Good day intrepid readers! For those of you who are wondering how my new gig is going, it's a bit like this: Reading, reading, and more reading, followed by lots of writing, then some driving while thinking about the readings. Repeat.
Not graduate work- can't forget to go play!
Seriously though, it's good. I feel like I finally have a breather- not from work, of course, I'm still wicked busy- but rather a breather in the sense that I finally have a chance to step back from the everyday life of a teacher to look at my actions and how they affect student learning. It's a really rich process to go through, and I realize that one of the biggest problems today for many teachers is that they're so busy and overworked that they never get the chance to see the big picture. For example, maybe it's not that critical that you get the next worksheet formatted just right or that you select the perfect question for a test, but rather the next thing you say to a student when you're in the middle of a discussion.
I'm working with some really neat folks. The DISE faculty are awesome, and hearing my fellow doctoral cohort mates introduce themselves during our first seminar was incredible. They're working on such cool stuff that it's impossible not to be stoked just being around them. I've already had more opportunities to practice my rusty Spanish than I've had in ages- and with native speakers no less! I've also been hanging around a bit with the SALTISE research group, which is doing some incredible things with technology.
Mad props to LaTeX as always, started using BibLaTeX and it's slick, especially when paired with Zotero.
I'd like to close by saying thanks to my former students for coming up with some many great Pandora stations. Whenever I feel like my options are getting stale, I open up one of the random creations we listened to during class. Right now I'm on the Superman station (classical scores), but earlier today I was jamming to Caravan Palace. And though this might be sacrilege to my AP students, I haven't touched the smooth jazz station yet- I'm keeping the big guns in reserve!
In the spring of 2015 I read a series of blog posts about teaching social justice in physics classes. At the time I wasn't in a position to implement it (the NYS Regents exam in physics doesn't leave a ton of space for extra topics, particularly when using the Modeling curriculum as I do). This year however, I wanted to do something special with my AP Class after their exam. We had a brainstorming session and were throwing around ideas for fun projects. A rube goldberg machine, battle bots, etc. Then I added social justice to the list.
The students wanted to know what I meant. I told them that I was interested in discussing race in physics. The students immediately wanted to know what I meant, and I turned it back to them and asked what came to mind when I mentioned the topic. One was pretty sure that she/he knew, but was hesitant to share it with the class until I pushed and said that there was no wrong answer. She/he finally spit it out: "I think that when you say race in physics you mean that black people are affected by gravity differently than white people are." That statement sealed the deal- we were definitely doing this!
A quick aside: Saranac Lake High School is a public school in northern New York. We have lots of socio-economic diversity, but very little racial diversity. Roughly 1% of the student population is black, and another 1-2% is hispanic or native american. The school is 97% white. These figures aren't official, just wanted to give you a rough idea of the composition of the student body. My own background in Physics Education Research has focused primarily on gender issues. So why did I implement a unit on blacks in physics rather than females? For several reasons:
1. My physics classes have plenty of gender diversity- nearly always 50/50 split between genders. They achieve at different levels (as indicated by normalized conceptual gains- on average males surpass females and underclassmen exceed seniors), but at least they see students of other genders sitting next to them in class. The lack of racial diversity in our student body means that it is much less likely that my students will see a significant number of people of different racial backgrounds in their physics class.
2. I feel that there is momentum building behind the issue of blacks choosing to study physics that could lead to meaningful change down the line. The least I can do is expose my students to a different perspective to help support this movement. (Moses' article was one of the most popular articles published by The Physics Teacher this year)
3. Moses' curriculum was established and had been through several years of refinement. He was incredibly helpful and willing to share. As a teacher trying to juggle a million things, I can't deny that this made implementing the curriculum way easier than it would have been to starting from the ground up on my own.
4. Black lives matter. Period.
So what did I do for the social justice curriculum? I followed Moses' outline and modified his lessons to fit the time we had. The student completed pre- and post-attitudinal tests and wrote nightly journal entries after completing assigned readings. I didn't read the entries- just checked to be sure that they were done. If you're interested in more details, I'll be happy to share more about what I did- just ask. However, I'm not writing this blog post to talk about what I did, but rather to talk about the impact it had.
This was an incredibly powerful experience for my students. The idea of stereotype threat possibly affecting scores on standardized tests hit them like a sledgehammer, especially because BEFORE starting their AP exams just weeks before they'd been asked questions about their gender and racial background. Many other ideas hit home too- especially the Implicit Association Tests and the idea of White Privilege (Macklemore). We also had interesting discussions about statistics and how people measure participation rates- one student attempted to generate statistics on their own using rosters of sports teams at community colleges and it was a god learning experience.
Did I implement the curriculum perfectly? Nope.
Did I maximize every opportunity to create powerful discussions? No.
Was I well-organized? Meh- I tried.
