Instructional Strategies

Day 10: Force of Gravity, Lab Practical, & Volume

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AP Physics: Force of Gravity

Students collected data to plot the force of gravity on an object vs. its mass. I had different groups use spring scales with two different ranges. Tomorrow, I’ll use the different levels of precision to motivate a discussion of uncertainty. Groups with the 50 N spring scale have already noticed that the smallest hanging masses don’t noticeably change the scale’s reading, which is exactly the kind of observation I was hoping for.

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Physics: Lab Practical

Students revisited the dowel lab, this time as a group assessment. Their results on the original lab weren’t as good as I was hoping, but they are looking much better now that students have had an opportunity to discuss the flaws in their original approach.

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Chemistry Essentials: Volume

Students found the volume of several different shapes, then measured how much water was needed to fill each one. Some groups got beautiful results, but other groups struggled. I think the groups that struggled had trouble matching up their measurements to the formulas on the cheat sheet I gave them or the Google calculators I showed them. A lot of students also also had trouble measuring the amount of water they put into the shape. The groups that struggled with these measurements were also the groups that were the least focused, but I’m not quite sure which issue is the chicken and which is the egg.

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Day 9: More F-t Graphs & Board Meetings

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AP Physics: More F-t Graphs

We discussed some of yesterday’s problems. To help with a few of the conceptual problems, we got out the force plate and had someone jump, once with their knees stiff and once bending their knees as they landed. Looking back, I wish I’d started this week’s impulse lab more qualitatively to set them up for some similar realizations to the ones we had today.

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Physics: Board Meeting

We had a board meeting for this week’s ramp lab. I struggled a bit with what I wanted students to have as their takeaway since we are still on an introductory unit, and the discussion suffered a bit as a result. The other physics teacher had his students focus on a qualitative relationship between ramp angle and slope, and was happy with how things went, so I need to do a better job of identifying opportunities like that if I do a similar intro unit next year. On Monday, however, we are on to actual physics!

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Chemistry Essentials: Board Meeting

Students whiteboarded their particle diagrams for yesterday’s lab, along with a CER for whether a gas has any mass based on this lab. They did a nice job on preparing the whiteboards, but the class discussion was tough; a lot of students had trouble staying focused on the conversation at the end of the day on a Friday. I usually keep my class norms pretty broad, but I think it would be worth having the class develop some more specific norms for class discussions.

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Day 8: Board Meeting, Ramps, & Mass of a Gas

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AP Physics: Board Meeting

We had a board meeting on this week’s impulse lab. I had one section where about half of the groups changed the mass of their cart for each trial, so I need to make sure I revisit experimental design concepts, like how to tell what variables should remain constant. Students still recognized all of the relevant patterns and we were able to get to the impulse equation nicely.

Physics: Ramps

Students finished collecting data for distance and time down a ramp to see a quadratic relationship. The results weren’t as clean as I hoped, largely because a lot of groups started their cart a fair distance behind the first photogate. It takes some background knowledge to understand why that matters, and with the cognitive load required to learn to use the photogates and set up the dynamics track, they lost track of that detail. If I do a graphing unit next year, I might give more traditional written directions rather than relying on discussion and expecting students to make the notes they need to help ease them in a little more.

Chemistry Essentials: Mass of a Gas

Earlier this week, a student asked what would have happened with the dissolving Alka Seltzer if we had a way to trap the gas and the rest of the class was very excited to discuss their ideas. Today, to answer that question, I had them mix calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate, along with some indicator, in a Ziploc bag. Things were chaotic enough that I didn’t get much chance to listen to students reason about the reaction, but part of the chaos was a lot of groups were excited to tell me about their observations, which was a great kind of chaos to have.

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Day 5: Mistakes Game, Pendulums, & Dissolving

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AP Physics: Mistakes Game

On Friday, as students finished the FCI, they picked up some problems translating between momentum vs. time graphs, motion maps, and written descriptions. Today, we went over them using the Mistakes Game.  Students pretty readily embraced this approach, which was great to see. I did notice a lot of students were not clear on whether arrows between the dots on a motion map represent the momentum vector or a “tap”, which I think goes back to how I introduced the bowling ball lab. Asking students about the spacing on the motion map got them to think about whether there should be a tap, which seemed to help.

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Physics: Pendulums

Students worked on finding a relationship between the length and period of a pendulum. On Friday, we’d measured a single period as a class to motivate the need to measure multiple periods. Today, I verbally reminded students of that discussion, but, once in the lab, a lot of students were unclear about what it meant to measure multiple periods; I think it would have been useful to demo that to help with their language. Most groups were able to get a graph done, and have done a linear fit with a nice big intercept, which will lead nicely into motivating the need for other relationships tomorrow.

