Strickland Science

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

2/9/2015

I know all of you are great teachers and cover all of your student expectations to the proper depth and complexity as outlined by your campus, district, and state. I on the other hand, am still striving to meet that expectation. Sometimes I must make a choice about where to trim some material; I sometimes don't get around to everything. So how do I decide where to trim? What's the criterion for what's most important? Doesn't the state know best?

Well.... I try to remember that teaching facts is less important than getting students to think. Cramming content down one's throat with a plumber's helper doesn't make one love physics or science.

So... I teach concepts that I KNOW are foundational. I try to keep students engaged. I try to get them to think. I try to get them to wonder. I have ask several college professors and they agree that if they get students that know how to think and want to learn - they can fill a few gaps in knowledge.

So each year is a moving target. I put a great deal of thought into what I teach but I base my decisions on the students I have at the time. This may not be elegant but it's what I do.

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Time Management, the Suck, and Procrastination

2/2/2015

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Well let’s see….I’m trying to remember how to write a blog post – it’s been so long…

Time management has been an issue for me as well as my students this year. I have a student teacher for a full year; she’s working on her masters and we are conducting research together this spring. I have a great group of kids that are building high power rockets after school and learning advanced construction with composite materials. I have a group of students currently working on a full scale trebuchet. Uhmmmm, oh yeah I am a junior class sponsor so I am responsible for planning the prom. I’m participating in two teacher quality grants AND I’m doing my best to teach physics in the best way I know how. I can’t live without my calendar and sticky notes.

The only way I know to survive and how I’m teaching my students to survive is to be goal and product oriented. I tell them the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Each day I try to be productive and move one step closer to the goal or end product. We can’t afford “the suck”- that place where we get bogged down and fail to produce.

With flipclass videos we have often said, “Do we need it perfect, or tomorrow?” I have a similar approach to projects and deadlines. If I make an imperfect step forward today, it is better than no progress at all. It is possible to improve on something. It’s very hard to improve on nothing. Does that make sense?

One thing my students know for sure is that I don’t accept laziness. I expect incremental progress towards the end goal. I suppose that can be considered my class culture. It doesn’t work with 100% of the students, but they all understand the expectation.

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Making Sense

5/24/2014

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This is the time of year when we reflect on our year. We consider what worked as well. We remember our epic failures. Recently I have been trying to make sense of some success that was completely unanticipated. This year we received a grant that allowed us to implement some after school enrichment programs. I gathered a few students together and we ordered some high power rocketry kits; I thought it would be fun… The unintended consequences have made me begin to question some of my beliefs about teaching and learning.

I think I have always believed that education radiates outward from the classroom. We teach lessons. If we make the lessons relevant to students, they carry the learning with them into their world outside of school. I have never experienced a model where students consistently ask how our lessons in class relate to the activities they are engaged in after school. Our makerspace is having that effect – I’m still trying to figure it out. I never thought that the work I was doing with 10 students could influence 100 others, and the community, but it has.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a hands-on kind of teacher; I always try to have relevant labs and activities in class. I do my share of projects. I have always had kids ask questions as they draw on prior knowledge – that’s how we learn. But this is different – it’s concurrent learning with a synergistic result.

As I write this I’m having a sort of epiphany. People who like to cook buy cookbooks and cooking magazines. People who exercise buy health magazines. It’s rarely the other way. People that hate to cook don't buy cookbooks. People that don't exercise don't buy exercise magazines. Maybe school is the same. Students that hate science don't want physics lessons. Teaching a physics lesson does not make someone interested in physics. Maybe doing physics however, makes one want to listen to a physics lesson.

I have talked to other teachers that have had the following experience; we introduce a project in class hoping it will engage the students and make the learning experience meaningful. The result is often that we must “force” the content. I don’t really know how to explain it other than it’s like trying to push a tennis ball into a glass Coke bottle – it’s a tough job. With the makerspace it has been just the opposite – it’s easy. Kids show up because they want to – they ask questions because they are interested.

