Interactive, Collaborative, Electronic Learning Logs in the Physics Classroom

Interactive, Collaborative, Electronic Learning Logs in the Physics Classroom Chris Gosling Physics Teacher Saranac Lake High School Sponsored by the National Science Foundation DUE0302097, SUNY-Buffalo State Physics, The Adirondack Teacher Center, and Saranac Lake Central School District

Presentation Structure • Why journal? • Types of journals • Personal experiences • Methods for implementation • Selected excerpts

Why journal? • Students who journal outperform their peers MacDonald and Cooper as cited by Bazerman, Little, Bethel, Chavkin, Fouquette, & Garufis (2005). • Written record of ideas and attitudes • Opportunity to make sense of different experiences • Form group identity • Gauge student understanding

Paper Journals - • Traditional paper journals • kept by the student without prompts • checked periodically by an instructor

Limitations of paper journals • Student entries do not keep up with class • most entries written just before due date • Feedback limited to instructor comments at end of grading cycle • Quality of writing/reflection limited with students of lower ability MacDonald and Cooper as cited by Bazerman et. al. (2005).

Dialogue Journals • Students respond to questions posed by instructor • Instructor reads responses, comments, and asks both follow-up and new questions

Advantages of Dialogue Journals • Rapid feedback from instructor • High quality reflection can be achieved with proper questions

Disadvantages of Dialogue Journals • Time consuming for instructor • Physically challenging: numerous journals to be collected and transported

Advantages of Using an Electronic Format • Physical demands of traditional dialogue journals eliminated • Identical questions can easily be directed to all students (copy & paste) • Students can quickly search for topics

Disadvantages of Using an Electronic Format • Still time-consuming • Files can be lost or corrupted • Physical act of writing is eliminated • If images are improperly used files can become unwieldy

Advantages of Group-Based Journaling • Easier for instructor: respond to 1/3 of entries compared to individual journals (for groups of 3) • Variety of class experiences within journaling group can lead to good discussion

Disadvantages of Group-Based Journaling • Written comments may be those of typist rather than group • Must ensure that typist rotates • Perspectives of quiet group members can be ignored • Sketches are more complicated to create

Personal Experiences • Used traditional individual paper journals in graduate physics education coursework • Functional, but only if students keep up with class

Use of Journals as a Teacher • Spring 2005 Paul Smith’s College • Implemented traditional paper journals with algebra and calculus-based physics courses for non-physics majors • Students wrote entries after each class meeting (3x per week)

Traditional Journal Results Collected Journals at Midterm: Disaster & Disappointment • Most students wrote the journals the night before they were due • Complete journals showed little genuine reflection

Hickman’s Interactive Collaborative Electronic Learning Logs (ICE Learning Logs) • Used with high school students • Word-processing documents facilitate a group dialogue journal instructor – bold font students – non-bold font • Randomly assigned groups (no single sex groups) (Hickman, 2000)

My Adaptation of the ICE Learning Logs • Virtually identical to Hickman’s • With small classes, single-sex groups were sometimes unavoidable • Random groupings helped ensure that groups had different class experiences

My Adaptation of the ICE Learning Logs • 3 semesters of use with calculusandalgebra-based courses of non-physics majors at the college level • 1 semester of use with algebra-based high school students (color-coding will denote origin of excerpt)

Methods of Implementation • 2 methods of sharing: shared network folder and website • Shared folder is greatly preferred • faster and easier to access • Don’t have to email file back to instructor • instructor doesn’t have to repost file to website

Themes of Focus • Group Identity • Connection to the real-world • Probing for Conceptual Understanding • Ah-ha moments (for Learning Commentaries) • Humor • Student Responses

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Group Identity Group Names • Sassinators • Killer Time Traveling Train Team • Rats in a Box • Kinematic Cockatoos • The Best Group Ever • The Snowmen • Nameless • Friction Fighters • Bowling Balls • Wyld stallions • Dream Team

Group Identity Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Group Names • The Exotic Yet Tasteful Learning Loggers • Team This is Nice n Warm • Team déjà vu • Interactive Collaborative Electronic Learning Loggers • The Pink Flamingos • The Rubber Duckies • The Blowfish The most common group names were those formed using students’ initials

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Conceptual Understanding • What is the difference between average and instantaneous velocity? • Instantaneous velocity is the slope of the tangent line at a specific point. Average velocity is the average slope of the entire curve on the p vs t graph.Good! • The difference between average and instantaneous velocity is the average is between many different velocities and the instantaneous is the actual velocity. You find the velocity of each part of the line and then average them together to get the instantaneous velocity and then to find Average velocity draw a line of best fit and find the slope of the line of best fit.I agree with your strategy for finding average velocity, but am not sure why you’d average all the slopes together to find instantaneous velocity. Would you like to revise your statement? If you’re still unsure feel free to call me over for a quick moment.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Cptl. Und. / real world • What does it mean when you say that an object is accelerating? Provide an example of a situation where an object accelerates. • When an object accelerates, it is gaining velocity. An example of this would be a small child rolling down a hill in a garbage can.Ouch, but good example! • A sled accelerates going down a hill. • When you spit off a bridge the spit accelerates from your mouth as at falls to the icy depths of the water.Wow, very vivid example.

