The first assessment of the year happened in my Electric Circuits class. I am adding in “practical objectives” to the list of skills, so the test included building a simple circuit. (This is Unit 1, folks.) I’m sure it seemed trivial to them today, but I was really glad to see them all find it so easy since it wasn’t an obvious task (even when looking … Continue reading Day 4: Circuits Assessment and Whiteboarding Motion Diagrams
We started class by talking about my weird and hippie grading ways. Then we took our first quiz. I didn’t announce it ahead of time because I thought it would be better if we talked about how the grading would work right before they took it (and minimized the potential anxiety about assessments and grades). I think that worked well. Here’s what it looks like … Continue reading Day 12: First Quiz and Density Experiment in Chem 9
Kinematics is clicking into place for the Mechanics students. We wrapped up the TIPERs problems in our packet (including whiteboarding), and we’re ready to add in the quantitative side by using the graphs to solve problems. For this problem, there was a lively discussion about tangent lines (ARE THEY REAL OR MADE UP???), the intermediate value theorem, and whether you could say two things had the same speed … Continue reading Day 8: “Aha” moments with kinematics graphs
The 10th grade spent most of this class period watching Selma for their history class, but they came back for the last 20 minutes or so to take a quiz. Here are a couple of interesting snapshots from that assessment. First, this set of x-t and v-t graphs drawn in a way that I’d never seen before. The matching of the shape for x-t and v-t … Continue reading Day 16: Quiz and Student Work
I started the day at a coffee shop writing on the tests from last class so that I could return them this morning. And just overall being psyched about what these kids can do. For a variety of reasons, these students were ready to interact with the test in just the kinds of ways that I wanted (even though it was their first graded assessment). … Continue reading Day 9: Students Interacting with Test Questions
We spent the first half of class working on problems in groups and figuring out how to use the area under velocity-time graphs. Then we pulled the tables apart and took our first test. Or quiz. Or celebration of mastery. Or fun educational experience. Or, really though, started a trimester-long one-on-one conversation about what’s going well and where each student can improve. Continue reading Day 8: First CVPM Test
Yesterday, we took our first test in Physics 9. Today, we started off class by using random.org to make new groups (big hit with this class for some reason!). Then I gave each table one blank copy of the test (they hadn’t seen their own tests and didn’t know their scores yet). They worked through it together. Then they whiteboarded those problems. I like this activity because … Continue reading Day 19: What to do after the test
Today’s 9th grade physics class started off with students writing notes on their free quizzes. (Not graded—just feedback.) Then we went back to figuring out how to do some experiments to determine the equations for some flavors of energy. Since they all have iPads, we’re trying to use Video Physics to take data. To crack open the problem, they need to know some quantity of … Continue reading Day 13: Ug-o-meters and a New Energy Experiment in Physics 9
O'Shea Physics 180 