Like, in
*light, how the ray model and the diagram are powerful tools in us visualising hard concepts
*waves, share resonance ideas for future use in almost every energy transfer
*sound, look at structure of ear as in textbook, but add how cochlear implant is inserted and works. FTR we looked at the bio model of the ear, then made a lash up showing how the three sections pass sound to the brain, hunting the resonance chains
*x rays, share with chem how electron falls generate the X frequencies
*gamma rays, how nuclear change gives the high frequency and hence nuclear energy
*astro, add global warming and techie fixes etc to the solar system
astro, will try hr diagram for solar types and life cycles to complement the rather thin our sun only GCSE of today.
*mechanics, hammer at definitions (vital for understanding and problems and exams) then drill in basic problems across the board and then get harder. By putting it all together seem to have kept both the double maths and the forced physicists on board.
*all physics classes, start with four uses of physics
@ to make models
@to improve models
@to solve problems (often for lots of motivating money ;)
@to use math as a powerful tool
For some reason that last bit works well as starter with every cover class I have done recently.
The challenge is to ensure coverage and drill in the very basics to keep everyone happy. Hope the end of topic pretest, test and retest will do this. Pretests worked well where tried in telling me what they knew to focus teaching.
Have never in forty years found kids so responsive so must be doing something right. Would love crits and ideas.
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( 3 / 151 )The veggie vouchers scheme gets my vote. Well done the thinkers uppers.
A next step is reading vouchers – stories for Mum and Tod on the back giving access to the next book.
Then lesson vouchers, for club or skill or music tu.
Also toy vouchers, for those precursor to fraction plastic pies, building blocks looking like cuissenaire rods, and demountable differential gearboxes.
This is no send up. This is nation building.
If we want people to be pressure-free teens, we need to give them strengths to start school well. If we want them to listen to bent gurus, lets give them resentment of schools. Our choice, their opportunity if we enable it.
Then, or now, lets try the other continents too.
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( 3 / 145 )Earth in space topics for GCSE
Solar system
1. interpret planetary data like mass and orbits
2. know differences of orbits of the planets, moons and comets, plus at least four different types of Earth satellites
3. know how gravitational forces control movements and orbits of planets, moons, comets and satellites.
The rest of the Universe
1. Our huge galaxy, the Milky Way, has many millions of stars in it
2. The Universe is made of an enormous number of galaxies. So far no life has been found (by radio) at any other star than our Sun.
3. Stars form by the collapse under gravity of large clouds of hydrogen, helium and dust. The hot core starts nuclear reactions.
4. Small stars like our Sun become red giants and later white dwarfs.
5. The Big Bang theory suggests that all matter and space itself exploded from a tiny point and is still expanding.
6. Evidence for the Big Bang
* galactic red shift of light waves shows that all stars are moving away from us
* background microwave radiation is a universal leftover from the Big Bang
If there is enough mass in the Universe, the pull of gravity will reverse the expansion and we will head for a Big Crunch. It seems there is more dark matter than we thought, but we wont know for at least ten billion years. Our yellow Sun will only last another 5 million years or so, so that is a more immediate ! challenge.
Learning ideas:
1. For each of these draw a suitable data structure or two. (Table, bar chart, line graph, web, storyboard, or just a plain sketch)
2. Label them well at revision time. Which is now: expect two short tests next week.
3. Test your mates on their labelling skills.
4. Give a short talk on each. Ask and answer questions at the end.
5. Find a spare parent and tell them what you know about a topic. Ask them to add to your knowledge, or ask if there is is anything you should explain better.
PS Tell me sometime soon which of these you hav'nt read:
The House at Pooh Corner and Now We Are Six
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Just So Stories and Puck of Pook's Hill
Down with skool!
1066 and all that
Beau Geste
King Solomon's Mines, She and perhaps Ayesha
Conan Doyle's collected short stories
Note that these are mostly empire-building stuff. But as we are into another phase of empire building, we need to learn the lessons.
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( 3 / 136 )We downloaded do lists from Manchester’s undergrad and Southampton’s MSc course, chose one and vowed to meet to share knowledge.
Ten minutes on wikipedia filled some of the gaps, and suggested other topics like
 taking hardware apart
 building a model service provider
 research methods
 unix vs the rest
 seven level people networks
 daemons in the brain
 using the 100 dollar computer
 exploring open source tools
 useful maths bits, and ways into others like complex numbers
and other methods like
 student led seminars and reading lists
 earning projects,
 devising the end of part one test
 planning parts two and three
 learning concepts by applet
Feel free to modify or whinge
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( 2.8 / 133 )The combined flurry of slavery apologies and national huzzah (Spooks, Starkey on Great Britain, State of the Nation and the Telegraph’s despair about having to be positive) produces the ironic reflection that enslaving is one thing the species does well. And we do it best to our own: the feckless sickie-fed youf (5.5 million at last count) come from across the class lines, although those from sink schools probably have better reason for doing it in bulk, and for staying in drug hell. They also die younger, judging by the halftime score 70 vs 82 of the Glasgow-London game. This stuff is probably being brandished now, as is Livingstone’s spat with old-style anti-racism, to justify another and hopefully more lasting go at emancipation. Bring back fun proud teaching into schools and beyond, says I, then conscription for the unworkers. Internal colonies that can’t revolt at a distance like the last lot did.
Curiously, this combo might just work rather well.
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( 3.1 / 126 )
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