Kepler finds earth-like planet in Goldilocks zone

Hey All

Check out the Kepler website - they have located an earth-like planet in the habitable zone.  Pretty exciting.

Here is the link
Earth-like planet

See you Thursday

Matt

Using Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation (NLUG)

One of the requirements for this section is to use  NLUG to calculate the force of gravity.  You need to answer the following question to demonstrate this ability.  Include your work in your visual presentation.  Also, you should understand the concept of apparent weightlessness.

Observation: Astronauts on the space shuttle float therefore they must escape Earth’s gravitational field.  So, the force of gravity must = 0.  Is this true?  Make the calculation for the magnitude of the force of gravity on the space shuttle at the Earth’ surface and at orbiting altitude.  Put this in your visual presentation.  And why do astronauts appear to be floating in the space shuttle?  Include video or image with description.

Evidence of Freefall

Greetings and good morning.

We will be looking at this in class today - an attempt at documenting weightlessness right here on the surface of planet Earth.

Matt

An excellent physics capstone project

Greetings

Please watch the attached video - this was one of the better capstone projects.  It is also no surprise that these students did well on the physics exam.

Thanks for the extra and fine effort

Physics Capstone Video

Matt

Laruen's Post on Creative Disobedience

Lauren brings up a good point about the important role of family in kids' education.  It can be quite a barrier!

Have a read

Lauren's post

This is from Cody Minimum

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Ideas on Child Driven Education

After watching the video today about the child driven education I was pleased to find that the things we are learning in my education psychology class are ideas that are expressed all over the world.  The idea that these children can teach themselves complex ideas like dna and pythagorean theorem with only a computer and not only that but a computer in another language shows that children want to learn.  Adults are trying to control and edit the learning systems with much worse results then letting the children teach themselves.  I believe that teachers are a necessitie but we do need to change the way we think about learning and teaching.  This seems to be related to Ken Robinsons idea that schools are killing creativity.  I agree that schools are trying to mold children into what society believes is a well educated kid.  The problem is we are taking away their imagination and making them turn off the idea that they can learn what they want and the way they want.

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education

Greetings -

I hope everyone is well.

As part of our science education and learning science SBG I would like to start a blog discussion on another TED talk that focuses on education.  Here is the link:

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education

Here are some of my thoughts:  first, I found it a bit disturbing.  Is he saying that we can effectively eliminate teachers and students will learn on their own?  That what seems to be happening in some of the poor slums of New Delhi?  That kind of bodes poorly for us as educators!

Or can we look at it another way - given the correct guidance, mixture of direct and discovery instruction and access to technology students (even young ones who don't speak the language!) can learn (and remember) high-level content.  But can they learn the other non-cognitive skills that are required for learning - determination, stubbornness, grit - in this environment?

I liked the idea of "the granny cloud" - this brings in community involvement in the learning process, which I think is an important missing component in our educational models.  What do you think?

Another response I had was more positive.  In some ways I am trying to promote this methodology in our class.  Provide tasks, time, community and resources to investigate science content without a lot of direct instruction.  This is hard, right?  Is it effective? It certainly can be stressful at times.

Like many things - I believe that the true road lies somewhere in the middle.  I liked two quotes from the blog by Arthur C. Clarke:

A teacher that can be replaced by a machine – should be.

If children have interest, education happens.

Especially the second one resonates with me - kids want to learn and in some cases teachers need to step out of the way and let it happen.

So, to "score" for this SBG you need to post a thoughtful and detailed blog (2 would be even better).  I would like for this to be a conversation rather then a reporting.  But certainly do include some details from the video to support your statements.  This should be done by October 21st.

Thanks!  And Enjoy.

Matt

Discussion about ADHD

Greetings again

This is a discussion about the higher then usual identification of ADHD in the US as compared to other countries.  If found this interesting, shocking, stimulating, etc.  I would be interested to hear you take on it.  This is not for a grade but is something to keep an eye on, especially for the educators in the bunch (and future parents).  Remember, there is always two sides of stories!  Here is the link

Are Americans More Prone to A.D.H.D.?


Be well

Matt

Using kids' literture to teach science

Greetings

I came by an article about using children's' literature to teach science concepts.  The bottom line to the three things I read was that reading can be a great instructional strategy to introduce both content and process skills. This is vital in these days of emphasis on teaching only reading and math.  So, here it he blog

Having a great science conversation with a kid

I have also downloaded a couple of the articles and put them in Google docs as well as sharing them with everyone.

I hope these articles will be helpful for those of you headed for teaching.

Be well

Matt

You are doing great

Hey

This is for section 002 but may be applicable to section 004 as well - we just haven't started class yet.

Today's class was intense - we are confronted by several obstacles in doing this work.  New content.  New skills. Overcoming previous discomfort with science concepts and skills.  Perhaps some confusion on the specifics of the assignment.  This is all bound to create some anxiety and discomfort.  Understandable.  I would strongly suggest doing some reflecting on both the content and the skills that we are working on.  I will read these if you write them.  The writing will help you to identify areas of knowledge and areas of uncertainty for both of us.

If you are uncomfortable with blogging - send me an email.

Thanks for all your hard work, enthusiasm and good humor.

See you on Tuesday.  I will send a later email or blog to tell you what we are going to be doing.

Matt

Some updates and a suggestion

Good morning

So, I have nearly completed all the grading.  It was a lot of work but compared to years past was much more rewarding.  Maybe I am deceiving myself because I am trying a new tactic but I found examining the Prezis and reading the various blogs more enjoyable and illuminating in terms of seeing your growth and where more growth is required.  If you have any questions, please ask.

