Day 76: Projectile Practical, Pie Charts, & Whiteboarding

January 10, 2018 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

AP Physics: Projectile Practical

Students did a lab practical to predict where a horizontal projectile will hit the ground. Once they succeeded, I asked them to predict where a lighter marble would land without any new measurements aside from mass. Some groups had an easier time than others explaining their prediction, so I need to keep embedding these opportunities in labs and holding students accountable for thorough explanations.

Retired referral forms work well as carbon paper

Physics: Pie Charts

Students worked on sketching energy pie charts. I added defining the system today; during forces, we almost always ended up with systems that had a single object, so a few students were bothered by including multiple objects. I also worked very hard to avoid telling students whether they were right or wrong, which drove a few of them nuts, but pushed them to justify their answers to their groups.

Chemistry Essentials: Whiteboarding

Groups whiteboarded yesterday’s problems. I decided to have all groups whiteboard the same problem without any intentional mistakes, then have a consensus-building discussion for each problem. Students were pretty engaged; a lot of students who checked out yesterday felt like they had some extra accountability, which in turn pushed them to ask more questions and have some good discussions.

chem wb.jpg

Day 75: Projectile Whiteboarding, Pie Charts, & Gas Laws

January 9, 2018January 10, 2018 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

AP Physics: Projectile Whiteboarding

Around half of my students were on a field trip today. We did some mistakes whiteboarding with the problems from yesterday, followed by some practice writing good explanations for “explain your reasoning” problems using CER.

Physics: Pie Charts

A lot of Physics students were also on the field trip, so my classes were pretty thin. After discussing yesterdays’ lab and introducing the “flavors” of energy, students worked on drawing energy pie charts. I usually skip this representation, but we decided to see if it helps with the struggles students have had this year with conceptual understanding.

Chemistry Essentials: Gas Laws

We went over the results of yesterdays’ simulation to derive the gas laws. Just like last trimester, I’m introducing them as proportions, rather than equations, and am pleased with how that’s working so far. I skipped spending a day on temperature and particle movement this tri, but I ended up missing that a lot today.

Day 74: Projectiles, Energy Transfer, & Quantitative Gas Laws

January 8, 2018 / Marta R. Stoeckel / 1 Comment

AP Physics: Projectiles

Students worked on some problems for projectile motion. I overheard a lot of students talking about the labs and demos from last week (which Brian Frank’s post on labs had me listening for!). They could use some more practice justifying answers with physics principles, along with lab results, but that will come.

Physics: Energy Transfer

I used a lab I got from Twitter (I wish I could remember who; if its you, I’m happy to give you credit!). To introduce energy, I had students measure the force and displacement required to pull a cart up ramps with different angles. Then, they sketched force vs. displacement graphs and found the areas.

Chemistry Essentials: Quantitative Gas Laws

Students used PhET’s Gas Properties simulation to get quantitative relationships between temperature and pressure as well as volume and pressure. There were a lot of great observations about the movement of the particles and one student even pointed out the temperature skyrockets when you add gravity, which should feed nicely into tomorrows discussion.

Day 73: Multiple Choice, Forces, & Gas Laws

January 5, 2018 / Marta R. Stoeckel / 1 Comment

AP Physics: Multiple Choice

After a quiz on projectile motion graphs, we spent some time using Plickers to practice multiple choice on energy and projectiles. One of my classes pretty openly started guessing, rather than thinking about the problems, so I think we may be doing multiple choice a little too regularly. I may start either alternating each week between relevant multiple choice and free response or just use quiz days for explicit AP practice less often.

Physics: Forces

Before today’s quiz, students whiteboarded their diagrams for the problems earlier this week. Pretty consistently at this point, the students who take the time to get their diagrams right do fine on the calculations, which is not surprising. Getting students to put units in their work is still a challenge, but I saw a lot more confidence from my students today than I have in a while.

forces wb.jpg

Chemistry Essentials: Gas Laws

Before today’s quiz, we did a quick debrief of yesterday’s lab on the gas laws. Since the ice water didn’t work well yesterday, I tried putting them outside (the air temperature was -10 degrees F today!), but still didn’t see much change, so I think the syringes I have just don’t seal well enough. We’ll finish the post-lab discussion on Monday.

