AP Physics 1: Mistakes Whiteboarding

Students did mistakes whiteboarding, where groups include intentional mistakes in their solution, then the rest of the class asks questions to try to understand the mistake. I had a lot of groups pick mistakes they’d made working on the problems, which is perfect. In my big class, some students started turning to talk to their peers, which I let go at first since there were good conversations, but it quickly got hard to follow the main conversation and it was hard to shut the side conversations down once I let them start. Next time, I might try having some designated times for talking to a peer vs. talking as a whole class.

Physics: Buggy Lab

Students collected data for the buggy lab. I’ve found students are often very resistant to adjusting their procedure once they have any data written down, even if its only one point, so on the lab template we’re using, I have a step for students to test their procedure without recording any data. This time did exactly what I wanted today and I saw a lot of groups trying multiple approaches before settling on their steps.

Chemistry Essentials: Does Gas Have Mass?

Students dropped Alka Seltzer into water, then measured the change in mass with and without a balloon on the test tube. This year, even though I had an approach in mind, we had some pre-lab discussion about possible strategies, and students had some neat ideas. There were a few things students came up with that provided a nice seque into this lab.