Good morning - I hope everyone is well.
Where are we? At this time you should feel pretty comfortable with the Activity Model for Inquiry as a model for conducting (and learning) science. Hopefully this is becoming "foundational"; that is a base for our doing and learning science. You should also be comfortable with terms such as model, precision, accuracy, theory, law, hypotheses although I will be going over the last three in class at a later date. Science as a practice - you should be moving to a higher comfort level with designing experiments, identifying and controlling variables, constructing tables and graphs and using evidence to support statements. And then there is the science content - speed, average and instantaneous velocity, acceleration...The assessment on Thursday was a check to see where you are at with your understanding. If you did not perform well on these items, now is the time to check-in and get some help.
Where are we going? Our next step is to move from horizontal motion to vertical motion by looking a freefall. We will then move onto examining the "why" of motion - that is Newton's Laws of Motion, which provide the connection between forces and motion. We will then move onto momentum and energy. I will be discussing the schedule in class today but we are also moving towards starting our physics capstone project and our first exam! More later.
The blogs on creativity were awesome. For some I was looking for more connection to the article and the video. The insights were interesting and I hope we can take these ideas on creativity into our doing and learning. The challenge for those who are going to become teachers is integrating these ideas into a pretty rigid school culture and framework that focuses on assessment and outcomes. But that is the creative part of the teaching, right? It is a challenge in my practice and I am not always sure I am that successful.
And I think that is it - I look forward to seeing you in a few hours. Until then
Be well...Matt
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Blog Post 2-15-12
Good morning NTSC'ers:
I hope everyone is well. It was my impression that people understood the intent and goals of yesterday's lab. I am hoping that is true! And not just deceiving myself. Here is a couple of items that, I think, underlay the work we have been doing.
1-We have been using models quite a bit and that is very common in scientific endeavors. The natural world is a messy place and we are saddled with making as good approximations of natural processes. That has not been to bad a place to be so far; the only "natural" data that we collected was with the sandbags and that was a pretty controlled setting. To be explicit, the Walking Man is certainly a model and we have used that to understand how to use different equations related to motion, understand the difference between instantaneous and average velocity, understand constant acceleration and interpret graphs of distance, velocity and time. You should start to feel comfortable with all of these terms and concepts.
The other model we have been using are graphical - a good model for constant velocity is a straight line model (y = mx + b) where m = velocity. For constant acceleration, the best model is a curve (exponential) line that reveals that velocity is increasing as shown by the steepening slope of the line. I wonder what a plot of changing acceleration looks like?
2- The second item is to keep our eye on our process - that is the process of science. While you are working do some metacognating. Think about where you are in your intellectual process: are you asking questions? are you collecting data? or reflecting on findings? How about communicating? I would like to think that a fundamental outcome from our work are experiences with doing authentic scientific work, that is breaking out of our experiences with more linear thinking and doing into a mode of more divergent and non-linear process.
Tomorrow in class we will go more vertical. We have been exploring horizontal motion, which is easier to observe and measure. Now as we go vertical we have objects that move at a much higher velocity (is it a constant acceleration?) and therefore harder to measure. This was a fundamental problem with early investigators (Aristotle, Galileo) who lacked the technology to make accurate measurements. We will explore new models (equations) that we can use to understand vertical motion (called freefall) and use technology to document our observations. After freefall, we will start to look at Newton's Laws of Motion that provide the framework for understanding motion, at least on the macroscopic scale.
See everyone tomorrow.
Thanks
Matt
I hope everyone is well. It was my impression that people understood the intent and goals of yesterday's lab. I am hoping that is true! And not just deceiving myself. Here is a couple of items that, I think, underlay the work we have been doing.
1-We have been using models quite a bit and that is very common in scientific endeavors. The natural world is a messy place and we are saddled with making as good approximations of natural processes. That has not been to bad a place to be so far; the only "natural" data that we collected was with the sandbags and that was a pretty controlled setting. To be explicit, the Walking Man is certainly a model and we have used that to understand how to use different equations related to motion, understand the difference between instantaneous and average velocity, understand constant acceleration and interpret graphs of distance, velocity and time. You should start to feel comfortable with all of these terms and concepts.
The other model we have been using are graphical - a good model for constant velocity is a straight line model (y = mx + b) where m = velocity. For constant acceleration, the best model is a curve (exponential) line that reveals that velocity is increasing as shown by the steepening slope of the line. I wonder what a plot of changing acceleration looks like?