Maker:S,Date:2017-10-21,Ver:6,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar02,E-ve

Day 72: Projectiles, Forces Practical, & Qualitative Gas Laws

January 4, 2018January 4, 2018 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

AP Physics: Projectiles

We worked through some problems I got from Michael Lerner where students apply other models from this year so far to an object dropped straight down and I was pleased with the connections students were making. I also asked students to predict what should happen to the time if the object were heavier and if it were launched horizontally, and got some great discussion. We wrapped up by trying each and checking the results with slow-motion video.

Physics: Forces Practical

Students wrapped up the forces practical from yesterday. I scaffolded the practical more than usual by breaking it into small steps, asking students for each representation and several calculations along the way. Several students commented that was very helpful when they took another look at the problems from earlier this week.

Chemistry Essentials: Qualitative Gas Laws

I got out the syringes for students to make some qualitative observations about the ideal gas laws. The ice water baths didn’t produce much change for the groups I was able to talk to today. With this class, I’m spending more time redirecting students or dealing with groups damaging lab equipment than I am talking to students about chemistry, so I need to think about how to shift that. There is a para who is going to work on helping to keep students on task. I also need to remember the instructional coaches have offered to help manage things on lab days.

Classroom Display

Earlier this week, I put up a “Scientists can be…” display inspired by Liz Mastalio. Its been a lot of fun listening to students react to it; some are looking for which ones they don’t know while others are clearly drawn to specific identities. My AP students have been telling me who they’d like to see up there, so I want to open the door for them to submit a poster with a label. That could help me get some identities I missed that matter to my students.

Day 71: Board Meeting, Practical, & Density Again

January 4, 2018January 4, 2018 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

AP Physics: Board Meeting

Students whiteboarded their graphs from yesterday’s video. Once I had my 2nd hour find a class average for the slopes of their vertical velocity vs. time graphs, everything fell beautifully into place and there were even gasps when one student sketched a free-body diagram. In my other hour, a lot of groups skipped the directions for making the v-t graph and tried to take shortcuts that didn’t work, so I had to step in a little more. This reinforces my thoughts yesterday that I should have spent some time discussing the midpoint method.

pm graphs.jpg

Physics: Unbalanced Forces Practical

Students started a practical to predict the time it will take a cart to roll down a ramp given the cart’s mass and the ramp angle. For the first time, I had several students ask if I could just do a diagram or calculation for them, so I left the pen I usually carry at my desk and kept my hands in my pockets to avoid encouraging that.

ramp prac.jpg

Chemistry Essentials: Density Misconceptions

Today, I have students blocks of the same material, but different volume, and asked them to determine whether volume affects density. A lot of groups had trouble funding the volume with a ruler, rather than later displacement, so I should have spent a little more time on a pre-lab discussion connecting yesterday’s volume measurements to today’s.

density (1).jpg

Day 70: Projectiles, Forces Reintroduction, & Density

January 2, 2018 / Marta R. Stoeckel / 1 Comment

AP Physics: Projectiles

Students did an activity on Pivot Interactives to watch the motion of a projectile from three different vantage points and produce position vs. time and velocity vs. time graphs. From what I saw, most groups got pretty good results. This was the first time students saw the midpoint method for finding slope of a curve, and I think I should have spent a little more time introducing that. We can have some discussion about it tomorrow.

Physics: Forces Reintroduction

Especially because a lot of students really struggled with the forces assessment right before break, we started this week getting back into the swing with some problems similar to what we worked on right before break. Before break, I was also seeing more and more students getting off-task during time with their groups, so I spent some time sharing my observations and having some discussion about how that fits with what it takes to be successful in a class like this.

Chemistry Essentials: Does shape affect density?

