AP Physics: Group Roles
I assigned students to groups for the day, rather than letting them choose their usual groups, to get them talking to some new people. To help with that, I randomly assigned them to roles I borrowed from the University of Minnesota’s Physics Education Research group. We also talked a little about some of the ways race and gender affect group dynamics, and how group roles can be a way to combat that. In their groups, students whiteboarded their solution to yesterday’s Equation Jeopardy problem, which lead to some great discussions about the physical meaning of terms in the equation. Afterwards, I tasked each group with finding at least two different solutions to the XKCD substitute problem. A few students grumbled that finding two solutions meant they had to try something besides their preferred approach, but also realized that was probably the point 🙂
Earth Science: Relative Humidity
Students used hygrometers to measure the relative humidity of the classroom, then spent some time looking for patterns in the chart used for reading a hygrometer to look for patterns. Once they were looking for those patterns, my students were more off-task than usual. I think part of the problem is they were having more trouble than I expected interpreting the chart, but I also think I need to revisit expectations for when students are in the lab.
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