Connection to real world Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) • Question 2.b. helped ideas hit home because it showed a real life situation that created a visual of what was really happening with distance and time and coming up with the story on our own allowed us to see this comparison better.Good, I really like this question and was sorry that we didn’t have time to discuss it as a class.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Connection to real world • Aside from the human-sized cage, what’s another example of a real-life object than can function as a Faraday cage? How so? • We talked about cars, trucks, or other petroleum spewing vehicles acting as a faraday cage in a lightning storm. With a metallic shell, electrical charge is distributed on the outside. This is the reason that people do not get barbequed when their car is struck with lightning while sitting on the side of the highway during a tornado… (e.g. Student C’s poor, unfortunate family). • An object in the real world that can function like a Faraday cage would be a car in a lightning storm. This is because if the car is struck while you’re inside it, the outside of the car is charged, but inside you’re safe.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Connection to real world • Give an example of a situation where the velocity of an object is changing but its speed is not. • An example of the velocity of an object changes but not the speed is if an airplane was changing course but maintaining a constant speed. • A car can be traveling north on I87 at 60 mph and then go South on I87 at 60 mph. The speed of the car remains the same and the direction changes.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Connection to real world • Come up with a real-life situation where you could use the kinematic equations to solve a problem. Be creative! • You are flying a helicopter at an elevation of 500m Above Ground Level and are hovering at a blistering speed of 0m/s.wow!You are trying to drop a ball out and land it in your friend’s pool. How long would it take for the ball to land in the water?Great problem! • A squirrel is running to a tree at the constant velocity of 2 m/s. The tree is 50 m away from the squirrel’s starting point. You could use a kinematic equation to figure out how long it would take the squirrel to reach the tree.Great! • Student G jumps off Bluff (a cliff above water). The rock is precisely 25mhigh?. It takes him precisely 5 seconds to hit the water. Given the average acceleration based on the downward force of gravity to be 9.81m/s2, what is Student G’s velocity when he hits the water?

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Connection to real world • Tell me a story about a situation where net force might be applicable. • A tow truck pulling someone out a ditch is an example of net force. The cars gravidity is pulling against the truck and the truck is pulling against the car. The truck needs to exert more force than the car to pull it out of the ditch.ok • An example of this is if Student B’s car stalls out and he needs two of his friends, Willie and Bob, to help him push while he steers the wheel. The net force is equivalent to the force applied on the car by Willie (F_w) plus the force applied on the car by Bob (F_b). Therefore, F_xnet = F_w + F_b.

Connection to real world Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) • And finally, please tell me a story that could have resulted in the motion shown on the graph below. Be creative!

