Mo Physics Mo Problems

An ePortfolio is a chance for a student to make the argument that they have mastered all the objectives in a course.   In the climax of Oliver Stone’s film JFK, Jim Garrison sums up his entire case by providing pieces of evidence in the hope of finding Clay Shaw guilty of conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy.  Although the accuracy of many of the facts in the movie have been brought into question,  there is no doubt that the entire closing argument sequence of the film is a masterclass in editing and screenwriting.  Stone uses multiple film stocks to create the sense of cinema verite alongside of stocks that denote a subjective perspective.  If you have never seen it or haven’t seen the section in a while, seek it out.  I could probably teach an entire semester course on it. The ultimate goal of the ePortfolio in my class is to take the  place  of a traditional paper and pencil final exam.  The portfolio has a home...

After visiting the Menomonee Falls School District I came away with a better idea of what the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle looks like in the classroom.   Tony Stark did not build Iron Man in a day. (OK fanboys I should really be talking about the Mark II suit not "Iron Man")  He followed a cycle of failure and learning from that failure. This can clearly be seen in this clip from Iron Man I know I've talked about failure from success before, but that process is formalized in the PDSA cycle I saw in full effect in the Menomonee Falls School District.  My first true running of the cycle was in my last unit which covered rotational motion. This is a brief rundown of my first attempt at the cycle with my students. Plan  To make the plan process more personalized, I had students draft their own goal for the unit.  That goal was then placed in what I was calling the objective progress sheet.  It was a Google Sheet with a space of the unit goal, trackin...

In my AP classroom, I have presented my students with a conundrum.  I have created an environment where it is OK to fail because they will get an opportunity to try again.  But, many of them will be taking the AP exam for the course in order to get college credit. This is a high stakes, high pressure test.  How do I prepare them for the test but still allow them the freedom to fail on a daily basis? There are many high pressure professions in the world.  I can't imagine a greater pressure cooker, though, then active military duty.  Within that microcosm, it doesn't get any more life or death than being part of an explosive disposal team.  Katherine Bigelow's best picture winning film The Hurt Locker puts the viewer into the high stakes world of these brave soldiers.  It is important to note that Katherine Bigelow won the Academy Award for best director for her work on this film, the first woman to ever win this award. This leads me to a re...

Non-content skills are what help to separate a traditional classroom project from one in a project based classroom.   In our current unit in AP Physics, students a critiquing how well a specific project teaches rotational motion to students. They are playing the role of a science teacher to see how well the project they found teaches the concepts tied to the unit's learning objectives.  The first step of this project is attempting to build a car powered by a mousetrap.  This is a process with a high failure rate.  Students need to use non-content skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, flexibility, and adaptability to build a working product. The video below highlights how some students used critical analysis of their failures to change their designs and find success. As a teacher it is really important to let students struggle but not feel hopeless.  It's a fine line the teacher has to walk between giving useful suggestions and giving a...