We have a few more classes on motion and then we will be moving on to energy (briefly) before launching onto (or into) astronomy.  The "big" assessment for physics will be a capstone project and a short exam that will test your knowledge of the physics concepts and skill level.  As a start, I would suggest that you spend some time reflecting on what you have learned so far.  This can be done on a blog that you share with your team partners, other students in the class or perhaps students in other classes.  For example..

Despite the many years of teaching this topic it always intrigues me - the simplicity of it but yet the complexities in the details.  Constant velocity is pretty straightforward - an object moves over regular intervals for a set period of time.  Motion diagrams show that objects are evenly spaced.  Graphs are nice and straight with the slope equal to the average velocity.  Average and instantaneous velocity are the same.  Acceleration is zero.  Now when you get to variable velocity things get all funky - distances vary with time, instantaneous velocities change, slopes are curved on distance vs time plots, final velocities need to be calculated from average velocities.  And then when we add freefall into the mix - the world becomes even more complicated.  But it started out so simple!  Next we want to add the why?  Why do objects move?  What will stop them or why do they stop.  And then if we extend our observations to the celestial sphere - what about the moon, planets, stars, they move as well?  Are motion processes on earth the same as motion processes in the stars?  Or is that the realm of gods?  Before Newton - that is what people thought.

I could continue but will stop - I strongly believe that is you take some time to do this exercise, it will improve your understanding and, not to put too fine a point on it, your performance.

A great statement from one of your fellow classmates...

"In the end, not all people are academically engaged, and not all people are creatively equipped."

Some additional thoughts and nuts-and-bolts of grading

Good morning -  I hope everyone is well.

As an FYI - here is an image of the state-based Prevalence Data of ADHD Diagnosis.  I am not sure where the data comes from but the map does look like the sketch in Robinson's "story".  Now, as we will discuss - recognizing patterns in one thing but understanding the causation is another.  I bet we could think about a large number of factors that might be considered.  And what about environmental factors?

I think the blogging is working.  It feels to me that it is developing, at some level, a sense of community as well as giving people a voice.  I like it but...it is hard to keep track of and I am remiss to "grade" them so to speak.  I mean, how do you decide this is an "A" discussion and this is a "B" discussion.  So, the grading part will evolve through time - I ask you to be patient.  I may have missed something you wrote - for example I don't have many blogs on the 2nd Ken Robinson video.  I may have missed these so please let me know!  The deadline for completing these blog reviews is Friday!  I hope to look through all of them and get your first SBG grade out by then.  Wish me luck.  If you want to know what you are "missing" please talk to me tomorrow in class.

Kind of my closing thoughts on these two topics (and please feel free to continue any discussion) is that the educational balance is gone.  There are some very powerful and loud forces out there with strong opinions about education and what kids should look like at the end of the funnel.  I may be cynical here and perhaps biased but I don't think teachers have much of a voice over the process - please disagree with me!  It does make some sense - teachers are busy and have little time or energy to engage in policy discussions.  So the people with control and time have intervened, sometimes for the good; sometimes for the bad.  But we can make a difference one kid, one classroom and one school at a time.  I believe that is the way that change will occur.

Enough blabbing - gotta run and get ready for class.  See you all tomorrow.

Changing Education Paradigms

Please make sure that your group has posted a blog before class - preferably before Monday so I can read them.

I enjoyed reading all the posts.  Many of you appear to have first hand experience with different aspects of the systems that he describes.  Let's be clear though - there is a need and room for structure within classrooms.  And there should be some uniformity for what kids should learn.  These should be essential life skills and knowledge that will propel them to a happy life and successful career (how ever you define that).  So, we need some structure.  We also need a way to test if we are being successful and written assessments are one sure fire way of doing that.  There is no question about that - I don't think.  So, we have to have the tests - formative, summative, etc. so we can begin to evaluate how we are doing.  But it should not stop there...

I believe where it gets out of control is when we overemphasis the importance of ONE test and take away the control over what is taught from teachers.  The challenge for teachers is to work within and without/in and arond the system.  And the further challenge is digging deep into their students to find out what serves them best.  And the next challenge is to do that with 25+ kids!  It is a huge task.  A monstrous task and so very important.  And, having first hand knowledge of this, it is fun!  And so enlivening.  To me there are few greater pleasures or measures of success than working with some one (especially kids) and knowing they GOT IT!  Wow.  It really is a fabulous feeling to know that you are making an impact.

One last thought - I always to back to this when I think about teaching.  Everyone remembers their great teachers.  Right?  I challenge myself and now I challenge you to become one of those great teachers that your students will talk about in years to come.

That is about it - here is another link that contains more stuff from Ken Robinson.

Schools Kill Creativity - Ken Robinson

to get the magic 4 in this category of Standards Based Grading you should listen to this as well and post a short (500 words or less) blog.  Remember you should also read and respond to other people's post.

Please have a good weekend.  I have enjoyed working together and look forward to next week.

Be well

Matt

Your first blog post

Greetings -

As your first blog post consider the following questions about science.

• What is science?
• What is the goal of science?
• How is science conducted?
• What has been you experience learning about and doing science?  Describe a positive experience and why it was positive.  Describe a negative experience and why it was negative.

Please cover these topics in a pretty brief but well constructed paragraph.  Put this paragraph on your own blog!  Make sure I am a follower so I can read these.  Thanks

Welcome to Natural Science 261 - Fall 2011

Welcome to the Matt Nyman's Natural Science 261 (Physical Science) Fall 2011 blog.  This will be the main blog for this class, which you will use to follow various parts of the class.  This will be an exciting learning journey for all of us and I am excited to start the new semester.