I had students determine whether the shape of a block affects its density using a set of aluminum blocks with different shapes, but the same volume. Last tri, I’d asked students to predict the shape of the mass vs. volume graph, but it was tricky to collect class data and the graph was kind of boring since I didn’t have much variety of volumes. This approach got the same misconceptions out on the table, but gave more meaningful results.

Day 69: Quizzes Galore

December 21, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

Today is the last day before winter break.

AP Physics & Physics: Quiz & Mystery Tubes

AP quizzed over conservation of energy while regular quizzed on Newton’s Laws in 2D. Afterward, I got out the Mystery Tubes rather than starting a new topic. Students were a little fried since they had tests in just about every class, so I think they appreciated the chance to do something low-stakes after their quiz. My students were definitely loopier than usual, and that lead to some creative models of what’s inside the tubes. Next year, it might be worth putting a lab practical on this day instead of a typical quiz.

This bug’s name is Todd. He lives inside the tube and moves the ropes.

Chemistry Essentials: Mistakes Game & Quiz

There was only time for one group to present their board yesterday, so we continued the mistakes game today before students took a short quiz on density. The mistakes game was fairly chaotic, but there were also some really good questions. I need to put in some more time working on norms for discussion, but I’m hopeful they will be able to have some good whiteboard discussions.

Day 67: Video Analysis, Speed Dating, & Density

December 19, 2017December 19, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

AP Physics: Video Analysis

Students continued working to determine whether a bouncy ball dissipates most of its energy from impact or from air resistance (I’ll have an article about this activity in the January issue of The Science Teacher). Today, students used LoggerPro to analyze the videos they made yesterday and collect evidence. There were a lot of great conversations about connections between energy and motion, which is exactly what I’m after with this activity. Most students had a draft of a CER about where the energy was dissipated by the time they left class.

Position vs. Time Graph

Velocity vs. Time Graph

Physics: Speed Dating

As part of my effort to focus on lowering the social stakes in my class, I had students do some whiteboard speed dating to go over yesterday’s goal-less problems. There were a lot of great conversations; the best part was how many students I heard asking “How do you know?”. My 1st hour in particular did a great job of finding and correcting mistakes in each others’ work. I also am continuing to talk about my pedagogical choices more than usual, which seems to be helping students go along with what I’m asking and hold each other accountable for participating. Particularly in my 1st

The units got fixed on the next rotation, but I forgot to snap a new photo

Chemistry Essentials: Density

We discussed the results of yesterday’s lab to get to a definition of density. I skipped doing a true board meeting because, with break looming, I was worried about time, but students didn’t have as solid a mental model of density as I would have liked when they were working on the worksheet. It was a good reminder that pedagogical shortcuts have their cost.

Day 66: Missing Energy, Goal-Less Problems, & Mass vs. Volume

December 18, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / 1 Comment

AP Physics: Missing Energy

Students started working on an activity to determine whether a bouncy ball mostly dissipates energy due to air resistance or due to the impact with a table (I’ll have an article on this activity in the January issue of The Science Teacher). Today, students worked on sketching LOL diagrams and velocity vs. time graphs for each explanation, which lead to some good conversations about the connections between energy and motion. Each group also recorded a video of a bouncy ball that they’ll analyze in LoggerPro tomorrow.

Putting textbooks to good use

In-progress WB

Physics: Goal-Less Problems

Students worked on some goal-less problems for Newton’s 2nd Law in two dimensions. I was very explicit with my students that I use them to make it okay to start a problem without knowing where you are going. We also spent some time discussing key steps students should take (like deciding whether the forces are balanced or unbalanced, drawing and annotating diagrams, etc) which helped a lot of students see where to start.

Chemistry Essentials: Mass vs. Volume

Students worked on finding a relationship between the volume of water and its mass. I had students design their own procedure for the lab and I think they could have used more pre-lab discussion; I usually keep the pre-lab pretty short in favor of doing a lot of coaching lab groups, but the class is bigger than usual this year and I was spread pretty thin, which in turn fed some classroom management issues. I’ll need to keep that in mind for future labs.