Greetings physics athletes and parents,
The beginning of the school year is always a little unsettled. What is this class like? Who is in the class? How will you participate/engage in the class this year?
This year, your physics learning will involve more of yourself than you may have experienced in previous science classes. You will discover important content and learn how to apply them through practice, unlike other science classes where you are presented with the important content and instructed how to apply them. I will coach you and guide you through structured inquiry activities and discussions and giving you coaching feedback on your skill of science investigation, science thinking and science discussion.
It is said, "Education is what others do to you. Learning is what you do to yourself." In this class, you will spend most of your energy doing the "learning" side of this quote, and a little energy doing the "Education" side. One implication of this quote is that you will be actively engaged in all activities, over the whole course. Another implication is that I will be coaching you on what you *do* in the class. I will be closely watching the "how" of your learning as much as the "what" of your learning.
How will this work out as we learn physics?
Our learning of each physics concept will progress through the following learning cycle: Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation. In each of these steps of the cycle, you will be working with your classmates to construct a mental, graphical and mathematical model that explains the concept. I will be carefully questioning, probing, providing feedback and resources, and evaluating your explanations.
By the end of the process, you will have built an understanding model that you will be able to confidently use to solve physics problems. I will coach you through your problem-solving application *while* you engage in it, not before. Like a coach with his athlete, I work with you as often as you need until you are confidently applying what you've learned.
Our approach to learning physics is commonly referred to as "Modeling Instruction". As you may understand from the above description, this is an active learning environment. You may still have the question, "how will I participate in this class this year?" I ask you to consider the following suggestions. As a learner, you will benefit by:
- choosing to put forth effort in doing new things. The thinking and discussion and knowledge construction I ask you to do may involve ways of learning you have not done before. You will benefit by pushing past the discomfort and try it.
- choosing to have confidence that you *will* learn. This learning cycle has been demonstrated to be effective in producing student learning with more than 20 years of research, practice and solidification. You will benefit by choosing to believe that you will learn about physcis and science regardless of any temporary feeling of confusion or "not getting it". Those feelings will come and go. You, your classmates and I will work together to ensure your confusion will not stick around, but will be replaced by understanding.
- choosing to be a learner in everything you do. Unless you have already learned physics to a post-graduate level, you will inevitably face challenging learning situations in this class. You will benefit by choosing to learn from every challenging situation and choosing to learn from every learn from every feedback you get ("good" and "bad") while you exercise your learning.
I hope this description helps you have a better sense for what to expect and what is expected in this course this year. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
The beginning of the school year is always a little unsettled. What is this class like? Who is in the class? How will you participate/engage in the class this year?
This year, your physics learning will involve more of yourself than you may have experienced in previous science classes. You will discover important content and learn how to apply them through practice, unlike other science classes where you are presented with the important content and instructed how to apply them. I will coach you and guide you through structured inquiry activities and discussions and giving you coaching feedback on your skill of science investigation, science thinking and science discussion.
It is said, "Education is what others do to you. Learning is what you do to yourself." In this class, you will spend most of your energy doing the "learning" side of this quote, and a little energy doing the "Education" side. One implication of this quote is that you will be actively engaged in all activities, over the whole course. Another implication is that I will be coaching you on what you *do* in the class. I will be closely watching the "how" of your learning as much as the "what" of your learning.
How will this work out as we learn physics?
Our learning of each physics concept will progress through the following learning cycle: Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation. In each of these steps of the cycle, you will be working with your classmates to construct a mental, graphical and mathematical model that explains the concept. I will be carefully questioning, probing, providing feedback and resources, and evaluating your explanations.
By the end of the process, you will have built an understanding model that you will be able to confidently use to solve physics problems. I will coach you through your problem-solving application *while* you engage in it, not before. Like a coach with his athlete, I work with you as often as you need until you are confidently applying what you've learned.
Our approach to learning physics is commonly referred to as "Modeling Instruction". As you may understand from the above description, this is an active learning environment. You may still have the question, "how will I participate in this class this year?" I ask you to consider the following suggestions. As a learner, you will benefit by:
- choosing to put forth effort in doing new things. The thinking and discussion and knowledge construction I ask you to do may involve ways of learning you have not done before. You will benefit by pushing past the discomfort and try it.
- choosing to have confidence that you *will* learn. This learning cycle has been demonstrated to be effective in producing student learning with more than 20 years of research, practice and solidification. You will benefit by choosing to believe that you will learn about physcis and science regardless of any temporary feeling of confusion or "not getting it". Those feelings will come and go. You, your classmates and I will work together to ensure your confusion will not stick around, but will be replaced by understanding.
- choosing to be a learner in everything you do. Unless you have already learned physics to a post-graduate level, you will inevitably face challenging learning situations in this class. You will benefit by choosing to learn from every challenging situation and choosing to learn from every learn from every feedback you get ("good" and "bad") while you exercise your learning.
I hope this description helps you have a better sense for what to expect and what is expected in this course this year. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
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