Sometimes I think teachers might feel overwhelmed by the numerous reports of doomsday in the news media and almost countless organizations all proclaiming more and more is needed out of our K- 12 students and teachers. If anyone bothers to look back through time, they will find that nothing is new. When I first started teaching there was considerable clamor then, as there is today, that our students are failing and more was needed of our teaches. From time to time some new teaching strategy was going to be the answer. The answer usually turned out to be more of a fad than the answer. If the magical single answer existed, someone would have found it by now. The magical answer is the classroom teacher must use a broad set of teaching strategies, lots of tools in the toolbag. Many interesting strategies that can be easily adapted by any teacher into the classroom were studied in this course and they can be added to the toolbag.
Problem based learning (PBL) and the QuickQuest were interesting tools to study and consider adding to the toolbag. Problem based learning is a significant component in the study of physics, but it was interesting to see how PBL is thought of and used outside the arena of physics. Everyone tends to agree that real world problems are good. I agree, but with a note of caution. Real world problems in physics tend to be very, very difficult. If this is true in physics, then it is true in other areas of study, and it is very easy to overwhelm students. The design of the QuickQuest was new and interesting. It’s a nice way to intertwine the latest technology with meaningful classroom activities. Students gain experience searching the Internet for information and learning how to assess the validity of the information, a nice lifelong skill.
A note of caution:
As I worked my way through this course I noticed new layers of expectations (or expectations reformulated) placed over the K - 12 students and teachers. There is nothing wrong with the expectations, in fact they are very reasonable and necessary, but only if they are put into perspective. A given level of competence for a defined 21st Century skill means something different in sixth grade verses eleventh grade. It is plausible that many 21st Century skill development activities are now occurring in the classroom and thoughtful judgment should be applied when considering an increase in activities aimed at 21st Century skill development. Time is finite, when a new activity is added in the classroom, something else must go. Can it be verified that the new is better than the old?
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Developing the QuickQuest
Creative Process:
The starting point of the creative process was thinking about a topic that could be taught in another way. A topic that needed a change in the teaching strategy is how basic optics applies to three common atmosphere phenomena. To upgrade the teaching strategy for this topic I began perusing the many strategies discussed in this course and selecting those that seemed most applicable. I tried to visualize how I could combine several strategies into a single effective learning experience for the students. I started with an obvious strategy for me, problem based learning. I than did a little brainstorming to develop a selection of different types of problems and I selected a problem that had the best chance of incorporating several teaching strategies. After working on a general outline of the problem I discovered the teaching strategies that could be incorporated are problem based learning, the Big6, a real world application, an internet search that requires several sources including an assessment of the validity of the sources, and an end product that is ill defined and requires creativity. Once I had this ambitious set of strategies, I began putting together the general structure in Mod 5. In Mod 7 I recognized this was a good problem to adapt to a QuickQuest. Frankly some of the QuickQuests I reviewed looked a little to cook bookish to me.
I decided to approach the writing of the QuickQuest as though I were writing a story as a way to try and capture the interest of the students. I had a general outline of the first section in mind and starting writing. As I was writing the first section I discovered I could incorporate important pieces of information as part of the story similar to a detective story. Some of the information is extraneous and the students must pick between what is and is not important. The darkened glasses, the time of day and the cold weather are all important pieces of information. At this stage I discovered I could construct the problem to include a mystery: Why did only one person see the green flash? The second part of the QuickQuest is basically an outline of the expectations and requirements to solve the problem. Nothing fancy here but it did take some work to make it fit with the overall story line.
I plan to use the problem after all the necessary background basic optical properties are covered. The QuickQuest will be assigned as a group project and time will be given in class for the students to get started. I am opposed to the concept of a group grade for a group project, thus each student will turn in their own work, but they are free to collaborate as needed.
I have several outcomes in mind:
1. The students recognize that a good foundation of basic properties can be used to understand everyday physical phenomena.
