GREAT analysis

Hi Jamie,

A couple of blogs came in before yours but I have to reply to yours right away. VERY impressive analysis of the situation. I really think that your focus on how much energy 1 kWh is has real potential, and I hope you'll remind me to ask you to show it to the class. I expect some of them will find the exercise informative.

"Transferring knowledge" has always been tricky. I think your students' reactions are entirely the result of your associate's practices--copying information won't work. I think that fill in the blanks has potential, perhaps particularly if you leave LOTS of blanks! I wonder if, after each sentence with blanks is complete, it would be productive to ask "OK what does that sentence really mean?"

I wonder if it's possible to do a variation on the Nonsense notes you copied in class. Write out a paragraph of notes with double spacing. Put at the top "some of this information is correct but some of it is wrong--do not study from this page until you have made all necessary corrections." Then either get them to make the corrections and explain what each error is, or simply ask them how many errors they can spot. (That's just an idea inspired by what you wrote).

I LOVE your point that for most Gr 9 students this is the last time they will ever study electricity. This unit is NOT about preparing for Grade 11 physics. It's about getting everyday questions answered and learning things about electricity that will be useful for the rest of one's life.  Things like (relatively speaking) how much energy do various appliances use, and what is the relationship between current and energy consumed. What appliances really affect your hydro bill? Your TV, your sub-woofer, your hot water heater, toaster oven, iron, cellphone charger.

Thanks for all your writing this term. It's gone a long way toward showing me the great potential you have as a classroom teacher, thanks to your love of experiential learning!

Happy New Year--see you soon--I'll try to send the file with your lesson descriptions, and I'd like to talk about it with you after you've had a chance to look at it.

Yours,
tom

One last post from practicum

It's been about a week since the end of placement, and after a few long sleeps and days spent outside in the snow, I feel like I've recuperated enough to think about school again. I didn't write a lot in my last week of placement because it was a little crazy, and it didn't feel like there was a huge amount of teaching/learning going on. It was a bit frustrating to feel like the last week of an already short placement was a bit of a write-off.

I did teach a few lessons though. I taught a lesson on power use/energy rates in my grade 9 science class. We did a game with teams guessing "how much is one kWh" for different things. ie: how long could you light a lightbulb, how long could you ride a bike, how long does it take for a windmill to produce a kWh. For each thing, the closest guess got a point. I thought this was a good way to start out, since this is the standard unit of energy measurement for household use, and it's important to have an idea of how much energy a kWh is. Then I did a note on conversions (J=>kWh, W=>kW...), and worksheets.

This seems to be my AT's standard lesson. In an attempt to avoid the pitfall of students copying from the board without taking any of it in, I wrote the note out and photocopied it for them. This didn't work out too well. One student put headphones in, and stopped listening. One asked me "do I have to read this?" as I handed her the note I had copied. The general consensus seemed to be: "I was told not to copy this down, so that means I don't need to listen." Is this unavoidable? I feel like there must be a better solution. In my experience with this class the students either copy from the board and don't take anything in, or they don't copy from the board and don't pay attention at all. My AT said that I should learn a lesson from this and have them copy notes from the board, since at least I have their attention in some form. I'd really like to try it out with my own class, because I think the tone could be set so that students pay attention even when they don't have to copy anything down. Another option is fill in the blanks notes. I'm interested in looking into that more, but I feel that it may risk the same pitfall as copying notes....students are listening so hard for the one word that fits in the blank that they don't hear anything else. I think the main conclusion I will take from this experience is that I haven't found an effective way of transferring information/knowledge to students by standing in front of the class talking and writing, no matter what method I use. If it's really important for them to receive information, I should explore other possibilities.

Teaching this physics unit has made me ask some broader questions about what I would want a grade 9 electricity unit to look like. I think it's important to start with this idea: most of these students will never do an electricity unit again, and those who will study electricity further won't do so until grade 11. I feel that that needs to be almost a central theme of this unit, and the effectiveness of anything we teach should be viewed in that light. To me, that means that things we teach can fit into a few different categories: a) Things that are really surprising/interesting/exciting and will convince students that physics is fun. b) Things that will be useful to students in everyday life, or will pique their curiosity about day to day things that relate to electricity OR c) Things that will stick with them until or come back to them in grade 11 physics, and help them succeed more in physics.

