Hey guys! [Turn on hover disc. Wait a moment. Turn it off.] Something new! Let’s look at it! I want to show you something cool. Let’s all sit on the floor right here. [Get everyone sitting in a circle in the middle of the room on the tile floor. Turn the hover disc back on.… Read More Building the Balanced Force Particle Model
Now that we are out of September, my students have enough work to do outside of class that I don’t need to assign any specific homework. Still, this view of in-class and out-of-class work is a huge paradigm shift for my students. Do they still have physics homework if there’s never anything “due” or that… Read More Effort vs Luck
Last spring, a large number of students at my school observed a day of silence. Since so many of my students wouldn’t be speaking in class, and since I don’t find it very productive for me to do the talking in class, I decided to come up with an alternate plan. I decided to have… Read More Monk Whiteboarding
My Honors Physics exam is a Big Deal. Most of my students do their best work of the semester, and the test itself is the most difficult they’ve seen. It is their final opportunity to demonstrate mastery, depth of understanding, and creative thinking. The final preparation for this test is therefore very important. For the… Read More Physics Exam Review: Recitation Problems
Whiteboarding sessions have been stagnating in one of my regular physics classes for a while. The class has a lot of loud, goofy personalities, and tends to lose focus when their group isn’t presenting (or, honestly, even when their group is up front). At the same time, that class has been crushing the other section… Read More The Mistake Game
In response to a comment asking for a list of the objectives that I’ve been using in my classes, here there are. These are the objectives through the end of the third quarter in both of my classes. The lists are very similar. The main differences are: some of the A objectives in Honors Physics… Read More Physics Objectives So Far
I talked about my use of goal-less problems on my physics semester exam. The essential idea is that the question is actually just a description of a situation. The student’s job is to model the situation as best they can using the physics they know. First step: say which models apply and why. Second step: draw… Read More Goal-less problems
Here are the responses to one of the questions on my course evaluation. This is the first semester I’ve ever used standards-based grading, and it is a huge paradigm shift for these kids. Almost everyone likes the system (or says that they do). Some posed good critique and questions about it. Some had misunderstandings about… Read More First Semester Course Evaluations
I teach physics and grade with a standards-based grading system. We’ve been formatively assessing (and reassessing) all semester. In my view, the purpose of a summative assessment like the semester exam is to show (a) sustained mastery of the skills taught in the class and (b) synthesis and depth of understanding (that is, knowing both… Read More SBG & Semester Exams
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