Science Teaching tips from Lee Trampleasure – Page 4 – Bringing over 30 years of public and private high school teaching experience to help you.

September 18, 2015

180: Day 18-19: Introducing Motion Maps

OK, I’m cheating a bit, but I do teach the same classes on Thursday/Friday this week. I tried a new technique this year for introducing motion maps. I stood at the board and asked a student to call off every second. I started a car moving at the base of the boards (my new classroom has floor-to-ceiling whiteboards), then draw...

180/Modeling/Physics Comments: 0

September 16, 2015

180: Day 17: Short period, a quiz, and Ahmed

I’m getting so used to 80 minute blocks that I’m not sure how to handle a 40 minute period when it gets thrown at me. Today was a 40 minute period day (five classes in one day, how did I ever handle this?), and I threw a quiz at my students in which they had to use Desmos to plot...

180/Science Education Comments: 5

September 15, 2015

180: Day 16: Whiteboards are improving

The first few whiteboards always take longer than I want. Often, student’s aren’t prepared (haven’t already analyzed the info with their group), don’t understand how to back up their conclusions with evidence, and don’t get how to translate words like “rate” or “speed” into simple English sentences that don’t use those words. But today they are doing better (paradigm lab...

180 Comments: 0

September 14, 2015

180: Day 15: Empathy for teachers slow to picking up technology

No photo or classroom activity today; instead a reflection from a training on our school’s LMS (Schoology): One of our tech folks was leading a brief afternoon gathering for questions from teachers new to Schoology. Mr. Vito Ferrante, our Director of Educational Technology and an Instructor of Mathematics–whose job it is to help teachers learn to use our computers–made a...

180 Comments: 0

September 11, 2015

180: Day 14: Evaluating data from all classes

I’m a big one on looking at large quantities of data. In each of my physics classes, I have seven to nine groups. In the Buggy Lab, that provides enough data that whiteboard sessions go fairly well, with: at 3-4 groups going in each direction two groups starting at extreme positive or negative locations three to four starting at medium...

180/Modeling/Physics Comments: 0

September 10, 2015

180: Day 13: How a fire drill should be run

All schools need to run fire drills to comply with local laws, and to practice ‘just in case’ (when I as at Berkeley HS, we did have a ‘case’). Some do it well, others not so well. Today was a drill at my new school, Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, and I would give my school an A (OK, maybe a...

180 Comments: 0

September 9, 2015

180: Day 12: Mini whiteboards for sketching during group lab design; combining high- and low- tech

This year I’m having my students use shared Google docs for their lab write ups (developing their procedures, recording their data, etc.). One student starts the document and shares it with the others, so everyone is working on the same document.The problem with Google Docs is most of us can’t draw on a computer (while touch screen devices may offer...

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September 8, 2015

180: Day 11: Unit summaries online

There has been debate in the Modeling Instruction community over how to handle “summaries” at the end of labs/units. We like summaries because they provide our students a place to go to see conclusions that are agreed to as a class–but we worry about them because students may not be as engaged in the labs/discussions if they know the “answers”...

180/Modeling Comments: 0

September 4, 2015

180: Day 10! Getting ready for the buggy lab

All done with the Bouncing Ball lab, getting the hallway ready for the constant velocity buggy lab. Eight signs on the wall so students know where to start, which direction they are going, and if they are in positive or negative land. Every year you learn something new, and the signs on the wall are this year’s addition.

180 Comments: 0

September 3, 2015

180: Day 9: Whiteboard walk

I usually do whiteboards as “meetings,” but hear recently of “whiteboard walks.” These walks are designed to mimic scientific poster sessions, where one student stays with their board, and the others walk to other boards and have conversations with the “authors” of the other boards. I tried this with my AP Physics C class today, and it seemed to go...

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