Friday, July 24, 2015

Physics: It's Not All About the Math

Earlier in the year (or was it last year?), I had a conversation with someone (or was it a Twitter chat?) where the idea came up that when we test students in Physics, 80% (or was it 75%? or 90%?) of what we are actually testing them on is not their ability to do physics, but their ability to do math.

As you can tell, I don't remember the specifics of the conversation very well. But the idea stuck with me. How much physics am I actually asking my students to do on culminating tasks? Of course, there is a lot of applied math in Physics. But when I go back over my tests, sure enough, the majority of the time I am asking my students to perform correct algorithms, not explain the Physics behind the question.

A Lot of Math

Here's a typical question from a quiz last year:


I would hope, first and foremost, that students would read the question carefully, and figure out what they need to do and/or which equation to use, based on their knowledge of the subject matter and the information given in the problem.

But I'm not asking them to show this thinking. All I'm asking them to do is predict the height of the diving board. Showing me this, would get them full marks/Level 4+ : 



While I would give students credit for being "on the right track," even if mathematical errors prevent them from obtaining the correct answer, this, by and large, is a math question. A common major mistake on this type of question involves students not understanding either what they are given in the question or what they are being asked to do, and as a result, selecting the wrong formula to eventually apply. 

Students aren't showing me the reasoning behind choosing that formula/method, because I am not asking them to.

So now I'm re-thinking how I approach testing students on the physics. The math is still important - I don't want to get rid of that completely - but it shouldn't be the only way students can show their thinking for these types of questions. 

A New Type of Question

Here is what I would ideally like students to do:

1) DESCRIBE the procedure they would use to solve a question, 
2) ESTIMATE the solution to the question, and then...
3) PREDICT the solution the question.

Along these lines, perhaps, here is how I might rephrase the question next year: 


In part a), I'm hoping students give proper thought to how they attack the question. Will having them make their thinking visible help them choose the correct formula or recognize which algorithm to use? Do they understand that the gravitational potential energy of an object depends on three things: its mass, acceleration due to gravity, and height? And will practice communicating this reasoning help them better understand the concepts?

In part b), the multiple choice question might seem obvious, but it amazes me how many students will submit a wildly unfeasible solution (skiers accelerating downhill at 40m/s/s, a piece of metal being dropped in hot water only to end up with a lower temperature, etc.) because they are not thinking about what their answer means.

I'm hoping that a question like this will get the students thinking about what their answer is likely to be, and then recognize if their answer is wildly off. I anticipate that some students might skip over this and come back to it after they have predicted the end result (in order to get the "right" answer), but even this might help students realize if they are in the right ballpark; if their answer actually makes sense.

Part c) is basically the same as the original quiz question, asking the students to "do the math" to determine the height.


In the end, I want students to move away from blindly choosing an equation and then pushing through the math in an attempt to solve the question, thinking it is "all about the math." I also want them to make sure they know why they are choosing one method over the other, and not just because "the variables match." 

I'm hoping the focus on math will lessen over time, to be replaced with greater focus on understanding the actual physics behind the problems we solve together.

Do you teach Physics? How do you balance the physics with the math in your classes? How do you present test questions to your students? I'd love to see more ideas!

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Genius Hour - Year 1

After reading Daniel Pink's Drive, and hearing about the success of passion projects from colleagues, this year I wanted to try doing Genius Hour with one of my classes. Here is how we did it!


Getting Started

Here is the document (and videos) we started with:

Topics: While a true passion project could be about any topic whatsoever, because I was trying this with a science class, I required that students choose a topic that had something to do with science. In the end, this only limited the students a tiny bit (they couldn't choose to learn how to knit, or how to play the guitar for example, UNLESS they could tie in some science).

Criteria: The only criteria we had for the "final project," was that the students had to share what they had learned throughout the semester. Throughout the project, students had to consider with whom they would be sharing (the class? the local community? the world?), and how they would be sharing
(a presentation to class?, on bristol board in the school foyer? a website to be pushed out to the world? a video to be shared with elementary schools?). The projects were not marked.

Time: We spent every Friday on our projects. Friday was our 90-minute period, so we would spend 70 minutes on research, and then 20 minutes on blogging.

Blogs: The student blogs were a chance for the students to document what they had learned during the week, pose questions and "wonders" to guide them the following week, as well as learn about what their classmates were discovering.



Then the Magic Happened

Here are the project blogs and links (where applicable) to how each student/group shared their learning:

It was great to see the students so intrinsically engaged with their projects. From reading about others' experiences, I had expected the students to be willing to put in the work (which they were), but I did not expect the change in noise level: instead of the excitement of working on whatever they wanted to elevating the overall noise level, the sheer focus of everyone in the room actually made Fridays the quietest day of the week!

As the students worked, there were a number of amazing highlights. Perhaps the most noteworthy events came because of the students' blogs:







Rough Spots

Due to job action, students were out of classes for a month in April and May. Because of this hiccough... 

  • The projects were abbreviated - some students didn't have enough time to explore their topic as deeply as they would have liked;
  • I didn't get a chance to bring in the mentors as I would have liked, providing an outside influence for the students;
  • It was tough to get back into the swing of things after the break. When one student asked if she HAD to work on her Genius Hour project, I replied "Don't you want to work on it?" She said she did, but that was months ago;
  • Several groups never completed the expectation of sharing the project, not showing up on the last day of classes to present to the group, or not getting their website finished.


The Take-Away? 

I have never seen a project foster intrinsic learning as much as this project did. Students were engaged, anxious to show me (and others) what they had learned, and more willing to try new things without teacher guidance. In one-on-one discussions with the students, I was also quite impressed with the amount of science vocabulary that snuck into the conversation! Talk about making your learning real. 

