physics cartoon on PhotoPeach

Shadowing a high school student

Just one of the ducks today!

What a great idea for a teacher to a walk a day in one of their student's shoes.   The amount of information attained in one day following a single student could surpass a year of observation in your own classroom.  Taking notes and following the entire day of a student can  give an educator an entirely different perspective of the challenges that their students endure everyday. Setting aside the information that is imparted onto them the physicality of the students day should be overlook.

The educator by performing this excercise went through a learning process about different aspects of the students learning process that could bee changed to enhance the students experience and attention.  The teacher following the student spent 303 minutes sitting in a single day.  Changing his own classroom to add more activity where the students could move around was he response to something he hadn't recognized until he carried out this exercise. This a perfect example of understanding who you are teaching and where they are coming from in order to be effective in teaching them.  Good Job!




http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/

Knowledge isn't Power

How much Smarter is the bowling ball compared to the pins?




The idea that knowledge is power is a misnomer.  Power emanates from money and control of that money.   A small percentage of our population make the economic decisions for all of us whether we agree to it or not.  The idea of knowledge being an obstacle to gainful employment has been repeated so often that this myth now is believed to be a fact.  This what is meant by the statement that knowledge in't power.  This small group of powerful individuals have the ability to influence the public that they their lack of education is what is holding them back from living in moderate comfort.  The fact is that they have prospered during this time in history using technology as their argument.  Thy say if you get educated in these areas then you will get a high paying job yet they don't seem to exist.  So these people of power  again turn to and blame the educational system for not preparing their students for the work environment.
Knowledge is important everyone but it is not POWER!


http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/

Dark Matter

DARK MATTER

This video is a wonderful teaching tool for astronomy students.  The presentation is easy to follow as it peaks your interest in the field of Dark Matter.  The visual representations and arguments used during this lecture are direct and to the point.   The ability to enhance a lecture with visual aids is proven to the utmost degree in this lecture.  To convey the same amount of information with a strong possibility of considerably less comprehension would take three times as long and it would certainly leave its audience in its wake.
 











http://physicsandphysicists.blogspot.com/CharlesTowne

Online Shopping math

Using everyday applications for teacher is a wonderful tool to peak a child's interest.  When reading about the the blog where online shopping was used to help teach students calcualtions of percentages I recognized the different levels it worked on.  Number one it kept the children interested in the lesson.  It also gave the teacher a way to modify the lesson to individual class tastes or even to the individual,s areas of interest.  Then it taught a real world tool that a student could apply to their daily life.  It also showed the importance and benefit from learning math.

http://teachhighschoolmath.blogspot.com/2014/12/give-meaning-to-numbers-with-technology.html

No Gravitational Wave and Inflation from BICEP2 Results

The fact that the gravitional waves were not detected by the BICEP2 results would on the surface appear to be a major failure by the scientific community.  By making these claims without confirming their findings the researchers circumvented the normal process of discovery but this can be attributed to the human condition.  These scientist involved understood that if they could prove that gravitional waves existed then the inflation of the universe theory would be solidified.  Because of the mistake they made in the interpretation of the data this was no longer a result that could confirm the inflation theory.  Through further investigation they recognized that they now know how to exclude the misleading data in the future.  This is a perfect example that through a presumed failure we have learned a great deal more that may lead us in the direction of actually proving the inflation theory of the universe.

 http://physicsandphysicists.blogspot.com/2015/02/no-gravitational-wave-and-inflation.html

Portland Maine Problem Solvers

The approach to learning called Expendituary Learning, their words not mine, I found to be both exciting and important.  Having worked in the private sector engaged in projects that started with an improvement on an existing product or a completely different approach to an existing problem that eventually led to a new or improved product these skills  were used on a daily basis.  This type of learning model is where the educational system and political environment should be exhausting their efforts to embrace.

http://vimeo.com/68323188

Trig ferris wheel

I found the learning tool of the ferriswheel a great way to have fun learning trigonometry.  I can see it as a practical tool for teaching different several concepts for basic physics.n  Anytime a physical model can be implemented into a learning environment I believe everybody wins.  The student and the instructor can reference a particular law or concept by association quickly and without ambiguity.





http://teachhighschoolmath.blogspot.com/