their various solutions, and gradually the students who had struggled with the solution came around to better understanding. After this discussion, Mark moved on to whiteboarding Worksheet 1 of the <i>Models of Light</i> curriculum, which develops some basic properties of electromagnetic radiation. (The basics of this curriculum were nicely summarized in a presentation given by Kofi Donnelly at EdCampNYC 2012. A screencast of this presentation can be found <a href="http://www.youpd.org/content/youngs-double-slit-experiment-model-paradigm-shift-science" target="_blank">here</a>.)</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhqCyRPOnTzBZm6_kKYjeISrayuJcFfp0C2YWOD-gNKDLtxBgS1MnKwlg2TgbmVR7vlnt75YGVKqsJKycZLI5bymjB6yw5QQ0VJijxpR73akANH54zw3wE4ZPcilGJed1NTX0j1dcUlx0/s1600/Solubility.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhqCyRPOnTzBZm6_kKYjeISrayuJcFfp0C2YWOD-gNKDLtxBgS1MnKwlg2TgbmVR7vlnt75YGVKqsJKycZLI5bymjB6yw5QQ0VJijxpR73akANH54zw3wE4ZPcilGJed1NTX0j1dcUlx0/s200/Solubility.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Earlier that day, I sat in on a Modeling-based chemistry class where students were studying solubility. In addition to playing around with an awesome <a href="http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/soluble-salts" target="_blank">PhET simulation on solubility of salts</a> (shown here), they had just completed a lab in which they used a <a href="http://www.vernier.com/products/sensors/con-bta/" target="_blank">conductivity probe</a> to investigate the change in solubility as different substances were mixed into a sample of distilled water. While students were preparing whiteboards on their results from this lab, I had a chance to chat with a few groups, and it was obvious to me that each student understood clearly that conductivity could be used as evidence of a presence of free ions in a solution. Interestingly, however, no student I talked to could articulate why this connection was valid. That is, when I asked them to tell me what they knew about conductivity, they told me about electrons moving in a wire, through bulbs, etc. When I asked how this might be connected to the conductivity of a solution, they were stumped.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
I'm not so sure that understanding how a conductivity probe works is essential knowledge for your average high schooler (I'm pretty sure it ain't...), but I was struck with the disconnect that existed from physics to chemistry for these very bright students. This, it seems to me, is exactly the focus of Mark's poster presentation. Beginning a high school science sequence with a Modeling-centered physics course in ninth grade can create a foundation of knowledge, language, methods, thinking skills and representational tools that can be called on (and built upon further) throughout a student's high school science classes. Furthermore, a constant conversation between teachers in different subjects through this transition and beyond can help build courses that emphasize the interconnectedness of concepts in science. The students in this chemistry class had taken physics, but not through a Modeling approach. While I wouldn't necessarily suggest that a Modeling curriculum would have better prepared these students to infer that a flow of ions must be responsible for the "conductivity" they measured, I do certainly think that better consistency between courses could have helped students to connect these concepts. Similarly, representations developed in the Models of Light unit could be used with representations of energy quanta developed the in chemistry class to build a more nuanced understanding of photosynthesis in Biology class the following year. As the Modeling method expands to include more resources in chemistry and biology, a transition to Modeling within a department has increasing potential to encourage this continuity.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
I may be putting words in Mark's mouth, so please go talk to him in person at the Houston Hall Bistro tonight (Monday) at 8:30!!</div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-51887670856463132262012-07-26T22:40:00.000-04:002012-07-28T10:25:27.173-04:00Notes on Consensus<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Tomorrow is the last day of our Modeling Workshop here in NYC. Everyone involved, from the workshop leaders to the participants (Big digital shout out to <a href="https://twitter.com/elbee818" target="_blank">@elbee818</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/jsb16" target="_blank">@jsb16</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/d2thelhurst" target="_blank">@d2thelhurst</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/fernwig" target="_blank">@fernwig</a>!) have been amazing, and to say that I'm going to miss hanging out with these folks all day long is a gross understatement. On the bright side, though, looking back through my notebook on the train ride home today got me chomping at the bit to spend some much-needed alone time working out how I'll be putting this stuff to work with my ninth graders in the fall. As anyone who's completed a workshop has seen, Modeling Instruction is a method, not a curriculum - the worksheets and activities used in any workshop are meant to serve only as a starting point for applying the method to your student population. As I've <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2012/05/sharing-modeling-resources.html" target="_blank">mentioned before in this blog</a>, it's a fascinating experience to leaf through other Modelers' revisions of activities, and take inspiration for what to include in revisions of my own.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
One thing that came up a couple times in our workshop discussions was the role of note taking in a Modeling course. In a classroom that's using a Modeling method, students build all
knowledge through consensus. This consensus emerges slowly as students struggle collectively to interpret empirical observations of a <a href="https://kellyoshea.wordpress.com/model-building/" target="_blank">unit paradigm lab</a>, present <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/110279466978710312562/120724MECHANICSMODELINGWORKSHOPHOOKESLAWANDENERGYCONSERVATION?authkey=Gv1sRgCI7dvNTk-fn4qwE&noredirect=1#5768931968928177618" target="_blank">solutions on a whiteboard</a>, and ask questions about these solutions of their peers.
Flashes of insight will come at unexpected moments, often when the class is at its most exciting and engaging, but a more nuanced
understanding of the complexities of a model must be built gradually over many days. It
seems to me that only the most sophisticated note takers will emerge
from a lab or whiteboarding session with detailed records of the
knowledge developed during that class period. Students new to Modeling are suddenly asked to think about science in a radically new way, and (by necessity to the inquiry process) often denied access to the resources that they've come to rely on during their previous years as a science student. Sure, some teachers pass out a textbook, but these books turn out to be more useful for <a href="http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/a-graph-to-visualize-average-velocity/" target="_blank">building inclined planes</a> than for working through most worksheet problems or lab practica... For ninth graders in particular, this<i> whole new ballgame</i> begins on their very first day of high school, simultaneous to a transition that already induces utter panic. It's my hunch that some minor restructuring of worksheets and other Modeling curriculum resources can go a long way in helping younger students get the most out of this complex process of knowledge-building. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
When I was teaching Physics First in a "lab, lecture, & discussion" format, I developed a system of handouts to try to provide students some hierarchical structure for their class notes. (<a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxkaXNjdXNzaW9ucGh5c2ljc3xneDo1YmE2N2NkNDVmYWViYzk5" target="_blank">A description of these <i>Notes Outline </i>handouts</a> was published in the "For the New Teacher" column in The Physics Teacher in September of 2011, and you can find an old blog post about my approach <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2011/09/discussion-physics.html" target="_blank">here</a>.) Through these handouts, I felt I succeeded in providing a consistent and reliable resource for students in a class where very little emphasis was placed on textbook readings. As I've delved deeper into Modeling Instruction, I've become more convinced that providing some similar structure is crucial to helping ninth graders succeed in a class with such a strong emphasis on higher-order thinking.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju28KAdUGUK1vA4qrZxpI1vhjtcRxyyBUHUgCYKbidcSVe3V8okTgwCaDCph73mJhsYVc0-Ic_wBvHRnPIhK3KxtlFVMa_VXDiXMIIMFZYkpZIFDGOsZ-EbnVU7KMyBS6whOHCEfqBNBc/s1600/NotesOnConsensus+Shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju28KAdUGUK1vA4qrZxpI1vhjtcRxyyBUHUgCYKbidcSVe3V8okTgwCaDCph73mJhsYVc0-Ic_wBvHRnPIhK3KxtlFVMa_VXDiXMIIMFZYkpZIFDGOsZ-EbnVU7KMyBS6whOHCEfqBNBc/s320/NotesOnConsensus+Shot.jpg" width="320" /></a>I recently revised a few worksheets on force diagrams (click to view, then click on the "Print" icon in the view to download: <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxkaXNjdXNzaW9ucGh5c2ljc3xneDo0YzQzZDdiMGRkYjA4NWY2" target="_blank">1a</a>, <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxkaXNjdXNzaW9ucGh5c2ljc3xneDozYWQ0ODQ4OTBmNTc4NWRk" target="_blank">1b</a>, <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxkaXNjdXNzaW9ucGh5c2ljc3xneDo3NzYyOTc0MjM1NjBmN2Vi" target="_blank">1c</a>, <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxkaXNjdXNzaW9ucGh5c2ljc3xneDoxYmVmZDNiNDRlNDJiNjZl" target="_blank">2</a>), designed to be used at the beginning of a Balanced Force Particle Model unit with ninth graders. At the end of each of these documents, I've included a blank box labeled <i>Notes on Consensus</i>. In this box I've placed one or two very general questions that are directly relevant to the content of the specific worksheet (I've included one example to the right, mostly just to fancy up my post with a picture... Check out the worksheets themselves to see the scope of the prompts I'm suggesting!). In using these handouts, I plan to call attention to these <i>Notes on Consensus </i>prompts at the beginning of the whiteboarding session for a given worksheet. At the end of the session, I'll direct students to them again with language like, "Remember, it's your responsibility to write down anything that you might need in order to answer this question on your own later on. Can anyone offer suggestions about what would be helpful to include in these notes?" (From my experience with ninth graders, it's necessary to devote verbal cues and class time explicitly to this process.) As the course progresses, I plan to remove the prompts from the <i>Notes on Consensus</i> boxes, and a<span style="font-size: small;">sk students to give their own suggestions about what questions they think should be the focus of their notes. By i<span style="font-family: arial;">solating the most sophisticated and personalized form of note taking in these <i>Notes on Consensus</i> sections, I hope to provide a forum for students to both practice note taking explicitly and construct useful resources for developing content understanding over time.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The idea of prompting students to record notes on class consensus is far from new. Debbie Rice, a co-developer of a collection of Modeling materials designed for use with ninth graders, told me in a phone conversation that if teachers aren't explicitly drawing out class consensus from work done, then they aren't doing true Modeling. On the Modeling Instruction revisions of handouts to accompany Melvin Steinberg's excellent <a href="http://www.ptec.org/document/ServeFile.cfm?DocID=164&ID=4438" target="_blank">CASTLE curriculum</a> (downloadable from the "<a href="http://modeling.asu.edu/Curriculum.html" target="_blank">Legacy ASU Modeling site</a>"), most worksheets include a blank space marked "Consensus." However, such direct prompts are by no means the norm in most Modeling resources I've seen. </span></span>Most Modelers encourage students to record corrected solutions to worksheet problems somewhere in the space provided, but I'm not sure that this alone sends the right message about the role of worksheets in the consensus-building process. <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As a Physics First teacher pointed out after</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> looking over my revisions</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">, placing <i>Notes</i> prompts on the worksheets themselves illustrates explicitly to a student that "the worksheets are a learning process on par with the lab activities... Ninth graders </span></span> need a clear understanding of when they're expected to be building knowledge and when they're demonstrating knowledge.<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">" Furthermore, having specific conceptual targets for a whiteboarding session can help novice Modelers, since "a teacher can pace discussions better when they know they need to uncover certain consensus points by the end of the period." </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In thinking about the value of inquiry, I've always wrestled with the degree to which "less is more." That is, when students are building knowledge for themselves, how much top-down scaffolding is too much? For example, it's become strikingly clear to me through this workshop that worksheet problems must be sufficiently ambiguous or open ended to allow for a variety of relevant interpretations. I'm very aware that providing <i>Notes on Consensus </i>prompts will put limitations on how a given worksheet or lab can be interpreted by students, and that this may seem in opposition to others' visions of true modeling.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> Indeed, one teacher's response to the <i>Notes on Consensus</i> format on these worksheet revisions was more along the lines of a general template for "whiteboarding notes" that includes separate spaces for recording points of confusion and similarities and differences with other groups' whiteboards, but no content-specific prompts. At this point in time I'm convinced that the content-specific prompts will be useful, but only time will tell.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In any case, it's clear to me that there is value to including consistent reflection activities throughout every step of the Modeling cycle. If students learn better note taking skills in the process, that's all the better! I'd love to hear any comments that YOU have on either the Notes on Consensus format, or the specific worksheet revisions I've posted here. If you end up introducing similar modifications to the curriculum resources you use, please, please send 'em my way!!</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
PS - A huge THANK YOU to Leah Kanner Segal and Lucas Walker for their feedback on the collection of materials I've posted here!</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
PPS - If you want the MSWord files of the PDFs I've posted, just ask! They're revised versions of the 2010 Modeling materials (revised by Mark Schober, one of the co-leaders of our workshop!), which are available on the main <a href="http://modelinginstruction.org/" target="_blank">AMTA site</a>, but I've included some fancy new pictures that you might feel like using.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
PPPS!! - Speaking of which, those amazing cartoon hands in the worksheet revisions are drawn by cartoonist <a href="http://jamiesale-cartoonist.com/" target="_blank">Jamie Sale</a>. If you feel like trying to draw some hands yourself, <a href="http://jamiesale-cartoonist.com/blog-of-cartoons/how-to-draw-cartoons-hands/" target="_blank">Jamie will show you how to do it</a>!!</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-24127121116804069572012-06-27T23:26:00.003-04:002012-07-06T12:06:45.688-04:00Concepts vs. Processes: Still More Thoughts on Khan Academy<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Until Khan Academy attempts to differentiate between concept- and process-based learning, Sal Khan's instructional videos will continue to stand at odds with inquiry-based education.</b><br />
<br />
Khan Academy is in the news again! Or maybe it never left... Ok, ok, I'm sorry for contributing <i>yet another KA post</i> to the education blogosphere (This is my third already, and I'm far from <a href="http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/khan-academy-my-final-remarks/" target="_blank">the worst offender</a>), but this stuff's been on my mind a lot lately!</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Recently, two math teachers posted <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC0MV843_Ng" target="_blank">a critique of a Khan Academy video</a>, thus stoking the flames of an endless debate over the educational value of instructional videos. This video critique, dubbed <i>Mystery Teacher Theater 2000</i>, or #MTT2K, has received a lot of attention, and even spawned <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edtechresearcher/2012/06/the_mtt2k_prize_and_kudos_for_khan.html" target="_blank">a contest to create the best KA critique</a>.