I feel that the c) category often gets too much focus, and often doesn't have the effect that it should. Many students won't continue with physics. For those who do, will mastery of equations like V=E/Q or I=Q/t do them any good? I think that sorting parts of lessons into the 3 categories above could be more effective for me than sorting them based on what curriculum expectation they fit. I'd like to say that I've covered all the expected curriculum, but only if I've done it in an effective way, and checking off specific expectations without thinking about if or how the information will actually serve students doesn't seem very effective.

More tomorrow, I hope!

You can never write too much, Jamie!  And with your writing, I almost feel like I'm there. I'll try to write more tomorrow, I'm still chasing deadlines while trying to keep up with blogs and read posters!

Impressed by not surprised that you create so many activities for students--you of all people appreciate the learning that comes with first-hand experience.

You've done the best job with the Daily Lesson Analysis--look forward to pulling them all together and seeing what you think of that approach.

I hate to say it by your account of JY makes me think of that poor lost soul in Connecticut who shut up a school on Friday. Hard to make much headway with someone like that in just 3 weeks.

More soon, I hope!
Tom

Hi Tom,

 To start with, I have a couple replies to questions/comments in your comments on my poster. First off, thanks for your compliments on my writing. I often struggle to put pen to paper/fingers to keyboard, and it's nice to have the encouragement. I find that many people who go into sciences are at least slightly of the mindset of avoiding having to write essays, just as many people in the arts are there to avoid math. I wonder if anyone in the languages is approaching those subjects from the same perspective as Knight: why is writing so intimidating for some people, and how can we get across the key concepts without overwhelming students with really technical details. It's been great practice for me writing this blog, and it's great to get into the habit of recording my thoughts on what I'm teaching. The daily lesson analysis has been great for that too.
 3 associates has been great. Any challenges have been offset by having a more balanced day. My afternoon has been prep, and then shop class (building paddles). It's so nice to get out of the classroom for half the day, and it makes me appreciate the value of having a balance in a classroom between listening time, speaking with partners/small groups, and body break/moving around time. Since there isn't much prep for the shop class, I feel like I only have to co-ordinate with two associates, and I feel that I've been balancing those classes well. I haven't loved all my lessons, but have kept Eric Finn's message in mind, and tried to focus on the value of recording what I didn't like in order to improve my teaching in the future.
One lesson that comes to mind is my physics lesson from Friday. In an effort to make my lesson on power more accessible, I tried to use an analogy of trucks dropping off boxes. The rate of trucks dropping boxes off represents the current, and the number of boxes per truck represents potential difference (so a truck is like a coulomb of charge, and a box is like a joule of energy). Then the rate of boxes being dropped off is (rate of trucks)*(boxes per truck)= rate of boxes being dropped off OR I*deltaV=P......this analogy made sense to me (and still does), but I'm not sure it was necessary, and I feel that is just confused students more. In retrospect, I'm not so sure about approaching power from that concept (P=IV). I'm thinking it might be better to just look at P=E/t, and bring in the connection to current and voltage after. I'd be interested in looking into this more. I don't feel like I had the concept of power down until I started prepping for this lesson, and I didn't find much in Knight on how to approach it.
In terms of overall class structure, there's a few things I've been doing in that class  that I wouldn't want to do in my own class (in the name of not stirring the pot too much with my AT, as well as not killing myself redesigning lessons, I've been doing things more or less how she does them).
-I hate writing notes on the board
-I feel like when I teach the concept of something like voltage, and then follow that up by handing out a worksheet on V=E/Q problems that I'm sending the wrong message. Really what students end up "learning" is how to do algebra, not physics.
-I'm not creating a collaborative learning environment. My AT really stresses individual work, even with practice worksheets, and feels that any shared work will mean that struggling students will do nothing.

