never mind the optics

I was interviewed by David Noble last month.  David is currently researching his doctoral thesis by interviewing educators to determine how they use the social web to support learning, teaching and professional development.  You can read more about his work and the participants on the Edonis Ning site.

I was quite nervous because our telephone conversation was broadcast live online using iPadio and I knew some people were listening.  If you missed it, David has published the audio here or you can download it below.

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I thought I had done well to get some of my AH Physics class to submit a draft of their investigation report to me by 3.30 on the last day of term.  I had no idea how much I would regret not paying attention to the type of files that were dragged and dropped from usb memory sticks to my macbook desktop.

When I got home, I noticed that all of the files were saved at Word 2007 files, with the .docx file extension.  That didn’t bother me as Office 2007 has been deployed on an increasing number of machines across the school and Word for Mac 2008 on my macbook has always opened .docx files in the past.

However, none of those files contained items inserted using the new Word 2007 equation editor.  When I went to open the first file, I was confronted by a warning message

I clicked ok and when the document opened, I was presented with a strange selection of characters where the maths should have been,

clearly not what was intended.  I was a bit miffed as I thought that 2008 for Mac would be able to view, if not edit, equations produced in Word 2007.

Undeterred, I tried to open the pupil’s work in Apple’s Pages

which simply refused to show anything.  So I tried OpenOffice instead.  Even after upgrading to the latest version of OO.o, all I could see was

so I was kind of stuck!

Then I went looking for an online solution and found that Zamzar could change .docx files into the .doc format.  This worked like a charm and I was able to open the .doc files and view the equations, which had been inserted into the document as images.

While the mix of software deployed across my school has clearly had some bearing on the situation, I’m still amazed at the fact that Microsoft have broken the compatibility of their Word application across the PC and Apple platforms.  If it wasn’t for Zamzar, we would have had some unhappy S6 pupils in class at the start of next term.

A great new project kicked off at EDUtalk this week.  John Johnston and David Noble have set the ambitious target of posting a piece of audio every day throughout 2010 as part of their EDUtalk365 project.  I think that their idea of educators sharing ideas on the changes sweeping through education is brilliant and the nature of the contributions makes it possible for busy people to dip in and out of the published audio as and when they have the time.  I have posted previously on the ease with which audio resources can be accessed while driving, walking the dog, washing the dishes, etc. and I think that David and John are on to a winner here.

To help them on their way towards 365 days of audio, I recorded a short piece on how I have been using Wordle in the classroom as an aid to literacy across learning.  You can listen to my contribution here. Better still, subscribe to their Posterous blog or add it to your iTunes podcasts so you’ll never miss an episode during 2010!

Standard Podcast [ 4:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’ve been thinking recently about numeracy, literacy and where they fit within my subject area.  While these thoughts have been bouncing about in my head for a wee while now, it’s only after reading Bill Boyd’s excellent post on literacy for all that I thought I would try to write something down.

Numeracy in physics is unavoidable.  At all levels, pupils are expected to analyse information and solve a problem by performing one or more calculations. This is the familiar face of physics, the side that often results in people telling me that they can’t/couldn’t/didn’t take physics at school because they couldn’t do maths.

After discussions with my maths colleagues, I had to look at my classroom practice and adjust my methods so that pupils see a familiar approach to problem solving.  The examples provided in our new whole school numeracy policy booklet have been very helpful here.

I’m also starting to discover where the literacy demands in physics are greatest. The closer I look, the more obvious it seems that literacy was an issue in Physics long before the Curriculum for Excellence ring binder appeared. Students who are confident in calculation-based tasks often find descriptions or explanations very challenging.

In my opinion there are two topics that stand out.  The electronics unit of Standard Grade and the Gas Laws in the Higher course are both particularly challenging in terms of the literacy demand placed on learners.  In each of these topics, pupils are often asked to explain behaviour of a system.  The skills needed to succeed in these tasks are outlined in the new literacy outcomes.

Learners require a command of the appropriate vocabulary

I can use a range of strategies and resources independently and ensure that my spelling, including specialist vocabulary, is accurate.  LIT 4-21a

and must be able to sequence the information (pupils often call this “cause and effect”)

I can convey information and describe events, explain processes or concepts, providing substantiating evidence, and synthesise ideas or opinions in different ways.  LIT 4-28a

So here are the strategies I have introduced so far with a view to enhancing literacy in physics.

• Create Wordle wall posters showing key vocabulary for the current unit. I’ve made these by copying text from the SQA documents and then blowing them up on the excellent Blockposters site.  I’ve mentioned this step before.

• Think-pair-share activities to encourage pupils to identify for themselves what is required.

