My TEDxNYED Session: Learning Science by Doing Science

Many thanks to the TEDxNYED 2012 crew, especially True Life Media, Basil Kolani, Karen Blumberg, and Matthew Moran for an awesome event. Be sure to check out the rest of the TEDxNYED 2012 talks.

Learn more about Modeling Instruction in Science.

Increasing Engagement in Science

As part of a session on innovative practices in science at TeachMeet New Jersey 2011, I gave a presentation entitled “Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Increasing Engagement in Science”

I have posted that presentation, complete with speaker’s notes and plenty of links to further information, here: http://bit.ly/EngageSci

Any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated! (e.g., is there a bigger theme I am missing, etc.) Thanks! J3BC3J3HSY8J

Vote for Student Engagement

The voting for the 2010 Edublog Awards has begun! I am stunned that my blog post The $2 Interactive Whiteboard has been shortlisted for Most Influential Blog Post. In the comments, you’ll see many teachers across disciplines and grade levels have gone out and started whiteboarding with their students.

And from across the Blog-o-Twitter-verse:

Micheal Doyle wrote in his post Technology Even a Luddite Can Love:

I cut up two 4 x 8′ white shower boards ($25.87 including tax) into twelve 24 x 32″ white boards.

Best money I’ve spent on a classroom, and I’ve spent a lot.

Mistakes are no longer permanent red marks. A quick swoosh with an eraser or back of a hand, and the board is clear.

Mistakes do not simmer for a day or two; I walk around and we work together to fix misconceptions on the spot.

I know immediately where the students stand, a bit humbling when you realize maybe your brilliantly scripted lectures posed as directed discussions are no more effective than the textbook you sneered at with your fellow twits on late summer eves.

And (drum roll please….) the kids dare to think. I mean think as in “Look at me I’m coming up with solutions and I want to share them!” think.

Physics and chemistry teacher Brian Post recently tweeted:

@fnoschese Your blog inspired me to take the white board plunge. Thanks, they are so versatile…….so simple.

— Brian Post (@posthhs) December 3, 2010

@arosey give a white board to each pair of students & they LOVE it. Inspires collaboration too. Responder are sweet, but more independent.

— Brian Post (@posthhs) December 3, 2010

John Burk started an entire Posterous blog called Physics Whiteboards for teachers and students to share their whiteboards with the world!

My post was even written about in Sweden: Interaktivitet? Dialog! (translate into English)

Enough about me. Please look at my other nominations below. All these teachers are working hard to engage kids everyday and make their time in school as meaningful as possible.

Best individual blog – Science Teacher
Michael Doyle wants his students to experience science, not regurgitate it. Take, for example, his recent post Un-teaching Science.

Best individual tweeter – jerridkruse
Jerrid Kruse is a former middle school science teacher who now teaches pre-service elementary teachers about inquiry in the classroom.

Best new blog – Quantum Progress
John Burk, physics teacher and modeler, is trying to change his students mindset about learning, grades, and getting into college. He wants his students to change the world and he is helping them get there.

Best teacher blog – Think Thank Thunk
Shawn Cornally’s students are doing amazing inquiry in physics and calculus. Plus his standards-based grading posts are bar-none.

Best educational use of video / visual – dy/dan
From basketball parabolas to filling up a water tank, Dan Meyer series strives to make math more meaningful to students through carefully constructed videos and pictures in his “What Can You Do With This?” series.

Lifetime achievement – Dan Meyer
Dan’s was the first blog I read regularly. His “How Math Must Assess” manifesto is what put me and many others on the road to better grading practices. Follow that up with an appearance on Good Morning America for his WCYDWT-Groceries and  a TEDxNYED talk about a makeover for math curriculum, and you’ve got a math guy whose influence is being felt in all subject areas.

These are not votes for us, but rather votes for improving science teaching and for engaging and helping students. ANYONE can vote, not just fellow bloggers. (Only 1 vote per IP address to prevent cheating, so you may have to vote at home rather than at school.)

So follow the links above and vote! Thank you for your support!

Win? Fail? PHYSICS!: An introduction

(Note: Feed reader users may need to click through to view embedded videos.)

A simple question

Real or fake?

Physics win or physics fail?