Because they are interested they tell their parents. Because their parents love seeing their kids interested they volunteer to help. Because they love seeing their kids interested in school they say nice things about the school. People hear nice things about the school and they donate time and resources to help out.

Students that are normally disengaged want to be involved. They want to do something fun – no one wants to be left out. The question becomes, “Mr. Strickland, can I come in after school and do something?” Er, uhm…YES!
“Mr. Strickland, If I bring in some speakers will you help me figure out how to wire them up?”
“Mr. Strickland, we can help you build that Ruben’s Tube in Ag; we have time.”

I had a local businessman donate the time and materials to paint our rockets for us. That was generous but not the best part. One of the other students told me her dad would be more than happy to paint the next ones when we build again. Really? Seriously? I actually have adults competing to help out a teacher in a public school? People on social media are wondering when we are going to launch the rockets. Where is it taking place? We want to come out and watch… Folks, that just doesn’t happen except in story books and fairy tales.

How many times have we had discussions as educators wondering how to get the community involved in our schools? How often do we discuss how to engage our students? How often do we wonder how to get parents involved? How often do we wonder how to improve the culture in our school?

Do adults support athletics because they love sports, or because their kids are doing sports? Maybe kids hate PE class because they HAVE to participate. They love athletics because they WANT to participate.

Maybe the community is supporting my students because the students are doing physics? Maybe kids hate math/physics when they are FORCED to learn it. Maybe they like it when they WANT to learn it.

Is the makerspace successful simply because it is voluntary participation? It may require critical thinking, but you can quit anytime you want. Because you have the option to quit, it gives you the resolve to stay?

I’m not sure of any answers. I am thinking this might make for a really interesting action research project.

What are your thoughts? How do you make sense of this?

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Using “it” in Real Life

4/23/2014

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Sometimes simple and seemingly innocent statements take me down long side roads of thinking. Today was such a day. I was engaged in a conversation after school with two close friends of mine. As is typical of a casual conversation, we chatted about various things school related. The surprise for me came when one of my friends commented that, “Not all students need physics – or chemistry for that matter. They will never need it in real life.” It was not meant as a slight against physics or chemistry, but to me it opened a can of worms about much deeper questions concerning the purpose of education. This statement was made by a person with a master’s degree that has a junior and a freshman in high school. What are their expectations for their child’s education?

Ok, for full disclosure I teach physics but I wasn’t offended. I was more surprised. How much of what we teach is replicated “in real life?” Do I expect my physics students to solve kinematic equations or calculate the electric force between two charged particles after they leave high school? No, I don’t. I don’t think that’s the point.

Physics is about explaining the natural world. Everything around us acts and behaves in accordance of the rules of mechanics, thermodynamics, electricity, and magnetism. Students in my high school attended a program today discussing the dangers of distracted driving. During the presentation statistics were given concerning the forces involved in a crash – I hope my physics students understood the dangers more completely because they understood the underlying principles.

We all want better cell phone reception, faster internet, cheaper gasoline, better health care, etc. Don’t ALL students deserve to understand the fundamental principles that concern these issues? Isn’t gaining an understanding of fundamental principles the essence of all of the subjects we teach in school?

If it’s about needing “it” in real life:

Who needs to understand poetry?
Who needs to give speeches?
Who needs to write five paragraph essays?
Who writes research papers?
Who performs in a play?
Who needs to recite the preamble to the constitution?
Who needs to solve a quadratic equation?

I say nobody – and everyone.

Everyone needs to appreciate the arts. We should all appreciate poetry, short stories, novels, plays and music. Our lives are richer because of it.
Everyone should be able to speak in front of others and be able to express their thoughts or defend a position.
Everyone needs to be able to make their thinking available to others through writing. We should all be able to gather and organize our thoughts then present them in writing.
We should all be willing to express ourselves in front of others. We should have the self confidence necessary to play and interact with others.
We should all think about the events that shaped our nation. We should all learn how the events of the past can inform us about the world we live in today.
We should all see mathematical relationships between the factors around us.

Ok….rant over. It now occurs to me that it isn’t about what students will need “in real life.” Maybe this parent is really just concerned with grades. If a class is challenging maybe we shouldn’t take it. We justify our decision to avoid rigor because “we don’t need it in real life.” Is this another way of choosing the easiest path to good grades and better class rank?