2. Real world scenarios as related by lay people are messy and require careful sifting and winnowing of information.
3. The Internet can be reliably used to gain new information and knowledge in physics.
4. The information on the Internet must be assessed for relevance and accuracy.
5. The students can explain sundogs, sun columns, and the green flash using ordinary optical properties.
The starting point of the creative process was thinking about a topic that could be taught in another way. A topic that needed a change in the teaching strategy is how basic optics applies to three common atmosphere phenomena. To upgrade the teaching strategy for this topic I began perusing the many strategies discussed in this course and selecting those that seemed most applicable. I tried to visualize how I could combine several strategies into a single effective learning experience for the students. I started with an obvious strategy for me, problem based learning. I than did a little brainstorming to develop a selection of different types of problems and I selected a problem that had the best chance of incorporating several teaching strategies. After working on a general outline of the problem I discovered the teaching strategies that could be incorporated are problem based learning, the Big6, a real world application, an internet search that requires several sources including an assessment of the validity of the sources, and an end product that is ill defined and requires creativity. Once I had this ambitious set of strategies, I began putting together the general structure in Mod 5. In Mod 7 I recognized this was a good problem to adapt to a QuickQuest. Frankly some of the QuickQuests I reviewed looked a little to cook bookish to me.
I decided to approach the writing of the QuickQuest as though I were writing a story as a way to try and capture the interest of the students. I had a general outline of the first section in mind and starting writing. As I was writing the first section I discovered I could incorporate important pieces of information as part of the story similar to a detective story. Some of the information is extraneous and the students must pick between what is and is not important. The darkened glasses, the time of day and the cold weather are all important pieces of information. At this stage I discovered I could construct the problem to include a mystery: Why did only one person see the green flash? The second part of the QuickQuest is basically an outline of the expectations and requirements to solve the problem. Nothing fancy here but it did take some work to make it fit with the overall story line.
I plan to use the problem after all the necessary background basic optical properties are covered. The QuickQuest will be assigned as a group project and time will be given in class for the students to get started. I am opposed to the concept of a group grade for a group project, thus each student will turn in their own work, but they are free to collaborate as needed.
I have several outcomes in mind:
1. The students recognize that a good foundation of basic properties can be used to understand everyday physical phenomena.
2. Real world scenarios as related by lay people are messy and require careful sifting and winnowing of information.
3. The Internet can be reliably used to gain new information and knowledge in physics.
4. The information on the Internet must be assessed for relevance and accuracy.
5. The students can explain sundogs, sun columns, and the green flash using ordinary optical properties.
Strange Sightings - QuickQuest
Strange Sightings
Opening Scene:
Your team of three reporters work for a venerable newspaper called the City Times and the team has just received shocking news. The City Times has been purchased by a competing local paper called Big City News and the new owners have decided that the City Times will cease printing a daily paper and the current City News wed site will be enhanced to replace the paper. Everyone who works for the City Times paper is concerned about their jobs. No doubt people are going to loose their jobs, certainly the first to go are those people who run the printing presses. The new owners are certain to examine the need of everyone, and decide who to keep and who to go. The unusual cold and snowy winter and especially the bitter cold winter day just seem to add to the gloom of everyone.
Then just after 10 A.M., the editor appears at her office door and waves at your team. It is a summons to go to her office. This seems to be an ordinary summons but everyone is a little edgy and move with a quicker step than usual to the office. Lost in the din of the news of the sale was the excited movement of a group of citizens of the city through the newsroom to the editor’s office. Upon entering the packed office your team notices the group is a good representative cross section of the population of the city. And your team notices that everyone is starting to unbundle their heavy coats and two people have removed their darkened photogray glasses. How did so many people get into the office without being noticed? Regardless they are here and they all appear to be very excited. They were all seeing some unusual effects on or near the sun earlier today but their descriptions were had to follow. And they made it clear; they wanted to know what they saw.
A comparison of notes after the citizens left revealed the following:
Phenomenon 1 - Two bright spots on each side of the sun.
Phenomenon 2 – Early in morning a bright glow appeared to be sitting on top of the sun in the shape close to a tall thin rectangle.
