Mo Physics Mo Problems

We are reaching the end of the 3rd term of the 2018-19 school year. During the 4th term, my students will begin work on their passion projects. As I look forward and attempt to iterate the process for the end of the school year, I’m looking to Kasey Bell’s 20 tech tips for teachers to help me improve the process. If you are unfamiliar with Kasey’s 20 tech tips for teachers,   I would highly recommend checking out her speaking about them on the first episode of here new podcast The Shake Up Learning Show.     The 20 tips are highlighted in the infographic below. As I looked to the tips to drive changes to the process, 3 different ones jumped out at me. Don’t integrate too many tools at once When starting out the project, there are so many different things I want students to do as part of the process. These steps include brainstorming ideas, refining their idea, creating a pitch video, doing research and summarize their research, create a task list with due date, create a projec

A common reason I hear for why teachers don’t incorporate passion projects into their classroom usually has to do with not having the time. Yes, teachers have standards to cover. But, passion projects can easily be aligned with course standards. These projects can be a vehicle for allowing learners to see how performance standards apply to their lives outside of that specific course. So, there is power when the projects can actually be used by learners to explore a path that not every student takes. The projects will help make these standards more relevant. This is the 4th year my students have been asked to complete a term project. Andelee Espinosa (my co-teacher of 10 years!) and I developed a physics-based passion project after attending PBL World in 2015. We asked students to analyze the physics of a sport they had a passionate for. They were required to apply at least 3 specific physics concepts to their sport. Eventually, they created a product to share out. But, the product

This week my physics students held our 4th Passion Project Expo. Since we’re on a block schedule we end up holding it twice a year. Students were given the option of following 4 different paths: Experimentation, Learning a new skill, Making something, or Deep research. Here are a few of the projects and products students completed. Experimentation   Learning a new skill Making Something     Check out c-ledge.co Deep Research It was a great way to end the year!