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Responses • Suzy was walking her dog at a constant speed. Then she stopped to look at a bird for a moment and all of the sudden a car hit her and the dog and sent them both backwards at a constant speed. Then they both lie in coma on the rode until someone came along and found them. But it was too late, they were already dead.Ouch! Harsh, but it matches the graph well. • Student D was on his way to school and turned around, then he got back to his house and fought with his mom for a little while, until she drove him back to school, were he stayed for the day. Interesting story, but a perfect match to the graph! • A runner goes back toward the starting line because he dropped the baton then stops to pick it up, and after a few seconds sprints forward make up the time lost and stops at the finish.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Responses continued • So, there was this guy. His name was Phil. So, he was sitting there, in his recliner, 10 feet away from his T.V. But he left the remote on the coffee table, 6 ft away from the T.V. He went and got the remote, and tripped and fell. So, now he’s lying on the floor, for some seconds. So then, his show came on, but he forgot his iced tea in the kitchen. So, he SPRINTED to the kitchen and got his iced tea. So, then he sat and drank his iced tea, when someone called. It was his mom. And then she made him talk indefinitely. The End.Wow, that’s an incredibly sad story. Nice work! • There was a zookeeper and he started at his office, and then he went away from his office to go home and on his way he stopped at the lions cage and realized it was open. So he stopped on his way out to close the gate. He then heard a noise behind him and ran because he knew it was the lion. He ran past his office and into the woods where the lion tackled him and ate him and that is where the line remains in the same position.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Connection to real world • Please tell me a story where an object or a person has a positive position and velocity, but negative acceleration. • If you are moving in a positive direction but slow down so you don’t you get hit by a truck you will have negative acceleration. • A runner is running away from the starting line (the origin), steps into a pothole, stumbles for a bit, and then continues running. His velocity would have decreased, but would stay positive, while acceleration would be negative.Yes! This is a good story. Did Scott (who’s on the cross-country team) help dream it up? I’m glad you liked it, It was Scott. • A story about a sprinter running away from a starting line has a positive position and velocity but a negative acceleration. Oops sorry he’s drunk and turned around to start running towards the starting line.check this- you sure? If the sprinter is moving away from the starting line at an increasing rate (speed is getting faster) then the acceleration would be positive. If you’d like to edit your story you’re welcome to.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Ah-ha moments • Did any of your group members have an “Ah-ha” moment when the light bulb turned on and everything made sense? • The analogy with the car and the gas tank made a lot of sense for us. [reference to constructing motion maps] Good, glad to hear that it worked for you. • None of us experienced an epiphany but we all understand the subjects proficiently.ok • Our light bulbs are flickering, but are not turn on completely. We understand most of the material but the subtleties in understanding the different graphs. All we need is just to review the material to gain a complete understanding.Ok, sounds good to me. Did anyone have time to do this over the past week? • There weren’t any real ah-ha moments, everything was pretty straight forward. We enjoyed playing with the balloons and tinsel, that was fun.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) …made you think • Within your group, select one problem that made you THINK! • 4.20 in the purple book made us think hard about where the ball would go. We thought the ball would continue in a straight line, but we would like to see proof in class. (tennis ball and pvc pipes). (a bowling ball and rope would also work well)How about a marble and a pie tin? Though a bowling ball would certainly be more dramatic, especially since we’re working in 2-D without the effects of gravity. That means that the ball would have to be swinging in a perfect horizontal circle while Andrew gets to run in with a pair of scissors and cut the string. Remind me if we didn’t do this activity! • And I just found out from Student I explaining to me that the ax vector is the same as the vector of the net force. When you say the same, do you mean that it has the same units and magnitude? OR do you mean that they’re proportional? We meant that they are in the same direction, we weren’t talking about units or magnitude or proportionality at all. • The problem that made us think was the problem with the two cars colliding with different masses and velocities. We had to predict the direction after the collision. It made us think because it was a real life situation.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) …made you think • Within your group, select one problem that made you THINK! • Student K’s group did a problem with the quarterback and it showed that you can move backwards and forwards. The quarterback dropped back from the line of scrimmage, then threw the ball forward to a receiver, and then the receiver continued to run into the end zone. This showed us that there is both positive and negative movement in terms of direction. • Question 1c was helpful because we could compare our answer to another group’s answer. It showed how real life situations could be represented and how different people use different scales for the same thing. • Student J predicted that two objects of equal size but different weight would hit at different times, the heavier of the two hitting first. I predicted that objects of different weight would hit at the same time.Ok- thanks. Most people on the street would predict that they hit at different times, but now you know! We observed that the shape of the object has more affect on falling rate than the mass of the object does. • Problem number seven was the one that made us think the most. Intuitively, most of us thought that the object with the higher mass would have the greater momentum, but when we put the numbers into the equation the momentums were equal. Yes! This shows that momentum depends on more than mass alone.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) …made you think • Within your group, select one problem that made you THINK! • The problem with the resistors in series and the voltage graph showing the drop in voltage across the resistors. This problem made us think because we had to consider current as well.Ok- good. • The problem with the electric filed(what is this?) um we meant “field” (sp)lines and the five different points surprised us. We did not expect that they would all have the same electric field potential. We thought that the closer the point was to the negative charge, the weaker the force would be.Yes, this is certainly the case when dealing with charges. However, the problem gave us lines of equipotential rather than the charges themselves, so that’s all we had to go on.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) …made you think • Within your group, select one problem that made you THINK! • We think number 7 on the homework #3 was really difficult. You had to apply a lot more thinking to it then previous questions. You had to realize the relationship and substitute different numbers in different places in the equation. You also had to alter the equation so that it would work for the variable you were trying to find!