I'm proud to say that I've made my own #MTT2K video, which is embedded
below.* Though Sal Khan's response to this criticism has been
encouraging, I'm concerned that much of the debate surrounding Khan
Academy obscures a subtler examination of the role that instructional
videos should and should not play in a "<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/story/2012-05-30/sal-khan-profile-khan-academy/55270348/1" target="_blank">revolution in education</a>."</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
A
lot of the Khan-bashing that gets tossed around is focused on aspects
of Khan's videos that are unclear, poorly
presented, or downright incorrect. Unfortunately, plenty of the KA videos can be criticized in this regard, but it's far from the majority, and Sal Khan's positive response to the #MTT2K
project made it clear that he recognizes the benefit of rooting out and
correcting such mistakes. As for the the gaffs, some fans of KA have said that Khan's
occasional typos and stumblings make him a less intimidating tutor, and Khan is generally showered with
praise for the clarity of his explanations. The majority of comments
posted below his videos reveal as much. But for my money, the most
severe criticism
of Khan Academy has nothing to do with the clarity, or even the
accuracy of a given video. Within an inquiry approach, clear and
accurate explanations are actually <a href="http://www.childsmindinnovation.com/post/21640793092/each-time-one-prematurely-teaches-a-child" target="_blank">a threat to the learning process</a>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Now,
I freely admit that plenty of valuable information-gathering takes
place through methods that aren't based in inquiry. For communicating
the ins and outs of some accepted process, the instructional video
medium is a fantastic way to create and store decent explanations. When I
want to know how to apply some obscure filter in a photo-processing
application, I don't spend much time performing experiments to arrive at
the technique by inquiry. I go find <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHZ7QeJx10I" target="_blank">an instructional video on YouTube that was made by some 13-year-old!!</a>
But truly process-based tasks are a tiny fraction of the learning that
we're asking of our students. The great fear about Khan Academy is that
it encourages students to see everything they're learning - addition,
multiplication, algebra, calculus, free-body diagrams, conservation of
energy, or even <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO40SpSBjbc" target="_blank">analyzing the actions and impulses of human beings caught up in a momentous event</a> - as process-based tasks.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Is it unreasonably picky to insist on the sanctity of the inquiry process? <a href="http://perusersguide.org/" target="_blank">30+ years of Physics Education Research</a>
suggest that it isn't... The human mind is notoriously excellent at
fitting in new explanations between the cracks of the things we think we
know already, just so we don't have to throw out the old stuff. In my
own contribution to the #MTT2K project, I tried to portray this
phenomenon at work. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/PNUQInUkfoU?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
Admittedly,
Khan took on quite a challenge in attempting to lecture about
acceleration, a topic rife with nuance and levels of
partially-correct understanding. The voice-over by the "student" shows
how the video reenforces many common preconceptions, including but not
limited to:</div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
• equating a clock reading (denoted by t) with a time interval (denoted by ∆t)<br />
• equating the direction of velocity with the direction of acceleration<br />
• misinterpreting common units of acceleration (m/s<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup>2</sup></span>, or in this case, miles/s<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup>2</sup></span>) </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br />
Furthermore,
Khan spends most of his lesson discussing unit conversion, a
process-based task as fantastically mindless (and perversely satisfying)
as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lab-z1w7SII" target="_blank">painting a wall</a>. Like wall-painting, <a href="http://uglyhousephotos.com/wordpress/?p=8987" target="_blank">it has to be done correctly</a>,
and a target instructional video could accomplish this instruction
effectively if it wasn't folded into a lesson on acceleration. Indeed,
Khan has made at least two
videos (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0nqd_HXHPQ&feature=relmfu" target="_blank">1</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYkmadc2wOI&feature=fvwrel" target="_blank">2</a>)
that explicitly cover the subject of unit conversions, and together
they've been watched over 200,000 times. Unfortunately, both of these
videos ramble through the peripherally related topic of
metric prefixes, fail to sufficiently demonstrate why multiplying by a
"conversion factor" doesn't change the quantity represented, and do not contain examples of more complex conversions (How many <i>m<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup>3</sup></span>/s</i> are in a <i>cm<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup>3</sup></span>/hr</i>?), but these are subtleties compared to my main criticism of Khan Academy. We <i>might</i>
be able to effectively offload to a video the task of teaching students to convert
units correctly. (I couldn't find a video I'd want to use on
Khan Academy today, but I might find it on Khan Academy someday.) However, there will never be a curriculum of instructional videos that builds up conceptual understanding of acceleration.**</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br />
There are more processes than just unit conversion involved in constructing a working model of acceleration, and instructional videos may have a role to play in students gaining familiarity with them. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhsV1J5AQJY&feature=plcp" target="_blank">Using computer-graphing software</a> is certainly one example. However, try to extend this list much further, and you see that making
an explicit distinction between concept- and process-based tasks is pretty
tricky. Is calculating the slope of a velocity-time graph process based? How about interpreting the meaning of this slope? How about linearizing a position-time graph? In any case, how can we tell if our video-curriculum has been effective? Purely process-based approaches to solving physics problems can be
quite successful according to <a href="http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-subject-test-preparation/physics" target="_blank">some measures</a>, and <a href="http://www.phys.washington.edu/groups/peg/pdfs/AJP_1981_Trowbridge_McDermott.pdf" target="_blank">assessments that truly discern correct conceptual understanding</a>
are a challenge to both develop and implement.<br />
<br />
Luckily, our goal isn't to compartmentalize pieces of our curricula into "concepts" and "processes." The bottom line is that true learning
requires students to actively make this distinction for themselves, and to approach solving new
problems like a thoughtful human being, not <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nxjjztQKtY" target="_blank">a knowledgeable robot</a>
(<i>damn those 100% success rate robots...</i>). If this distinction is to be made by students, it has
to made by teachers first, whether they're in person or online. So far, Khan Academy hasn't shown an
interest in exploring this.*** Until they do, Khan's videos will continue
to stand at odds with inquiry-based education.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*Though I made my video before I knew that there was going to be <i>big prize money</i>
involved, it's fantastic that other teachers now have some more
incentive to voice their opinion. Bring on the competition! Show us what
you've got!!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">**Do I truly believe that <i>no</i> videos will <i>ever</i> contribute to learning something conceptually? A definitive claim like this would require a rigid distinction between concepts and processes, which is impossible and sort of pointless. Regardless, I'd suggest that any conceptual understanding that comes from watching a lecture is a result of concept "construction" by the viewer, not "instruction" by the lecturer. Just as we've seen with <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:jl6STJPcAQsJ:web.mit.edu/rsi/www/2005/misc/minipaper/papers/Hake.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiWwQRK8Lz_bKX8MjbtnkfN7oySb8cGt0DrYJsKqJPyGuG-j5pYoV44-lYXq8XrsAC4LvafFBb7ooCAcq7ER8YcLc4VaUL_lAFdqqFh5tH1MKRXCusJUCYOFXPnO-SFOtr920Ad&sig=AHIEtbQRDdEogFtL4yhtgGEh_rkDdyd4RA&pli=1" target="_blank">research into the efficacy of in-person lecture courses</a>, we can't rely on this concept construction taking place in most students.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">***As I mentioned in <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2012/03/khan-ii-discussions-and-khanversations.html" target="_blank">my last post about KA</a>,
I got a chance to ask Sal Khan a question about the role of
instructional videos in an inquiry process. He was somewhat dismissive
of the criticism, suggesting that evidence against the benefit of
instructional videos wasn't evidence against the benefit of HIS
instructional videos. Specifically, he used an analogy about sugar pills
and cancer research to suggest that his pills might just be the cure
for cancer.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-59602853380484337522012-06-21T12:02:00.000-04:002012-06-21T12:07:50.942-04:00Advice for a New Teacher: Watch Others Teach<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1AkhEaOyWeC80OX8AxDiIVeG781VgYeN0IuaFE_YE6f0O9tFG5hOdirZsJ2E3SbKfhgypM5c0gpQ_95JCfRbJVlAwgnHBEMa28raBS3TTPfCw9v0Ucga1tdkid8JcC8ngR3tmx8hVrpU/s1600/AdviceForNewbs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1AkhEaOyWeC80OX8AxDiIVeG781VgYeN0IuaFE_YE6f0O9tFG5hOdirZsJ2E3SbKfhgypM5c0gpQ_95JCfRbJVlAwgnHBEMa28raBS3TTPfCw9v0Ucga1tdkid8JcC8ngR3tmx8hVrpU/s200/AdviceForNewbs.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
A couple days ago, a certain math teacher/blogger put out a "<a href="http://bowmandickson.com/2012/06/18/call-for-advice-for-new-teachers/" target="_blank">Call for Advice for New Teachers.</a>" The response has been amazing so far, and I'd wondered at first what I could possibly contribute... But I decided to mention something that's been on my mind a lot for the past couple years.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
I'll keep it quick, because lots of folks have already given remarkable advice, and and my suggestion is pretty simple: Every now and then, or even just once or twice during the year, <i>sit in on another teacher's class and watch them teach</i>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
A couple posts have alluded to this idea with advice like "<a href="http://samjshah.com/2010/08/30/my-advice-for-first-year-teachers/" target="_blank">engineer friendships</a>," and "<a href="http://approximatelynormalstats.blogspot.com/2012/06/mentor-teacher-advice-34-and-counting.html" target="_blank">observe, observe, observe</a>" in the case of advice to a student teacher, but I think the call to observe is equally relevant for anyone in the classroom. This seems to be one of those things that everyone agrees would be helpful but somehow doesn't actually happen all that often. Some schools have organized peer observation programs, but most don't, so it's usually up to the individual to give up a prep period to do something that will never, ever seem pressing. But it's worth it...</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
It doesn't have to be a teacher in your subject area, or someone who works with students who are the same age as yours. Simply getting out of your own class and into a fresh environment can be amazingly eye-opening. Lots of unexpected things can happen when you venture beyond the walls of your own classroom. If you witness students you teach working in another environment, for example, this can help you see their strengths in a different light and appreciate all the other classes they're taking simultaneously to yours. If you see students in a class that comes before or after yours in the school's year-to-year sequence, you'll get some perspective on where they're headed or where they've been. Heck, it doesn't even have to be a teacher who's all that fantastic. Some of the most valuable observations I've made have involved watching someone and cringing to myself, "Why, oh why, are they doing it this way??" and then realizing immediately afterward that I do exactly the same thing. The goal isn't necessarily to see models of how to teach effectively, although this will certainly happen. In my experience, it simply about shaking things up and giving yourself some fresh perspective.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
If this kind of thing isn't common at your school, you'll have to muster some courage to make it happen. Make friends with folks at your new school, then brooch the subject casually at lunch ("Hey, does anyone ever do peer observations here?") Then, if your new friends seems receptive, try suggesting that you might stop by their class some day, <i>at their convenience, with plenty of advance notice!!</i> I've found that usually people are amazingly receptive, and even excited to have a visitor. You might even inspire them to sit in on a few others' classes, <span style="font-size: x-small;">who'll sit in on a few others' classes, </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">who'll sit in on a few others' classes...</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-4645536316172866932012-06-18T22:46:00.001-04:002012-06-20T21:14:32.138-04:00One Short-Lived Physics First Program: A Cautionary Tale<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>One short-lived implementation of Physics First at a New York City public school should serve as a cautionary tale of the challenge faced in convincing a local community that ninth graders can succeed at physics</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>. The format of a Modeling Instruction summer workshop can establish a productive relationship between teachers to help take on this challenge.</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Some time ago, I sat down to talk with the principal of a high school in New York City that opened in 2010 with a commitment to teach physics to all ninth graders. The decision to teach <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/p/physics-first-resources.html" target="_blank">Physics First</a> was one of many qualities that made this school unique in its geographical area, including an emphasis on the arts, interdisciplinary coursework, and a consistent focus on three essential questions: <i>Who am I? Who do I want to become? How do I get there?</i> The Physics First component, however, was a sticking point for many, from the administrators who approved the school's application to the parents who enrolled their children at the school. Many voiced skepticism that ninth graders could do physics, but the school's principal, herself a ninth grade physics teacher, assured them that Physics First could be successful. The administration selected a curriculum that was backed by promising research involving ninth graders and teachers underwent a week-long training session during the summer to prepare to use the method.<br /><br />The ninth grade physics courses, however, got off to a rocky start. As early as the initial training period, teachers felt that the chosen curriculum program lacked sufficient hands-on work to engage students. The program emphasized group problem solving with a heavy quantitative emphasis accompanied by a small component of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr3ccG6vmqg" target="_blank">direct instruction*</a> involving <a href="http://audiovisual.ivci.com/images/smart-board-600-series-interactive-whiteboard-photo-1.jpg" target="_blank">interactive whiteboard technology</a>. Teachers were encouraged to follow a predetermined script dictated by the developers of the program, and the training itself was lecture-oriented. When students indeed proved unreceptive to the approach, individual teachers tried to reorient the course to their own priorities, diverging independently from their common training experience in an attempt to improve their own class.