2- The second item is to keep our eye on our process - that is the process of science. While you are working do some metacognating. Think about where you are in your intellectual process: are you asking questions? are you collecting data? or reflecting on findings? How about communicating? I would like to think that a fundamental outcome from our work are experiences with doing authentic scientific work, that is breaking out of our experiences with more linear thinking and doing into a mode of more divergent and non-linear process.
Tomorrow in class we will go more vertical. We have been exploring horizontal motion, which is easier to observe and measure. Now as we go vertical we have objects that move at a much higher velocity (is it a constant acceleration?) and therefore harder to measure. This was a fundamental problem with early investigators (Aristotle, Galileo) who lacked the technology to make accurate measurements. We will explore new models (equations) that we can use to understand vertical motion (called freefall) and use technology to document our observations. After freefall, we will start to look at Newton's Laws of Motion that provide the framework for understanding motion, at least on the macroscopic scale.
See everyone tomorrow.
Thanks
Matt
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Blog Update 2-14-12
Good morning - I hope everyone is well.
First, a bit of review. Our major goal last week was to enter into physics gently. Exploring simple motion of objects (us and The Moving Man) and how we can represent the data. Data represent took three forms: tables, maps (with vectors) and graphs. It appears that some people were frustrated with what to do with The Moving Man model; I will review that some more today.
This week I want to continue this pace - we will finish up our motion work that we started last week. We will plunge into comparing graphical values with calculated values. That is, we will make sure that everyone can calculate velocity and acceleration. And we will start looking at acceleration of objects down ramps and then freefall (much more challenging).
The bigger picture with our efforts is to build skills and content knowledge so that in a week or so we can launch into a student/group driven research project on motion. So, I am hoping for a good week.
We have also been working on our parallel path of investigating various aspects of learning with creativity being our major focus. I have asked you to reflect as a group (your motion group) on the Ken Robinson video about schools destroying creativity as well as read and blog entitled "The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience". These items have a similar theme: sometimes traditional teaching in a traditional classroom can stifle what students are really good at including the ability and desire to think and act creatively. I enjoyed Dr. Robinson's presentation; I think he is a great speaker and like his self-deprecating humor. Although it can be distracting at times. His use of the example of the dancer who went on to become quite famous and successful was especially poignant. It made me think about kids I went to school with who were on the outskirts of the standard academic environment who probably had skills and interest that were sufficiently quelled by the relatively fixed and inflexible atmosphere. Kind of sad.
The article was some of the same but also presented some practical suggestions about how to promote creativity in classrooms - let kids explore, provide times for play, don't always give the answer, allow for error, model times when you don't know the answer as well. This is hard. I am learning that in my teaching and perhaps you are sometimes frustrated in our work because of it. And then how do you do this when confronted with 25+ 3rd graders many with different needs. And then on top of that you have to attend to focus on literacy and math in preparation for testing. This is why teaching is so difficult, yet so rewarding. I know from my experience as a teacher and parent there is NOTHING quite so rewarding as experience the wonder of discovery in a student's face. So, I am marching on in a my own teaching process trying to develop ways to nurture learning and exploration and creativity. It is not an easy path. It would be simple to give you a prescribed lab ("hands-on activity") decorated with a few equations and then a study sheet for what will be on the test. But I ask you to join me instead in developing curiosity about the natural world, yes even something walking and dropping balloons or watching The Moving Man, to stimulate your own creativity as a learner.
See you later this AM.
Be well
Matt
First, a bit of review. Our major goal last week was to enter into physics gently. Exploring simple motion of objects (us and The Moving Man) and how we can represent the data. Data represent took three forms: tables, maps (with vectors) and graphs. It appears that some people were frustrated with what to do with The Moving Man model; I will review that some more today.
This week I want to continue this pace - we will finish up our motion work that we started last week. We will plunge into comparing graphical values with calculated values. That is, we will make sure that everyone can calculate velocity and acceleration. And we will start looking at acceleration of objects down ramps and then freefall (much more challenging).
The bigger picture with our efforts is to build skills and content knowledge so that in a week or so we can launch into a student/group driven research project on motion. So, I am hoping for a good week.
