Standardized Tests, Card Sort, and Slow-Motion Videos
I wanted to get this out early to advertise the #iteachphysics chat about preparing students for standardized tests (SAT, AP, IB, etc) on Saturday morning at 15:00 UTC (10:00 AM on the US east coast, 7:00 AM on the US west coast). To participate, search for "#iteachphysics" on your favourite Twitter app.
Kelly O'Shea has posted a superb card-sort kinematics activity. Check it out.
If you've got some ambitious students with some free time, consider forming a team to compete in the International Young Physicist's Tournament. I think it's a good answer to the science fair, whose usefulness is rightly being questioned.
The big news in my bubble was how revisions to US tax law would affect universities. There is a specific concern about graduate tuition waivers being taxed (in the House, but not the Senate, proposals).
There's a paper on the arXiv looking at physics course selections and gender at the University of Auckland. The results are similar to what others have seen, and the authors explain them using a variant on the concept of physics identity.
Laverty and Caballero have posted a pre-print that challenges the utility of the standard concept inventories in the context of multi-dimensional learning (ie: scientific practices and cross-cutting ideas, in addition to concepts).
Seen on the web: this gif tracking the center-of-mass of a high jumper; a short interview with the Physics Girl, Dianna Cowern; Stephanie Byers' slow-motion video of a ballistic pendulum experiment;
Kelly O'Shea has posted a superb card-sort kinematics activity. Check it out.
If you've got some ambitious students with some free time, consider forming a team to compete in the International Young Physicist's Tournament. I think it's a good answer to the science fair, whose usefulness is rightly being questioned.
The big news in my bubble was how revisions to US tax law would affect universities. There is a specific concern about graduate tuition waivers being taxed (in the House, but not the Senate, proposals).
There's a paper on the arXiv looking at physics course selections and gender at the University of Auckland. The results are similar to what others have seen, and the authors explain them using a variant on the concept of physics identity.
Laverty and Caballero have posted a pre-print that challenges the utility of the standard concept inventories in the context of multi-dimensional learning (ie: scientific practices and cross-cutting ideas, in addition to concepts).
Seen on the web: this gif tracking the center-of-mass of a high jumper; a short interview with the Physics Girl, Dianna Cowern; Stephanie Byers' slow-motion video of a ballistic pendulum experiment;