Phenomenon 3 – As the sun raised above the horizon its color was reddish-orange, suddenly it turns green momentarily, then back to reddish-orange.
Everyone in the group claims to have seen 1 and 2, but only one person claims to have seen number 3.
The Deadline:
Everyone is feeling the pressure in the editor’s office. The citizens are gone but not silenced. They will go around the city and tell everyone about reporting their sightings to the newspaper. Soon people will be calling City News or checking the web site to get information about the strange sightings.
The editor assigns to your team the task of identifying and explaining how each phenomenon occurs using basic physics properties, and to solve the mystery. Why did only one person report seeing phenomenon 3? And of course pictures are always good.
The editor is very experienced and will not tolerate sloppy reporting and directs the team to use a problem solving strategy called the Big6TM to ensure reliable conclusions. The editor insists that each step of the Big6TM must be followed to help in identifying and explaining each phenomenon.
She directs your team to the following web sites:
http://www.big6.com/showarticle.php?id=16
http://nb.wsd.wednet.edu/big6/big6_resources.htm
http://www.fortbend.k12.tx.us/library/big6.htm
http://205.213.162.11/project_big6/big6/big6.htm
As usual the information will be posted on the City Times’ web site as soon as the editor deems the identities and explanations of the phenomena accurate. The editor reminds you to submit a word document of your report that contains a complete, concise and clear explanation, including diagrams and photos of each phenomenon. The editor also emphasizes the report must be in final copy form with hot links to all web resources.
Your team reassembles in the newsroom and begins brainstorming to outline what must be done for the article, and everyone is aware of the deadline. One team member suggests that maybe trying to visualize the phenomena might help.
Pathfinder:
**** http://alltheweb.com
Search terms - sun phenomenon
Sample Results:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_phenomenon
Gives a nice list of optical phenomena and includes short descriptions and photographs of several phenomena. Many new search terms can be generated from this site.
http://www.astrophys-assist.com/wilobs/weathwin/sundog.htm
Contains photos and a description of “sun dogs”, this is one of the optical effects the students are looking for. This site does not contain an explanation of the effect. No adds on this site.
**** http://www.altavista.com/web/adv
Search terms – sky optics
Sample Results:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halosim.htm
A science oriented site, there are no adds. Contains many links to numerous optical effects. Contains explanations of the effects. Contains a searchable index that leads to many other good resources.
http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/index.html
Contains an outstanding explanation of the “green flash” and photos.
**** http://www.ask.com
Search terms – green flash, sunset
Sample Results:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/redsun.html
Contains nice photos and simple but effective ray diagrams that help explain the phenomena. Science oriented site – no adds.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_061.html
More of a lay persons explanation of the phenomena. Has some good comments but lacks a good explanation for the uniformed and no photos.
**** http://www.exalead.com/search/C=0/?2p=1
Search terms - sun pillars
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/ice/sp.rxml
Science oriented site. Nice photos and contains a very sparce explanation of the phenomena.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/06may_pillar.htm
Nice NASA site. Contains it all photos and explanations. The bonus is the site show the phenomena is not restricted to the sun.
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/790.html
A limited site. Contains one poor quality picture and a very wordy explanation.
**** http://www.google.com/advanced_search
Search terms – refraction, reflection, light, optical sky phenomenon (just for the fun of it)
http://science.jrank.org/pages/612/Atmospheric-Optical-Phenomena.html
Contains a list of many phenomena with links to each. The links lead to limited explanations and no photos.
http://www.auf.asn.au/meteorology/section12.html
An extensive Australian science oriented site that contains good explanations for most phenomena. No photos!
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/home.rxml
Science oriented site with brief explanations and links to more extensive explanations and photos.
http://www.cityes.org/natural-phenomena-in-geology.html
Boooo for this site. Contains hard to follow explanations of phenomena. This site seems to be designed to catch younger web surfers so they will view and click the advertisement.