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Chemistry Essentials: Dissolving

We continued the mass and change sequence from the Modeling Instruction chemistry curriculum. My plan was to get through both sugar and Alka Seltzer dissolving in water, but I wasn’t thinking when I grabbed beakers this morning and ended up with way more mass than the balances could handle. I ended up having my students do a lot of math, which many found overwhelming, especially since they had to add some blanks to the handout I’d made. If I’d been thinking, I would have pulled out some lightweight plastic cups to replace the beakers. Tomorrow, I’ll use those for the Alka Seltzer lab.

Day 4: Concept Inventories Galore!

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Today, all of my classes took some kind of concept inventory. Physics and AP Physics took the FCI while Chemistry Essentials took the CCI. The other Physics teacher and I talked about giving the FCI on day 1, but I’m glad we waited since it gave me a chance to start establishing a classroom culture before I gave students something I knew they’d get low scores on. Waiting also meant I could use the first few days to set the tone for what my classes should look like.

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On a side note, I hid a line in my syllabus this year asking students to find or draw me a kitten picture once they’ve read it. As the pictures come in, I’m posting them in my room without comment. So far, I’m up to 5 kittens, which is a better response rate than last year!

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Day 165: Marshmallow Challenge & Topo Maps

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AP Physics: Marshmallow Challenge

Today was the last day of school for seniors, so we wrapped up presentations. One student who studied piano physics was excited to share his insight that a grand piano is effectively a frequency vs. wavelength graph. Afterward, we did the marshmallow challenge.

The winners!

The seniors brought produce this week as a spin on apples for teachers. When some students were discussing what would be the weirdest option, I suggested a coconut. The next day, here’s what a student brought:

Earth Science: Topo Maps

Students worked on identifying topographic map symbols and interpreting a sample map.

Day 162: CTSR & Ancient Minnesota

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AP Physics: CTSR

Students took the CTSR today so that I can have some data to help decide whether to use that or the FCI next year, though I’m leaning towards the FCI since the responses on individual questions is much more meaningful. In the past I gave the CTSR because I was in a PLC with a chemistry teacher, so we wanted an assessment we could both use, and it lead to great conversations about how to build reasoning skills across grade levels. I think if all of the science classes gave the CTSR each spring, especially if we developed some common language using materials like Sayer & Addy’s Curriculum Analysis Taxonomy and the NGSS Science Practices, there is the potential for some really interesting department-wide vertical alignment.

Earth Science: Ancient Minnesota

Students examined a poster of Minnesota’s geologic history to reinforce the relative lengths of time and see how the geology has changed over time. Afterwards, I gave students some information about Minnesota’s Paleozoic geology so they could complete an activity similar to Friday’s look at Precambrian Minnesota.

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Day 160: Peer Review & Geologic Time

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AP Physics: Peer Review

I put students in random groups and had them share their project so far, then evaluate each other with a rubric. In addition to the feedback, students found it really helpful just to practice talking out loud about their project. A lot of them also got excited hearing about what some classmates they don’t normally interact with are working on and are looking forward to the presentations next week.

Earth Science: Geologic Time

Students made timelines to compare  the relative amounts of time in a 14 year old’s live to the amount of time in the major geologic periods and eras, which seemed to help them wrap their heads around the relative lengths of time much more than the big numbers would. I used a worksheet that already had specific events in the life of a 14 year old they should include, but next time I think I will either stick to just having a set number of years or work on making the events more open-ended since many of them are very cultural.

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Day 157: FCI & Review

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AP Physics: FCI

Students took the FCI today. I didn’t get my act together to give anything as a pre-test this year, but I want to start doing a pre- and post-test again next year and am trying to decide whether I’d rather use the FCI or the CTSR. To help decide, I’m going to see if one test correlates better to my students’ scores on the AP Physics 1 exam.

Earth Science: Review

I had students whiteboard their answers from Friday’s review for discussion. On a question about what causes different types of volcanoes, I realized students were having trouble separating characteristics of the different types from what causes the different types, so we spent some time discussing that. Next time I teach this course, I need to think about how to shift this unit (and several others) to help students more clearly separate cause and effect.

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Day 151: Space Yo-Yos & Volcano Types

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AP Physics: Space Yo-Yos

Students continued work on their projects. I showed students Rhett Allain’s recent post on fidget spinner physics as a really strong example of what I’d like. Yesterday was also the last AP exam that a large percentage of seniors at my school take, and the combined result is a lot of students seemed much more focused on their projects today. In one hour, a student was talking through the physics behind some yo-yo tricks, and started trying to figure out which tricks should work in space and why. Turns out, there is video evidence for some of the tricks he said don’t require gravity!

 

Earth Science: Volcano Types

Today, I introduced students to the three main types of volcanoes. First, they predicted whether wet sand, ooblek, or a pile of scoria could make a taller volcano to get them thinking about the physical properties that lead to the shapes of the different types of volcanoes.

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