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
I am starting a new graduate course this week on multimedia in the classroom. Our first unit is dealing with design principles for multimedia. As students are allowed to express their understanding in new ways, multimedia products have increased exponentially. As a teacher of content, it's easy to overlook the importance of implementing design principles. But, this is just another form of literacy. In fact, multimedia literacy is becoming more relevant as access to multimedia tools increases. In this first unit, I was able to familiarize myself with the following design principles: As students, we were given a wide variety of ways to access this information, including videos. This meant that I could choose the method that was easiest for me to comprehend. And, I could compare information for multiple sources to get a different explanations of the same information. I need to start doing more of this. Just because a source explains "A" best for me doesn