We have also been working on our parallel path of investigating various aspects of learning with creativity being our major focus. I have asked you to reflect as a group (your motion group) on the Ken Robinson video about schools destroying creativity as well as read and blog entitled "The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience". These items have a similar theme: sometimes traditional teaching in a traditional classroom can stifle what students are really good at including the ability and desire to think and act creatively. I enjoyed Dr. Robinson's presentation; I think he is a great speaker and like his self-deprecating humor. Although it can be distracting at times. His use of the example of the dancer who went on to become quite famous and successful was especially poignant. It made me think about kids I went to school with who were on the outskirts of the standard academic environment who probably had skills and interest that were sufficiently quelled by the relatively fixed and inflexible atmosphere. Kind of sad.
The article was some of the same but also presented some practical suggestions about how to promote creativity in classrooms - let kids explore, provide times for play, don't always give the answer, allow for error, model times when you don't know the answer as well. This is hard. I am learning that in my teaching and perhaps you are sometimes frustrated in our work because of it. And then how do you do this when confronted with 25+ 3rd graders many with different needs. And then on top of that you have to attend to focus on literacy and math in preparation for testing. This is why teaching is so difficult, yet so rewarding. I know from my experience as a teacher and parent there is NOTHING quite so rewarding as experience the wonder of discovery in a student's face. So, I am marching on in a my own teaching process trying to develop ways to nurture learning and exploration and creativity. It is not an easy path. It would be simple to give you a prescribed lab ("hands-on activity") decorated with a few equations and then a study sheet for what will be on the test. But I ask you to join me instead in developing curiosity about the natural world, yes even something walking and dropping balloons or watching The Moving Man, to stimulate your own creativity as a learner.
See you later this AM.
Be well
Matt
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Blog post 2/8/2012
Good morning NTSC'ers:
I hope everyone is well. And enjoying our entrance into physics. One of my strategies yesterday and into tomorrow is to scaffold our learning. A fancy word for building on knowledge - both what you already know and what you are acquiring. The goal is to avoid the tsunami effect; pouring so much in that students don't have enough time to really absorb and reflect (and enjoy) the learning process. Of course, there is a balance. You don't want to go so slow that students are bored.
Tomorrow we will be doing some direct instruction (lecture) on basic science process content and skills and then move onto analyzing our data. We will then endeavor to use some interactive visualizations to further our conceptual development of these physics concepts and then look at a real world application of motion patterns. It will be fun.
To continue our parallel effort of investigating education and learning topics we will be considering some more information on creativity. This will involve the following:
1- We will be watching a TED video on creativity by Ken Robinson during class
2- I also want you to read this blog/article on creativity The Education Value of Creative Disobedience
Within your motion groups (that we organized yesterday) I want you to have a blog discussion on these articles. I would like to keep this open but you may consider some of the following items:
This is due next Thursday 2/16.
I will cover this in class tomorrow as well.
See you then
Be well
Matt
I hope everyone is well. And enjoying our entrance into physics. One of my strategies yesterday and into tomorrow is to scaffold our learning. A fancy word for building on knowledge - both what you already know and what you are acquiring. The goal is to avoid the tsunami effect; pouring so much in that students don't have enough time to really absorb and reflect (and enjoy) the learning process. Of course, there is a balance. You don't want to go so slow that students are bored.
Tomorrow we will be doing some direct instruction (lecture) on basic science process content and skills and then move onto analyzing our data. We will then endeavor to use some interactive visualizations to further our conceptual development of these physics concepts and then look at a real world application of motion patterns. It will be fun.
To continue our parallel effort of investigating education and learning topics we will be considering some more information on creativity. This will involve the following:
1- We will be watching a TED video on creativity by Ken Robinson during class
2- I also want you to read this blog/article on creativity The Education Value of Creative Disobedience
Within your motion groups (that we organized yesterday) I want you to have a blog discussion on these articles. I would like to keep this open but you may consider some of the following items:
- What is your "definition" of creativity?
- Why do you think creativity is important?
- Can you think of a time when you were most creative?
- How does creativity mesh with the Harwood Activity Model for Inquiry?
- What can we do to foster creativity in ourselves and others (like our classmates or future students)?
- Do you know any really creative people - what are they like?
- etc.
This is due next Thursday 2/16.
I will cover this in class tomorrow as well.
See you then
Be well
Matt
Monday, February 6, 2012
Blog post 2/6/12
Good morning NTSC'ers
I hope everyone is well.
REMINDER
Please take the physics pre-test before class on Tuesday. This pre-test will not count towards you grade but will give all of us an idea about where we are with respect to our physics knowledge and where we need to go. It is very helpful to me, for sure.
