Day 41: Board Meeting, Mistakes Game, & Periodic Table

November 6, 2017November 13, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

AP Physics: Board Meeting

We had the board meeting for last week’s ramp lab. Students were pretty successful at picking out the key concepts, though the results were a little messier than usual, which made it tough to compare results for different angles and cart masses. Next year, it may be worth having each group do two angles or two masses. I’ll also take more time to introduce students to the photogates. The students in calculus had some great reactions when they realized the slope of the position vs. time² was half the slope of the velocity vs. time graph.

Physics: Mistakes Game

Students played the whiteboard mistakes game with Friday’s free-body diagram problems. Lots of groups had great conversations about the forces on an object already moving and the language of interactions, including many of the ideas from the interaction stations, really helped them convince each other whether or not there should be a force. I also took a few minutes prior to presenting any whiteboards to talk about what it looks like to get something out of this when you’re not presenting, and saw a lot more students than usual with their own work out.

Board with intentional mistake for a ball at the peak of a throw

Chemistry Essentials: Periodic Table

We revisited Friday’s card sort. When I looked over students’ work from Friday, it looked like many of them got stuck on the word “pattern” in the directions because they were looking for something that was all the same, rather than a trend. Today, I had them get out actual periodic tables to use as a guide to set out the cards. From there, it was much easier to scaffold students to identifying interesting trends. Students were also really interested in things like how we discover new elements, or how they get named.

Day 40: Ramp Graphs, FBDs, & Card Sort

November 3, 2017November 13, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / 1 Comment

I ended up home sick today.

AP Physics: Ramp Graphs

Students took a longish quiz, then started working on some problems to sketch graphs and motion maps for objects on a ramp. Since we haven’t actually discussed the ramp lab yet, I’m expecting these problems to be a little tricky. There are enough students currently in calculus that I’m hoping they can help their classmates make sense of the graphs. Regardless, I’ll need to make sure I allow time after the ramp lab discussion to make sense of those problems.

Physics: FBDs

I left students a worksheet of interaction diagrams and free-body diagrams. On my last sub day, very few students attempted the problems, I asked my sub to remind students that I’m after an attempt, not right answers. I also asked the sub to collect papers at the end of the hour so I can see where students are at before class on Monday.

Chemistry Essentials: Card Sort

Since we are starting to talk about elements, I left a card sort activity for students to build a version of the periodic table using cards that represent some of the properties of each element. I asked students to snap a photo of their final sort and upload it to Google Classroom so I can see what they came up with.

Day 39: Ramp Whiteboards, FBDs, & Electrolysis

November 2, 2017November 13, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

AP Physics: Ramp Whiteboards

Since a recent quiz used a free-response problem from the AP Physics exam, I gave students part of the hour to use the scoring guide to review their work. Students seemed to like seeing the level of detail the College Board is after.

Afterward, students prepared whiteboards for the ramp lab we’ve been working on. I made some changes to my approach and can tell I need to do a little more work on helping students interpret the graphs and data tables from the photogates. Overall, results are looking pretty good.

Physics: Free-Body Diagrams

We discussed some of the interaction stations to get to the point of defining a few key types of forces. Afterward, I introduced them to interaction diagrams and free-body diagrams using the hover puck in an activity adapted from Kelly O’Shea. For the puck traveling at a constant velocity, one of my hours had some really good small group discussion about whether there is a forward force on the puck, though neither class got to a whole group discussion today.

Chemistry Essentials: Electrolysis

We did a gallery walk to go over yesterday’s problems. I also showed students an electrolysis apparatus to have some conversation about how we know water is two hydrogens and an oxygen.

Day 38: Ramps, Interaction Stations, & Pure Substances

November 1, 2017November 13, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / 2 Comments

AP Physics: Ramps

Students worked on collecting position vs. time and velocity vs. time data for a cart on a ramp. Based on the questions I was getting during the lab, a lot of groups would have benefited from more discussion about what the photogates were measuring and how that translated into the graph and data table on the LabQuest. I should talk to our tech guy about installing the LabQuest emulator to help facilitate those conversations.

Physics: Interaction Stations

To keep building up the idea of forces, students worked through a series of interaction stations Brian Frank wrote about using a worksheet from Kelly O’Shea. Students got tripped up identifying where the interaction was taking place, mostly because they were overthinking it. Some were bothered that they could see more than one interaction, but only needed to talk about one on their worksheet. Next time, I might make it more open to encourage students to discuss multiple interactions.

