Week 10 | Drawings, Binary, and Grading | #Teach180

Be Careful what you Draw

Instead of writing on the board, I use Notability and reflect my iPad screen so that can write from anywhere in the room. I find that this typically results in a more legible handwriting because I can use my fancy Notier stylus. Sometimes, I also use this to draw diagrams so that have a visual of what the lab is supposed to look like. This is something that is really easy for me to visualize when I'm already picturing the set up in my head. Sometimes, I don't see what it looks like to the teenage brain until I step back from the drawing at the end. 

The drawing on the right is an example of what my eyedropper looked like when I tried to explain the precipitate lab. Luckily only a few minds drifted before I realized and destroyed the evidence ;)

#Day43: sometimes it doesn't matter how well you draw the eye dropper... #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/bJVfVIHNPE

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) November 10, 2015

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Teaching Binary and Data Transmission

The Next Generation Science Standards place a lot of emphasis on data transmission in the waves standards. This is something that we have barely touched in the past and with NGSS being a likely adoption in MN in 2017, we wanted to get a head start in getting our curriculum ready. 

For this year, I introduced this topic as a one day crash course on binary and how it is used to encode and transmit information. The website http://csunplugged.org/ is a phenomenal resource and offered some great binary introductary activities like the cards in the picture below. I also taught the students a little bit about ASCII code and I had students write "text messages" to each other in binary. Texting is an application that students haven't really thought about, but their phones are doing a very similar process. 

I'm excited to build out this unit in more detail in the coming years. In my opinion, most Physics curriculum don't focus nearly enough on this application of the electromagnetic spectrum because it's one of the only topics in high school physics that has undergone dramatic changes in the past 20 years. 

#Day44: learning about transmitting and storing data using binary. Sending "text messages" w/out phones #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/2f8BF5fS8M

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) November 11, 2015

#Day44: can you count by ones by flipping over the cards to show the correct number of dots? #csunplugged #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/bZII7tSlOI

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) November 12, 2015

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Grading with Class Time

I'm so grateful for the colored paper that we have access to when we send for copies. With all of the paper quizzes and tests (not to mention the multiple versions of each), the color coding really helps me keep my copies straight. I've figured out a much more efficient way of using class time to grade this year. I typically grade the quizzes, enter the scores, and pass them back by the end of class. Obviously, tests take a little longer but by using those testing days to get a head start on my grading, I've been get them in the grade book and pass them back by the next class. :)

Students appreciate this fast turnaround because it provides them with timely feedback that can help correct misunderstandings before they go too far.

#Day45: quick check on binary system and decoding ASCII messages. #ILoveQuizzes #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/RhxyJkLWBc

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) November 13, 2015

#Day46: Friday test day means grading weekend... #PhysicsofLight #GradingforDays #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/EirS82Eqdu

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) November 13, 2015

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Atomic Monsters

We started the unit with a card sort and we ended the unit with a card sort. This Atomic Monsters card sort impressed me a lot. Not only does it have repeating patterns that line up horizontally and vertically, the properties of the different cartoons align with the trends on the actual periodic table.

This activity required students to figure out the proper arrangement then create a list of each property and how it relates to the periodic table. In a school of 1:1 iPads, it's nice to have some hands on cutting, sorting, and gluing every once and a while.

#Day46: now that we've learned about the trends in a periodic table. We reviewed with a new card sort #Teach180 pic.twitter.com/JayrLPK4yi

— Joe Cossette (@cossettej) November 14, 2015