Mo Physics Mo Problems

I have been slowly trying to implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) into my classroom. Our new Wisconsin State Science Standards were designed with the NGSS in mind. They align very well. So please forgive me if my language focuses on the NGSS in this post. In a previous post I discussed tools for dealing with models in science class. This post will focus on Planning and Carrying Out Investigations. As the name indicates, there are two major components to this practice 1) planning investigations 2) conducting investigations. Before looking closer at each aspect, we need to look at the purpose of investigations in science and engineering. To quote the practice according to Appendix F of the Next Generation Science Standards: Scientific investigations may be undertaken to describe a phenomenon, or to test a theory or model for how the world works. The purpose of engineering investigations might be to find out how to fix or improve the functioning of a technological sy...

Over the past year, I have been gradually working to implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) into my classroom. Our new Wisconsin State Science Standards were designed with the NGSS in mind. They align very well, so please forgive me if my language focuses on the NGSS in this post. As I design lessons aligned the standards, I am considering to the skills students will be implementing that carry across multiple units. This relates to the Science and Engineering Practices contained in the standards . I am looking at the technology tools that can be used to leverage these practices. While there are 8 different practices and I hope to delve into each one and the technology tools that can help learners in each, this post will only focus on one practice. That practice is Developing and Using Models . As the name indicates, there are two major components to this practice 1) developing models 2) using models. Before looking closer at each one, we need to look at how a model...

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...

Please don’t shy away from this post as only for science teachers. I would love to hear from others using playlists or thinking about using playlists for feedback and insight. Storyline As summer is winding down, I’m looking to wrap up my big task this summer which was to align my curriculum to new science standards. Starting big picture was creating a rich driving question or anchoring experience (called anchor phenomenon in the science world) which we could use to craft a driving question for our unit. This question requires multiple steps to reach a complete solution or explanation. Each of these steps of the ultimate solution is framed as a smaller question that needs to be answered. By answering these smaller questions, we collect the pieces to the driving question. The process of collecting these pieces and joining them together is not simply referred to as a unit of instruction. We call it a storyline because these pieces build on each other. They are connected. In units o...

My spring break is filled with little jobs I like to accomplish. One of those jobs is switching over the garage from winter to summer. See in Wisconsin, we truly have 4 seasons. Every year there is around a 100 degree difference between our coldest winter weather to our warmest summer weather. We get feet of snow in the winter and dew points above 70 in the summer. Every spring break, I am excited for the great garage switch over. The snowblower gets packed up and put in the back and the lawn mower gets pulled out an put in the front. The problem is though, the grass is never ready to be mowed over spring break and many times we haven’t seen the last of the snow for the year. This year we got several inches of snow shortly after the break so I had to undo my work just to get the snowblower out. Yet, I still find myself sticking to this yearly plan despite the fact that the weather doesn’t comply with my plan. A few years ago during a technology refresher for our school gradebo...

Thirty nine states in the US have either adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or have used them as a guide for developing their own newly adopted standards . I am very pleased to see this movement as it represents a paradigm shift of what learning should look like in the classroom. As I look to align my classroom to the adopted Wisconsin State Standards (which have a great fidelity with NGSS which is why I’ll be referring to NGSS in this post), I’d like to use this post to give a brief overview of how these standards are unique and the difficulty in implementing them with true fidelity.   Three Different Dimensions Unlike a traditional list of science standards, the NGSS have been divided into 3 different categories or dimensions. These three dimensions are Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), and Crosscutting Concepts (CCs). I hope I haven’t just lost you. Let me walk through what each of these three dimensions entail...