Transcript Technology Outside of the Physics Classroom

Technology
Outside of the
Physics Classroom
Presented By
Zak Knott
Riverside – Brookfield H.S.
Joint AAPT
October 29, 2005
Rationale
 A traditional
school day limits contact time
with students to only 45-55 minutes per
day. By utilizing the internet to allow
students to communicate we can expand
the school day while more deeply
integrating technology into our curriculum.
Overview
 My
experience with physicsmonkey.com
 Class message boards
 Class “wiki”
 Student & parent feedback
Background
 As
a new teacher I found catching up
students who had missed class one of the
most tedious parts of my job.
 Originally wanted to create a place for
students to download missing or lost
worksheets from.
 www.physicsmonkey.com was born!
PhysicsMonkey.com

Established an online
presence for the class
 As the site went “live”
the interactivity of the
bulletin boards
increased and the site
evolved into its
current role
Message Boards
 Gave
students a place to communicate
with each other about homework, notes,
and lab assignments.
 To encourage students to use them I
added a “Question of the Week” to answer
on the board.
A Research Type Question

Well, I've opened the door. I guess we may as well run through it. . .
In class last week I mentioned that there are a group of people known as
the "Flat Earth Society" who truly believe that we live on a flat earth. Now,
before you immediatly laugh it off lets look at their arguments. Visit their
webpage at:
http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm and read
about the evidence they offer for a flat earth. Also, I wanted to point out that
the site http://www.flat-earth.org/ is a joke intended to mock the flat earthers
(for example, it claims that Australia does not exist, but the author is from
Australia). So please do not comment here on that site. You will find other
information by performing a Google search, just be careful that you've
chosen a reputable source.
What I'd like to see in your post this week is an argument for or against a
round earth. The flat earthers provide some pretty convincing arguments so
please use what you know about physics to support one side or the other.
Sample Responses


Honestly, I went to the website with as clear a mind as
possible, but I found the arguments less than convincing.
First of all, even before I looked at the arguments I
noticed that the use of language was far from
sophisticated . . .
That was very, um, creative I guess. I don't completely
buy it, however. I think the whole water argument was
pretty well thought out, and that if the earth was round,
we'd be falling off of it from the north pole. I don't know.
I'm sure I would believe it if I didn't really know any
better, but the whole geocentric thing really doesn't make
sence, and we really shouldn't think the universe
revolves around us. . .
Creative Type Question
 For
the question of the week this week you
have two options:
1) Compose a poem that could be used to
explain energy to a third grader.
2) Create an experiment about energy that
could be completed by a third grade class.
Student Responses

It can do work,
and it can play.
It lights your room,
as bright as day.
It cooks your food,
and heats your tea,
It comes from the sun,
and beneath the sea,
and all it could be,
is energy.
Problem Type Question
Other Topics
 Create
a mnemonic device to help
remember the resistor color code
 Write an email to the president explaining
your position on a mission to refurbish the
Hubble Telescope
 Use an interactive web site to predict the
likelihood of life existing on other planets
 Discuss the U.S. energy policy after
conduction some independent research
Free Group Discussions
 www.network54.com
 groups.yahoo.com
 Search
for “free
bulletin boards”
PhysicsMonkey Wiki
 Added
because of backlash from
implementing modeling
 Students wanted me to put each days
notes on the internet
 Since that sounded like a lot of work I put
the responsibility on them
Wikipedia
 An
online encyclopedia
 Content is created, edited, and maintained
by anyone who cares to do so
 Freely available & surprisingly complete
 Often criticized as unreliable
PhysicsMonkey Wiki
 The
good:
http://www.physicsmonkey.com/wiki/index.
php?title=Kinematics_formulas
 The bad:
http://www.physicsmonkey.com/wiki/index.
php?title=Definition_of_force
Other Tools Present and Future
 Although
I can’t see any usage statistics,
anecdotal data suggests that the chat
room is used.
 “Blogging” could be used to have students
create their own webpage about some
topic.
 FAQ’s could be created for each unit
 All of these tools and more are freely
available!
Conclusion
 Message
boards, class wikis, and other
tools present students with a way to
continue communicating about physics
outside of the classroom
 Overall the response from students has
been very positive
Do You Want to Try This?
 Visit
www.PhysicsMonkey.com to have a
look around
 E-mail me [email protected] and I will
help you get started