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Tag Archives: problem solving
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, or Never Use a Formula You Don’t Understand
In my grade 10 Science class I recently gave my students an introductory microscope lab, and in my haste I used a “canned” lab from a textbook. Although there are some good activities in this lab, students are presented with … Continue reading
Posted in Activity, Assessment, HDYMT, Pedagogy
Tagged hands-on, HDYMT, labs, measurement, problem solving
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Eighty minutes well spent
Eric Mazur gives a terrific, evidence based explanation of what is wrong with lecturing as a primary source of knowledge transfer, and what to do about it. I really like his explanation, about 51 minutes in, that the better we … Continue reading
Posted in Authenticity, Pedagogy, Video
Tagged best practice, critical thinking, learning styles, physics, problem solving
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A Physics Fairy Tale
Once upon a time, in a magical Physics kingdom, there lived an evil teacher who gave resistor network problems like this:
The Evil Physics Teacher made his students solve all kinds of complex resistor networks. It was time consuming, but the … Continue reading
Failure, Prototyping and Angry Birds
The other day I had a thought, and I tweeted it. That thought was
In learning, failure is not an option. It’s a *necessity*.
Now, that may seem somewhat trite, but it is also true. If all we ever do is succeed, … Continue reading
DIY personalized, randomized assignments
I like giving students randomized assignments. That is, I like assignments where they all get the same questions, but different numbers. That way, they can collaborate, but have to ask “how did you solve that question?” rather than “what did … Continue reading
Posted in Assessment, Cool, EdTech, Pedagogy, resources
Tagged best practice, problem solving
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Microsoft Mathematics
This week, Richard Byrne posted a note about Microsoft Mathematics on Free Technology for Teachers. Curious, I downloaded it and have been playing with it. Although not intuitive at first, it quickly becomes more so as you use it. It … Continue reading
How Do You Measure That (HDYMT)?
Consider the following question:
A projectile leaves a canon at 25 m/s. If the barrel of the canon is 1.0 m long, a) what is the average acceleration of the projectile? b) If the projectile has a mass of 200g, what … Continue reading
Posted in Authenticity, HDYMT, Video
Tagged cameras, hands-on, measurement, physics, problem solving
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Tracker is Awesome.
I have written before about the importance of measurement, and the importance of authenticity. Of course, these beg the question of how one can produce accurate measurements of real-life events in order to analyze them.
I have used probeware – I … Continue reading
Posted in Authenticity, Cool, EdTech, resources, Video
Tagged 21st Century, hands-on, HDYMT, measurement, problem solving, video
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Moving toward authenticity
Consider the following question:
A dog running for a ball takes 4.6 seconds to reach the ball that lands 59 metres away. How fast did the dog run?
That is a fairly typical introductory physics problem, dealing with uniform motion. It is … Continue reading
Posted in Authenticity, Pedagogy, Video
Tagged complexity, HDYMT, measurement, problem solving, video
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Inauthenticity and the Null Hypothesis
Some of my more astute students point out that problems that ignore everyday forces are unrealistic. This is true, in the sense that projectiles will face air resistance, rolling objects will experience friction etc. However, this is not to say … Continue reading