**** http://www.ditto.com/default.aspx
Search term – sun pillars
A site that contains only photos. Enter Sun Pillars. Click on a photo and it leads to the original site that contains the photo. Some photos do not contain a sun pillar, so a person must have some background knowledge to use the search results effectively.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Pathfinder
Activity 1 - Information Access and Web 2.0
In Mod 5 I outlined a problem were the students must identify three optical phenomena based on vague descriptions that lay people might convey to a reporter of a newspaper. The students themselves are not familiar with the phenomena and must do some searching to identify and develop an explanation for each phenomenon. So I tried to conduct my searches in a manner the students might try. Here are the results.
**** http://alltheweb.com
Search terms - sun phenomenon
Sample Results:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_phenomenon
Gives a nice list of optical phenomena and includes short descriptions and photographs of several phenomena. Many new search terms can be generated from this site.
http://www.astrophys-assist.com/wilobs/weathwin/sundog.htm
Contains photos and a description of “sun dogs”, this is one of the optical effects the students are looking for. This site does not contain an explanation of the effect. No adds on this site.
**** http://www.altavista.com/web/adv
Search terms – sky optics
Sample Results:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halosim.htm
A science oriented site, there are no adds. Contains many links to numerous optical effects. Contains explanations of the effects. Contains a searchable index that leads to many other good resources.
http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/index.html
Contains an outstanding explanation of the “green flash” and photos.
**** http://www.ask.com
Search terms – green flash, sunset
Sample Results:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/redsun.html
Contains nice photos and simple but effective ray diagrams that help explain the phenomena. Science oriented site – no adds.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_061.html
More of a lay persons explanation of the phenomena. Has some good comments but lacks a good explanation for the uniformed and no photos.
**** http://www.exalead.com/search/C=0/?2p=1
Search terms - sun pillars
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/ice/sp.rxml
Science oriented site. Nice photos and contains a very sparse explanation of the phenomena.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/06may_pillar.htm
Nice NASA site. Contains it all - photos and explanations. The bonus is the site shows the phenomena is not restricted to the sun.
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/790.html
A limited site. Contains one poor quality picture and a very wordy explanation.
**** http://www.google.com/advanced_search
Search terms – refraction, reflection, light, optical sky phenomenon (just for the fun of it)
http://science.jrank.org/pages/612/Atmospheric-Optical-Phenomena.html
Contains a list of many phenomena with links to each. The links lead to limited explanations and no photos.
http://www.auf.asn.au/meteorology/section12.html
An extensive Australian science oriented site that contains good explanations for most phenomena. No photos!
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/home.rxml
Science oriented site with brief explanations and links to more extensive explanations and photos.
http://www.cityes.org/natural-phenomena-in-geology.html
Boooo for this site. Contains hard to follow explanations of phenomena. This site seems to be designed to catch younger web surfers so they will view and click the advertisement.
**** http://www.ditto.com/default.aspx
Search term – sun pillars
http://www.ditto.com/searchResults.aspx
A site that contains only photos. First type in sun pillars. Click on a photo and it leads to the original site that contains the photo. Some photos do not contain a sun pillar, so a person must have some background knowledge to use the search results effectively.
If I used a good combination of key words all of the search engines I tried returned good results. Even a poor selection of key words would usually return results that could be used to generate a better selection of key words. Two search engines gave me the poorest results, if poor key words were used in Ask.com and ditto.com, the results were almost useless. Neither one seemed to give a hint of what I was looking for if I started with a poorly selected key word search. However if I improved the key word search, than the results were good or very good.
In Mod 5 I outlined a problem were the students must identify three optical phenomena based on vague descriptions that lay people might convey to a reporter of a newspaper. The students themselves are not familiar with the phenomena and must do some searching to identify and develop an explanation for each phenomenon. So I tried to conduct my searches in a manner the students might try. Here are the results.
**** http://alltheweb.com
Search terms - sun phenomenon
Sample Results:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_phenomenon
Gives a nice list of optical phenomena and includes short descriptions and photographs of several phenomena. Many new search terms can be generated from this site.
http://www.astrophys-assist.com/wilobs/weathwin/sundog.htm
Contains photos and a description of “sun dogs”, this is one of the optical effects the students are looking for. This site does not contain an explanation of the effect. No adds on this site.