I am thankful for the ORION tablets this class received earlier in the year, as they allowed us to create and maintain our blogs as well as reach out to the world by creating websites and engaging in discussions with people outside the classroom. I am fortunate to have another grade 9 science class next year, and will certainly be doing Genius Hour with them again.



Saturday, July 4, 2015

Reflections on ISTE2015

This past week, I was fortunate to be able to travel to Philadelphia and attend the annual ISTE conference for the first time. Now that I'm back, a lot of friends are asking me...

How was ISTE??

It was Huge

I am used to attending and presenting at board-wide PD days, provincial subject conferences (like STAO), and even national astronomy conferences (like CASCA). But none of that prepared me for the sheer size of ISTE. Depending who you ask, counts ranged from 14,000 to 20,000 attendees. Though I live in a rural area, I grew up in large cities so I don't often feel small-town. But here, I definitely did.

The convention centre itself was several city blocks and though I didn't have a fitbit, I imagine we were like the many participants who reported walking over 5 miles a day just back and forth through the conference.


ISTE Central in the Grand Hall:
registration, commons, the ISTE store and various booths

It took us two days to see everything in the The Expo Hall, it was so large. It was quite shocking to be wandering through the hall and then stumble upon an entire bus at one company's pavilion. And then a second entire bus further into the hall (upon reflection, the Expo Hall was on the second floor of the convention centre... how did the buses even get up there?!).

Keynote attendees lined up more than an hour in advance, and once inside the lecture hall (which was more like a giant television studio), were treated to a concert-like atmosphere, featuring ISTE's "house band" (which was the Big City All Stars from Winnipeg!). It was unlike any conference I had ever attended, and it was all very overwhelming.
Opening of the first keynote talk, with about 8,000 people in attendance


It was Humbling

With such large numbers of educators, it was a humbling experience to be a small fish in such a big pond. But it was also with whom I was attending the conference that made it a humbling experience overall. I was able to attend sessions by educational gurus such as Nicholas Provenzano (of @TheNerdyTeacher fame), Jeff Bradbury (of @TeacherCast fame), Rafranz Davis (@RafranzDavis), and Sam Patterson (@SamPatue & @WokkaPatue; unbeknownst to him, he was the first to introduce me to the power of student blogging) among others. 

My husband went to a session by, in his words, "some motivational guy" who turned out to be George Couros (!!). I passed by educators - such as @cybraryman1, @mssackstein, and @kitty_tripp - who populate my Twitter feed on a regular basis. I was more than a little starstruck (and perhaps even slightly fangirling), but it was very empowering to know that we were all at the same conference, all of us exploring and sharing the best use of technology to improve the educational experience for our students.

These are all teachers who make a big impact on my education world, and in a leadership sense, I would like to follow in their footsteps in my own way at some point. It was humbling to just be in the same room as many of them. In the end, I was too shy to go up and introduce myself, despite the encouragement received from my friends back home. Maybe next time.


So, the only "famous" person I had the courage to go say
hi to was Moby, the BrainPOP robot.

It was Comforting

Since starting this whole BYOD adventure, I've often felt like I've been the one reinventing the wheel. I know I'm not the only one trying this in my school or board, but I am one of the first to completely change my classes over to this no-lecture, all student-based style of learning on a large scale. Reaching out on Twitter, I've made many connections with Ontario teachers trying similar things, and those relationships have been invaluable.

So it was comforting to not only be surrounded by other teachers from around the world who are largely also trying new things in their school/board/district, but to also have the chance to meet with some of the educators whose journeys have crossed paths with mine, and from whom I've been able to seek feedback and encouragement over the past two years.


Meeting up with @misspollock and @rolat for the first time face-to-face.

Despite my relative anonymity moving through the conference, I did not come away from the experience feeling alone. I feel more connected, and more convinced that I am indeed moving in the right educational direction for me.


It was Inspiring

Several times throughout the conference, various speakers made reference to the fact that they were addressing very dedicated teachers - teachers that willingly give up part of their summer and spend not insignificant amounts of money to attend conferences like these in order to become better at what they do. I found it inspirational to see and hear how these other teachers were changing the game. There are a lot of people working toward bettering the education system, and it was so inspiring to be among them.

As a different source of inspiration, one particular session stood out. As "flipped gurus" Jon Bergmann (@jonbergmann) and Aaron Sams (@chemicalsams) led the audience through what they found worked when it came to flipping content, they also spoke about what they tried that didn't work. It was very motivational to hear how they dealt with their mistakes and moved on. Even these bigger names in education struggle with some of the same things I struggle with, and sometimes that alone provides me with the encouragement to keep going.


Aaron's & Jon's Flipped Classroom talk

It was Worth Repeating

It goes without saying that there was way more content at this conference than anyone could reasonably take in. There was always something to learn or someone to learn from, and I would jump at the chance to repeat the ISTE experience.

This year, I chose to focus on attending presentation sessions almost the whole time, taking meticulous notes so as to benefit the members of my TLLP team that couldn't attend. That meant, though, that I didn't get to experiment much with new tools and toys in any of the three playgrounds that were constantly on the go, hang out in the bloggers' café to take time to reflect, or visit with many of the poster sessions. While I absorbed a lot, I didn't make many personal connections, which any of these other activities would have led me to. I would definitely change that next time.

We also chose to stay further out from the conference to save on hotel costs, but if I was to attend again, I would prefer to be closer to the action in order to participate in some of the extra community activities, like the ISTE 5k run, or the Canadian ISTE gathering, or even just informal get-togethers with newly-met colleagues.

And even more so, I hope that some day I can go back as a presenter to share what I've struggled with and learned, and perhaps inspire others to try something new.