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Cries for help • No one in our group has an epiphany, but most of our group is confused with the slope of velocity. We also have trouble with acceleration vectors. • Soooo, the homework, was NOT as easy as we were thought to believe. In fact, the diver question and skier question were near impossible! It is partially our fault for not starting the homework earlier and asking questions on it, but we thought it would be easy and quick, and the fact that blackboard was down this weekend did not help • We all had trouble understanding the force vectors.Ok, thanks for letting me know. The good news is that we’ll be spending a lot more time with them in the future so there will be plenty of time to practice.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Humor/trade books • But once we started talking about the “Greenies” I actually understood. Physics should be taught everywhere using Greenies. • p.s. What we really learned is that the “greenies” will go on THE PRICE IS RIGHT and will play plinko with flashing bouncey balls and win Switzerland. Greenies enjoy cheese and chocolate. In fact cheese and chocolate are the two major constituents of the greenies’ diet. They also enjoy hamsters. (reference to: There are no electrons: Electronics for Earthlings) cite?zgf

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Humor • Tell me a story about a situation where net force might be applicable. • If you have two Rare Mountain Shoats playing tug of war on top of St. Regis Mountain. The two shoats are of equal strength but not stamina. So for a while the net force on the rope applied by the shoats is ZERO. After 3 minutes shoat 1 gets tired and is applying less force than Shoat 2. Shoat 2 pulls him down the mountain and into Lower St. Regis Lake. He won.That’s one of the best shoat stories ever. Maybe you should write it down and put it in a fairy tale book for your grandkids someday. I might do that too.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Humor • Invent a motion map and then provide a plausible explanation for how it could have been created. • This guy Chris Gosling was walking along one day and he tripped on a porcupine. It is important to note that he was near the top of a hill when this incident happened. So when he tripped he fell in the direction of the downward slope and proceeded to roll into a ball and then down the hill. Along the way a large rock intercepted Chris’ path and he flew 2ft into the air and was caught by a large eagle and carried off to spend the rest of his life to live in a nest. However, between the time of porcupine impact and when he slammed into the rock, some nearby Physics students decided to measure motion maps than save him from his doomed fate.Outstanding scenario!

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Humor Teddy, Makeda, and Brian- This drawing is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Maybe I will take it home and put it on my fridge. But why is the grassy hillside level? The eagle is a particularly nice touch.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Humor • Tell me a story about a situation where net force might be applicable. • So we got team A and team B in an extreme tug-o-war tournament. They are in the final round and it’s a heated match. Team A is a applying a force of 80 wheat fig N and team B is applying a force of -80 wheat fig N. The net force of the tug-o-war match is 0 wheat fig N. All of a sudden, little Timmy musters up enough strength to increase the force of team B’s net force to -82 wheat fig N. With this larger amount of force, the new net force of the tug-o-war match is -2 wheat fig N. Team B is now able to pull team A into the alligator infested mud pit and win the extreme tug-o-war tournament for the fifth consecutive year. All of the players of team A were sadly consumed by the alligators and will no longer be able to compete in next year’s tournament.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Humor

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Student Reactions • Which do you prefer: individual journaling or the group journals we’ve been doing the second half of the semester? Why? • We all agree that group journal is the better way to get thoughts and ideas out and is much easier to work in a group than to sit down individually and write the entries. Being done in class, you don’t forget like you would when having to do them individually. • Well the groups journal was preferred as we can work together to find our way and in addition we get some satisfaction in the more immediate reply from you the teacher as to our rightness or wrongness • Journaling is definitely better as a group because its fresh in the mind and it makes sure we do it. • It was nice to have your question to point us in a direction.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Student Reactions Cont. • Which do you prefer: individual journaling or the group journals we’ve been doing the second half of the semester? Why? • We believe that the journals in class were definitely the way to go. They allowed us more constructive journal entries, instead of writing them all at the end and forgetting some stuff. It’s actually incentive to do them, since it’s done in class. • Group journaling is much better. In case we don’t understand something we can discuss it over with our group and understand it better. …it helped to direct the journal entries.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Student Reactions • Which method makes it easier to write a Learning Commentary later? • When it comes to writing Learning Commentaries we feel that individual journaling is better because individually your problems are in the journal, maybe the problems that you (individually) have. • We think it was also easier to write Learning Commentaries because you didn’t have to keep flipping through journal pages, and everything was found on the computer.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Student Reactions • Which method helps you learn better? (electronic learning logs vs. traditional journals) • We believe that this electronic journaling helps us learn better since there are specific questions to answer about the topics we cover in class. • We think that as a group you learn better because every ones views are expressed and discussed. • This method was also probably better for learning because of two reasons; you always did it and your answers were more complete and correct.

Calculus-Based Algebra-Based High School (Algebra-Based) Student Reactions • How do these learning logs compare to traditional journals (pencil and paper) that you’ve kept for other classes? • We all like the electronic learning logs a lot better than having to write them on paper. • They are faster and are easier to correct mistakes with a teachers response. • We decided that we like electronic learning logs better than written ones, because it is more efficient and fast than journals on paper.

Interactive, Collaborative, Electronic Learning Logs in the Physics Classroom