Science education and more...

At the end of each school year, I have my students complete an evaluation of the course. My goal is for them to reflect (1) me, (2) the class, and (3) themselves. I find the evaluations extremely valuable. Scary at times, but valuable. This last year wasn’t one of my best, and the evaluations showed that to me. But I also got feedback that showed it wasn’t as bad as I might have feared (not that it was a horrible year, just that I think I wasn’t at my peak). With so many students, the bulk of the evaluation is multiple choice, but there is space for students to write comments about particular questions, or comments about issues not raised in the questions. I use bubble-in sheets so I can scan them and export the results to a spreadsheet, which allows me to get in and really sort through the data.

I’m attaching it here for anyone who might like to use it as a skeleton for their own: Word format and PDF format.

Frank Noschese has me thinking that this year I need to give the evaluations a few times during the year.

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This summer I’m leading a workshop at the American Association of Physics Teachers meeting entitled “Using graphing calculators in the classroom.” Featured in the workshop is my handout titled “Analyzing data using your TI-83 or TI-84 calculator.” You can download a PDF version of the worksheet here. The handout has calculator screenshots and uses TI fonts to show the exact keys that students press.

The worksheet is organized in the order that students would use their calculators:

• Introduction/Setting up your calculator
• A: Data is stored in lists
• B: Entering data into a list
• C: Graphing two lists
• D: Manually setting the scale for your graph
• E: Fitting an equation to your data
• F: Using the Table to solve for variables
• G: Finding the slope at specific times on a curve
• H: Filling a list using a formula that includes another list
• Notes.

The worksheet is “copyleft,” meaning that anyone can use it for free, including modifying it, so long as if you redistribute it the “copyleft” registration moves with it.

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