Advanced Placement Physics and Chemistry
Whiteboards and Discourse in the Modeling Classroom
- Helpful hints on buying and maintaining whiteboards - Jane Jackson
- PLAYSCAPES whiteboards: comments on durability, cleaning, and maintenance(Word doc)
- PLAYSCAPES whiteboards: order form (2006; pdf)
- WHITEBOARDS U.S.A, Inc.: Buy whiteboards from a modeler in Illinois. Much info on w/b use, cleaning, Socratic dialogue.
- Whiteboard Stand: a product to buy from a modeler in Kansas.
- Whiteboarding: A learning process - Don Yost (2 page article, 2003)
- Facilitating Discourse: A 54-page compilation of expert modelers' quotes on classroom discourse. By Mark Lattery and Jim Schmitt (972KB, 2004)
- Using whiteboards in the college classroom - Dan MacIsaac
- Question Their Answers - Brenda Royce (2-page article, 2004)
- Questioning Strategies for K-12 Science (7-page article from California K-12 Alliance, 2006)
Equipment and renovations for the physics classroom
- Lab supplies and classroom technology for mechanics (6 pages, 2006).
- Mechanics probeware (Vernier) for Physics First modeling instruction (2006)
- Equipment to start up a Modeling Physics classroom (1999)
- Pasco probeware for modeling physics(2006), suggested by Sean McKeever, a physics modeler and Pasco product expert.
- Low-cost/build it yourself lab equipment, modeling-style labs, video analysis, and lab practica by Rex Rice and others can be downloaded on the St. Louis Area Physics Teachers (SLAPT) website.
- Link to Bob Morse's recommendations for renovating a physics classroom/lab
- Matt Greenwolfe's modeling
classroom layout.
Matt wrote: "Class size is less than or equal to 20, so in the U-shaped boardroom arrangement (sitting around the blue tables in the center), all of the students sit in the front row, with the whiteboards propped up on the lab tables behind them (the brown tables). This way I can conduct circle whiteboarding in every class." - Steve Skinner's recommendations for renovating the physics classroom.
Web links for modelers
Mark Schober's website is a goldmine! It includes modeling syllabus, worksheets, projects, readings, etc. for an entire year of high school physics (the 9 mechanics units, electric charge, sound & music, 3 models of light, and Six Flags Amusement Park physics). Accompanying each unit for the entire year are: key ideas, online simulations, practice problems, and relevant web links. Mark is a Modeling Workshop leader, and he helped develop the "models of light" workshop materials.
Mark Schober's and other expert modelers' improved paradigm labs for mechanics units 7, 8, and 9 (central force particle model, energy model, and impulsive force model) are among more than 120 compilations at 'archive of teacher contributions to the Modeling listserv'.
Amusement park physics: The St. Louis Area Physics teachers website has resources for Physics Day at Six Flags. Included are downloadable files for the actual activities, and sample data taken using accelerometers and barometers. Also video clips and activities to help prepare students for Physics Day. Modelers Mark Schober, Rex Rice, & Bill Brinkhorst have run Physics Day at Six Flags for many years. They designed the materials to be "modeling friendly."
Two QuickTime movies of Larry Dukerich's classroom teaching (on mechanics and sound waves). You need to have FLASH (which you can download free at the website) and QuickTime Player installed to view it.
Other Modeling Workshop websites: University
of North Carolina at Greensboro
University of Wisconsin
at Oshkosh
University of New England.
Click on "modeling". For the user ID and password, contact Professor
James Vesenka.
LAB-Physics(formerly Learn Anytime, Anywhere Physics) developed at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Modeling Instruction course on the web)
MUSE: model-based instructional materials for grades 8 to 12 in astronomy and biology. Modelers find that MUSE and modeling instruction are compatible. An expert modeler uses MUSE biology materials in his 10th grade integrated science course. List of related websites: (View) Download.
The Model-Assisted Reasoning in Science (MARS) Project is a middle school science curriculum project of Drs. Kalyani Raghavan and Mary L. Sartoris at the University of Pittsburgh. Objective data on more than 1300 students, overviews of modules, National standards addressed, an article on evaluation results, references, contributors, and a short slide show. (You need FLASH to use this site.)
Hypermodels in physics, chemistry, and biology: A modeler wrote: "an excellent simulation environment created by the Concord Consortium is available free of charge. Molecular simulations are created through the Molecular Workbench, and there are a set of biology simulations called Biologica and a series of physics simulations called Dynamica as well. Most are packaged with interactive supporting software called Pedagogica that turns the models into activities, combining graphs, interactive activities with the simulations, and questions into an entire package they call hypermodels. These are incredible resources, with the most solid physics I have seen throughout, computing on the molecular level as well as the mesoscale level (with a model that includes Lennard-Jones potentials, electrostatic interactions, and elastic bonds for interacting particles). The biology work has a richly developed interface that lets students breed dragons and look at their characteristics, watch the cells and chromosomes combine and make individual DNA mutations to see their effects. Visit Concord Consortium's site, and scroll down to Pedagogica Activities.
ISLE (investigative science learning environment) is a model-based instructional method developed by Eugenia Etkina and Alan Van Heuvelen at Rutgers University for physics courses for prospective teachers, science majors, and physics/engineering majors. ISLE is based on Eugenia's Ph.D. work in Russia and Alan's multiple representations that resulted from his sabbatical with David Hestenes. Eugenia contributed the method of instruction - going from observations to models, to predictions, to testing. At the site, click on ISLE PROJECT.
The Role of Models in Physics Instruction, by Eugenia Etkinia and her colleagues at Rutgers University, is an excellent introduction. (6 pages, 2005). At the site, click on "Papers, Talks, and Presentations." Many other modeling resources are at that Scientific Abilities website, too.
"Hal's Picks of the Month" is a part of the Chemical Education Resource Shelf. Hal Harris, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Missouri - St. Louis, is a great supporter of Modeling Instruction. Hal wrote, "The books I suggest are not necessarily intended for students to read, but are books (and sometimes articles) that I think would enhance the teaching of science. Hal's Picks are never textbooks."
More web resource links for modelers
Return to Modeling in High School Physics Page
last modified 4/7/08