Chemistry Essentials: Pure Substances

Students worked on a Modeling Instruction worksheet differentiating between pure substances, mixtures, compounds, and elements. I like pure substance, mixture, and compound were all motivated by the labs with iron and sulfur, but students had trouble connecting the idea of an element. We haven’t done hydrolysis yet, and I wonder if that might have helped motivate elements.

Day 37: Dueling Buggies, Dueling Fan Carts, & Chemical Change

October 31, 2017November 13, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

AP Physics: Dueling Buggies

Students wrapped up the dueling buggies lab practical with very satisfying results. Usually, most of my students look for the intersection of the position vs. time graphs, but this year I had a lot of groups decide to solve the system of equations. I think that is just an artifact of doing the lab later than usual, when students are in the routine of connecting math and physics, and of moving pretty quickly through the CVPM worksheets.

Physics: Dueling Fan Carts

We talked about the rules students had for tapping and motion after yesterday’s bowling ball lab, then moved into a version Frank Noschese’s dueling fan carts. Frank’s activity calls for high vs. off, but I added in off vs. high as a separate scenario to help with the idea of directionality. This is the first time I had groups revise their rule after the fan carts, and I was really pleased with how that went. I think that approach also helped cement the connections between the bowling ball lab and the fan carts, and the connections are something I’ve seen missing so far.

Chemistry Essentials: Chemical Change

Students heated yesterday’s mixture of iron and sulfur to see if the properties changed. Just about everyone was very excited about using fire, but it was tough to keep them focused on making and interpreting their observations. Since I only had a few questions, I projected them, rather than making a handout, but something about a handout seems to give my students more sense of individual accountability. I think the handout serves as a physical reminder of the questions they need to answer, so I will try to stick with making handouts.

Day 36: Dueling Buggies, Bowling Balls, & Properties of Mixtures

October 30, 2017November 13, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

AP Physics: Dueling Buggies

We did an abbreviated whiteboard session on Thursday’s problems since students had correct answers and were feeling pretty confident on the material. Afterward, we started working on the dueling buggies lab practical. I had several groups decide to have different people try different approaches, then compare answers as a way to check their work. Tomorrow, we’ll actually crash the buggies.

Physics: Bowling Balls

I started class today by talking a little about why I use Modeling Instruction and the kinds of actions that make a student successful in this type of classroom. Students seemed receptive and the atmosphere in the room was much more positive than it has been in a while. I think moving on to forces was a good call.

Students worked on the bowling ball and mallets lab to start building ideas about forces. I also gave students roles within their groups and explained this was to help them learn how to be a productive member of the group, even when they don’t know the answers. Students were much more consistently engaged than I’ve seen this year and a lot of great conversations were happening in groups.

Chemistry Essentials: Properties of Mixtures

As a demo, I asked students to observe properties of water and ethanol before and after mixing. The whole class discussion got a little rocky because a lot of students had great questions and great observations, but it was tough to keep them from talking over each other (or me). That’s something I need to keep working on with this class, but its a good problem to have.

Afterward, students did something very similar with solid sulfur and iron. Again, there were a lot of great observations. Students seem pretty clear on the idea that a mixture has a combination of properties from both materials.

Day 35: Motion Representations, Lab Practical, & Mystery Tubes

October 26, 2017November 13, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / 1 Comment

AP Physics: Motion Representations

Students started practicing translating between different representations of constant velocity. Students have already done some similar problems with momentum vs. time graphs, so things went very smoothly.

Today’s quiz also included the first free response problem from an AP exam that students have worked. Afterwards, as they discussed their answers, there were a lot of kids high-fiving each other while another student told me she enjoyed the quiz. Its great to see students getting the hang of physics and feeling good about it.

Physics: Lab Practical

Students continued work on yesterday’s lab practical. I only had a few groups finish and was running into a lot of the same roadblocks I’ve been seeing for most of the unit. Both my students and I feel like we are beating our heads against the wall with this unit; since we’ll get another crack at acceleration with unbalanced forces, I think its best to cut our losses for now. On Monday, before we dive into balanced forces, I’ll take some time to have some conversation with students about what’s working and what isn’t so we can try to get on a better path.

Chemistry Essentials: Mystery Tubes

Today was a quiz day. About half of my students take their quizzes in the special ed room and usually stay up there the full period, while those who stay in the classroom rarely need more than half the period, so I’m trying to plan interesting activities that aren’t required for the content. Today, I pulled out the mystery tubes and it was fantastic. Every student was engaged, making fantastic observations and sharing ideas about what’s going on inside. One student in particular who is normally pretty checked out asked if she could sit the activity out because it seemed too hard, but got into it once she got her hands on a tube. The best part was when the para supporting the class stopped by at the end and asked about the tubes, this student confidently insisted he check out her model to see exactly how the tubes work. It was a great way to end the week.