**** http://www.altavista.com/web/adv
Search terms – sky optics
Sample Results:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halosim.htm
A science oriented site, there are no adds. Contains many links to numerous optical effects. Contains explanations of the effects. Contains a searchable index that leads to many other good resources.
http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/index.html
Contains an outstanding explanation of the “green flash” and photos.
**** http://www.ask.com
Search terms – green flash, sunset
Sample Results:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/redsun.html
Contains nice photos and simple but effective ray diagrams that help explain the phenomena. Science oriented site – no adds.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_061.html
More of a lay persons explanation of the phenomena. Has some good comments but lacks a good explanation for the uniformed and no photos.
**** http://www.exalead.com/search/C=0/?2p=1
Search terms - sun pillars
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/ice/sp.rxml
Science oriented site. Nice photos and contains a very sparse explanation of the phenomena.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/06may_pillar.htm
Nice NASA site. Contains it all - photos and explanations. The bonus is the site shows the phenomena is not restricted to the sun.
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/790.html
A limited site. Contains one poor quality picture and a very wordy explanation.
**** http://www.google.com/advanced_search
Search terms – refraction, reflection, light, optical sky phenomenon (just for the fun of it)
http://science.jrank.org/pages/612/Atmospheric-Optical-Phenomena.html
Contains a list of many phenomena with links to each. The links lead to limited explanations and no photos.
http://www.auf.asn.au/meteorology/section12.html
An extensive Australian science oriented site that contains good explanations for most phenomena. No photos!
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/home.rxml
Science oriented site with brief explanations and links to more extensive explanations and photos.
http://www.cityes.org/natural-phenomena-in-geology.html
Boooo for this site. Contains hard to follow explanations of phenomena. This site seems to be designed to catch younger web surfers so they will view and click the advertisement.
**** http://www.ditto.com/default.aspx
Search term – sun pillars
http://www.ditto.com/searchResults.aspx
A site that contains only photos. First type in sun pillars. Click on a photo and it leads to the original site that contains the photo. Some photos do not contain a sun pillar, so a person must have some background knowledge to use the search results effectively.
If I used a good combination of key words all of the search engines I tried returned good results. Even a poor selection of key words would usually return results that could be used to generate a better selection of key words. Two search engines gave me the poorest results, if poor key words were used in Ask.com and ditto.com, the results were almost useless. Neither one seemed to give a hint of what I was looking for if I started with a poorly selected key word search. However if I improved the key word search, than the results were good or very good.
New Classroom Resources and Tools
Important questions any teacher should ask are: What resources and tools are currently being used in the classroom? And should additional resources and tools be incorporated into the classroom? The process of thinking about the questions and taking action helps to improve the classroom experience for the students year after year. The current and emerging web tools can be used as additional resources for the classroom. It will take some time and dedicated effort to effectively incorporate the web tools into the classroom. There will be successful integration of some tools and there will be some failures.
A positive result of using the web tools is the students will feel connected to the latest and greatest. Some of the work the students are doing in classroom may seem esoteric to them, but if the tools they are using are at the leading edge of web technology, the students may feel a better connection between the classroom and the outside world. This will not prove to be the great panacea for improved student attention, engagement, and learning, but it will help. I suspect most students like to feel they are learning to use the latest and greatest; after all they are usually the early adopters of the latest technology.
For my classes, I will generally incorporate new resources, tools and technology along with the corresponding new teaching strategies if I can see a way to improve the learning process or add an interesting new twist to learning. Currently I do not rely on the web. In fact, I tend to keep the students directed at specifically focused information. If the information is not focused, then the students tend to get lost and trial off in directions that usually cause confusion.