Is the problem that as educators we do a terrible job of showing students what is exciting about our content? In the 1950’s garages were full of folks building and tinkering and learning at home. Folks seemed to understand that education and technology was the key to raising the standard of living of our nation. How did we lose that passion for learning and tinkering? Did we test it out of the kids? Has the success of science and technology bred apathy? Has the complexity of our world made understanding seem impossible?

Is any of this a real problem or do I just need to lighten up? I worry that too many students and adults are not intellectually curious. Should we only learn those things we will use every day in real life? How do we know what we need to know until we have sampled all there is to know?

What do you think? Are these valid concerns or do I just need to have a beer and watch some TV?

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The Charm of Making

4/4/2014

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Anál nathrach, orth’ bháis’s bethad, do chél dénmha.

Merlin

Magic may not be real but I enjoy the stories of King Arthur and the wizard Merlin. I am fascinated by the characters of Merlin, Gandalf, and Dumbledore. Their characters have great wisdom; they seem to possess knowledge that is beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. They are also child-like, and find wonder and beauty in simple things.

Don Herbert was also such a wizard. From 1951-1965, he performed experiments that seemed impossible – almost magical. I believe the genius of the series was that the experiments were simple enough to be performed at home by the viewers themselves. I recently found a copy of Mr. Wizard’s Science Secrets that belonged to my older brother. One of the first things I did was try one of the experiments.

Reading about something isn’t enough. Hearing about some things isn’t enough. Watching someone else do something fun isn’t enough. I want to do it myself – and so do my students. Merlin’s incantation may not really be magic, but there is real magic in making.

Using some grant money, I have been able to begin a small makerspace in my classroom. We meet one evening every week. Today (a Saturday) some students came in to assemble a workbench. Every time we meet I reach a point that I have to literally run students off – they want to stay and keep working. I had a young man choose to come to my class on Friday and work instead of watch a movie with a substitute in another class.

The word charm can be used as a verb. It means to delight or please greatly. Allow students to build something. Watch their delight and pleasure. Create a makerspace. Share your knowledge. Share your wisdom. Share your sense of wonder in simple things. Be a wizard. Discover the charm of making.

Watch something…magical…happen.

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Despondency

4/1/2014

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Despondent – adjective Feeling or showing profound hopelessness, dejection, discouragement, or gloom.

What I have seen in the past two days is an affront to all of the reasons I became a teacher. I have been administering standardized tests to freshmen and sophomores. Five hours of testing…each day…If you don’t pass, you don’t graduate.

There is a part of my brain that understands accountability. I understand the desire to find out what students know. Are our public schools doing their jobs? Are we preparing the students for their futures? Our children are precious and we want some assurance we are doing the right thing for them – spending taxpayer dollars wisely. I get all that.

How many people have had to watch students’ faces as they are testing? The vast majority really try. They fight to stay focused and concentrate. They write, and erase, and outline and plan – and write some more. In the span of five hours you can actually watch the light go out of a student’s eyes. You can watch them throw up a wall and say, “screw this!” Tears should not be part of education. They can’t get away from my room fast enough to escape the unpleasantness. It would be fascinating if it were not so sad.

I spend all year trying to develop a growth mindset. I try to get students to find joy in learning. I try to get them to see education as an opportunity to learn about the world. It’s amazing how much damage can be done in a few hours. How many of us have experienced a betrayal? Do we remember the joy of being in love? Do we remember how those many moments of joy were undone by a single act? Can we remember the scar that remained after the fact? That’s how I see testing. Standardized tests are a bludgeon that destroys the joy of learning.

Compare and Contrast

Yesterday during school I administered a standardized test and witnessed the effects mentioned above. A few students came in after school to start building their high-power rockets. In two hours I watched students read (and re-read) with purpose. I watched students collaborate. I watched planning. Students argued - then learned a little about conflict resolution. I had an opportunity to talk to boys about their attitudes toward girls, self-concept and respect for others. The girls saw a male teacher respect their ability.

