Semester - Modeling Motion

Howdy colleagues!

Intro: This team is where I'll be planning a semester-long high-school course in the Physics of force and motion using the "Modeling Cycle" an approach to student learning developed by David Hestenes, PhD, and Malcolm Wells, PhD and reknowned veteran high school teacher, whose action-research PhD thesis in the late 1980s has germinated what is now a community of thousands of practicing physics teachers in the US and abroad. My own exposure to the Arizona State University Modeling Instruction Program has truly allowed me to "stand on the shoulders of giants" as a pedagogue, and I'd highly recommend their master-teacher-led summer workshops to any science teacher.

Working Course Title: Modeling Motion

Working Course Description: Human beings have gained an extremely powerful ability to explain, predict, and control the physical world. Our modern lives are filled with tools and comforts that would be impossible without the conceptual and mathematical models used by engineers to design everything from handheld computers to baseball bats. How were these mathematical models discovered? This course takes a hands and minds on approach to the study of nature, enabling students to think and work like scientists as they unlock the mysteries of a small corner of the universe: the world of movement. Students will learn to use state of the art motion sensors, photogates, video analysis, and computer graphing tools to develop powerful mathematical and conceptual models capable of predicting and explaining the behavior of moving objects. Whether riding the train or throwing a ball to a friend, your world will never look the same after you have asked the universe the question: what secrets do you hold?

Attributions and asides: The Arizona State University Modeling Physics program has developed a set of proven-effective classroom methodologies with accompanying resources for a FULL YEAR high school course in Physics, however their resources are copyrighted and the long-established ASU group is in the process of establishing their online presence at another web location as yet to be determined. (As soon as that site is available, I'll link to it.) I will be making every effort to modify the existing ASU resources into a more condensed, slightly less quantitative, semester-long program for the purposes of my own teaching situation.

To see and participate in another Open Planning team inspired by this research-based teaching methodology, also see Janet Saylor's ambitious and innovative "Systems-Centered Modeling" planning efforts.