Conceptual Change
The conceptual change literature is a testament to itself for sure. When one reads about conceptual change, one interprets that literature within one’s existing conceptual frameworks about teaching,...
View ArticleInquiry Class: Near Miss (Rambling Reflection)
Yesterday, I tried to kill inquiry class. Thankfully, I tried to kill it just before our 20 minute break, and it gave me some time to think through what just happened and where we should go next. The...
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Graphical Projectile Motion
Frank was asking about projectile motion without components. Here is a ball is shot into the air with initial velocity vi, accelerating for 3 seconds.
View ArticleInquiry
Cluster of Things from Inquiry Class: We are dissecting cow eyes on Monday. I’m excited and nervous. I get to practice dissecting on Thursday. In class, we discussed several examples of students’ light...
View ArticleMid-Semester Reflection (Part 1)
We are a little over a month into the semester. Here are some thoughts about how things are going. Teaching Procedures One goal I set for myself in my physics class was to put more care and time into...
View ArticleConceptual Change, revisited
This article from Time Magazine has me thinking about this post again. Here are some quotes (emphases added): Our minds are filled with folk science–and it gets in the way of real learning. Traditional...
View ArticleLearning to Value Systematized Ways of Thinking
How should students come to see the value of systematized ways of thinking and approaching problems? I’m not exactly sure, but I’d prefer it look more like this: As soon as I saw it disappearing from...
View Article5 things about inquiry class
Last week, when I announced we’d be dissecting cow eye’s, there was one student who thought that they might not be able to stomach it. Yesterday that student asked if they could dissect a second cow...
View ArticleStudents Questions, Students Analogies, and Instructor Thoughts
Questions from inquiry students after a day of exploring with lenses and a day of dissecting eyes: How does the eye keep from the image from getting blurry when the pupil dilates really large? If a...
View ArticleReflections on Physics Class: Labs, Graphing, and Curriculum Constraints
Physics Labs We had a little extra time in physics yesterday. Because there was no assigned reading, there was no reading quiz or sample problems to do. All we we had to do was a lab. So far, lab...
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