Science Education

Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol workshop at AAPT conference

February 5, 2012

At the AAPT Winter Conference, I attended a workshop on the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) (emphasis on “reformed teaching” not “reformed protocol”). Below are my notes on that workshop. [This workshop runs 8:00-5:00 on Sunday, and I'm live blogging this so, if you're reading during this time, reload the page for the most up-t0-date [...]

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“You can’t put something on the final we haven’t seen!!!”

December 7, 2010

Today as a finals review “warm up” (although it ended up taking the whole period) I presented the students with four beakers of water: One with ice, one at room temp, one on a hot plate “low” (about 37C) and one boiling. I used Logger Pro to show the four temperatures on a projector screen [...]

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Spreadsheet for calculating slopes at points on quadratic functions

October 17, 2010

On the Physics Modeling email list there has been a discussion of finding tangents to a parabolic curve using an Excel spreadsheet. The primary way we use this is when students graph position vs time of a ball rolling down a ramp. Students discover that the relationship can be modeled as a parabolic equation, x [...]

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End of the year teacher evaluation for my physics students to complete

August 10, 2010

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 [...]

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Using a TI-83 or TI-84 graphing calculator in high school physics classes

July 15, 2010

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 [...]

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Error analysis in volume measurements

June 9, 2010

I use the attached worksheet to walk my high school physics students through the process of determining the percent error in a calculated measurement. After these calculations, students then determine the range of their final results (± x cm3). Finally, they look at the range and discover that use of the “sig figs” rules gives [...]

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Snow on Claremont Avenue in Oakland/Berkeley hills

December 7, 2009

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Hayward’s “D Street” fault creep, curb offset evidence erased

December 7, 2009

Sadly, improvements in city streets can wipe out geologic evidence. D Street has been a great field trip stop to see earthquake fault creep, and appears in many guidebooks and web sites. But in 1997, Hayward repaved the road, including the sidewalks (they all needed it). When they repaved it, they straightened all the curb [...]

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Handout for using the TI 83 / 84 calculator in a science classroom.

October 23, 2009

I have updated my Analyzing data using your TI-83 or TI-84 calculator handout. New features include: Using the Table features to have the calculator solve for variables. Using Draw to calculate the slope of the tangent to a curved line. Standard letter size (8.5×11 inches) for easier printing. You can download a copy here: TI-graphing-calculator-tips-for-science.pdf. [...]

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