Re: grading schemes

[Kossom <MKossover@NEWMANSCHOOL.ORG>]

Howdy-

From: Rick Tarara [mailto:rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 12:42 PM

> While they beg for 'extra credit', such is not built into
> most of our syllabi (nor should it be).

I'd say that this depends. In many physics courses, the only grade comes
from exams and homework. These instruments test a very limited set of
physics related knowledge. If a college course includes a lab component,
then more types of physics knowledge are included. If projects are included,
then even more types of physics knowledge are appropriately included in the
grade.

Physics is not just about solving problems. Although college physics courses
often are. Sadly.

In my class grades do not come from just how well they solve problems.
Graded items include having students write about physics, using complete
sentences and coherent structure, not unlike what people do on PHYS-L. They
do traditional labs, but they also do labs where my guidance is minimal; I
tell them what I want them to determine, and the method they can use (within
limits) is up to them. Each group might do it differently.

I love projects, but they are very time consuming for the students if they
are to do them right, so I rarely assign them. Projects are usually
extra-credit these days. The projects usually require the students to
investigate some field of physics and come up with a change in a how some
device works to improve it and explain the physics behind the improvement. I
know that is vague, I approve the projects on a case by case basis.

A student once investigated gymnastics and the changes that could be made if
gymnasts were allowed to use Heavy Hands (weights that are strapped to the
ankles and wrists) in competition. She explained to the class what would
happen -- three and four turn flips are much easier and weird balancing
moves are possible -- and the physics that was behind them. Then she
demonstrated what she discovered. Some have changed the shape of a football
or baseball, investigating the real world of air resistance. Several have
tried to build better speakers.

Actually struggling with physics in the real world is such a good way to
learn. Further some students show tremendous knowledge in their projects
that they do not in any other format.

It seems to me that some of these kids are exceptionally strong physicists.
They are not number crunchers, but they do know how the world works, and I
grade them appropriately.  I give no points for effort on these projects;
they only receive points for the amount of physics they demonstrate. Of
course failure can sometimes really well-demonstrate physics.

This year a group is going to try to build a Battle Bots robot. Egads.

I warn my students that college physics classes aren't like my class; most
find college courses much easier. Some, though, will never make it through
college physics courses because their teachers set up exams that test math
and not physics, that give advantage to those who work especially quickly,
that deal with silly abstractions, and that never see the real world.

Sadly, few of my students go into the sciences. Over the nine years that
I've been teaching, I've had about a dozen engineers and a couple of
physicists of the many, many more that expressed interest upon graudating
from high school. The most common problem is they find the college programs
dull.

Marc "Zeke" Kossover