Ok, again I feel like I'm writing quite a lot...one more thing. I think I've missed the last couple days of daily lesson analysis, they've been a bit hectic. I haven't managed to separate students based on their preference for sitting and note taking, or being actively involved, but I did a 2 station rotation on thursday and friday. Each day, one station involved using the laptops to find information on the internet (flights on thursday, kijiji rideshares on friday), and calculating associated costs based on this information. The other station had almost no writing or hard math skills, and was more active. On thursday I brought my bike and gear for a road trip, and had students explore it, discuss the uses of various parts, and then guess costs of all the gear. On friday students played a memory card game about CAA.
For the most part I really liked how this worked, and that we were able to use the presence of two teachers (my AT and I) to our advantage. One student, however, JY, has a lot of anxiety problems. He generally sits in the back corner, and doesn't speak at all, except in a whisper one on one. He didn't want to join either of the stations, and this structure took away his option of a "safer"space in the back corner. More hands on activities are more difficult to adapt to a student who needs to sit on his own silently. A goal for the future is to find ways to a) Give someone like JY the a way to sit on his own and work through material by himself and b) expand his comfort zone in social situations by easing him into these more social lessons.

Thanks so much for reading, and for your thoughtful replies, and the incredible amount of dedication you have to this course.

Jamie

Teacher confusion

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for all that, I hope it helped to "get it out of your system." I wonder if we would make similar conceptual errors if we were teaching a biology unit???

I'm certainly glad that you had your wits about you (as I expected). This must have been incredibly frustrating and it shows the learning trap that goes with practice teaching. We always assume the associate knows all the right answers. It would appear that your associate is playing with mumb-jumbo.

I think the line that really caught my attention was the one you flagged:
A battery can deliver 1500J of energy to 100C of charge. How much current passes through in 5 seconds and what is the voltage.
Shouldn't it be something like "if a battery does 1500J of work on 100C of charge, what is the voltage?" and then "if 100C of charge passes a point in 5 seconds, what is the current?"

In this case I think venting was both essential and productive!!

You are reminding me of what can be so dangerous about elementary teachers often having such limited understanding of math and science. (someone mentioned to me that a math class is debating whether children should use calculators while learning math).

Yes, the water analogy can be helpful, but I think it really requires showing the differences as well as the similarities--and also asking the students if the analogy helps them BUT emphasizing that it's most important to remember that they are very different phenomena--just one is much easier to observe and connect to from everyday experience.

I'm glad you are so attentive to the students' misconceptions and the things they cannot explain. it might be interesting to put the 3 batteries question on a quiz--I bet many of them won't remember the right answer, and it would be interesting to ask them to explain their answers!!

I'm very grateful that you typed so much and thought of me as you struggled (suffered?).  I look forward to discussing it in person in January!

Keep up the good work!
Tom

My first Physics Lesson / A bit of Venting

I have to start with a bit of venting. I'm feeling a bit frustrated about the science class I've been working with. My associate teacher is really friendly and encouraging, but I can't help being really critical about some of her teaching choices. I know that physics isn't her favourite unit, and she is a biology teacher. She has clearly put a lot of work into learning physics for the grade 9 and 10 classes, but after working a lot on electricity in our class this fall, and reading through the chapters in Knight, several issues jumped out at me.

I am venting some of this here because I don't feel comfortable giving it all to her as feedback. I'd really like to, but don't feel the dynamics are right, and I know that I don't have too much experience. I've shared a couple of these things with her, trying to state it in a way that is not too critical sounding.\

Here are some of the things I've noticed:

She used an analogy of speed for current. I feel that this gives the wrong idea. If you compare a circuit to a highway, current is not represented by the speed of the cars, but by the number of cars passing a certain point.

She also gave the charge of 1C = 6.25e18, but charge of one electron as 1.2e-10 (I pointed this one out to her after, I think it was just a typo in her notes)

These last 2 were in a note they were copying from the board => I hate to say it, but it came frighteningly close to a "dirty trick", except that the teacher wasn't in on it. The students dutifully copied down the note, and didn't question it at all.