I do believe there is a way to use the web in my classes that can limit distractions for the students. The general process I have in mind is once the students have developed a reasonable level of competence for a set of properties such as refraction, reflection, and diffraction, they can search the web for every day ordinary phenomena involving the properties. The concept is if the students have proper level of competence, they should be able to differentiate between good and bad information by evaluating the proper usage the properties of a given web site. This will give the students a better change to determine if the information on a web site is viable and allow the student to write a reliable report about a specific natural phenomenon.
A positive result of using the web tools is the students will feel connected to the latest and greatest. Some of the work the students are doing in classroom may seem esoteric to them, but if the tools they are using are at the leading edge of web technology, the students may feel a better connection between the classroom and the outside world. This will not prove to be the great panacea for improved student attention, engagement, and learning, but it will help. I suspect most students like to feel they are learning to use the latest and greatest; after all they are usually the early adopters of the latest technology.
For my classes, I will generally incorporate new resources, tools and technology along with the corresponding new teaching strategies if I can see a way to improve the learning process or add an interesting new twist to learning. Currently I do not rely on the web. In fact, I tend to keep the students directed at specifically focused information. If the information is not focused, then the students tend to get lost and trial off in directions that usually cause confusion.
I do believe there is a way to use the web in my classes that can limit distractions for the students. The general process I have in mind is once the students have developed a reasonable level of competence for a set of properties such as refraction, reflection, and diffraction, they can search the web for every day ordinary phenomena involving the properties. The concept is if the students have proper level of competence, they should be able to differentiate between good and bad information by evaluating the proper usage the properties of a given web site. This will give the students a better change to determine if the information on a web site is viable and allow the student to write a reliable report about a specific natural phenomenon.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
The Problem Solving Process
I use a problem solving process every time I explain how to do a problem in class, which closely follows a process outlined in the textbook. In the beginning, I call out the steps as I go through the process, the same steps used in the book. At the start of the semester I find that the students don't follow the process, they just fumble throughout the problems. It takes time and practice to accept and use the process.
It is midterm as of Friday this week (lots of grading) so I thought I should ask the class to outline the steps to follow in solving problems as a way to connect my physics class with the course we are in. Here are the results, the words vary a little from the Big6 model but the process and themes are basically the same:
Here is the list generated today in Physics 1 for solving word problems:
1. What is the question? (Read - Read - Read again.)
2. Identify data stated or implied.
3. Gather more information (diagrams, equations, theory).
4. Analyze.
5. Solve.
6. Check. Is the answer reasonable? What is learned?
I think steps 2 and 3 can be collapsed into one step, but the students felt there is a distinction between data given in a problem and other information such as equations that are used to solve the problem. I also think a better word for step 6 is evaluate, but the students are more concerned about getting the correct answer and not too concerned about going beyond that.
After we generated the list, we talked about using it to solve a physics problem that was on the board. Then taking a cue from this class, I prompted the physics class to talk about what happens in each step for an ordinary problem such as buying a car. The students caught on quickly and lots of ideas were generated.
The biggest take away in this module is perhaps asking students to apply the problem solving process to problems of a context different than physics problems is helpful.
It is midterm as of Friday this week (lots of grading) so I thought I should ask the class to outline the steps to follow in solving problems as a way to connect my physics class with the course we are in. Here are the results, the words vary a little from the Big6 model but the process and themes are basically the same:
Here is the list generated today in Physics 1 for solving word problems:
1. What is the question? (Read - Read - Read again.)
2. Identify data stated or implied.
3. Gather more information (diagrams, equations, theory).
4. Analyze.
5. Solve.
6. Check. Is the answer reasonable? What is learned?
I think steps 2 and 3 can be collapsed into one step, but the students felt there is a distinction between data given in a problem and other information such as equations that are used to solve the problem. I also think a better word for step 6 is evaluate, but the students are more concerned about getting the correct answer and not too concerned about going beyond that.
After we generated the list, we talked about using it to solve a physics problem that was on the board. Then taking a cue from this class, I prompted the physics class to talk about what happens in each step for an ordinary problem such as buying a car. The students caught on quickly and lots of ideas were generated.
The biggest take away in this module is perhaps asking students to apply the problem solving process to problems of a context different than physics problems is helpful.
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