OBSERVATIONS
To review - the goal of the "stick" exercise was to illustrate how thinking "outside the box" is sometimes required to solve or approach problems. Paradigm shifts in all fields usually start with looking at questions and observations from a different perspective and creatively. It requires mindfulness of the possibilities that lie outside our normal habits and patterns. This might be a stretch; I mean it was only a stick, right? But the general idea still holds. As we move through our learning experiences we should try to be aware (through metacognition - thinking about your thinking) how the new information fits into our model of the world, our previous learning experiences and our potential for use in the future (either through our teaching or other avenues).
THIS WEEK
We will be presenting our Candle Inquiry first thing on Tuesday and then moving onto physics. Real science! We will be taking two approaches during this and other science learning adventures: 1- we will learn content using a range of instructional strategies and 2- we will be learning, reviewing, re-learning a variety of skills that are required to better understand our natural world. So, content and skills. It will be fun. One of the issues with the content part is attending to the different levels of current knowledge and ability. Some of you might have extensive knowledge and aptitude with some of the content and skills. Others will not. In classrooms, this is approached through differentiated teaching - a fancy term for attending to as many levels of ability as possible in your/my teaching. It is a challenge, for sure. So, please be mindful that we all bring different knowledge and skills to our learning adventure and we need to take advantage of that.
Also this week we will be doing some reading and listening to issues related to creativity. This will require some writing on you part that will be part of your Science Education and Learning grade.
GRADES
I have finished grading the Changing Education Paradigm writing. I will be posting those grades by the end of the week.
AMI REFLECTION
Please remember that you have a reflection to post related to the Standards Based Grading sheet on Process of Science. This needs to be done by Thursday. Here is a copy of part of the email I sent to you on 2/3 regarding this assignment:
Be well
Matt
I hope everyone is well.
REMINDER
Please take the physics pre-test before class on Tuesday. This pre-test will not count towards you grade but will give all of us an idea about where we are with respect to our physics knowledge and where we need to go. It is very helpful to me, for sure.
OBSERVATIONS
To review - the goal of the "stick" exercise was to illustrate how thinking "outside the box" is sometimes required to solve or approach problems. Paradigm shifts in all fields usually start with looking at questions and observations from a different perspective and creatively. It requires mindfulness of the possibilities that lie outside our normal habits and patterns. This might be a stretch; I mean it was only a stick, right? But the general idea still holds. As we move through our learning experiences we should try to be aware (through metacognition - thinking about your thinking) how the new information fits into our model of the world, our previous learning experiences and our potential for use in the future (either through our teaching or other avenues).
THIS WEEK
We will be presenting our Candle Inquiry first thing on Tuesday and then moving onto physics. Real science! We will be taking two approaches during this and other science learning adventures: 1- we will learn content using a range of instructional strategies and 2- we will be learning, reviewing, re-learning a variety of skills that are required to better understand our natural world. So, content and skills. It will be fun. One of the issues with the content part is attending to the different levels of current knowledge and ability. Some of you might have extensive knowledge and aptitude with some of the content and skills. Others will not. In classrooms, this is approached through differentiated teaching - a fancy term for attending to as many levels of ability as possible in your/my teaching. It is a challenge, for sure. So, please be mindful that we all bring different knowledge and skills to our learning adventure and we need to take advantage of that.
Also this week we will be doing some reading and listening to issues related to creativity. This will require some writing on you part that will be part of your Science Education and Learning grade.
GRADES
I have finished grading the Changing Education Paradigm writing. I will be posting those grades by the end of the week.
AMI REFLECTION
Please remember that you have a reflection to post related to the Standards Based Grading sheet on Process of Science. This needs to be done by Thursday. Here is a copy of part of the email I sent to you on 2/3 regarding this assignment:
- Look over the specific benchmarks for the SBG Sheet- Process of Science. I have shared this document with you.
- For each item write a short description of how this benchmark was met during our inquiry
- Some of these might be - "well, we have not addressed this yet". That is ok for some of them, but not many. So, for these just indicate that we have not worked on this yet.
- Other parts may require some research to learn definitions of specific terms; you need to do that.
- Submit this as a blog - send me the URL of your blog.
- I will grade this using the blog assessment matrix
- This is due by Thursday 2/9
Be well
Matt
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Tuesday Update 1-31-12
Good morning - I hope everyone is well.
If you get a chance, please read through the NY Times editorial on ADHD and medication. It is very interesting.