• Pupils use the results of think-pair-share to gather together their agreed ideas of what makes a good description and generate a mind map

• Use the mind map as a starting point for additional descriptive work. These tasks can incorporate peer assessment to ensure all learners receive prompt feedback.  Use of peer feedback in pairs or trios ensures that pupils can compare their work and get a feel for quality.

I’ve trialled these approaches in S3-S5 and most pupils report that they find them to be helpful activities. Is it enough though?

Update: the above example relates to the electronics unit of Standard Grade Physics. I have posted a modified version for the Higher Physics gas laws topic on my classroom blog.

Physics teachers from across the Highlands got together for a CPD day last Saturday.  The event was hosted by Nick Forwood, our local Physics Teacher Network coordinator, at Fortrose Academy.

After a keynote from Tom Balanowski, the SQA Principal Assessor for Advanced Higher Physics, we were able to choose up to three workshops from the list on the right, plus an additional option of learning how to configure the free telescope for schools supplied by The Society for Popular Astronomy.

I presented a session on using blogs, wikis and iTunes in the Physics classroom.  It was a demonstration of the resources I have built into my classroom blog, with an update on how using iTunes to push homework exercises and videos homework solutions out to pupils’ home computers had been received.

I also took the chance to show off some of the work that had been produced during the Building Glow Communities event for Science teachers earlier in the week.  I was surprised to find that questions were asked about my use of Voicethread and Animoto in the classroom.  People who are working on developing their CfE outcomes were interested in the opportunities these tools presented in terms of genuine pupil-focused creativity, digital evidence of their experiences and the chance to produce something other than powerpoint slides.

I was delighted to share my experience of using these sites with them and gave examples of how I had used them in my classroom.  The enthusiasm with which they were considering non-traditional activities shows that Curriculum for Excellence really is going to change the way our pupils experience science in the years ahead.

You don’t have to look too far into the internet undergrowth to find a Wordle these days.  These word cloud images can be a powerful, yet flexible, tool – as shown in Tom Barrett’s 38 ways to use Wordle in the Classroom.  I’ve used this tool before to analyse my own writing for a book chapter.  I found that it helped me to check I had the correct emphasis and was handy for pointing out my repeated use of some words in the piece.

Just before the summer holidays, I thought I might create a series of classroom posters to help pupils identify key vocabulary for each unit of the Standard Grade Physics course, starting with the Using Electricity & Electronics topics for my new S3 & S4 sets respectively.

To generate the wordles, I copied the SQA arrangements for each unit and pasted them into the text box on the wordle site.  I showed the inital results to a test group from the new S3 class and they were not that impressed.

They identified several problems with the output;

• too many words on display (Wordle.net’s default setting is 150 words)
• the random vertical/horizontal word orientation was difficult to read
• words that protruded significantly from the main cloud were distracting
• unappealing colours – particularly so whenever a white background was in use

We started work on these issues by reducing the number of words on display.  The panel felt that 50 words was a good compromise and setting the output preferences to place all words horizontally was straightforward.  Similarly, the positioning of words to avoid any jutting meant remaking the Wordle until it was more pleasing to the eye.  Colour selection, however, was more subjective and it was difficult to achieve a consensus.  Eventually, it was agreed that we would create our own colour palette as agreement could not be reached with the selection provided.

Looking back, I have to agree that the white background is not particularly stimulating and a more inviting word cloud was obtained using a custom palette.  Setting up a custom palette gave a much more visually interesting word cloud, here is the final layout for the Using Electricity vocabulary.

I have to admit the preferring the colour scheme for the Electronics design – it may be the way that the scheme evokes memories of chocolate lime sweets.

I took each of the brightened up designs and uploaded them to a site called BlockPosters.  This site can produce large poster-sized pdf files of any image you upload.  I choose to blow up each image to a 5×2 array – spreading the picture out over 10 sheets of A4 paper.  The printed A4 sheets can then be taped together to create the poster.

So I have 2 posters on my classroom wall now.

They are easier to read than the initial 150 words designs and have colour schemes that appeal to the people intended to use them.  Most importantly, they are being used! When questioning the classes, I see eyes moving towards the posters during “thinking time”.  Not because the answer is on the wall but because pupils know that the vocabulary to scaffold their response will be.

We’ve had a cracking cohort of pupils work their way through Standard Grade and Higher over the past three years.  On Tuesday, we’ll have an unusually large number sitting the Higher Physics paper and fifteen of them have indicated that they would like to continue to study physics in S6.  While it’s brilliant to have so many motivated pupils signing up for the Advanced Higher course, it does present a bit of a problem for a department that typically runs with a class of only 5 pupils.  

I’m in the middle of putting together my requisition for next session and, while I was thinking more about ensuring we had what would be required to tackle the Curriculum for Excellence science outcomes, I’m now having to consider whether we have sufficient apparatus to offer up to 15 different, independent and appropriate AH investigations.

