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Showing posts with the label Lesson Design

Less Physics Mo Problems

Why am I writing this personal entry? Well, it is not an attempt to gain any sympathy. It attempts to show what is possible if a clear intention and goal serve the learner's needs.  In May of 2022 just near the end of another fantastic school year, I do not remember what happened. But, I was unable to finish the school year and was unable to teach the following year.  Why? On May 21st, 2022, I fell down a flight of 16 stairs (luckily carpeted) from the 2nd to 1st story of our home.  I was found at the bottom of the stairs. I was found foaming at the mouth. This would lead to a 2-month hospital stay which included an induced coma because my seizures would not stop, several rounds of lumbar punctures, and relearning basic physical movements like something as simple as being able to roll in the hospital bed. Simply put, when I was admitted to the hospital, I was diagnosed as being “critically ill.” Please take a moment and read those words: critically ill. They are not terms that are

Keys to Great Learning

Every teacher has that activity that they look forward to. The activity they know will not simply get students engaged in what’s going on but take risks in their learning. Some teachers have more than one activity. But if you think of the one experience that is really out of the norm, you can usually pinpoint it. This activity for our physics class is marble coasters. It’s the type of activity that disrupts my whole classroom space. It causes students from other classes to peek in as they walk by and wonder what is going on. It causes my AP Physics students to be jealous of my Physics students. In marble coaster construction, students use pipe insulation and other materials to construct a rollercoaster for a marble that must have a minimum number of required obstacles. The 2 major requirements are the number of obstacles and that the marble travel the track successfully. What is interesting is that with minimal instruction, students are in groups and off and running. There are m

The Fast & The FabLaburios

I’ve got a brief reprieve tonight to write this post so I’m taking advantage of it. Otherwise, it won’t happen until 2019. In our physics classroom, one of the goals is to have students use maker projects to practice the design and engineering process. Some of these projects have included LittleBits powered cars and boats. Most of these projects have been created using materials students brought in by students like plastic cups, CDs, popsicle sticks, and the like. So the ultimate construction process tended to be fairly imprecise. This year our school has a new Fabrication Lab with a variety of different tools which students can use to create. These included (but are not limited to) 3D printers, laser cutter, video production room, and lots of CNC tools for use on woods, plastics, and metals. There are so many possibilities in this space. As this is a new space, our Tech Ed department was looking for classes to be guinea pigs in the space. So, my co-teacher Andelee Espin