On monday we did some practice reading meters. The class was divided into 3 stations, and they all ended up being really crowded. This meant that some students weren't even looking at the meters, let alone how the circuits were set up (just giving each other the answers). In my mind, the purpose of the lab was lost.

In taking up the lab, I noticed an error in the measurement of current in a parallel circuit:
____A1_________A2__________A3_____
|                    |                       |                         |
-                   L1                    L2                     L3
-                   |                        |                        |

L's lightbulbs, and A's are ammeters.
She said that: A1 = A2 +A3, since it is a parallel circuit.
Of course, since the lightbulbs are all the same resistance, the data collected from the meters backs this up, but it is not true in general. There should be an A4 at L1, giving A1=A2 + A4
The current at A3 is actually included in the current at A2.
(I hope the formatting doesnt make my circuit illegible)

In a worksheet later, the same circuit was used, but measured correctly.

(For this one, I was thinking that it doesn't really make sense to do a parallel circuit with 3 bulbs. 2 bulbs would get the same point across but in a simpler way - this would also free up some equipment, so that it might be possible to have more stations)

Today she gave out a worksheet with the following problem:
A battery can deliver 1500J of energy to 100C of charge. How much current passes through in 5 seconds and what is the voltage.

This one frustrated me so much! It doens't make any sense at all. There isn't even necessarily a circuit! Of course, I see what she is saying (if 100C pass through in 5 seconds, what is the current). One student asked me about the problem as I was circulating, so I brought it back to the teacher. She acknowledged that it was maybe not the best wording, and had students correct it, but then took up another problem with the same wording, and didn't change that one.

_____________________________________________________________
I know that venting isn't always the most productive excercise. However, I feel that if I try to give all of this as feedback, it won't be taken well. I also need to share it with someone who understants the fallacies of some of these explanations (and can maybe provide me with feedback if I've gotten anything wrong here).
Thirdly, I feel that it might be interesting for you to hear some of the misconceptions that are really out there, even among teachers. How can we effect change when it is not only the students who have misconceptions, but teachers who are reinforcing them?
(just a thought, that last one might be interesting to do as a "where and why is it wrong")
_____________________________________________________________

My lesson on Thursday - Potential Difference:

In an effort not to stir things up too much, I went with more or less what my AT had planned for this lesson. She had a worksheet with deltaV=E/Q questions on it. I started with the POE with three 1.5 volt batteries that we did in class (measuring the voltage when one is backwards). My main goal in doing this POE was just getting students to try to think critically. No one even suggested 1.5V as a possible answer, and when I suggested adding it to their guesses of 0, 3, and 4.5V, it was the one answer that no one could give an explanation for. Once we verified it, however, someone came up with a good explanation.

We then did a note on potential difference (she insisted on them copying down a note from the board). I really like the water analogy, with a waterfall turning a waterwheel (pot. diff. and a resistor), and a pump raising the water up (battery).  The difference in height in a waterfall defines the energy difference, just like there is an energy difference on either side of a resistor. Potential difference is a measurement of this energy change per coulomb. Have you found this to be an effective analogy? Is there any added confustion it might create?

The biggest problem I ran into: not a single one of the students was able to make any attempt at explaining the word energy. They looked at me like I was crazy. Couldn't really avoid a mini lesson on different forms of energy, especially since the whole worksheet was on deltaV=E/Q. I think I got the concept across alright

I've got a lot of thoughts on my lesson, but I'm worried I've already written quite a bit, and don't want to write a book. I'm putting together a lesson and lab on Resistance and deltaV=IR for next week...not really sure how to approach that, but I'll take a look through the plethora of resources we've amassed

Thanks for reading,

Jamie

Teachable Moments

Hi Jamie,

I was fascinated by your story of the red and blue shadows--and I meant to mention it when we were talking about optics, but of course it escaped me. Isn't it exciting when we can spot a relatively simple illustration of an important idea about a physics phenomenon?!