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJdxgKY05d6zxXrvqbtap94egjnDhchFfMaZLxXyq4g29RvxtZgLETBYHpIFZdlZhqP5mVt2rvF0VOlHvtpy3BNfcsnbe0PMVOqhMGZzer8yY2oq2sMngAWQr4mUW3BWftV3VhyphenhyphenRb0Bus/s1600/NYSEDMashup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJdxgKY05d6zxXrvqbtap94egjnDhchFfMaZLxXyq4g29RvxtZgLETBYHpIFZdlZhqP5mVt2rvF0VOlHvtpy3BNfcsnbe0PMVOqhMGZzer8yY2oq2sMngAWQr4mUW3BWftV3VhyphenhyphenRb0Bus/s200/NYSEDMashup.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, skeptics of the program </span><span style="font-size: small;">looked for evidence of failure that would bolster their </span><span style="font-size: small;">argument to convert to a conventional curriculum order. No other schools in the immediate area were teaching Physics First, and parents lacked a concrete measure for the success of</span><span style="font-size: small;"> the program. Most students wouldn't be sitting for their first state-standardized <a href="http://performanceassessment.org/consequences/RegentsReviewPanel.pdf" target="_blank">NY Regents exam</a> until eleventh grade and parents were terrified that their children would fail this exam and be stuck without having fulfilled basic <a href="http://schools.nyc.gov/RulesPolicies/GraduationRequirements/default.htm" target="_blank">graduation requirements</a>. Midway through the second year of implementation, this lack of direct evidence for the success of the program won out. The DOE stepped in, making the decision to abandon school-wide Physics First and removing the principal from the school completely.<br /><br />How might things have gone differently at this school? Could anything have been done to set doubting minds at ease? I think that this story provides an important case study in examining what a Physics First program needs in order to be successful. In this case, the pressure to abandon Physics First was rooted in parents' mistrust that this non-traditional program would not meet students' needs, driven primarily by a concern over fulfilling testing requirements. Ironically, results from other public Physics First schools indicate that students do quite well on a standardized biology test when they take the test for the first time as Juniors (at least in part due to the fact that these tests are generally written to be taken by Freshmen). Even if this is confirmed at this school, no one will know until next June, when the test is given to the school's first ninth graders. But in an environment of high stakes testing, parents and students can't simply be asked to muster the patience to "wait and see" if such a program has been effective.<br /><br />Any school planning to institute a Physics First program can expect that this decision is not going to get the benefit of the doubt from parents, students, or even faculty and administrators. Perhaps a gracious transition is more likely in an independent school, where parents might feel bound by a tuition to maintain faith in the school and its decisions. Private school students are not usually subject to external testing requirements, and if a family doesn't support a curriculum decision made by a school, they're free to take their child and their money elsewhere. But in the public school system, inertia rules. "You basically have to teach an existing class," the principal of this school told me. "New York State has defined the Regents classes, and [physics] means a very specific vision involving eleventh or twelfth graders. It's hard to do [anything different]." A larger movement toward Physics First, perhaps on a district level, might help reassure parents that their individual child won't be left out in the cold, but failed Physics First initiatives such as the program in <a href="http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200907/physicsfirst.cfm" target="_blank">San Diego in 2001</a> demonstrate that this reassurance will only go so far.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">A cohort of teachers implementing a new Physics First program needs
not only formal training in how to teach Physics First effectively, but
time and freedom to develop unified goals and methods for a specific
population of students. </span><span style="font-size: small;">In interpreting this particular story, I've come to the conclusion that in order for a public school implementation of Physics First to be successful it has to meet a much higher bar than a traditional science program. Traditional physics courses that conform to parents' and administrators' expectations are simply awarded the benefit of the doubt even when the value of this status quo is deeply doubtful. </span><span style="font-size: small;">The paradigm of a <a href="http://modelinginstruction.org/teachers/workshops/" target="_blank">Modeling Instruction summer workshop</a> suggests a means by which to lay the groundwork for implementing a program that's both informed by PER and responsive to the needs and concerns of the school community. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Since Modeling Instruction is so visibly different from conventional physics teaching, individual teachers learn early in their exposure to Modeling that, regardless of their personal experience and expertise, they'll need to attend a workshop training in order to apply the method in their own classrooms. When a group of teachers in a school or district is implementing a Modeling curriculum together for the first time (as was the case at <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2011/12/modeling-workshop-and-time-for-physics.html" target="_blank">my first workshop last summer</a>), many teachers from the same school have time during the workshop to share ideas, reactions, and come to some agreement on their collective goals for the course.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuqg2_nat-king-cole-the-christmas-song_music" target="_blank">Although it's been said many times, many ways</a>, effective classes are created by effective teachers! Likewise, effective curriculum has to foster teachers' ability to remain flexible and creative with the application of that curriculum to a specific student population. Training workshops are as much about developing a camaraderie and common language between cooperating teachers as they are about exposing teachers to new methods. As one ninth grade physics teacher at this school wrote to me, "In order to be effective, teachers need flexibility to break the rules if something isn't working. Nowadays the trust in teachers has diminished, causing classrooms to resemble more a preparation for standardized test centers than anything else." Physics First provides an opportunity to break this pattern, but only if the classes can convince local communities to give this unconventional sequence a chance. Teachers are the only people who can make that work, and to do it they need time, training, and the freedom to implement curriculum they're invested in.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">* Anything that I've seen called "direct instruction" has seemed like a desperate attempt to hang onto lectures within a sea of research showing that they're simply not effective. Just like the speaker says in the video linked to here, "If you look at the trends in education today, the majority of schools are looking for scientifically based instructional programs." So... lectures work because they have to? Hmm... At least it provides for some <a href="https://twitter.com/fnoschese/status/214555675282509824" target="_blank">fine comedic material</a>!!</span></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-40902248284336194422012-05-24T18:43:00.002-04:002012-06-18T22:48:20.225-04:00101qs in Physics Class<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Ugh, what a grey, rainy day we've had in New York City today...</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
I spent a lot of time indoors at my computer, and stumbled across <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html" target="_blank">Dan Meyer</a>'s <a href="http://www.101qs.com/" target="_blank">101qs</a> site, which I hadn't seen before. The idea behind the site is for teachers to upload pictures and videos in the style of Dan's <a href="http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=10285" target="_blank">Act One prompts</a>, where other teachers give feedback on what questions might come out of the picture. In a classroom, it would be the students suggesting questions that might be answered using the data. Meyer uses the photos and videos to introduce elements of drama and storytelling to make problem-solving relevant to students who might otherwise feel an aversion to it.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a href="http://www.101qs.com/584-bart-acceleration" target="_blank">One video</a> in particular stood out to me, maybe because it's more "physicsy" than many others I saw:</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZjQ6FO8tng4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
There's lots of information in this video, and it brought up all kinds of interesting possibilities for questions that could be answered: Is the acceleration of the train constant? If so, what is it? Does the train reach a constant speed before it leaves the station? If so, what is this speed? If not, how long might it take for the train to reach its top speed? What is the instantaneous speed of the train exactly 10 seconds into the video?</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bart.gov/images/global/promo_new_car.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.bart.gov/images/global/promo_new_car.png" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Of course, to solve these problems you need information that's not available in the video, but most of what you might need is freely available on the web. For example, <a href="http://www.bart.gov/about/history/facts.aspx" target="_blank">the length of a SF Bay Area BART car is about 70 feet, and the train can reach a top speed of about 80mph</a>. (In some similar videos, all the information needed to make estimates is included in the video itself... This video might work that way if an adult of "average" height was simply standing in the foreground.)</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
I've been thinking a lot lately about <a href="http://paer.rutgers.edu/pt3/" target="_blank">video-based data collection</a>, especially as a potential solution for students missing essential lab days in a Modeling-based class. What I find exciting about Dan's approach, though, is the power of an open-ended question. Not only do students get practice applying physics and math, but they also get practice using creativity to exploit the ubiquity of useful data in the world around them. High school science has the power to change how students think - everything they need to continue to answer these questions is around them all the time, as long as they stay curious.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(btw, the answers I got were: yes: ~1.2m/s/s, no: ~30s, ~10m/s)</span></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-86242170003275139072012-05-19T13:27:00.001-04:002012-07-28T12:29:01.916-04:00Sharing Modeling Resources<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>A web-based hub for uploading and distributing Modeling curriculum materials is on the horizon. The potential significance of such a resource is <i>huge</i>, and a healthy conversation at this early stage can help ensure that it becomes both dynamic and user-friendly.</b> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In preparing materials for my own Modeling-based Physics First course, I've been looking through materials posted on a <a href="http://modeling.asu.edu/Curriculum.html" target="_blank">password protected portion of ASU's Modeling site</a>. In particular, I've been spending a lot of time with two remarkable collections of materials developed and prepared by small groups of teachers in St. Louis (Debbie and Rex Rice, and Gabe de la Paz) and Pittsburgh (<a href="http://www.shadysideacademy.org/" target="_blank">Shady Side Academy</a> faculty, including Kathy Malone - recent recipient of the </span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://science.energy.gov/wdts/einstein/" target="_blank">Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship</a></span><span style="font-size: small;">). Both collections have firm roots in the Modeling materials originally developed at ASU. However, in addition to revising these canonical materials, both collections also offer entirely original activities and even some major restructuring of the order of the conventional Modeling curriculum. In spending more time with these collections, I've been getting more experience with what I need in order to make efficient use of work done by another teacher, and it's been quite illuminating.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGb4TERIkg114pkngZx35BMJx6V1NjaS_voT7wP0czfC_s0Ymv71nCDwIZZL2uT4MKTH1PKhVQV0xmqP-Z9b1tzJ7rARb65uNXwbnoQ-YxBuB1QNW7cYgsb5bCUyUGLyTCt5lrVx6ZKlQ/s1600/MaterialsScreenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGb4TERIkg114pkngZx35BMJx6V1NjaS_voT7wP0czfC_s0Ymv71nCDwIZZL2uT4MKTH1PKhVQV0xmqP-Z9b1tzJ7rARb65uNXwbnoQ-YxBuB1QNW7cYgsb5bCUyUGLyTCt5lrVx6ZKlQ/s320/MaterialsScreenshot.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">There are quite a few similarities between these two sets of materials. Both collections provide a large text file containing "Teacher Notes" for each unit in the curriculum. (The materials for one such unit are shown in the picture to the right.) These notes generally begin with suggestions on the </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Scope and Sequence</i></span><span style="font-size: small;"> and </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Instructional Goals</i> of the unit as a whole, then go on to provide details about implementing the activities or worksheets contained within the unit package. Both collections include handouts or worksheets composed in Microsoft Word, and usually include one document file for each physical handout. (For example, a handout made to accompany a lab activity and a homework assignment directly related to that activity are usually included as separate files, sometimes in separate folders/directories.) The documents in both collections are formatted quite precisely, and I experienced frustrating formatting errors when opening some of these documents on my own computer. Most importantly, both collections reflect the great passion and expertise of the teachers who created them, as well as an enormous investment of time.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">One key factor in the success of Modeling Instruction, I believe, is that it has been almost entirely teacher-driven. Workshops are run by teachers and interest in the method has spread largely through word-of-mouth. Curriculum resources are developed and shared by teachers as well, though this practice is somewhat cumbersome at the moment. However, like the ASU Modeling site, <a href="http://www.modelingteachers.org/" target="_blank">the online home of the American Modeling Teachers Association</a> (AMTA) is already hosting sets of materials developed by high school teachers, such as the extensive work of <a href="http://www.modelingteachers.org/course/view.php?id=4&topic=3" target="_blank">Dr. Matt Greenwolfe</a>. This site is going to be updated any day now to include a <i>Modeling Curriculum Repository</i>, in what will hopefully be a big step toward an online hub for Modeling-related resource sharing for teachers by teachers. Like any <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">big crowd-sourcing project</a>, there are some <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/05/technology/05iht-wiki.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">logistical hurdles</a>, but I'll share here some of my thoughts and reactions to how this might be accomplished.<b> </b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>• Efficient subdivisions of documents can help clarify which materials are relevant to a given topic or activity.</b>
Both of the collections I've mentioned were made to be downloaded as a
package. As a result, the "Teacher Notes" pertinent to each package
are rather lengthy documents. The notes that are specifically related to
one worksheet or activity can occasionally be difficult to locate, and isolating one activity from the unit as a whole can be slightly tricky.