Students learned that sometimes sharing is more productive than competing. Students learned a little about relativity - 5minute epoxy means you only have 300 seconds to get things right. They realized five minutes of testing and five minutes aligning parts don’t seem equal. They learned the need for dry fitting and rehearsing their movements. They measured. They calculated. They experienced conflicting instructions and made a decision, unsure of the outcome. They experienced joy in learning. They didn’t want to leave.

Which experience do we want for our children? How did the standardized test measure any of the wonderful things that occurred in the after school activity? Was the stress and frustration of testing worth the effects it had on the students?

I’m all for accountability, but there has to be a better way. If people wonder about what my students are learning I wish they would simply take the time to come visit my class. I wish they would come make the assessment in person.

I will show up tomorrow and try to begin the process of rebuilding attitudes and mending minds. I hope I make some progress before the next round of testing…

Feel free to comment. Share your thoughts.

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Being Fake Smart

3/29/2014

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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

Richard P. Feynman

Do you know people that can “talk the talk” but can’t “walk the walk?” I sometimes refer to this behavior as being fake smart. Someone is fake smart in my mind when they can talk knowledgably and knowingly about certain ideas in education, but cannot implement them in their own classrooms. The scary part for me is that I don’t believe these educators are dishonest at all – the tragedy is that they are simply fooling themselves. I worry about this behavior in myself because I see it in others, particularly online where we are physically separated and cannot observe real life behaviors in a classroom.

I sometimes lurk in a twitter chat and my BS detector will start going off. It usually works like this: The moderator will ask a question – and everyone sort of ignores it for a little bit; they keep visiting and chatting about random things. Then one brave soul addresses the question. After that, there is a cascade of responses, each one an attempt by the author to sound smarter or more knowledgeable than the last person. Often some “expert” makes a comment that is then retweeted numerous times by adoring fans.

Do you ever look at the profile of many of these experts? Very often they show little indication of classroom experience. Do you ever wonder if they can actually “walk the walk?” Don’t misunderstand me – there are folks outside the classroom that are in fact experts and they do know what they are talking about. The issue is - how do we know the expert from someone that is only fake smart?

For me the answer lies in the willingness of the other person to share their failures as well as their successes. I have a number of digital friends that I have enormous respect for, because they share both their successes and failures. I follow them through times of great frustration. I see my teaching practice reflected in theirs, and I learn from them. Perhaps ironically, I trust them because they struggle and don’t know all the answers.

I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent human. I feel like I work very hard at my job. I spend a ridiculous amount of time at school and at home working on school. I am a student myself, usually taking a class or reading a book about education. I make myself available to students before and after school. Teaching is a passion for me – not just a job. My point is I cannot imagine giving any more of myself than I already am – and I never feel like my class measures up against my vision. I know my class seems lame compared to the way many others describe theirs. This is what makes me wonder, are their classes really that great? Do many experts talk about what they wish their classes looked like, or what they actually look like?

I am in my second year of flipped instruction – but like someone on a diet, I slip back to my old ways occasionally. Yes, I sometimes give direct instruction – gasp –a lecture. I make my own videos – and they won’t win any awards. People love to hate Khan Academy videos – and that makes me want to hide some of mine. I am a huge fan of writing in the content area – but sometimes my students go too long without writing. I genuinely believe in a growth mindset – but I catch myself in fixed thinking about my students. I teach in a 1:1 school. I have been 1:1 for eight years – and I sometimes feel I don’t use technology effectively.

So, what’s the point? My point isn’t to criticize others. Rather, I think we must be very discerning about what we believe about our digital acquaintances. I think we have to be very careful not to fool ourselves about our own classrooms and how effective we are. I think we need to grow each day and strive to improve. I think we need to cut ourselves a break when we have trying experiences.

Feel free to leave a comment. I truly don’t mean this post to be an attack toward anyone, but rather a reflection about my own practice. Have you ever had any of these thoughts? How did you respond?