Day 34: Board Meeting, CAPM Practical, & Freezing Acid

October 25, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

AP Physics: Board Meeting

We had a board meeting to wrap up the buggy lab. A lot of students who are normally quiet in whole class discussions spoke up today, which was great. In addition, there were some interesting observations that don’t always come up, like the student who commented the intercept did not depend on the slope. At the end of the hour, I also asked groups to whiteboard a CER for what the momentum vs. time graph should look like and, while we didn’t have a chance to discuss the boards, groups consistently were on the right track and not only connected the buggy lab to the definition of momentum, but to Newton’s 1st Law by discussing whether they could identify unbalanced forces on the buggy.

Physics: CAPM Practical

Students started working on a constant acceleration lab practical where they try to get a marble rolling down a ramp to land in a cup attached to a moving buggy. Some groups got a starting position for the marble while others got a starting position for the buggy. A lot of groups had trouble focusing on individual pieces of the task; tomorrow, I may take a few minutes to talk through the major steps students need to take. I’m also seeing students continue to struggle with confidence; they are nailing the problems, but just don’t believe that they get it, which makes it difficult to approach a challenging lab practical.

Chemistry Essentials: Freezing Acid

We discussed the results of yesterday’s lab. At the end of the hour yesterday, a lot of students didn’t seem convinced that temperature stays constant during a phase change, partly because they were focusing on their data tables and saw very small temperature variations. Today, I projected a graph from one of the groups for the discussion, and students saw much more clearly that the temperature is pretty constant. When students graph in Desmos, I usually allow one group member to make a graph as long as everyone sketches it (I don’t have a good way for students to print), but I think that’s making it too easy for most of the group to just glance at the graph so I need to work on ways to get students looking closer. I usually have a handout for labs in this course, so I’ll probably add some questions to prompt students to look carefully at their group’s graph to the next lab to see if that helps.

Day 33: Buggies, Problems, & Freezing Acid

October 24, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

AP Physics: Buggies

Students collected data to produce position vs. time graphs for a buggy travelling at a constant speed. While I really like this lab for the start of the year, it was fun to see a group that has a pretty strong class culture and is developing some good skills tackles a fairly easy lab like this one. My students were also SUPER excited about the buggies; I don’t think I’ve ever had students who were so into them.

Physics: CAPM Problems

Students worked on another problem set to practice constant acceleration. We’re at a point where a lot of students are getting it and just doing more problems won’t get them there, so its time to move on.

Chemistry Essentials: Freezing Acid

Students made temperature vs. time graphs for freezing lauric acid. A lot of students are still not convinced that the temperature stays constant during a phase change, so I’ll need to make sure we spend some time going over the graphs tomorrow.

Day 32: Whiteboarding Galore

October 23, 2017October 23, 2017 / Marta R. Stoeckel / Leave a comment

Between having a sub on Wednesday and no school on Thursday or Friday, today was all about getting my classes back on track.

AP Physics: Conservation of Momentum Problems

Students whiteboarded the conservation of momentum problems from last Tuesday. Many of the problems require students to shift between thinking about the system as a whole and thinking about individual objects, and interaction diagrams (or system schema) proved to be incredibly powerful tools. The first year I used the Modeling Instruction curriculum, I didn’t quite get them and, as a result, my students never really saw the value, but my students and I are now huge fans.

Physics: Constant Acceleration Problems

On Wednesday, I left my students some problems that included several that started with graphs they’d already sketched and annotated. My students admitted that they made very little progress on Wednesday, partly because they got confused and shut down. This has been pretty common with my students this year, so we spent some time discussing alternative strategies for when they are stuck. Afterward, students whiteboarded the problems for a gallery walk. They are making good progress on connecting the features of the graph to the physical meaning it represents.

Chemistry Essentials: Phase Change Bar Charts

On Wednesday, students watched a short video lecture where I talked about the results of Tuesday’s phase change lab and introduced energy bar charts. While students got nice graphs from the lab, they were confused by the video lecture, so we spent most of the hour discussing it. It turns out the main issue is we haven’t spent much time on what the particles are doing during a phase change, so they weren’t willing to accept that explanation for the constant temperature in the lab without some additional convincing. I fired up a PhET simulation, which seemed to fill in some of the necessary gaps and allowed students to take a much more successful second shot at Wednesday’s bar chart problems.