EDUC 6470 Experimental Instructional Plans

Explanation

These plans are designed for trial in EDUC 6470, and may be developed for my future use.

For any of these lessons, I would like to focus on the tension between free inquiry and predetermined goals, as in Furtak 2006.

Optional concepts indicate the possibile learning outcomes depending on student or teacher choice of paths during the lesson.

Possible topics for the lesson

Explaining the seasons

Topic

8th-10th grade school earth science, the solar system.

Concepts

Orbit, cumulative change, radiation.

Optional concepts

Discussion

Sadler et. al, Wikipedia's misconceptions page ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_misconceptions#Astronomy ), and many educators have cited the power per area argument for the seasons, due to the tilt of Earth in its orbit. Few discussions of the orbital causes of the seasons list length of day, and none I've seen help students see the seasons as a cumulative effect rather than an instantaneous one, thus explaining why January, when the sun is higher in the US, is usually colder than December, or early August is usually hotter than mid-June.

Activity

Let's do some group work with a numerical model to compare the power/area-effect and the length-of-day effect. We'll see that the problem isn't too simple an inquiry, since there are different ways to tease apart the two effects, none quite satisfactory to me.

Features of inquiry

• All minimal from student, maximal from teacher, according to NRC 2000.

Understanding an LED

Topic

High school physics, solid state physics.

Concepts

semiconductors, band gap, energy conversions, color.

Optional concepts

Frequency, wavelength, wavelengths of various colors

Discussion

Activity

Totally student-determined, given materials.

Features of inquiry

• Learner poses a question.
• etc. (all maximizing learner self-direction, according to NRC 2000)

Repeating Galileo's discovery of the Medicean stars

Topic

High school, physics, motion.

Concepts

Kepler's Law (ratios of periods, diameters); planets; heliocentric system; angular separation; orbit.

Optional concepts

Discussion

Activity

Features of inquiry

• Learner poses question (whatever they want).
• Learner directed to collect certain data (distance of dots from Jupiter over time).
• Learner forms or is guided in formulating explanations.
• Learner directed toward area of sources of scientific knowledge or given possible connections.
• Learner provided broad guidelines to use to sharpen communication, or given steps and procedures for communication.

Finding Capacitance

Topic

9-12th grade physics electricity and electronics.

Concepts

Capacitance, RC timing, resistors, powers of ten, manufacturer's notations on capacitors and resistors.

Optional concepts

Discussion

Instead of teaching the students directly about capacitors, couch it in an on-the-job training kind of experience. The activity seems to be about sorting these capacitors, the time-is-proportional-to-RC understanding is treated as something one could too-easily learn for it to be the actual subject of a lesson.

Activity

Pass around a bucket of capacitors, students each take a few, try to determine value of capacitance by reading tiny text on capacitors. Use voltmeter/oscilloscope to check, by timing rise or fall of voltage of capacitor in series with a resistor and a battery. Use oscilloscope instead of voltmeter for large group.

Features of inquiry

• Learners directed to collect certain data (time of rise/fall from two times noted on stopwatch, from voltmeter/oscilloscope).

Equipment

Voltmeter, oscilloscope, stopwatch, breadboards, resistors (10kΩ-10MΩ range), capacitors (100-100000 pf range, 0.1-100 micro-farad range).

Siting a wind turbine

Topic

9-12th grade earth science, atmosphere and land.

Concepts

wind speed, wind direction, compass, wind rose, histogram, statistics, prediction.

Pre-context

This is the first class of the second term of an earth science class. During the previous term, students studied the radiation budget between sun-earth and earth-space. As part of that unit, students learned about solar power, renewables, solar cooking, climate change. They have never seen a histogram.

Post-context

We show students power curves for wind turbines. Students are asked to revise their inferences based on these power curves, which show that wind turbines have cut-in and cut-out speeds, and make about ten times as much power at 15m/s, a rare wind speed, than at 5m/s, a very common wind speed.

Discussion

Activity

Given an anemometer and a wind vane, students explore a virtual world where wind is modeled. With the help of a data-facilitator, students ask questions of the data. Students then analyze the data on their own, then make inferences and reason why those inferences would be important to deciding where to site a wind turbine.

Features of inquiry

• Learners collect their choice of possible data
• Learners pose their own questions.

References

Brown et al., 2006, on what's missing from science courses.

Possible pedagogical components for any lesson

From Crawford et al., 2009, page 703

1. Instruction is situated in authentic tasks;
2. students develop interdependency in small group work;
3. students and teacher debate ideas and negotiate understanding;
4. students and teacher publicly share ideas with members of the classroom community;
5. students collaborate with experts outside the classroom;
6. responsibility for learning and teaching is shared.

From Brown et al., 2006, page 799

1. The planners are aware of both the degree of guidance and the degree of inquiry, acknowledging that these can be separate.