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Insight

3/11/2014

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“Mathematics is much more than a language for dealing with the physical world.
It is a source of models and abstractions which will enable us to obtain amazing new insights into the way in which nature operates.”
― Melvin Schwartz

In the first episode of the new Cosmos, there is a scene that involves the Italian Friar Giordano Bruno. In a dream he finds himself in dome shaped tent where the walls and ceiling depict the stars and planets as the minds of men understand them. In this dream he notices a flutter along the bottom of a portion of the wall. He reaches for the fabric and pulls it back – to reveal a rich and beautiful vision of the cosmos, seen in a way men had never before imagined. He has a flash of insight that forever transformed his understanding of the nature of the universe. I can only imagine the joy he must have felt in that moment.

I wonder, is insight the bridge between knowledge and understanding? As a teacher I feel sometimes as if I am spending a lifetime trying to actually understand everything I learned in high school. I currently teach high school physics – and I love it. I don’t have a degree in physics but it is the content I enjoy the most. The point of this post concerns a MOOC I enrolled in just for fun – Physics I with Labs taught by Dr. Michael Schatz from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The interesting part of this course is in the way Dr. Schatz uses technology in instruction. In the class we combine theory, experiment, and computational modeling – all using technology. The course uses video to deliver content; there’s not much new there, although the videos are very well done. He uses stop motion and color creatively to engage the viewer. This is nice, but at some level a lecture is still a lecture.

We collect video of specific types of motion and analyze the motion with free software. I found this to be very engaging. First, it is interesting because I have control over the video capture. I get to capture the motion of something that is interesting to me – from my surroundings. It is genius because from a pedagogical standpoint it is “cheat proof.” No two students will capture the same video. Video analysis is great because we can leverage the power of the computer to generate graphs and data from the video. This has the effect of making math “real.” I began using video with my freshman in IPC and saw immediate engagement and improved understanding of concepts like the slope of a line and parabolas.

The BEST part of the class is the computational modeling. I wanted to learn coding and I thought this would be a great introduction. In the course we use VPython to model the motion we captured and observed in the video. I never could have anticipated the effect this has had on my understanding of physics.

Seymour Papert has advocated teaching kids coding, not for its own sake, but to carry powerful ideas. I now know what that means. In this class we take simple, fundamental principles – Newton’s three laws – and apply them in the code. Many of us are familiar with Newton’s second law: F=m*a. We learn it in high school, work a few problems and then move on. We are not in awe of this equation. Most students find it simple and perhaps even boring. The magic happens when we use a computational model and a loop to reveal the wonder of such a simple mathematical expression.

The computational modeling has granted me insight. I have been able to see the beauty in the math. I have seen the power of such a simple formula to explain seemingly complex behaviors like planetary motion. Like Bruno, I have seen the world in a new and wonderful way. I have seen content that I thought I understood from a new and exciting perspective.

From the standpoint of pedagogy there is much to learn from this experience. My insight came as a result of my deep involvement in the content. I took the video myself – it wasn’t handed to me. I analyzed the video and collected the data – it didn’t come from a textbook. I wrote the code. I inserted the formulas and relevant information – I didn’t use an app or software written by someone else. In short, I did the work – it wasn’t done for me.

Perhaps that’s the point of this post. Do we rob students of understanding by doing too much work for them? In the name of covering content do we tell too much? The longer I teach, the more I realize students have to do the heavy lifting to truly learn anything. We look too often to technology hoping to make learning more “fun” – more palatable. I am reminded we shouldn’t expect technology to engage the student. We shouldn’t expect technology to deliver the knowledge in an exciting way. We should expect the student to use technology and the content to reveal powerful ideas. They need to do and create using technology - as well as consume. We need to create opportunities for students to achieve insight. We must remember insight is something they earn – not something we can give them.

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Evolution of a Lesson

2/22/2014

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What’s the best way to teach this _____ lesson? A simple question we have all asked ourselves; one that we all attempt to answer in some way. I am currently teaching a unit on thermodynamics. I want students to understand how and why heat energy moves from one object to another. I want them to understand the fundamental difference between heat and temperature. I wonder about the best way to accomplish my goal.