Inspired by Rhett Allain’s physics explanations at Dot Physics, Dan Meyer’s blog series “What Can You Do With This?”, and Dan’s TEDx plea for a math curriculum makeover, I have been collecting video clips that are prime for my physics students to analyze. The website is Win? Fail? Physics!

Videos are categorized by topic to help teachers locate videos for the concepts at hand. Several videos are listed under multiple topics. For example, the World Jump Day video above can be analyzed using Newton’s laws or conservation of momentum. The videos are presented without any further questions other than “Physics win or physics fail?” Kids watch the video and have an immediate visceral reaction. Now they just need evidence to support or refute their conviction.

What are they good for?

A WFP video can be the hook for the whole unit. The analysis will take several days as the students explore and experiment to develop an appropriate model. At the end of the unit, they return to the video to answer the question “Physics win or physics fail?” For example, my projectile motion unit starts and ends with the Kobe Bryant video (above), which I’ll outline in a future post.

A WFP video can also replace a textbook problem and the analysis can be done in a class period. Here’s a parallel end-of-chapter “problem” for the World Jump Day video:

How fast can you set the Earth recoiling? In particular, when you jump straight up as high as you can, what is the maximum recoil speed that you give to the Earth? Let your mass be 76.0 kg and your maximum jump height be 0.250 m. Model the Earth as a perfectly solid object.

(a) Based on your maximum jump height, what must be your push-off speed?

(b) What is the recoil speed of Earth due to your jump?

(This is a WebAssign numerical version of a problem from Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 6th edition, by Serway and Jewett, where it appeared as an order-of-magnitude estimate-your-own-data problem.)

The plug-and-chug version gives students assumed values and guides students to the solution. Students lose out on important problem solving techniques as this style reduces a rich learning experience into an exercise in formula substitution.

Cognitive Weightlifting

The WFP video version strips the problem to its core: Win or Fail? Students do the cognitive weightlifting.  Working in groups, they must generate their own follow-up questions to solve and determine the knowns and unknowns. You can consider a good WFP to be a video version of a Context-Rich Problem.

Group A asks, “If every person on Earth jumped at the same time, how fast would the Earth move in the other direction?” while Group B asks, “How many people would have to jump in order to change the Earth’s orbital speed?” And in order to do solve their own questions, students will often have to make assumptions about certain values or conduct simple experiments to get those values.

Group A will need to know the mass of the Earth, the mass of a typical person, the number of people on the Earth, and a person’s typical push-off speed when jumping. A quick Google search yields the Earth’s mass and population. Group A assumes a typical person weighs 150 pounds and converts to mass in kilograms. However, they have no clue what a typical jump-off speed would be, so they decide to do an experiment to calculate it. One person jumps as high as they can, while group members measure the jump height, which they can then use to calculate the jump-off speed. Now Group A has what they need. They compute the recoil speed of Earth and compare it to Earth’s orbital speed via Google. Win or Fail?

Group B, on the other hand, looks up Earth’s orbital speed first and assumes that a 1% increase may be just enough to move the Earth slightly. They then do a similar analysis as Group A, but they compute the number of people needed to create that 1% increase and compare it to the Earth’s actual population. Win or Fail?

And, of course, there is Group C. They say gravity pulls the Earth and the people back together again anyway. Win or Fail?

Of course, the whole time I’m circulating around the room, helping groups and tossing questions back at the kids. Then we have a mini-conference where groups share their solutions on whiteboards and field questions from classmates. Finally, we reach consensus as a class. Win or Fail?

What it’s not

• WFP is not  a demonstration.
• WFP is not a talking-head documentary.
• WFP is not a lecture or tutorial.

Want more?

Check out these sites for more possible WFP videos:

• Science on The Simpsons by Dan Burns
• The Physics of Roadrunner by Dan Burns
• Einstein in Hollywood at Nichols State University
• Don’t Try This At Home!: The Physics of Hollywood Movies by Adam Weiner (book)
• Blick on Flicks by Jacob Blickenstaff (monthly column on science in movies)
• Dot Physics posts tagged Real or Fake by Rhett Allain

If you have suggestions for a WFP video to add to my online library, contact me with the URL. However, I do not have the time to take movie scenes from DVDs to upload to YouTube. Thanks!