This makes sense given the overarching goal of Modeling Instruction -
Modeling is a unified approach, not a collection of activities to be
blended piecemeal into a traditional curriculum. But as more and more
teachers convert to Modeling, I believe the need to isolate individual
activities will become greater. I think there's a lot to be gained in
breaking down these large unit-based collections of files into smaller chunks. Individual files in the unit can contain a few closely related handouts (a couple of related worksheets with teacher notes,
for example, or perhaps a lab handout and with both pre-lab and post-lab
supplements). I've
posted an example of collection of resources I've prepared for an investigation into friction <a href="http://www.youpd.org/sites/default/files/friction_gr9_v4.zip" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>•
Maintaining a hierarchy of organization on the web (rather than within a
single .zip file for a unit) can provide both flexibility and
manageability to the resource collection</b>. <a href="http://www.modelingphysics.org/com/contact.html" target="_blank">AMTA President Mark Schober</a> has told me that, in his opinion, the ideal resource-sharing mechanism would include access to <i>both</i>
individual materials and recommended collections of materials comprising an entire unit. These collections would be curated by an individual or group
for use with specific student populations, like playlists of songs
curated by <a href="http://open.spotify.com/user/barackobama/playlist/6J9kgSvipjimfDLYTsCOAv" target="_blank">notable taste-makers</a> or <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/" target="_blank">music communities</a>.
The choice of what to include in these playlists evolves over time,
and the files contained within the playlists evolve in parallel.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> The inertia of large collections of curriculum materials can make them slow to change
according to teachers' evolving needs and wisdom, and a system based on
individual files is bound to be more nimble.</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>• If teachers
have access to multiple versions of similar materials, user ratings and
recommendations can identify versions that are unique, valuable, and appropriate for use with different student populations.</b> This is a model already in place in many communities, including our own community of science educators.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> For example, exemplary <a href="http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/energy-skate-park" target="_blank">resources designed for use with PhET applets</a> can be nominated for a <i>Gold Star</i>, which identifies "</span><span style="font-size: small;">high quality inquiry-based activities that follow the <a href="http://phet.colorado.edu/en/for-teachers/activity-guide">PhET design guidelines</a> and that teachers find useful</span><span style="font-size: small;">." The challenge of such a system is to find a balance
between maintaining democracy in contributions from individual teachers
and keeping the collection of recommended materials concise and
manageable for teachers using the site.</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>• SBCD - Standards-Based Curriculum Development.</b> Fellow <a href="http://kellyoshea.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">physics blogger Kelly O'Shea</a> just published a fantastic post about <a href="http://kellyoshea.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/extra-tests-bundled-objectives-and-changes-for-next-year/" target="_blank">bundling established stablished standards for her course</a> to facilitate communication with students about what will be covered on tests. This got me thinking that curriculum materials hosted on the AMTA site might be organized according to standards as well. That is, a worksheet on motion maps could be tagged (in a database and on the document itself) as relevant to one or more standards, such as O'Shea's<i> CVPM1 - </i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>I can draw and interpret diagrams to represent the motion of an object moving with a constant velocity.</i> Perhaps the entire Modeling curriculum could be broken down into agreed-upon standards, varying from "I can design an investigation into the relationship between acceleration and mass for a constant force" to "I can solve problems involving the separation of two slits and the distance between <a href="http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets/twoslitsa.html" target="_blank">bright fringes in an interference pattern from a laser</a>." Specific standards could likely be consistent between courses of widely varying ages and student populations - a more sophisticated course would simply include a wider variety of standards and different supporting materials. For example, the <i>CVPM1</i> standard above would be a part of a Physics First course and a university course, but the materials used to support this standard might look quite different for such different courses.<b> </b></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>• To avoid formatting errors, documents can be distributed in robust, universally readable file formats. </b>In producing my own curriculum materials, I've taken to saving a version of everything in PDF format, to ensure that I'll always be able to open a specific version to print it out for use in class. Both <a href="http://www.modelingteachers.org/course/view.php?id=4&topic=3" target="_blank">Greenwolfe</a> and <a href="http://kellyoshea.wordpress.com/physics-materials/" target="_blank">O'Shea</a> have chosen to distribute their materials as PDFs as well. A disadvantage of this method, of course, is that the PDF format cannot be edited, but a text file or word processing document can be included as well to make updates more flexible. Alternatively, a universally available word processing application like GoogleDocs could be used to avoid such formatting inconsistencies. Andrew Stillman, an administrator of the online professional development site <a href="http://www.youpd.org/" target="_blank">YouPD</a>, has advocated such an approach<b>.</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>• </b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wanna_Work_Together%3F_with_subtitles_-_Creative_Commons.ogv" target="_blank">Creative Commons</a> is key.</b> Most Modeling documents I've come across have included at the bottom of the page a copyright tag like
"© Modeling
Workshop Project 2006," indicating that the work in the document stems directly from the original work done at ASU. Sometimes individual authors are identified and sometimes they aren't but this tag ensures that the owner of the intellectual property contained within the document is crystal clear. AMTA Executive Officer Dr. Colleen Megowen has told me that it is a priority for the AMTA to prevent the materials from being used for commercial purposes at any time in the future</span><span style="font-size: small;">, but according to <a href="http://modeling.la.asu.edu/CR-TM.html" target="_blank">this page</a> the copyright isn't explicitly protected against commercial use. It seems to me that without a watertight license, the entity that officially owns a given piece of work (whether it's the AMTA or an individual teacher who has designed their own materials) could at some point choose to restrict access to it, or aim to make a profit off its distribution. There's nothing wrong with teachers making money off of work they've done, but the alternative of an open source Modeling Curriculum Repository seems even more attractive. <i>By attending a workshop, a teacher would be introduced to a wealth of </i><i>free resources and a community of like-minded peers, both of which would aid them in their transition to Modeling Instruction</i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>.</i> In order to protect this dream, a Creative Commons license can be used by any original author of material to prevent the work from being used commercially. Looking through <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/" target="_blank">descriptions of the various CC licenses</a> paints some striking pictures of what the Modeling curriculum at large might look like!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Now that I've stepped off my soapbox, let me clarify that this is not intended to be a set of recommendations for how to structure the AMTA site or the files contained within it. Rather, this is just an early collection of personal thoughts on a topic that I find quite exciting. As the work of assembling both the site and the materials goes forward, I hope that this conversation evolves. What are YOUR thoughts?</span></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-18443729143268106322012-04-29T01:25:00.005-04:002012-06-18T22:49:31.176-04:00Intervention in Modeling<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Concept-related intervention by teachers to correct or redirect student thinking can interfere with processes of peer-instruction and inquiry, but without intervention into the complex social dynamics of a high school classroom, the trust and courage required for these processes to be effective can be slow to develop.</b><br />
<br />
As I've visited various ninth grade physics classes, I'm often faced with a question that teachers who employ inquiry-based instruction face every day: <i>When to intervene in student thought-processes that are headed down the wrong track?</i> For an outside observer like me, a policy of little to no intervention is almost always best, as it's crucial to the observation process to tread very lightly on the environment a teacher has created. But for the teacher who has committed to an inquiry approach, this question gets wrapped up in all sorts of conflicting impulses. Just how helpful is concept-related teacher intervention during, say, the small group discussion phase of a <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/p/glossary.html" target="_blank">whiteboarding activity</a>?</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Anecdotally, my observations have suggested that the short answer is, "not very." In situations when students will be presenting group work to the entire class, pointed <a href="http://www.engin.umich.edu/%7Ecre/probsolv/strategy/cthinking.htm" target="_blank">Socratic questioning</a> seems most efficiently used when the entire class can benefit from witnessing and participating in another group's thought process. Rerouting this group's thinking prematurely denies every other student in the room the opportunity to think about why that particular line of reasoning doesn't hold up. Teachers might limit
a group-by-group Q&A to "one question per group," but in practice this gives students an excuse to sit around doodling cartoons on their whiteboards while they
wait for that one question to be answered. I've talked with teachers who like to plant correct ideas throughout the room in the group phase of a whiteboarding process in the hopes that this understanding will grow throughout the class as the whiteboards are presented. However, this takes for granted that such "idea planting" is effective in the first place. Surely these conceptual seeds can
be more effectively sowed through a short hands-on activity or a more targeted "auxiliary" whiteboarding problem than by teacher-driven explanations.</div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
It's
essential, however, to draw a distinction between concept-related
intervention and <i>social intervention</i> into the dynamic between
students that can make peer-instruction succeed or fail. In one class I observed, a teacher intervened to delegate responsibility when two members of a group didn't seem to be contributing to a lab activity: "Why don't <i>you</i> help "M" work on the algebraic representation and <i>you</i> help "E" with the <a href="https://quantumprogress.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/teaching-computational-thinking-part-3/" target="_blank">motion map</a>?" These students made an attempt to obey these instructions, but "M" and "E" clearly didn't want any help from them, and they eventually gave up and resumed their previous unproductive behavior. I got the impression that the students were used to having their contributions shot down, probably in quite a few more environments than this one physics class. It's unrealistic to expect ninth graders to navigate the sometimes vicious hierarchies of academic or social capability on their own, yet we often ask them to do so. An inquiry-based physics class can provide a more level playing field for these types of interactions than a locker room, but in order to generate trust and courage in students, a teacher has to act as a constantly vigilant referee.<br />
<br />
Colleen Megowan's PhD dissertation out of ASU describes four paradigms of the roles teacher play in four modeling-based courses she observed: <i>teacher as scout leader, teacher as stern but kindly parent, teacher as coach, and teacher as general contractor</i>. Here is an excerpt from her description of a ninth grade physics class (illustrating the stern but kindly parent paradigm):<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[Students] appeared to feel comfortable saying what they thought to each other and to the teacher, even to the extent of challenging the teacher’s assertions (about physics) if it conflicted with their own commonsense concepts. There was no evidence that they were afraid of ‘looking stupid’ to one another or to the teacher. They behaved as though knowledge resided in their peers as well as their teacher... However, there was very little effort invested by students who took the lead in whiteboard preparation in making sure that their disengaged group-mates could make sense of the whiteboarded information. The teacher often put these disengaged students on the spot by directing questions to them in the whole-group discussion, and when this happened, their more engaged groupmates often rescued them with whispered cues and gestures. <a href="http://modeling.asu.edu/Projects-Resources.html" target="_blank">(Megowan, 82-84)</a>*</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkDGBpOxKzWxdedAWl1HGH5MKXcB2ZtUrpvFEMKwf6SC3XBZyOKqM5wf3XxCiL4rZ9BMYtNXD489kZ8BZMWJw3LWh8b2306AmkLnQKSOta1SL0Uui1DqPrkb_9BVbF47dmnGwgnr2icao/s1600/Arizona.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkDGBpOxKzWxdedAWl1HGH5MKXcB2ZtUrpvFEMKwf6SC3XBZyOKqM5wf3XxCiL4rZ9BMYtNXD489kZ8BZMWJw3LWh8b2306AmkLnQKSOta1SL0Uui1DqPrkb_9BVbF47dmnGwgnr2icao/s200/Arizona.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
The classroom environment described here is a direct product of the teacher's "stern but kindly" interventions that have directed class discussions, whiteboarding, and hands-on work since the first day of school. As the latter half of the citation reveals, there are certainly aspects of the peer-instruction process that might still be improved upon, and the teacher's behavior suggests a very gradual, deliberate intervention intended to do exactly this.<br />
<br />
Most of all, it is clear that the students in this class are operating within an environment of mutual trust. Over a few months in this classroom, they have gained the courage to examine their own thinking, and to learn from mistakes they and other students have made. It's the challenge of each individual teacher to determine when their interventions enrich this process for students and when they detract from it, but resources for teachers (in the form of Modeling Instruction workshops, or support material for an activity or worksheet) can provide some assistance in meeting this challenge.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*Megowan's dissertation is a fascinating read! It's available from the ASU "Resources" site linked <a href="http://modeling.asu.edu/Projects-Resources.html" target="_blank">here</a>, near the bottom of the "Doctoral Dissertations and Masters Degree Theses" section.</span></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-28437146472119970782012-03-23T17:19:00.000-04:002012-06-20T12:01:04.108-04:00Khan Academy II: Discussions and "Khanversations"<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>"Khan Academy" style instructional YouTube videos could be more effective for introductory physics if they used a <i>discussion</i> model rather than a <i>lecture</i> model.</b><br />
<br />