You idea of a kit of inexpensive physics equipment sounds excellent. It would be the sort of thing you can build over time, as you see things that can be put to use in illustrating physics concepts.


Thank you for telling your story POE style, I enjoyed that even as I anticipated what you might be going to say. I hope at least one or two of your friends were able to join in the delight.

Not to worry about the section reps issue--we all have many things to do, and a few will come and I'll get some ideas.

Tom

Teachable Moment in Optics

I want to start with a teachable moment that I had last night while out at a folk show at the grad club. A friend of mine, knowing that I've studied physics, asked me why the banjo player, Old Man Luedecke, had two shadow of his microphone, one red, and one blue. I explained to her that since there was one red light and one blue light shining on the stage, two different coloured shadows were formed. "I know THAT," she said, but shadows are where the light has been blocked, so how can you get a red shadow with a red light?"

I figure you'll see the answer right away, but I'll do this POE style, and keep my explanation to the end of the post.

I just read the chapter on geometrical optics in the textbook. I really enjoyed it, and am excited to see some demonstrations tomorrow. This is a unit I remember struggling with a lot in high school, though I feel that I have a better understanding of it now. I do still need some work on the concepts.

To reply to your comments on my lat blog posting, the student I am tutoring is at Bayridge, though I don't remember the name of her teacher. I am tutoring her at the school, and asked her to check with her teacher about us going up to the physics room at the end of the day and playing with some circuit equipment. I'm not sure if that will work out, partly due to the politics right now, but I'd like to find a way to incorporate some hands on stuff in my tutoring. I'm trying to start a kit of inexpensive physics equipment that I could use when I'm tutoring.









I can't remember exactly what program my tutoring student wants to get into, but she's definitely doing this course as a means to an end. That's something that I feel is often a struggle in math and higher sciences....students who aren't very interested in a topic, but feel pressure to "keep doors open." I'd like to find ways to motivate and inspire these students to learn physics, but also feel that there may be an unreasonable pressure on all students to strive towards a university degree.

Ok, back to my teachable moment....

Most of the stage is lit by both red and blue, probably giving it a bit of a purplish hue, though our eyes adjust to this, and we see the colours as more or less "normal."

The microphone is blocking light rays. In one area, the red light is blocked, while in another the blue light is blocked. The red shadow is not cast by the red light, but by the blue light. Red light still reaches the area in which the blue light is blocked, and vice versa, causing red and blue shadows.

I'm not sure everyone around me was as excited by my mid-show physics explanation!

Jamie

Tutoring, and inquiry Labs

Always a treat to read your writing, Jamie!

VERY pleased to hear about the tutoring, and that a tip from Knight's book was helpful. Yes, seeing that student's class would be interesting for you. (Do you want to tell me which school she goes to? Perhaps I know the teacher... but perhaps I shouldn't ask!)

Let me know how she does on the test. Do you know why she signed up to take physics? Are her math skills good, so that it's all about getting the physics reasoning going?

I thought Ashley did a fantastic job on Thursday, and I was pleased that some people (like you) got really into things (while others were chatting about other issues, as is often the case with a real lab in a high school--having only one equipment setup didn't help).

I agree completely--inquiry labs need to be introduced along with many other broader changes to the physics classroom, to support and be consistent with the ideas behind inquiry labs. Good thinking!

Yours,
Tom

Money, Energy, and Inquiry Based Labs

I haven't found time to write a post for a while. I had actually started one a couple of weeks ago, and then couldn't find the words for all that I wanted to say, and didn't get back to it until now. I'll start with that.

I just got back from tutoring a student in grade 11 physics. I had my first tutoring session with her yesterday, and found it a bit overwhelming. There is so much foundation that is just not there, and I wasn't sure where to start. A lot of my questions about the concept of problems she was doing were met with blank stares. I did my best, and we got through some stuff, but I wanted to really think through my approach for today.