I so enjoyed reading your blogs on the "Changing Education Paradigms" video. We will be looking at more Ken Robinson material in the future, specifically a couple that focus on nurturing creativity in education. If you get a chance and want to view an excellent discussion of the video by one of your fellow groups please see Nicole, Katherine and Alexandria's blog at
A good discussion of Changing Education Paradigms
I would wager that most people think that education practices need change. Not only to address test scores but to attend to changes in what students need in the 21st century - commonly called 21st century skills. I don't think many of these are different from the past - including being creative, asking good questions and having the means to investigate these questions. But the amount of time that we give students to work on these has decreased. So, one of our jobs in our class is to think about how we mesh learning important content and skills with opportunities to solidify this learning through processes that resonate with individuals and the group as a whole. That is - let's learn about physics in some traditional ways (maybe even some lectures) but build our knowledge in ways that are meaningful and robust for individual students.
Couple of more things: The ADHD issues was somewhat of a focus on many of the blogs (and I haven not finished reading these) but I actually think it was only a minor part. Not to say it was not important; just that there was a lot of other interesting ideas presented. Secondly, we are kind of stuck with the system we have. I would love to think we could make whole scale changes in the education landscape; take back our classrooms, rebel and stand up to outside forces that really don't have a clue about educational practice. But I suspect that will not happen any time soon. The challenge is to find a way to work within the system so you can decide what to do in your teaching that you know is best for your students but still work within the confines of the present school structure. It can be done. I know teachers that are quietly working within the system to re-claim their classrooms and practice. It takes will, knowledge and skill but is doable. My vision and hope is that your generation of teachers will constitute the game changers and bring sanity back to the classroom practice. A big job!
Thanks - see you later this AM.
Matt
If you get a chance, please read through the NY Times editorial on ADHD and medication. It is very interesting.
I so enjoyed reading your blogs on the "Changing Education Paradigms" video. We will be looking at more Ken Robinson material in the future, specifically a couple that focus on nurturing creativity in education. If you get a chance and want to view an excellent discussion of the video by one of your fellow groups please see Nicole, Katherine and Alexandria's blog at
A good discussion of Changing Education Paradigms
I would wager that most people think that education practices need change. Not only to address test scores but to attend to changes in what students need in the 21st century - commonly called 21st century skills. I don't think many of these are different from the past - including being creative, asking good questions and having the means to investigate these questions. But the amount of time that we give students to work on these has decreased. So, one of our jobs in our class is to think about how we mesh learning important content and skills with opportunities to solidify this learning through processes that resonate with individuals and the group as a whole. That is - let's learn about physics in some traditional ways (maybe even some lectures) but build our knowledge in ways that are meaningful and robust for individual students.
Couple of more things: The ADHD issues was somewhat of a focus on many of the blogs (and I haven not finished reading these) but I actually think it was only a minor part. Not to say it was not important; just that there was a lot of other interesting ideas presented. Secondly, we are kind of stuck with the system we have. I would love to think we could make whole scale changes in the education landscape; take back our classrooms, rebel and stand up to outside forces that really don't have a clue about educational practice. But I suspect that will not happen any time soon. The challenge is to find a way to work within the system so you can decide what to do in your teaching that you know is best for your students but still work within the confines of the present school structure. It can be done. I know teachers that are quietly working within the system to re-claim their classrooms and practice. It takes will, knowledge and skill but is doable. My vision and hope is that your generation of teachers will constitute the game changers and bring sanity back to the classroom practice. A big job!
Thanks - see you later this AM.
Matt
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Ritalin Gone Wrong - NY Times Editorial
Good morning - I hope everyone is well.
Here is a New York Times editorial regarding the use of behavior modification drugs for kids. Very appropriate (if you are on this side of the argument) regarding our viewing of "Changing Education Paradigms". I definitely defer to those of you who may have had direct and possibly positive experiences with application of these medications. But you have to wonder about the long term impacts and benefits. Here is the URL
Ritalin Gone Wrong _ NY Times Editorial 1/29/12
I will be blogging more today or tomorrow.
Matt
Here is a New York Times editorial regarding the use of behavior modification drugs for kids. Very appropriate (if you are on this side of the argument) regarding our viewing of "Changing Education Paradigms". I definitely defer to those of you who may have had direct and possibly positive experiences with application of these medications. But you have to wonder about the long term impacts and benefits. Here is the URL
Ritalin Gone Wrong _ NY Times Editorial 1/29/12
I will be blogging more today or tomorrow.
Matt
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