I had a fine time last week at the WNET Channel 13 Celebration of Teaching and Learning (which consisted of about 30% substance, 20% patting teaching on the back for doing "such an amazing job," and 50% advertising), and I wanted to follow up on <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2012/03/whats-to-learn-from-khan-academy.html" target="_blank">the post I wrote about Khan Academy</a>.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnjiVjVg-rezp_8oe4U6GwqNiLF6OvlDVYBSZbiiTtouxaOwPOQLu7-UibQHLtEttbwaJLji5PzMPGKG4lSt0NYz70aYesrOdZOk5AoM7Ql_-vWOC-_Mj_6VbgYwhaTxkcwJAJhqWR8QE/s1600/photo-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnjiVjVg-rezp_8oe4U6GwqNiLF6OvlDVYBSZbiiTtouxaOwPOQLu7-UibQHLtEttbwaJLji5PzMPGKG4lSt0NYz70aYesrOdZOk5AoM7Ql_-vWOC-_Mj_6VbgYwhaTxkcwJAJhqWR8QE/s200/photo-1.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
Over the course of the day, I saw Sal Khan (the Silicon Valley superstar shown in the camera-phone screens to the left) give his standard talk, and then follow it up with an hour-long question and answer session. In general, I came away convinced that Khan's heart is in the right place, and that <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/" target="_blank">Khan Academy</a> strives to be far more than a YouTube channel. The goal of Khan Academy, he said numerous times, is to off-load a number of tasks traditionally done by teachers in order to free up the teacher's time to do more valuable things. During the Q&A, I got a chance to ask Khan essentially the questions that I posed in the last post: <i>What is the role of an explanatory video when we know that clear and concise explanations can be counterproductive to student learning?</i> His answer was basically that students should have access to whatever resources that might be helpful to them, and they're taking seriously their responsibility to measure the effectiveness of the videos to identify which ones aren't working. Here's a quote from his response:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When I think about my own learning, there are some times when I learned something through the experiential, where finally when I had to write a program when I was doing some computer graphics, trigonometry finally kicked in... But for some things, you know, especially when I was doing higher level math, it really sometimes was a friend in a coffee shop giving me a clear and concise explanation. And I was just like, "Wow, that really hit the spot. That was really much better than what was in the book, and that got me through my stumbling block."</blockquote>
<br />
I agree with what Khan is saying here, but this response reveals a slightly simplistic view of how learning works. I can't deny that clear and concise explanations from friends or teachers have gotten me through some tricky spots as well. However, I'd also suggest that hearing those explanations in clear and concise terms sometimes <i>didn't</i> actually help me as much as other approaches might have. Precisely because I was hand-fed exactly what I needed to fill in the gaps in my understanding at that moment, a few days or weeks later, those gaps sometimes returned.<br />
<br />
When I think about what Khan Academy videos might look like if they were truly out to correct student misconceptions about, say Newton's Third Law, I imagine something more like the "dispute between students" prompts you find in Lillian McDermott's <a href="http://www.phys.washington.edu/groups/peg/pbi.html" target="_blank">Physics By Inquiry</a> books (see my <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/2011/09/discussion-physics.html" target="_blank">previous post on this topic</a>). In the Khan Academy model, picture a "Khanversation" between <i>two</i> voices, in which both individuals make arguments supported by diagrams to support a claim their view is consistent with observations in the natural world. This approach would provide opportunities to bring common misconceptions out into the open and model effective argumentation for students as they practice these concepts and skills in their classroom.<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/328/5977/463.short" target="_blank">a 2010 review paper in <i>Science</i></a>, Stanford School of Ed Professor Jonathan Osborne calls attention to a great irony in many science classes - traditional science teaching fails to develop the skills of argumentation and debate that are at the heart of the way science actually operates. Not only do student-centered teaching methods help to develop these essential skills, they also facilitate learning of science concepts far more effectively. Osborne writes: "Learning is often the product of the difference between the intuitive or old models we hold and new ideas we encounter. Through a cognitive process of comparison and contrast, supported by dialogue, the individual then develops new understanding. Consequently, learning requires opportunities for students to advance claims, to justify the ideas they hold, and to be challenged." We should be teaching our students first and foremost how to navigate their way through this process, as this is a skill that will be far more relevant to them than any science concept. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">(excepting, of course, Newton's Third Law...)</span><br />
<br />
One of the most productive aspects of whiteboarding is that students are expected to formulate a verbal argument to support their answer, and present this argument to the teacher and their peers. Not only does this give a teacher instant access to their students' reasoning, but the students themselves are constantly exposed to effective and ineffective arguments. What role might other methods play in this process? I have tried to use <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxkaXNjdXNzaW9ucGh5c2ljc3xneDo3NjM1NWYyMzliMTEzY2Ew" target="_blank">handouts</a> to structure and spur dialogue between students, but I've never gone so far as to upload such a dialogue to YouTube. At first glance, however, this possibility seems intriguing.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-52236856285837150452012-03-14T13:29:00.000-04:002012-06-20T12:00:04.266-04:00What's to Learn from Khan Academy?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<b>The video lectures on Khan Academy don't address the complexities of how people actually learn. What might these videos look like if they <i>did</i>?</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">
I was lucky enough to secure a free ticket to the Channel 13 Celebration of Teaching and Learning this Friday in Manhattan. Sal Khan is giving a talk about <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/" target="_blank">Khan Academy</a>, the series of YouTube tutorials that have been touted as a revolution in education. Here's an example of Sal Khan layin' down some knowledge about Newton's Third Law: </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/NfuKfbpkIrQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
There's a healthy discussion in the physics teaching blogosphere about why these videos aren't the revolution to education that <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7401696n" target="_blank">60 Minutes</a> might lead you to believe. Physics teacher Frank Noschese makes a very strong argument on his blog in <a href="http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/khan-academy-my-final-remarks/" target="_blank">this post</a> and others (there is also a nice set of links to other blogs at the bottom of this page).</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Khan Academy lectures seem to me to be a new type of textbook for a sort of curriculum that has been around for ages. The problem is, we've seen that this curriculum just isn't effective. The idea that YouTube lectures can be useful to students isn't flawed in itself, but video resources for more effective pedagogical approaches just aren't posted on Khan Academy. Rather than bashing Khan, let's think about what types of videos might be used as part of more effective curriculum, like <a href="http://modeling.asu.edu/modeling/synopsis.html" target="_blank">Modeling Instruction</a>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Modeling isn't about lecturing, of course. It doesn't matter whether the lectures take place in a classroom or on YouTube, lecturing just doesn't work. So, what video resources <i>would</i> be effective in a Modeling course? Much of the most valuable student experiences in a Modeling course can't be replaced by videos - hands on lab work, interpreting unique data, discussions with other students, presenting a whiteboarded solution to the class. Somewhere in the midst of all this I imagine there's room for, say, example problems worked out using language and representations specific to a Modeling course, but how would you prevent such concise explanations from interfering with a student's natural struggle to build their own understanding? Perhaps, as Derek Muller suggests in this video, students might benefit from watching a conversation between students as they gradually work toward a correct understanding of a concept or problem.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/eVtCO84MDj8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
For me, the takeaway from Khan Academy is simply how easy it is for individuals to make simple instructional videos that are available to a very wide audience. There's still a ways to go in thinking about how such videos might supplement progressive pedagogy, but the method is there for the taking.</div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-50341790363679384322012-03-08T18:53:00.002-05:002012-05-24T11:59:28.340-04:00Whiteboard Everything<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b> Whiteboards should be central to any inquiry-based approach. Whether students are asked to present their solution to a problem, their interpretation of lab results, or anything else that requires them to think independently, whiteboards are an ideal tool for this process.</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">The more I observe, it seems, the more opportunities I see for effective applications of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKcjuIUxwo4" target="_blank">whiteboarding</a>. Whiteboarding is simply a highly effective way of getting students' thoughts out of their heads and into the classroom, where they can be critiqued and discussed. There are other ways of doing this, of course (simply asking students to raise their hands is one such way, <a href="http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/teaching-guides/technology/clickers/" target="_blank">"clicker" response systems</a> are another, higher-tech approach), but whiteboards have unique flexibility and versatility. When a group of students works together to prepare a whiteboard for presentation, the peer discussion that goes into this activity is the first step toward correcting individual students' misconceptions. Plus, <a href="http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/the-2-interactive-whiteboard/" target="_blank">whiteboards are extremely economical</a>!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">On a recent visit to a school teaching Physics First, students in a rather large class were asked to present their results from a lab experiment. Each student was given one or two poster-sized pieces of sticky paper, and wrote out a summary of each section of a conventional lab report (hypothesis, procedure, results, analysis, etc.), which they then stuck to the wall for the class to see. This was a challenging task, and some groups took much more time to complete it than other groups. When everyone was done, the teacher then asked each group to present their posters, in turn. The room was rather restless, and during each group's five-minute presentation students in other groups found it hard to sit still. To save time, the teacher asked latter groups to skip the parts of their report that were essentially similar to things other groups had already spoken about. When the period ended, most of the groups in the room hadn't had a chance to present their posters at all.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Imagine the same activity done with whiteboards. The whiteboard is too small to record all the information in every section of the lab report with a big, bold dry erase pen, so the activity would have to be broken down into pieces. For each section of the report, a few groups would present what they'd recorded on their whiteboards and other groups would look on. Each of these presentations would be less than a minute long, and even the most restless students would find it easier to pay attention to their peers for this short time. The teacher would have the opportunity to focus closely on the aspects of the activity that differed most from group to group (in this case, the data and analysis), and could spend more time discussing with students the significance of these differences. Since each group's presentations were only a minute long, every group in the room could be assured an opportunity to present at least once, and the threat of being called on to present again would encourage all students in the room to stay alert.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoU7mwojjkKQ4T0eBcZk2C7wx9Fdo-1Lee8PXU7gelcPYSfl9F9BGpwkk4Yl_LJN_4f4p0aGklzNeeXHcTL8mAwryr34b_NxG2Lkb1KqTfU8Q4hDteFl-ACF7IDmUSJfOFsug43XL91w/s1600/Whiteboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoU7mwojjkKQ4T0eBcZk2C7wx9Fdo-1Lee8PXU7gelcPYSfl9F9BGpwkk4Yl_LJN_4f4p0aGklzNeeXHcTL8mAwryr34b_NxG2Lkb1KqTfU8Q4hDteFl-ACF7IDmUSJfOFsug43XL91w/s200/Whiteboard.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">On another visit, I witnessed a very successful application of whiteboarding that faltered a bit when many students in the room had made a similar mistake in the free body diagrams they'd recorded (the whiteboard pictured here doesn't show this mistake...). What followed was a lengthy, lecture-style instruction about how to correct this mistake in the students' diagrams. In talking with the teacher of this class later in the day, we agreed that one might instead make up a new free body diagram problem on the spot designed to hone in on this common mistake, or perhaps even refer to a database of problems specifically designed for this purpose. Students would be asked to set their original whiteboards aside and solve the new problem for class discussion on a new whiteboard. Rather than lecturing about how to correct the common mistake, the correct solution would arise out of this group discussion.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">My Modeling workshop leader, this past summer, mentioned that whiteboarding is so entrenched in his current teaching that he wouldn't know how to teach any other way. If he was asked to teach a European history class, he would teach it using whiteboarding. I'm starting to see what he means as I begin to appreciate the power of creative </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">whiteboarding</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> in physics class!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-68587214378038909802012-02-08T17:49:00.000-05:002012-03-26T00:42:52.011-04:00Analyzing Aspects of Difficulty<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Physics teachers have a lot to gain by analyzing what factors contribute to the difficulty of the course they teach. For students, the priorities of the course are dictated by these factors, whether or not these priorities are intended by the teacher.</b><br />
<br />
Conceptual understanding of physics is an important facet of a student's physics education, but this is not the only thing we strive to teach in our classes. Aspects of student learning could be categorized as <i>conceptual</i> (e.g. applying Newton's 3rd Law to an analysis of forces), <i>mathematical</i> (solving a quadratic relationship to find the time aloft for a projectile), <i>skill-based</i> (plotting data with error bars), and <i>knowledge-based</i> (knowing that g on earth is 9.8 N/kg), and we could certainly identify other categories as well (<i>problem solving, scientific reasoning</i>). Any physics teacher makes choices to emphasize certain of these aspects over others, based on their own personal priorities and priorities dictated by others (through a standardized test or curriculum or through administrative or departmental influence). How can we use these distinctions to inform decisions about what priorities to set in our curriculum?</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