We worked on making a system for organizing problems, and thinking through what is going on so that she isn't just memorizing equations. I felt like we mad a lot of progress, and I'm feeling a lot better about it now. I wanted to work on her understanding of the concept of energy transformation/transfer, and work, and I ended up using the analogy of money from 5 easy lessons. (energy is like money, kinetic = cash, potential = savings, work = spending/making money). It was so great seeing her suddenly be able to grasp the concept, and that was a great moment.

It's frustrating that so many students aren't getting what they need in courses like that, despite having the ability to learn. I hope to find ways as a teacher to prevent students falling through the cracks like that, even though I won't be able to spend that kind of 1 on 1 time with them.

~~~~~~ Back to the present ~~~~~~~

I've been working with that student for the past couple of weeks, and tutored her on Wednesday just before her unit test. In some ways she is making progress, but I don't think she's going to pass the test. She's about ready to give up on physics, and I don't know what to do about it. I don't think she should be writing a unit test right now - she's not ready for it, and it's just going to discourage her. It's really hard seeing all these great ideas in our class at Duncan McArthur, and learning about the effectiveness of concept based physics teaching, and then to see the effects of a teacher not doing that at all. Of course, I just know what's going on at the receiving end. It would be nice to sit in on that physics class and see what that actually looks like.

~~~

I really enjoyed our class on Thursday. It's really amazing that you can make the space for a student to bring something that they are interested in/have expertise in, and share it with the class. We are, after all, learning to be teachers. I really like the idea of inquiry based labs. I get the sense that for them to be effective, they would have to be part of a different type of learning environment. I feel that adding an inquiry based lab to a traditional physics class could be met with a lack of engagement. In a class where students aren't active learners, I would expect that it would be pretty difficult to get them to think critically/independently about the problem.


Jamie

Barely hanging on?

Hi Jamie,

I hope you got my message that I did get your poster!

I certainly look forward to reading what this week is doing for you. It's very normal for people in OEE to feel less than comfortable in a "normal classroom."  Where is the experience!!

Interesting that there are management  problems in the Gr 12 class. I would think that most taking Gr 12 math would be aiming for university. Do they all already have their 3 required math credits? How do you find their skill levels? Is the content coming back more quickly  now that you have been teaching more than when you last wrote?

I hope you are still feeling a sense of freedom with your associate. As you said, not what you expected, but as long as you are getting feedback about how you are doing each day, it's probably a nice feature. Hope you have mastered student names by now.

Sorry to be late with this. I'll be here, watching for the next update!
Yours,
Tom

First Week on Practicum

Just finished week one of practicum. I'm at Bayridge, in 3 math classes. It's an interesting mix: grade 9 applied, grade 11 workplace, and a 12U course. I like getting different experiences from each course.

I started planning and teaching lessons for the grade 12 class. I'm not sure why I'm drawn to that one in particular, it's the class with the most students, and there's some tough classroom management, especially since it's at the end of the day. I think I feel most comfortable in a higher level academic class though, since I feel that the way our education system is set up works best with those types of classes. I have been feeling really tense in the classroom, and like I'm barely hanging on. Part of that is trying to work with a smartboard, and present material that I haven't used much recently.

The 11 workplace class has been really interesting. There are only about 10 students, and we have a girl from the 12U class peer tutoring, so it's a great ratio. I'm looking forward to doing some different kinds of activities with them, and maybe applying some teaching procedures from my outdoors background.

Something that I think has been different from my expectations is the freedom my teacher is giving me to structure things the way I want. She seems very open to trying out new things, especially with the 11 workplace class, where obviously traditional teaching has not been working too well for many of those students. One of the first things she acknowledged in that class was that for those kids it is more important to work on non cognitive skills (things like expressing anger in a healthy way) that will be important to many of these students in their jobs (I think about half of them are working part time jobs right now).

I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks, even though I'm not quite convinced that the public system is the place for me.

Jamie

Karate chops and whitewater rescue

Blogs like these really remind me why I value this assignment. It gives me a real window into people's thinking, and with  your OEE background, I expect you have done a lot of writing about your OEE experiences.

Your reasons for wondering if you could survive in a physics or math classroom make a lot of sense. Interesting point about a group of 30 making discussion virtually impossible (we'll have to see how that plays out in our class of 27!).

