On Friday, I was so pleased to be able to return to one of my favorite days of the year, High-Interest Day at Brookfield Elementary School. This is a day where I have been able to bring the concepts of physics to k-5 graders. You may be asking yourself, "Elementary students doing physics?" YES! Not just experimenting, but understanding the concepts behind the physics of electricity and sound. This is a very special day I have had the opportunity to be involved in since 2017. So, how are we able to bring the concepts of electricity and sound traditionally taught to high school 11th and 12th graders to the elementary level? There are a few keys 1) make it a hands-on experience 2) remove the mathematical calculations and make it practical. In the past, I had the luck of bringing a handful of my physics students with me to guide the elementary students through the concepts that they had learned over the course of the year. But in my new role as a Teaching and Learning Speciali
At the end of my physics course, there are fundamental content understandings and science skills students need to have about the physical world. That is why they are taking physics. In addition, though, I want them to have a better understanding of who they are as learners. As a part of my journey towards making learning more personal, I am trying to recognize that students have different preferred learning environments. I want students to be able to explore different modes of learning and learn about how they learn. To that end, I have had students work on creating a personal learning preference document. As I try to implement more project based learning into my classroom, I realized that having my students create and share a personal learning profile may be the most beneficial and authentic project for them. Let me try to frame it in terms of the essential design elements of PBL: Challenging Problem or Question The driving question for this project could