180: Day 2: Learning whiteboards
Today my AP Physics C students got through creating whiteboards for the bouncy ball lab, and it’s clear I didn’t give quite enough instructions…but it is only their first “modeling” whiteboard. Items for me to work on with them:
- Graph axis are labeled with variable and units.
- Equations are ‘translated’ from ‘math’ (e.g. y=3.6x+1.2) to ‘science:’ x and y are replaced with the variable, and all numbers need units.
- Conclusions are different from predictions.
Here are a couple of resources I created to help: A PowerPoint slide show with examples (feel free to edit/steal), and a PDF version of this presentation, fit to one page. I probably won’t show the slide show, but will post the PDFs around the class and on my Schoology page.
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Thank you for showing how you incorporated white boards into your classroom. I am currently a student teacher, and my mentor teacher also uses Modeling in our classes. Similar to your observations, I have noticed that many of our students at the beginning of the year also did not pay attention to details like labeling graph axises, writing out variables rather than one letter, and did not including descriptive conclusions. Has this seemed to have gotten better throughout the year now that you have established those norms? Although our students quickly picked up what we were asking, it still seems like they need those constant reminders!
Hi Janelle,
I’m glad I could help. Some of my students “get it” by now, but some I continue to need to prompt. I would say it gets better throughout the year, but some students are always challenging 🙂
Lee