One of the things I spotted in the Rapid online catalogue was a spring made from a smart alloy.  I’d previously seen the alloy demonstrated as a wire in a model robotic arm developed by Gregor Steele of SSERC but had not known about the spring.  I had the idea of using the smart spring for an investigation based around magnetism and self-inductance.  I’m not sure whether this would work but, combined with a hall sensor, I think there might be adequate opportunity to produce graphs and determine uncertainties.  Given the need for a third experiment on the theme, I though about looking at mechanical properties, based around the hysteresis of the smart alloy.  The investigation would therefore explore aspects of units 1 & 2 of the AH course.

I made some notes on my board to bounce off a colleague tomorrow but I’d be interested in hearing what other physics teachers think.  Data sheet for the spring is here.

About a year ago, I wrote a post about my thoughts on a survey of pupils’ views now that we had completed their courses.  I was asked to hand out another survey this week, having finished several NQ courses just in time to hand out a second prelim, sit the final NABs and run through any questions before they all go off on study leave.

Our surveys are simultaneously better and worse this year – at least that’s my opinion.  I said before that if we valued what pupils had to tell us we would construct a form that asked specifically about our subject rather than a generic set of questions.  Well this year we have a better form with more detailed questions.  The problem is that the whole school is using them.  So the same form (with different header & footer text) is being used in each department.  Pupils told me they had already completed the same form for maths, PE, chemistry & biology.  It was them who pointed out that the text at top and bottom of the sheet was the only difference.

Unlike <insert subject here>, I teach a practical subject.  There are regular experimental tasks activities involving group or individual work where an idea is investigated, discussed, misconceptions challenged, etc.  Nowhere in this feedback exercise do pupils have an option to comment on practical work; the lack of it (or otherwise), the organisation of it, relevance of it to the course or the extent to which it helps them to learn.

The same can’t be said for ICT.  There are several prompts for students to indicate their thoughts on ICT:

• How frequently does your teacher use ICT during lessons?
• Do you think the ICT used in lessons is of a high quality?
• Does the ICT used in lessons help your learning?
• Do you prefer the use of ICT to teacher generated materials on a board or overhead projector?

Looking at the responses, I am left wondering what pupils’ concept of ICT might be.  I use ICT frequently and several pupils seem to agree but others claim they never see ICT in my room.  Is this because they think ICT is a PowerPoint presentation?  I rarely use those.  My definition of ICT would include all the web sites I display in class, use of animations and simulations, youtube and other video sites, using a blog and some podcasts on iTunes to distribute extra resources and homework exercises and screencasts of worked solutions to the homework tasks.  According to some in my staffroom, ICT is “anything with a plug on it”  - that’s pretty much every piece of apparatus in my room barring Bunsen burners and general glassware.

If we want pupils to provide feedback we need to write the questions in such a way that they know what we are asking.  If we want pupils to know that their opinion will be valued then we must convey that by building value into the survey itself.

The int1 electronics class is now well into the project phase of the course.  This final stage is assessed by a combination of internal and external moderation of a project set by the SQA.  In my first year of running the course, I opted for the alternative cycle lights project as it is the simpler option on offer.

We’re all at different stages of the project and there has been a steep learning curve, not least for myself.  I’ve discovered the limitations of some equipment I had allocated for this course way back in June.  This means my empty budget has had to find cash for a whole load of items necessary to complete the projects.

As those in front have moved from design to prototype to laying out on stripboard for soldering, I thought I would share some of the pictures we have taken over the past week to mark these milestones.

I like this course, the idea is sound even if I have issues with the way it has been implemented.  Some of these problems may be resolved next year, although staffing within Physics may result in the course moving to the Technical dept. for a year or two.  Recently, we’ve explored problem-solving techniques that are more advanced than simply checking for loose connections.  I wonder how many of these pupils ever anticipated learning how to use an oscilloscope to measure the pulse frequency of a timer chip?  

This is a skill that many in my Higher class have yet to master.

I’ve been looking at the entries for Dan Meyer’s 2008 design competition and I’m really taken with the 2nd of his personal picks from the entries.  The design was submitted by Sam Shah and the physicist in me just loves the unaligned tabs below the bar chart.  They remind me of the ticker timers and ticker tape analysis we used to have in school physics before the arrival of dataloggers and light gates for speed & acceleration measurements.  

Sticking little strips of narrow paper on to sheets of coloured A4 allowed us to build up a Blue Peter version of events and undoubtedly contributed more to understanding of speed-time graphs than inspection of the “here’s one I prepared earlier” datalogger graphs we use in school today.

ticker tape photograph by things11change