Once upon a time I would have given a lecture about thermodynamics. I would have asked the students to take notes. I would have tried my best to be enthusiastic and engaging. I probably would have done demos that involved fire – who would fall asleep during that kind of lecture? We would have worked a few problems in class. I would have sent them home with some sample problems to practice their new knowledge about thermodynamics. The students would have returned the next day with most of their worksheets completed. Many problems would be wrong, many would be copied. Some would be “eaten by the dog” rather than admit they didn’t understand. Few students would actually UNDERSTAND much about the concept.

Enter flipped instruction. This time there is a video that archives the relevant knowledge for students to watch at home. When students come to class, rather than watch me perform a demonstration, they have an opportunity to perform a lab activity designed to help them understand the concept. The students get a chance to do sample calculations at school, where they can collaborate (not copy) and get help from me when they get stuck. The students are much more engaged and learn the information much better. Their KNOWLEDGE increases. I still find that far too many students don’t UNDERSTAND the concept.

In my latest iteration I am merging flipped instruction with inquiry. We start with a lab experience that teaches some knowledge and skill. The students are engaged and learn a few facts. There is supporting video and online resources to support their learning. This time around I present a real problem:

In 1994 McDonald’s was sued for nearly 3 million dollars over a coffee burn (I give a little background and provide some reading). In the lab students see my grandmother’s old clear glass Pyrex coffee percolator doing its thing on a hot plate. I pour a cup of hot water and measure the temperature. Students learn it is hot enough to cause third degree burns in less than a second. Now I ask a question – how many ice cubes do I need to add to the cup to lower the temperature to a reasonable 55 degrees C ? (burns take approximately 15 seconds at this temperature)

When the students reach for the ice I stop them – whoa there cowboy… Go grab a pencil. I want you to use your knowledge to calculate an answer. Once you tell me – then we’ll add the specified number of ice cubes and see how well you understand physics. There are a couple of lab activities you can do that will help you learn what you need to know – if you want to do them, or you can read and work from theory. The choice is yours. We’ll see if you’re the kind of scientist McDonalds might hire to keep them out of trouble…

They still have videos for support. They have print and online resources available. They can collaborate with each other. They have me as a guide. Will this lesson help students UNDERSTAND thermodynamics? Do your lessons evolve over time as well?

I believe we learn the most when we are actively doing something or creating something. I like this move toward more active inquiry – mostly because I’m curious about the answer. I hope the students are also. I know not everyone cares about the answer. I still have not found the perfect way to teach. I AM curious to discover what the next iteration of this lesson will look like.

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Reducing Complexity

2/15/2014

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“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”

Albert Einstein

Quotes are easily misunderstood. They are catchy and easy to remember; they even make us sound intelligent as we repeat the quote. The problem is we often fail to perceive the deeper meaning or understanding that was the genesis of the quote by the original author.

My interpretation of this quote is: “We often need to wrestle with complexity before we find simplicity.”

I have been experiencing this often lately. I continue to realize that teaching is about simple fundamentals. We read, we write, we DO something interesting, we CREATE something – and learning happens.

In the physics sandbox I call a classroom I continually try to give students something to DO. This week students are burning food to learn about thermodynamics. Students recently CREATED a roller coaster from paper. I am beginning to see how writing programs can help students see the power and beauty of mathematical models. Students read and watch videos to fill the gaps in their knowledge. They write to think and share with the world what they have begun to understand.

Why do we make school so stinking complicated? If we want our students to become lifelong learners we need to make education less complicated. We need to show them the joy of learning and a model that can be repeated and applied over a lifetime of learning.

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Author

My name is Gary Strickland. I teach physics and IPC to high school students in rural Texas. I taught science for nine years in our middle school. Coleman is a one to one environment where all students in grades 4-12 have a laptop. I have been teaching in a tech-rich environment for over eight years. I teach using the flipped model of instruction. This blog is intended to chronicle that process.

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

Time Management, the Suck, and Procrastination

Making Sense

Using “it” in Real Life

The Charm of Making

Despondency

Being Fake Smart

Insight

Evolution of a Lesson

Reducing Complexity

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