I believe that a physics course should be difficult. I also believe that we have a responsibility to our students to examine the "difficulty" of the course we teach through the lens of categories like I mentioned above. In other words, if a task or problem is difficult for our students, <i>why</i> do they find it difficult? Do the concepts being studied conflict with misconceptions? Are students being asked to use unfamiliar math techniques or analytical skills? Are they having trouble recalling or accessing necessary knowledge?</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj60W1eOk201AgJI8cMDEGJe3YlN5OHIyh-fsp_xi9Ud6kFQHxNBQRzaDlBf5SUL2y_g2YjR_v3SortaWcJl9CzCwifCoUmkQs2Y33dU_ytpDXCaFHY4jjpHYwHw9EvEoaQI97MDyN5kHE/s1600/ModAtwMach1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj60W1eOk201AgJI8cMDEGJe3YlN5OHIyh-fsp_xi9Ud6kFQHxNBQRzaDlBf5SUL2y_g2YjR_v3SortaWcJl9CzCwifCoUmkQs2Y33dU_ytpDXCaFHY4jjpHYwHw9EvEoaQI97MDyN5kHE/s1600/ModAtwMach1.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
To illustrate a distinction between conceptual and mathematical difficulty, for example, consider the diagrams to the right, depicting two varieties of the "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJmvA1oCFOY&feature=related" target="_blank">modified Atwood machine</a>." As part of a discussion of Newton's 2nd Law in a high school physics course, students might be asked to, "<i>Find the acceleration of the hanging block.</i>"</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5YtbJ4XBcL0hdwUmyzfn7zxgqyH8pmznIB3JBE0dcUfriCu0lmTcDt7UGjplArm5GK1zMWiagpeh1YiW3f6aaenH1XJ67JjzKTihYl4N2xCfhNnTMcF9pto3iksGvMXy8qqvo4p11Jlg/s1600/ModAtwMach2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5YtbJ4XBcL0hdwUmyzfn7zxgqyH8pmznIB3JBE0dcUfriCu0lmTcDt7UGjplArm5GK1zMWiagpeh1YiW3f6aaenH1XJ67JjzKTihYl4N2xCfhNnTMcF9pto3iksGvMXy8qqvo4p11Jlg/s1600/ModAtwMach2.jpg" /></a>In my experience, either of these problems would present a challenge for a ninth grade student. It's a challenge to recognize that the acceleration of the two-block system is affected by both masses, though the force of gravity on the large and small masses affects this acceleration in different ways. However, the problem on an incline would present a significantly greater challenge to an average ninth grader. Why is this second problem more difficult? Does it require a require a more sophisticated conceptual understanding, or does it simply require more knowledge of math?</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Well, I'd say it requires both*, but I'd also argue that the added difficulty of the second problem in this case is overwhelmingly due to the trigonometry involved in the solution. If we choose to include this problem in our course, it should be because we want to increase a student's familiarity with trigonometry, not because we assume that this trigonometry is inseparable from the physics concepts. Of course, a student's understanding of physics concepts is often connected to their facility with the relevant math (though <a href="http://www.physics.umd.edu/perg/papers/redish/IndiaMath.pdf" target="_blank">the connection between math and physics is less direct than we sometimes assume</a>), but we physics teachers have some degree of flexibility to include only the pieces of the "whole story" we deem to be age-appropriate. We don't shy away from discussing gravitational field in a typical algebra-based high school course simply because our students can't compute the line integral required to show that this field is conservative.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
In making choices about how to teach and what to teach in our courses, there's a lot to be gained by analyzing how the activities we include in our course develop both skills and understanding. In a Physics First course, our task is twofold (at least!): we are teaching physics <i>and</i> introducing students to high school science. In determining how best to accomplish these parallel tasks, we can continuously ask ourselves what conceptual, mathematical, skill-based, and knowledge-based aspects of physics our course is prioritizing.<br />
<br />
*To clarify, it seems to me that vector analysis of the forces on an object on an incline is mostly a conceptual (or perhaps <i>skill-based</i>) task. However, I'd argue that the added challenge of applying this analysis to a calculation of acceleration is mostly mathematical in nature.</div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-51899455646509422512012-02-08T12:40:00.003-05:002012-05-24T11:56:56.078-04:00Programming as Problem Solving<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Computer programming provides an ideal environment for young students to develop the cognitive skills required to solve a problem gradually through trial and error... and error, and error, and error.</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLyL7NZlLsHz5JFEVThREWbyI-d-ei56ysdKDrhsySjFNVl0aBAo-7wzKc1tQnr5vC73AHgbzzUEejQxr0IWOuFfOMZYXkGzLaB9dH0a3_L-Tkrn2y4exi_0UGVlcnjOUax0UJHP13L8/s1600/ProgrammingScreenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLyL7NZlLsHz5JFEVThREWbyI-d-ei56ysdKDrhsySjFNVl0aBAo-7wzKc1tQnr5vC73AHgbzzUEejQxr0IWOuFfOMZYXkGzLaB9dH0a3_L-Tkrn2y4exi_0UGVlcnjOUax0UJHP13L8/s200/ProgrammingScreenshot.jpg" width="200" /></a>At a New York City public school with a focus on science and math, I observed ninth grade students in a class called <i>Engineering,</i> devoted mostly to introductory computer programming. Students had spent much of the beginning of the year working in<a href="http://www.alice.org/" target="_blank"> Alice</a>, a simple-to-learn 3D programming environment, but had moved on to a text-based, open-source language called <a href="http://python.org/" target="_blank">Python</a>. Python is rapidly developing a huge following in both the programming and teaching worlds, in part because of its simplicity, readability, and diverse and dynamic library of resources.<br />
<br />
Many of the students in the class were working on a coding a <a href="http://www.openbookproject.net/pybiblio/practice/wilson/" target="_blank">guessing game</a> in Python, an assignment written by Tim Wilson as part of a <a href="http://openbookproject.net/pybiblio/" target="_blank">public library of Python-related materials</a>. In this game, the computer selects a random number between 1 and 100, and the user enters integers until they guess the number correctly. I've included below a few examples of observations I made while watching students make their way through this challenge:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
In developing a method of comparing a user's guess to the computer's selection, one student had written a guess test consisting of the following code:</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: orange;">if </span>guess = computernum:<br />
<span style="color: purple;">print</span> <span style="color: lime;">'You got it!'</span><br />
<br />
This student was busy running the program and trying out different numbers, but was getting increasingly frustrated that the computer just sat there silent whenever he entered an incorrect guess. </blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
Another student was trying to print the number that the computer had guessed, to make it easier to debug her guess-comparison code. Another student tried to help by suggesting that she include the code "<span style="color: orange;">print</span> computerchoice" but any time she ran the program she got an error message:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Traceback (most recent call last):</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"> File "/Users/Documents/Python/guessinggame.py", line 10, in <module></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"> print computerchoice</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">NameError: name 'computerchoice' is not defined</span><br />
<br />
Another student had successfully completed the necessary code for making and checking a guess, and he was trying to expand his code to allow for multiple user guesses, in sequence. He copies the section of his code that checks the guess and pastes it below the first "guess-checking" section, but he is puzzled when he sees the computer's emphatically repetitive response:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">What is your guess?</span>56<br />
56<br />
<span style="color: blue;">ha ha you got it wrong</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">ha ha you got it wrong</span> </blockquote>
<br />
An introductory course in programming is, above all, a course in problem solving. The world of programming plays by consistent rules, and solving problems within this environment means learning those rules. Large tasks can be broken down into discrete, testable chunks, and incremental progress is rewarded with immediate feedback. Creativity and collaboration go hand-in-hand, and successful and unsuccessful approaches are identifiable by the program they produce. Any differences of opinion on what approaches might work are best resolved by simply trying things out - as recently quoted by our nation's youngest billionaire, "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/02/01/facebook-ipo-mark-zuckerberg-hacker-way_n_1248662.html" target="_blank">Code wins arguments.</a>"<br />
<br />
We physics teachers like to paint the universe as a place that operates by a few simple relationships, but demonstrating the simplicity of these relationships can sometimes be <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4885tUSUP9E" target="_blank">a little complicated</a>. When faced with a complex problem, developing a successful solution takes a organized approach based in the assumption that a system is doing what it's doing for a reason. Rather than simply saying, "it's not working..." a successful problem solver admits "It's working... It's just not doing what I want it to do. Why is it working this way and how can I change it?" Programming is an ideal venue for practicing this skill. As each of the issues I described above were resolved, students were rewarded with a more sophisticated understanding of the "unsuccessful" program they'd written, as well as the modification that brought the program closer to completing the task at hand.<br />
<br />
Later in the course, students are exposed to a 3D graphics module called <a href="http://vpython.org/webdoc/visual/index.html" target="_blank">Visual</a>, which allows for fluid 3D programming within Python, or as it's referred to when used with this module, <a href="http://vpython.org/" target="_blank">VPython</a>. All students at this school take physics in ninth grade as well as engineering, and one of the later assignments in the course is to use VPython to program a 3D simulation of a projectile moving in two dimensions. What better way to help students arrive at an understanding of the rules nature uses to determine the position of a projectile than to ask students to code these rules themselves?<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-82676429303557086462012-02-07T18:22:00.000-05:002012-05-24T11:55:57.115-04:00The No Relationship Relationship<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Students often have a difficult time interpreting data from a graph of two variables when the relationship between these two variables doesn't exist. Teachers should approach these situations with care, and use them as an opportunity for direct discussion of what "no-relationship" means in a scientific investigation.</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVBXsUxUNOqqkzRb5wmLFuWuEHNZCv6X7Hp8FZ0BlHMzj73VxGa-fyLVPglKpYNCSHbKgjpsW4YvmLiS4orMmyODGXe-Zpu573vla2-9NLW0sZz2n9O0gEzPBbTP3PUcq9UYA170rMYDE/s1600/photo1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVBXsUxUNOqqkzRb5wmLFuWuEHNZCv6X7Hp8FZ0BlHMzj73VxGa-fyLVPglKpYNCSHbKgjpsW4YvmLiS4orMmyODGXe-Zpu573vla2-9NLW0sZz2n9O0gEzPBbTP3PUcq9UYA170rMYDE/s200/photo1.jpg" width="200" /></a>On a recent visit to a New York City public school, I saw ninth graders complete a classic pendulum lab. Students measured
the period of a pendulum at various different angles of initial displacement,
and then measured the period for various string lengths. Students then
graphed their results and posted them on the walls of the room for
everyone to see. Though not many groups looked around the room at their classmates' graphs, if they had they may have been surprised at the diversity of results! I've included a sampling of some student graphs showing their results concerning the relationship between period and amplitude.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVtV4pKknhgew3woNnFhkLn2XsI7Vm_aHs6X02FHP-Nn68jth1GcUGg0FdNnS2U7pzT14OWL_PqqEDKrprrFlkT1D6gA0gFPW2zsGQSGOVZGGQUH0q0Nz59f1JUkEpFaaA4jzBCtSQ9Ug/s1600/photo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVtV4pKknhgew3woNnFhkLn2XsI7Vm_aHs6X02FHP-Nn68jth1GcUGg0FdNnS2U7pzT14OWL_PqqEDKrprrFlkT1D6gA0gFPW2zsGQSGOVZGGQUH0q0Nz59f1JUkEpFaaA4jzBCtSQ9Ug/s200/photo2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzXZV8yH43z_RQvbGW0eR1TWDHO6LmkxCbRhkB2zXMs-I9uLKvv3yWHELyO9aqQCeOj1uzk3pBkFxjIjqN-_7K8epTD7qZ1Z4iIPf22rZ8y1WB5DGaGOGIItkkyqqQ261qu22U5Xq8Bc/s1600/photo4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzXZV8yH43z_RQvbGW0eR1TWDHO6LmkxCbRhkB2zXMs-I9uLKvv3yWHELyO9aqQCeOj1uzk3pBkFxjIjqN-_7K8epTD7qZ1Z4iIPf22rZ8y1WB5DGaGOGIItkkyqqQ261qu22U5Xq8Bc/s200/photo4.jpg" width="200" /></a>These graphs illustrate how challenging it is for students to accept the <i>no relationship</i> relationship. (Before you take me to task about the amplitude-dependence of the period of a pendulum, keep in mind that for the maximum amplitude measured here, the <a href="http://webphysics.davidson.edu/alumni/BeKinneman/pendulum/report.htm" target="_blank">actual period deviation</a> from a small-angle approximated pendulum is less than 5%...) Young people who have been graphing results in science class since elementary school are so used to seeing a trend in the relationship between two variables that they go bonkers when the relationship between those variables doesn't jump out at them.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimopfdNnUHRHdPgfCK9WbtAM-ApLjZYtqOy8OdhGWMsS3eLS-jMHArhST8gFdas2uTfvN1vpTJ1xGFmxJHJi6Ja4O8NXkN6wZJ8_4Ujc7EbXygMknkRsRgSGWwggH92cKbRKzodZk5iVM/s1600/photo3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimopfdNnUHRHdPgfCK9WbtAM-ApLjZYtqOy8OdhGWMsS3eLS-jMHArhST8gFdas2uTfvN1vpTJ1xGFmxJHJi6Ja4O8NXkN6wZJ8_4Ujc7EbXygMknkRsRgSGWwggH92cKbRKzodZk5iVM/s200/photo3.jpg" width="200" /></a>Watching students carry out this pendulum lab was fascinating. Nearly every group doing the lab expressed doubt and dismay when they noticed they were getting approximately the same value of period for every amplitude. (At least one group decided to do something about it: if they didn't get a result that was sufficiently different from the last angle they measured, they went back and did the run again.) One member of the group that made the correct graph shown on the upper right apologized that they "did the experiment wrong." The assumptions students brought with them to this lab led to quite a few discussions with the teacher about why they were so sure that their measurements were wrong, but I didn't get the impression that these conversations resulted in much self-reflection. (We could find out, of course, by asking these same students to examine the relationship between period and mass...)</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
This period-amplitude relationship was just one piece of the entire pendulum lab, and students' graphs showing the relationship between string length and period were more successful than the period-amplitude graphs I've shown here. But, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJESvTKLRFw" target="_blank">applications in torture aside</a>, it seems like pendulum's most promising role in a Physics First course is in encouraging students to examine their own role as scientists. With a little bit of restructuring to this activity, the widely varying results shown in these graphs could provide the fuel for quite a sophisticated discussion about experimental design. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-69092995772432887102012-01-30T14:34:00.001-05:002012-06-18T22:51:01.772-04:00Active Physics and Inquiry<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>An independent school in New York City provides an excellent example of a successful application of the <i>Active Physics</i> curriculum, but aspects of Modeling Instruction could have potential to make the course even more dynamic.</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a href="http://www.its-about-time.com/htmls/ap.html" target="_blank">Active Physics</a> is a project-based curriculum with a conceptual focus, designed to be used with ninth graders. Active Physics groups concepts by themes, such as "Communication,"
"Sports," or "Home," in an attempt to make the physics more relevant to students' daily life. The work done in each unit culminates in a "Chapter
Challenge," where students must apply their knowledge to solve a