Do I think this unit is worthwhile? Absolutely, unequivocally, enthusiastically- YES!
If you're reading this, you should try it out in your physics or math class. Set aside a few days and dive in. It won't be perfect, or easy, but it's critical that we begin to have these tough conversations so that our students open their eyes.
I'll leave you with a paraphrased quote from a student:
This may have been the most important unit from the entire year. It might even be the most meaningful thing I have learned about in high school.
After the AP calculus test we learn some new material (L'Hopital's rule and integration by parts) and then the students complete a final project. They run the gamut from real-life related rates problems (including data) to illustrations of scenarios to 3-D printing of solids produced by revolutions. I love this time of year and the students produced excellent work. This year two groups produced raps related to calculus, this is the more polished of the two:
Change is in the wind! For some time I've been thinking about some of the techniques I employ in my teaching (such as reflective writing activities) and wondering if I'm implementing them to the best of my ability.
A little bit of background: over the years I've used reflective writing in many forms. The impetus to use writing activities is from research I've encountered and also from my own experience- I found that articulating my experiences in words helped me understand them better and also helped me make connections between different topics.
While at Paul Smith's College I began using Paul Hickman's Interactive Collaborative Electronic Learning Logs (ICE Learning Logs for short) on a daily basis. I continued this when I moved to the secondary level albeit on a weekly basis to save time. I continue to be pressed for time, and sadly admit that I have done away with regular writing activities in my Regents Physics classes entirely in order to cover material more rapidly. I still use reflective activities with my advanced classes.
My AP Physics students reflect quarterly on their performance in class. My AP Calculus students reflect on a weekly basis in an alternating format: one week is a private discussion between the student and I in a shared google doc, and the following week is a group discussion board where students post anonymously (though I know who each author is).
I feel as though these activities are quite valuable, both for learning content and for helping students come to see themselves as part of the science/math community. However, I do not have concrete evidence to back this up- just my observations and anecdotal statements from students.
Cut back to the present: I've decided to take the plunge to start work on a doctorate so I can find out for myself what helps my students learn best. I've found a home at the Science and Mathematics Education Research Group in the Department of Integrated Studies at McGill University. I'm thrilled to be opening a new chapter in my career and am also lucky to have been granted a leave of absence from my current teaching position to take advantage of this incredible opportunity.
I'll do my best to keep up with this blog and share new ideas as I come across them- maybe I'll even do a better job than I have as of late!
A long while back I read a post from Frank Noschese called subversive lab grouping. In a nutshell, you give students cards which tell them what groups they're in. But it's not as easy as it sounds- there is overlap between the words on the cards. For example, I've given students cards with letters on them. They start by trying to put all the vowels together, or maybe all the capital letters. But it doesn't form the right number of groups (4 groups with three students each), so they have to discard their model and start over. The key turns out to be the number of straight lines used to form each letter. X is two, as are T and L. So that's one group. W, M, and E are similarly grouped. Frank and his followers have thrown down a bunch of other ideas for groups, some of which I've adopted, but I've also made up my own.
My students love this activity and wanted me to write about it. Since this is the first request I've ever received for a blog entry, I figured I ought to honor it! I usually use it in calculus- I'm not sure why, but I haven't implemented it with my other classes yet. Maybe I will... one limitation is that you have to specify the number of groups and their sizes. If students are unexpectedly absent, it can throw a wrench in the works.
If anyone is interested in the groups I use, just say the word and I'll be happy to put them up.
I started this post back in December, but never finished it. Here's the final product.
We've been working on related rates in calculus. One of the "classic" calculus problems involves a ladder in motion. Its typically moves away from a wall at a constant rate, and the students are asked to determine how fast the top of the ladder is falling.
At least the problem has context, even if the constant rate bit is a stretch. Last year I tried to turn this problem into reality, and it didn't quite work out. This year we did much better. Key things:
-put wheels on the top of the ladder so it rolls smoothly down the wall
-rest the bottom of the ladder on a constant velocity buggy (borrow one from the physics teacher)
-use a good tripod
Here's a snapshot of our setup (screenshot from LoggerPro):
I scaled the video, set up a coordinate system, and tracked the bottom of the meterstick (using the rearmost wheel on the vehicle). This produced the graph of the horizontal position of the bottom of the meterstick below.
I added a trendline so we could get velocity, and then I asked the students to use the length of the meterstick/wheel contraption along with this velocity to predict how rapidly the top of the meterstick would be falling when the base was 32 cm away from the wall (hence the cluster of points near that position).
This is where related rates came in, and the students ended up with an answer. We confirmed it by analyzing the same video and tracking the top of the meterstick.
We got a really nice parabolic shape, and the instantaneous velocity of the top of the meterstick matched their prediction. It was pretty successful- as one student put it, "it's so nice to use math to analyze something complicated that happens in the real world!"
