I don’t know what day of class this is, but here’s what we did today.
We took a test a week ago that did not go well, to say the least. I already wrote about that process. We took this week to slowly go back over ideas and rehash them…not from scratch, but pretty thoroughly. I’ve been trying to be more explicit in the methods of interaction – reading, writing, kinesthetic (lab), drawing, etc. Today was the final day of Newton’s Laws (#thesecondone) and I decided to have them create posters and/or short comics on one of the laws.
These are some of my favorite student pieces:
Yes, this is a brash Sir Isaac Newton breaking a tree with the apple.
Are they perfect representations? No. And there are others that show inconsistency. But, they were talking about the ideas and creating their own models based on understanding. Drawing (sometimes silly) pictures helps to internalize the idea and it opens doors for discussion. It allowed me to enter a conversation about physics at their level and do some intense teaching one on one, which was the goal.
I also challenged myself to creating some stories. I’m a major fan of xkcd, you’ll notice the resemblance because that’s my level of artistic ability:
It was a fun, light day with lots of growth. Tomorrow, we’ll quiz one more time before moving on to work and energy next week.