real-life problem. One independent school in New York City has been using the Active Physics curriculum since 1994 as the foundation of a physics course for all ninth graders. When I visited this school, students were studying the efficiency of various methods of heating water, and were just about to begin the "Chapter Challenge" of selecting appliances to meet the basic needs of an average family, capable of being <a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/living-off-the-grid.htm" target="_blank">powered by wind-generator with an output of only 2400W</a>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
When class began, students were seated in lab groups, discussing a question from their textbook: "<a href="http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-communities/are-energy-efficient-appliances-worth-it" target="_blank">Are high-efficiency appliance worth the added cost?</a>" Students' responses reflected a common misconception - conflating the efficiency of an appliance with an assessment of its overall <i>quality</i>: "Well, yeah they're worth it... they're better." "They're more durable, work faster, and just work better in general." When students were asked to present the results of their discussion, only one group in three appreciated the more subtle implications of the concept of efficiency, stating, "A higher efficiency appliance will make up for its cost with less power used over time," but even this group was confused by the difference between the terms "power" and "energy." The stage was set for an inquiry-based activity to root out the would root out these misconceptions and lead students to a more sophisticated understanding of the concepts of energy, power, and efficiency.</div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_4ao99-tpfq7yCjOj2aEO1tONnSc5izPdR6D4ciX6v_YTIyyfiiGGRi_K_o3ohlm_xn_lbO30AqGI2vnhrhC6gvB7UPqZHDaW7xx_O1v98w_WmksEsu7RA80DWqqZphpJrOSa4eMCsA/s1600/hotplate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_4ao99-tpfq7yCjOj2aEO1tONnSc5izPdR6D4ciX6v_YTIyyfiiGGRi_K_o3ohlm_xn_lbO30AqGI2vnhrhC6gvB7UPqZHDaW7xx_O1v98w_WmksEsu7RA80DWqqZphpJrOSa4eMCsA/s200/hotplate.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
The lab activity for the day consisted of heating up a beaker of water on a hotplate. The procedure steps outlined in their textbook were summarized on a projector: "Measure: 150mL of water, initial and final temp of water, measure time appliance is on (increase temperature by 20˚C)." After a brief discussion of how to use the equipment, students got to work carrying out these steps. They made a few potentially problematic procedural choices along the way (measuring water volume with a beaker rather than a graduated cylinder, plugging in the hotplate before starting their stopwatch, resting the thermometer against the bottom of the beaker, for example), but the teacher caught most of these and gave suggestions for improvements when he felt it was necessary to do so. In class discussion, students struggled with how to use the values they'd measured to make the required calculation of efficiency, but the teacher coached them through the process (partly by referring them to a similar activity done a few days earlier with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/NORPRO-559-Immersion-Warming-Liquids/dp/B000I8VE68" target="_blank">immersion heaters</a>):</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i>Teacher: "Who remembers how we calculate the thermal energy gained by the water?"</i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i>Student: "Was that the thing that was 4.18...?"</i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i>Teacher: "Yes, we need the specific heat of water. Anything else?"</i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Over the course of the discussion, each group eventually arrived at calculations that basically agreed with one another, confirming an efficiency of about 10%.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
While watching students carry out this activity and discuss the correct method for calculating efficiency, I tried to imagine what the same basic procedure would look like using a <a href="http://www.discussionphysics.blogspot.com/p/glossary.html" target="_blank">whiteboarding</a> approach. Students might start the lab by brainstorming steps they'd take to to collect whatever data they felt were relevant to a calculation of efficiency, then writing these steps on a whiteboard and presenting them to the class for discussion. Once students had carried out these steps with their lab group, they could attempt a calculation of efficiency (again, on a whiteboard), and discuss as a class whether the calculations they'd made were relevant to the central question of the efficiency of appliances. Different groups could even use different methods of heating the water: an immersion heater, a hotplate, a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OXM4mr_i0" target="_blank">microwave...</a></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
I emailed a prominent advocate of <a href="http://www.discussionphysics.blogspot.com/p/glossary.html" target="_blank">Modeling Instruction</a> to ask about crossover between Active Physics and Modeling Instruction, and she told me that "Active Physics and Modeling Instruction don't go well together." Modeling Instruction is about developing basic models for the most fundamental interactions in physics, whereas the projects in Active Physics tend to highlight more complex applications of these concepts: efficiency of electric appliances, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YedgubRZva8" target="_blank">acoustic properties of instruments</a> (watch your ears...), <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOdboRYf1hM&feature=related" target="_blank">how to build a DC motor</a> or generator, etc. Both of these approaches have merit, and it seems to me that there's a lot to be gained in exposing students to aspects of both. That is, a whiteboarding approach might have avoided the more "cookie-cutter" aspects of this particular lab activity on heating water (and probably brought misconceptions to the forefront more effectively), and a project-based "Chapter Challenge" in a Modeling course might give students a better appreciation for how even the simplest models they develop can be applied to their daily life.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
In my observations, I've noticed a trend among teachers of Physics First: in the absence of a single universally-accepted ninth grade physics curriculum, teachers tend to pick and choose aspects of various programs that appeal to them. This dynamism is healthy and exciting, but there is something particularly thrilling about the momentum that has been building around Modeling Instruction. A lot of aspects of Modeling just <i>feel</i> like the right way to teach physics: whiteboarding, student-designed experiments, modeling phenomena with multiple representations, and it's tremendous to see the Physics First movement marching forward hand-in-hand with Modeling Instruction. Still, we'd be wise to keep in mind the potential benefits of a diversity of approaches and try to maintain some of the freedom and flexibility that characterizes so many ninth grade physics classrooms.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-5690083795856437912012-01-24T01:44:00.001-05:002012-06-18T22:52:38.856-04:00Colleague Response to a PF Inquiry on the Scarcity of PF Research<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfwnA0t-Pgvrwlf1q7TLTGvZGC51h7rpt5tfkdJZmTv3PGzfl0tuStHBhGwKWuoOioehTiALpcfNIZ1_O_CSVshqdQDp6zf_oZ_TLvuKNSHxEj41DXnnxPSedMLtquekX2qze3wZ6JjD0/s1600/yoavpacman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfwnA0t-Pgvrwlf1q7TLTGvZGC51h7rpt5tfkdJZmTv3PGzfl0tuStHBhGwKWuoOioehTiALpcfNIZ1_O_CSVshqdQDp6zf_oZ_TLvuKNSHxEj41DXnnxPSedMLtquekX2qze3wZ6JjD0/s200/yoavpacman.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
I get teased by some friends about it, but I'm a very proud member of a couple of physics teacher <i>clubs</i>. In one, around 20 or so individuals meet monthly to discuss experiences in physics teaching and share ideas. Recently, a teacher wrote to this group to inquire about teachers' experience with Physics First, and a friend in the group named Yoav Bergner wrote a response that very eloquently gets at the heart of some of the questions about its effectiveness. Yoav is a former educator, and is currently an education post-doc in the <a href="http://relate.mit.edu/" target="_blank">ReLATE program at MIT</a> (as well as a <a href="http://www.gammafive.com/">builder of fine furniture</a> and a fellow <a href="http://www.humanlearningmachine.com/" target="_blank">education blogger</a>). He gave me permission to post his response here... and to include this photo of the phenomenally beautiful <i>Ms. Pacman butcher block</i> he made as wedding gift for a friend!<br />
<br />
Now, this blog isn't usually a venue for major criticisms of Physics First (I'm such a fan of the movement after all, did you know?). Yoav's response contains a lot of different viewpoints and opinions on PF, and a few of these positions don't match my own personal opinion. But one major point that Yoav makes is hands-down irrefutable: there's just not enough research yet done to show that a PCB sequence is more effective, on average, than a traditional sequence. Anecdotal evidence shows plenty of success stories, and indeed plenty of failures as well, but hard numbers <i>for</i> or <i>against</i> are scarce. I'd add to that, though, that "more effective" can mean a lot of things: <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/p/glossary.html">FCI gains, Lawson's reasoning test gains</a>, increased enrollment in a higher-level physics course, <a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may09/vol66/num08/Assessing-Student-Affect.aspx" target="_blank">increased student affect</a> toward science, or even simply (as Yoav himself mentions below) the number of students who end up taking a physics class at least once in their lives. Teachers and researchers across the country have been responding to this need with <a href="http://home.comcast.net/%7Ephysicsfirst/site/?/page/Research%2FExperience/" target="_blank">research of their own</a> since back in 2003 when Pasero's <a href="http://lss.fnal.gov/archive/2001/pub/Pub-01-206.pdf" target="_blank">State of Physics-First Programs</a> was published, and I know personally of a few programs and schools with <a href="http://www.physicsfirstmo.org/" target="_blank">data that are just around the corner</a>.<br />
<br />
Anyway I apologize for the interjection... Yoav's words from here on out (citations below):</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i>The Physics First argument is often made unduly complex; there may not be much to it beyond the desire to increase the enrollment of high school students in physics. Neuschatz and McFarling attribute poor performance by the United States on the TIMSS to the limited reach of physics, arguing that, “our prime shortcoming is not the poor job that is done when physics is taught, but rather the fact that so few students take it, and that fewer still get beyond the basic introduction” (Neuschatz). Other defenses for inverting the traditional sequence, such as the claim that chemistry and subsequently biology build on concepts from physics, are countered by the traditionalist’s view that physics simply requires more mathematical sophistication. But math prerequisites have subsequently excluded many students from taking physics at all. Exposing “the largest number of people” to the “broadest range of physics topics” might be viewed as reason enough for teaching physics in ninth grade (Bessin).</i></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i>While there is not widespread agreement that Physics First is a good idea, there is a general consensus that if it is to be adopted at all, a ninth grade physics course should be conceptual and should not focus on mathematical problem solving. This was hinted at in Lederman’s Physics First advocacy writings, in which it is recommended that mechanics, for example, be de-emphasized (Lederman, 1998). The idea is explicit in the AAPT report, “the emphasis in a physics-first sequence should be on conceptual understanding rather than mathematical manipulation,” but the rationale is perhaps best articulated by Hobson and also Hewitt. Hobson’s point of view is that a first physics course should address societal needs for conceptual understanding of modern issues, that mathematical problem-solving is appropriate for a second course. A first course should expose students to exciting topics: quantum physics, cosmology, global warming, pseudoscience, nuclear weapons (Hobson, 2005; Hobson, 2006). He cautions that “many physics teachers resist teaching conceptual physics for all. If we insist on teaching a math-based course first, we will continue turning away both science and non-science students in droves, and it will be essentially impossible to institute physics first” (Hobson, 2003).</i><br />
<br />
<i>Hewitt is a well-known proponent of conceptual physics via his classic textbook, which has been in print since 1971 and is used in the vast majority of physics courses aimed at non scientists. In 1982, he opined, “I think most teachers feel that the conceptual and traditional can be taught simultaneously. I think not, and will exaggerate to make my point. I suggest that teaching conceptual and traditional physics together is akin to teaching children to dance during the stage of life when they'd normally be learning to walk” (Hewitt). Recently, Goodman and Etkina have hinted at a successful “mathematically rigorous physics first course,” but their claims need to be scrutinized in the context of the following: at the school under study, the physics class is designed to mimic the content and structure of the AP Physics B test as much as possible; the full course material is spread out over two years of physics (second year optional); the only assessment is performance on the AP Physics B; and only 20% of graduating seniors end up taking the test (Goodman).</i><br />
<br />
<i>The sad reality is that there are almost no real data showing measurable success or failure in the Physics First effort. Dozens of articles and letters published in The Physics Teacher make claims with barely a shred of support (for example, Dreon, Ewald, Korsunsky, Taylor); meanwhile the San Diego school system experienced a rejection of the new curriculum by some affluent districts, which were subsequently granted academic independence to return to traditional sequences (Tomsho). There is scant evidence that decades of physics education research are being applied in Physics First programs––high school teachers are not by and large documenting their progress. There is scant evidence that decades of physics education research are
being applied in Physics First programs––high school teachers are not by
and large documenting their progress. Pasero’s 2001-2003 ARISE report
on the state of Physics First programs acknowledges the following points
(quotes due to Pasero, enumeration mine):<br /><br />
1. “Teaching a math-free physics course [is] very difficult,” Pasero
observes, noting further that schools typically select one of the
following strategies to deal with math-related challenges: (a) make
algebra prerequisite, (b) offer two tracks, or (c) coordinate physics
and algebra courses. “Negative comments [from students] were almost
exclusively reserved for times when they felt the math was
overwhelming.”</i>
<i><br /><br />
2. “Students’ favorite part of physics class was labs.”</i>
<i><br /><br />
3. “This may be the most significant finding of this study:
Physics-first schools are not quantitatively documenting the degree of
their success.”</i> <br />
<br />
American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT 2006). “<a href="http://www.aapt.org/%20aboutaapt/updates/upload/physicsfirst.pdf" target="_blank">Physics First: An Informational Guide for Teachers, School Administrators, Parents, Scientists, and the Public</a>”.<br />
<div id=":1le">
<br />
American Institute of Physics. <a href="http://www.aip.org/isns/reports/2002/034.html" target="_blank">Teaching Physics First</a></div>
<br />
Bessin, B. (2007, March). “Why Physics First?” Guest Editorial, The Physics Teacher 45, 134.<br />
<br />
Dreon, O. (2006, Nov). “A Study of Physics First Curricula in Pennsylvania”, The Physics Teacher 44, 521-523.<br />
<br />
Ewald, G., Hickman, J., Hickman P, and Myers, F. (2005, May). “Physics
First: The Right-Side- Up Science Sequence,” The Physics Teacher 43,
319-320.<br />
<br />
Goodman, R. and Etkina, E. (2008, April). “<a href="http://njctl.org/docs/Squaring%20the%20Circle.pdf%20" target="_blank">Squaring the Circle: A Mathematically Rigorous Physics First</a>,” The Physics Teacher, 46,
222-227.<br />
<br />
Hewitt, P. (1983). “Millikan Lecture 1982: The missing essential––a
conceptual understanding of physics,” Am. J. Phys. 51 (4), 305-311.