Thank you for taking the time to list some of the Concept Test questions that kept you wondering, and I'm very pleased you took the time to go back through and see how you did. I hope that the test helps people to see several things--the potential limits of multiple-guess questions, and also how many different ways people can come up with to convince themselves that a particular answer is right.

It's very natural to be confused about the karate chop question. Force and energy are different--a force moving through a distance does work (and so the moving hand loses energy). But your line of thinking is exactly what Paul Hewitt must have been hoping for when he wrote that item, because he wants the question to help clarify that.

Thanks, Jamie!
Tom

Update on the concepts test from last week...

So I checked the answers to the 60 question physics test the other day after posting. I think I got about 18 wrong. I had starred about 10 as ones I wasn't sure about, or didn't agree with the answer we chose as a group. I think my instincts were right on about half of those. What really surprised me, though was some of the one's I got wrong that I didn't star. There were a few where I remember convincing the group of an answer I thought was obvious, but which turned out to be wrong. This has made me reflect on what I do and don't know about physics, but more importantly, how I approach something that I feel rather sure about. I think I can be fairly convincing when I am very sure I have the right answer, and this can sometimes get me into trouble. I'd like to work on slowing down a bit, and considering the viewpoints of others.

Whitewater Rescue and Physics Test

This weekend I taught a Whitewater Rescue course on the Gatineau River. I've spent a lot of time teaching on rivers, but this was my first time teaching this course. It was also an interesting opportunity to teach this course while at teacher's college. I'm trying to figure out if I could imagine myself teaching in a classroom. I think if I do, I'd like to bring some of what I enjoy about the outdoor education that I've taught. So I was thinking about what it is that I love so much about that sort of education.

Part of it is just having the chance to be outside all the time, which isn't very transferable to a physics class, though I definitely have some ideas of activities that could be run outdoors.

Another part is having a chance for activity and experience based learning. That applies very easily to paddling, and river rescue, which are by nature physical activities, but I think that one of the main obstacles is the size of classes, and ratios of students to teacher. I'd love to sit in a circle and have discussion based activities, or games to explain concepts, but that just isn't possible with a class of thirty students. I'd like to explore possibilities of having more engaging activities. I really like the setup of POE's, because they give a chance for some small group discussion/critical thinking, and really have a lot of attention grab.

Physics Test

On Monday we did a 60 question multiple choice test of physics concepts. In general, I'm not a huge fan of multiple choice questions, but I really enjoyed this test. Several of the questions generated a lot of discussion in our group. It was helpful to come up with a choice individually, and then discuss the answer, similar to the way a POE is run.
Here are some of the questions I found interesting/wasn't quite sure about the answer:
6. A karate chop delivers a force of 3000 N to a board that breaks. The force that the board exerts on the hand during this event is...

Conservation of force, and Newton's (second?) law...but some of the force goes into the board breaking, so I feel like it must be less than 3000 N. Couldn't come to a concensus

25. The "greenhouse gases" that contribute to global warming absorb
A More visible radiation
B More infrared radiation
C Visible and infrared equally
D Very little radiation

No idea for this one, though we had a lot of discussion about it. I'm not even sure if global warming is caused by absorption of radiation by GHG's or by reflection back to the surface of the Earth. I'm inclined to think the latter, and say D....curious to know more

35. The mutual induction of electric and magnetic fields can produce:
A light
B energy
C both
D neither

Not sure...

53. If the Sun collapsed to become a black hole, Planet Earth would

I really like this one! Debunks an often made assumption/exaggeration of black holes as all devouring objects. The sun isn't massive enough to form a black hole, but if it could, the change in gravitational pull on the earth would be inconsequential...I think that the distance is enough that they can be treated as point masses anyways.

56 and 57. Energy of particles released in fission and fusion....no idea. Gamma radiation is really high energy, but I can't remember much about this topic.

There's a bunch of others that interested me, but that should do for now. I'd love to get the chance to discuss a few in class.


Jamie