Mo Physics Mo Problems

I was listening to the IMMOOC week 1 podcast on the way into work and was struck by something George Couros & Katie Martin were discussing. It was in relation to the peer review process for Katie’s new book Learner Centered Innovation . They were discussing the idea of feedback as a key during the creation of the book. Since the book is a physical published product, critical feedback after the fact would not be useful to the creation process. But critical feedback along the way, was essential to produce a quality final product. That led me to think about all of those end of course surveys I have taken and used to administer. They are being given after the fact. How does this information help inform the process during the learning process? Simply put, it doesn’t.  The feedback is too late to affect the intended audience. When, George brings up the idea of timely feedback, we need to take it to heart. But, we also need to be aware of the type of feedback we are ...

When I prepare a lecture (yes there is still a place for it in my classroom), it is often filled with questions for my students to answer. Most of these questions I already know the answer to. I cast myself in the role of expert. But what happens when learners don’t care about the questions I am asking them? When they are given the space to ask the questions that they are curious about, will I still be the expert in the room? These are the questions that used to worry me. If I’m not the expert with the answers, what will happen? Over time I have learned that there is no way I could know the answer to every question a student has about physics. I’ve learned to be ok with not being the only expert in the room. We have a vast world of resources at our fingertips. So, while I may not know the answer to every physics question, my learners and I can work together to vet resources and we can co-design provide the experiences that will help them make sense of some of the more comp...

"Innovation Ecosystem: the culture, values, vision, and policies that influence the learning context and the development of desired knowledge, skills, and mindsets." Martin, Katie. Learner-Centered Innovation: Spark Curiosity, Ignite Passion, and Unleash Genius (Kindle Locations 820-821). IMPress, LP. Kindle Edition. An ecosystem is a combination of many factors that create it but also the many pressure that drive change within it. Those pressure can come from students, peers, and administration. Have you ever heard distant rumblings about what’s going on in your classroom and how others (at any level) may not think it’s not the way it should be done? How does these distant rumblings affect you? I can think of a few situations in which this has happened to me. But, I’d like to focus on one specifically. When I first started teaching physics, I had been teaching our lower general science course for a few years. It was a course with a significant number of students w...

As educators, we face change every day.  That change comes from many different sources outside and inside of our classrooms. In the first chapter of Learner Centered Innovation , Katie Martin asks a simple question: In the face of change, there are two ways to react: The primal response: How can I maintain the status quo and protect myself from risk or failure? The evolutionary response: How can I learn from my surroundings and adapt to improve? What do I need to stop doing? What might I start doing? Martin, Katie. Learner-Centered Innovation: Spark Curiosity, Ignite Passion, and Unleash Genius (Kindle Locations 602-605). IMPress, LP. Kindle Edition. When asking myself how I face change, my response is dependent on the type of change I encounter. I am open to change in my classroom. I embrace it fully and head on. When asked by my district in 2013  to give learners more ownership over their learning in the classroom, I couldn’t wait to make learning more per...

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We just had our 3rd ever Personal Project Expo night. It’s a night where students share passion projects that they have been working on throughout our physics course to parents and peers. With each round of the passion project we complete, the more I see it as a great opportunity for learners to bring their passions into the classroom. One of the major reservations I see expressed about these projects into their classrooms is time. With all the standards that need to be addressed inside of the classroom, how is there time to do this work? I would argue that there are many standards that a well constructed project would address. One component of any of the project is research. This is hits many standards that I would usually never address due to “more important things” in my classroom. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.7 Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as wel...

We do not live in a vacuum. All of our actions have an effect. We may not realize it but, when we take action, there is always a reaction.  I’m not talking about something as distant and abstract as the butterfly effect. I’m talking about the direct reaction to every one of our actions. In the study of physics, this is explained in Newton’s Third Law of Motion. Newton’s Third Law of Motion states: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In my classroom, I expand on this just a bit more to clarify it: For every action force, there is an equal (in size) but opposite (in direction) reaction force. One of the greatest misconceptions my students have is what happens when two things push or pull on each other.  Think about this situation The correct answer is... The confusion come into thinking that force and motion are the same thing. This ties back into the second law.  Which says that if forces are equal, an object wit...