<br />
<br />
Hobson, A. (2003, Dec). Letter to the Editor, The Physics Teacher 41, 508-509.<br />
<br />
Hobson, A. (2005, Nov). Letter to the Editor, The Physics Teacher 43, 485.<br />
<br />
Hobson, A. (2006). “Millikan Lecture 2006: Physics for All,” Am. J. Phys. 74 (12), 1048-1054.<br />
<br />
Korsunsky, B. and Agar, O. (2008), “Physics First? Survey First,” The Physics Teacher 46, 15-18.<br />
<br />
Lederman, L. (1998). “<a href="http://lss.fnal.gov/archive/1998/tm/TM-2051.pdf" target="_blank">ARISE: American Renaissance in Science Education</a>,” Fermilab-TM- 2051.<br />
<br />
Lederman, L. (2005), “Physics First?” Guest Editorial, The Physics Teacher 43, 6-7.
<br />
<br />
Neuschatz, M. and McFarling, M. (1999). “<a href="http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED466386" target="_blank">Maintaining Momentum: High School Physics for a New Millennium</a>,” AIP Report R-42.<br />
<br />
Pasero, S. (2003). “<a href="http://lss.fnal.gov/archive/2001/pub/Pub-01-206.pdf" target="_blank">The State of Physics-First Programs</a>”, Revised March 2003, Fermilab-Pub-01/206.<br />
<br />
Sheppard, K. and Robbins, D. (2002) "<a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003PhTea..41..420S" target="_blank">Physics was once first and was once for all</a>" The Physics Teacher 41, 420.<a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003PhTea..41..420S" target="_blank"></a><br />
<br />
Taylor, J. et al. (2005). “Curriculum Reform and Professional
Development in San Diego City Schools,” The Physics Teacher 43, 102-106.<br />
<br />
Tomsho, R. (2006, April 13). “Textbook Battle: Top High Schools Fight
New Science as Overly Simplistic”, The Wall Street Journal. </div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-65957625169976692912012-01-19T14:12:00.002-05:002012-03-26T00:12:06.668-04:00"Conservation of Momentum" in a Transition to Physics First<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Two teachers at the same school facilitate essentially the same lab activity, but with different levels of commitment to the process of inquiry.</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In a time of transition from a
traditional BCP sequence to a Physics First sequence, schools or
districts are often faced with a distinct challenge of limited personnel. A ninth
grade physics class is fundamentally different from both a ninth grade
biology class or a physics class directed toward juniors or seniors, and
very few teachers have direct experience teaching Physics First. In the
<a href="http://ehrweb.aaas.org/UNESCO/pdf/SystemicReform_Bess.pdf" target="_blank">switch to ninth grade Active Physics in the San Diego public schools</a>, for example, the transition was driven mostly from the top down, </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">with grossly inadequate professional development to prepare teachers for the task they were undertaking</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">.
Many biology teachers were simply ordered to become physics teachers,
and physics teachers who had no experience with younger students were
dropped into a project-based curriculum with little quantitative
emphasis. The program was doomed to fail from the beginning, and San
Diego switched back to BCP five years later.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Much
of the time, however, the remnants of a switch to Physics First can be
more more subtle. I visited a public school near Philadelphia that
offers a Physics First track as an </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcD_QteIKMZ-2CW5LOiUe5KSDcWlxkkWF4e_NBdrT6ayS7ixqYU861kvlxpyO3tLws5RbwYkG9K9y21USXOu6LSZddKd-WcwLDrfi-E6ffAByyHYT2R0m4yhUKyd18ZRkeXNb9i4mL7kE/s1600/PascoCarts.tiff" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcD_QteIKMZ-2CW5LOiUe5KSDcWlxkkWF4e_NBdrT6ayS7ixqYU861kvlxpyO3tLws5RbwYkG9K9y21USXOu6LSZddKd-WcwLDrfi-E6ffAByyHYT2R0m4yhUKyd18ZRkeXNb9i4mL7kE/s200/PascoCarts.tiff" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">option for high-achieving students. The majority of ninth graders take environmental science. </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">During my visit, I saw observed two sections of physics for ninth graders, </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">both based in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKcjuIUxwo4" target="_blank">Modeling Instruction</a> but taught by different teachers.</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The same basic lab activity was carried out in each class - both labs involved the use of a <a href="http://www.pasco.com/prodCatalog/ME/ME-6962_basic-pastrack-dynamics-system/" target="_blank">track with two carts</a>
with photogates mounted to measure the speed of a cart rolling toward
either end of the track - but there were important differences between
the classes.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcD_QteIKMZ-2CW5LOiUe5KSDcWlxkkWF4e_NBdrT6ayS7ixqYU861kvlxpyO3tLws5RbwYkG9K9y21USXOu6LSZddKd-WcwLDrfi-E6ffAByyHYT2R0m4yhUKyd18ZRkeXNb9i4mL7kE/s1600/PascoCarts.tiff" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At the beginning of one class, the teacher wrote a simple prompt on the board: "Objective: graph ∆P<span style="font-size: xx-small;">bluecar</span> vs. ∆P<span style="font-size: xx-small;">redcar</span>"
and showed students examples of possible interactions between the carts
(bouncing, sticking, etc.). Students set to work putting together the
apparatus, making measurements, calculating values, and eventually,
plotting these values on a set of axes.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In
the other class, the teacher gave students a worksheet on which to
record the results of three specific collisions (bouncing with both
carts moving toward each other, bouncing with one cart still, and
sticking with one cart still). After all students had completed the
required calculations for each collision, he asked students to tell him
the results of their collisions and wrote each group's result on the
board. He then told students:</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">,
"Something needs to be true about those initial and final momentums. If
you didn't get this, there will be a lot of things wrong when I correct
this lab... This is the goal for this unit." The teacher then wrote "p<span style="font-size: xx-small;">i</span> = p<span style="font-size: xx-small;">f</span>" on the board, and explained the details of conservation of momentum to his students while they sat in their seats.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Both
of these classes served as the introduction to the same
Modeling-centered unit on conservation of momentum, yet it seems to me
that only one of them held true to the <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:SSg2cC3MDg8J:www.experientiallearning.ucdavis.edu/module2/el2-60-primer.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjGh35vs2raUISRgx80JJTTq9EOXQ2qqgNI5Ddrg1a6KZYoxBwAUEtIgG8DMBR4mbBTSdyYjBuasKydCJX8ZK57X1z7M-pILv2FcjVjLj3q_UKB22fVJ4d-im6MtOzDc-C0N8wq&sig=AHIEtbTpkpsjV8z-r5hqA5s578iGD3ApRA" target="_blank">priorities of inquiry-based instruction</a>.
It's relevant that the first class was taught by a teacher whose
Modeling Instruction
training came early in his physics teaching career, while the second was
taught by a seasoned physics teacher with many years of experience
teaching AP. I learned in talking to this second teacher that the
science faculty were a major force behind the decision to choose
Modeling Instruction as a curriculum for their Physics First classes,
but (on the basis of this one brief observation) the Modeling training they both received impacted the younger
teacher more deeply than the older teacher.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At
the end of my visit, I spoke with another teacher at the school who
is teaching a "Pre-Chem" course
for lower-track students, consisting of three units of Modeling
chemistry combined with a less-quantitative introduction to five units
of Modeling physics. (This teacher is also </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a Modeling Instruction summer workshop leader.)</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> We talked about the complexities of transforming
one's own teaching style, and the role that various teachers have played in the broader transition to Modeling at this school. It's clear that a successful
transition to Physics First requires strong administrative support, but
administrative support is no help at all if the teachers themselves are
not committed to the classes they are teaching. Perhaps the successes of
the program at this school are due in part to the flexibility of
everyone involved to adapt to a wide range of teaching styles and
expectations through this transitional period.</span>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3503907480945604393.post-58104619042659994282012-01-12T10:36:00.000-05:002012-01-24T02:35:06.178-05:00Creativity and Introductory Physics<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Open-ended, "creative" assignments can be an effective way of making science relevant to students, but there are more direct ways to exercise the creativity needed to excel in the fields of science and engineering.</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFDwcs3QK1ReHjWo4_aHSwUFiWIP4tzoIm66SEy7fQZEKHPUONUHPM2au1_Uc_QlXefz-0lJm96rV8gwQIGqMnxL3NkNzY9nWhEBwm6SxhcMLxat6yVm3I5FsfpGUBlY3Ef9cIYh8m3YQ/s1600/TPTCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFDwcs3QK1ReHjWo4_aHSwUFiWIP4tzoIm66SEy7fQZEKHPUONUHPM2au1_Uc_QlXefz-0lJm96rV8gwQIGqMnxL3NkNzY9nWhEBwm6SxhcMLxat6yVm3I5FsfpGUBlY3Ef9cIYh8m3YQ/s200/TPTCover.jpg" width="200" /></a>"Creativity and Introductory Physics" is the title of an essay in the January, 2012 issue of <a href="http://tpt.aapt.org/" target="_blank"><i>The Physics Teacher</i></a> on the importance of giving physics students opportunities for creative, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_thinking" target="_blank">divergent thinking</a> (page 42 if you've got it handy). In the essay, the author, a professor at Union University in Jackson, TN, illustrates how he tries to incorporate creative assignments into his courses, in topics ranging from magnetism to wave-particle duality. The teacher offers an example of a creative assignment where students are given an option to "create an original story that is critically dependent upon the concepts of Einstein's special theory of relativity," among other options.</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
For some students, assignments like these can bring seemingly irrelevant and abstract ideas into focus. In a general interest course about the weird world of modern physics offered at <a href="http://new.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/departments/physics/index.dot" target="_blank">my alma mater</a>, the final project for the course was quite similar in nature to this one, and I knew many humanities folks who expressed relief that they could receive "quantitative proficiency" credit for writing a poem about the impossibility of faster-than-light travel! But such assignments can sometimes bear only superficial relevance to the physics being studied, and I believe there are applications for creative thinking that more directly exercise the creativity that is essential for being a good scientist. One example is the student-designed <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/p/glossary.html" target="_blank">paradigm labs</a> that form the introduction to most units in a <a href="http://discussionphysics.blogspot.com/p/glossary.html" target="_blank">Modeling Instruction</a> course. Another is the requirement of "Design Criterion" labs in the<a href="http://production-app2.ibo.org/publication/8/part/1/chapter/12" target="_blank"> IB Physics Internal Assessment</a>, where students must develop an investigation into the relationship between two variables of their choosing. (One student of mine investigated the relationship between the mass of iron filings mixed into a consistent sample of play-doh and the resistance of the dough. Another looked at the relationship between the time a spaghetti strand was left soaking in cold water and the applied force from a spring scale required to break that strand... One written example of such a project can be found <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.physics-inthinking.co.uk/plasticine/marked-report-1.htm" target="_blank">here</a>.)</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
In this short excerpt from a talk given by Sir Ken Robinson on divergent thinking and creativity, we learn that an individual score on some quantitative evaluation of divergent thinking generally declines drastically from age 3 to age 25:</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/tnOnaKHZ3_k/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tnOnaKHZ3_k&fs=1&source=uds" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" />
<embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tnOnaKHZ3_k&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
I'd love it if Robinson gave us a few more details about this test (he refers to a book called "Breakpoint and Beyond" - I'll let you know if I end up picking it up), but this little result tells us exactly what we should be fighting in our physics classes - as our students get told how things work, they learn to see fewer possibilities in the world around them, to look <i>outside</i> themselves for ideas. I can't think of a better argument for teaching physics in ninth grade! Ninth graders are enthusiastic and creative thinkers, potentially unburdened (in some environments) of the pressures of <a href="http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/2262.html" target="_blank">getting the answer right as quickly as possible so that they can move on to the next question</a>. What better time than early high school to reinforce to our students that science is something that is done with your own two hands? What better tools to accomplish this than tangible instruments like the meter stick, the stopwatch, and the spring scale? (and the force plate, and the motion detector, and the video camera...)</div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598562442485184399noreply@blogger.com1