ANNOUNCEMENT:
2 openings are available for the Leadership Modeling Workshops in h.s.
physics this summer at the University of Wisconsin - River Falls (30 miles
from Minneapolis). July 7 through August 1; the grant pays travel, room
and board and a $1200 stipend. Return next July for 4 weeks.
Post-secondary physics teachers are especially urged to participate, as
well as high school physics teachers. The college faculty who participated
in our last series (Ludwik Kowalski from Montclair State and Mike Politano
from ASU) had a great time and found the experience rewarding!
You can get 4 semester hours of graduate credit each summer.
Are you interested? Do you know someone who is? If so, e-mail or call Jane
Jackson at Arizona State University: (602) 965-8438. jane.jackson@asu.edu
Some details:
- The modeling method gives a story line to your physics course.
- The workshops are led by expert high school physics teachers: PTRAs David
Braunschweig of Madison, WI and Rex Rice of St. Louis. They are warm,
caring people.
- Although computers are best, you can use CBLs, and you don't need to have
them right away. Getting into our program can help you work with your
administrators to get classroom technology. (We supply a 7-page sample
grant proposal to participants.)
- A desire to contribute to local reform of science teaching is important.
Any teacher who has the will can do this! Local reform can be of many
types, whether becoming the technology expert in your school, or
strengthening your local physics alliance, or giving in-service workshops
to other science and math teachers, or eventually teaching a university
course in methods of physics teaching, or doing Eisenhower-funded summer
workshops with a professor for a salary.
- A full year's curriculum is available in mechanics, waves, electricity,
etc., adaptable to your needs.
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Some more thoughts:
The modeling method corrects weaknesses of the traditional
lecture-demonstration method, including the fragmentation of knowledge,
student passivity, and the persistence of naive beliefs. MBL and/or CBL
techniques are used.
24 teachers who care about quality teaching and learning will be together.
Lots of camaraderie, sharing, and intellectual challenge!
You can be on an internet discussion group year-round for the next three years.
The modeling method is highly regarded, not only by physics educators but
also in biology and math education. It's fully aligned with the AAAS'
Project 2061.
Teachers of all ages and all levels of experience can benefit by the
modeling workshops. Those teachers who desire most to become expert
practitioners benefit the most from the workshops.
The modeling method is a radically different way to teach and learn, and
experience shows that 4 weeks are needed to assimilate the basics. The
results can be excellent, so it's worth it. It's based on a powerful
theory of how we learn. One can go very deeply into this. There's lots to
learn!
Jane Jackson, Prof. of Physics, Scottsdale Comm.College (on leave)
Box 871504, Dept. of Physics, Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ 85287-1504.
phone:(602) 965-8438 fax: 965-7331 e-mail: jane.jackson@asu.edu
Modeling Workshop Project: http://modeling.la.asu.edu/modeling.html