[Phys-L] Re: Charts or Graphs, and other Excel stuff

[julie_hilsenteger at CENTENNIAL.K12.OR.US (Julie Hilsenteger)]

Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM> said:

> At 21:12  -0700 10/5/05, Bernard Cleyet wrote:
> > Ideally students would do manual graphing in middle school, so when they
> > graduate to computers they would know what their graphs should look like.
> The only problem with that is that most middle school teachers are
> clueless when it comes to making a useful graphs. I have watched MS
> teachers explain how to draw a graph to a class in ways that would
> curl your hair, even if you were bald. And all too often, the
> experiments they are told to carry out are so crudely designed that
> the results can hardly be put on a graph in any sensible way, or they
> can be used to support just about any conclusion you want to put
> forward. Sometimes what they are told to graph doesn't even make
> sense.
>
> The end result is that the students arrive on the HS doorstep with so
> many misconceptions about graphs that it takes a teacher almost an
> entire year to clean their minds of the garbage that was put there
> before.

I feel compelled to chime in.  I teach high school and you are right,
students don't know what a graphs are for or how to set them up correctly.
In my classes, they learn this and they have to graph by hand.  They learn
the different relationships shown be the graphs and how to write equations
from them.  They have no clue about this before my class.  They have to
figure our how to get a slope when the graph doesn't have a straight line but
a curve - which we go over very thoroughly.  When they graph in math, it is
just numbers and x and y axes - no labels, etc.  They are amazed at how you
can get an equation from the graph.  If they have done any graphing in
previous science classes, it was never shown to them what the graphs are
really conveying and how much info you can get from a graph.  They do graphs
by hand until they show that they know and understand what they are doing.
Only then do we move to graphing on the computer.  They know that if
something isn't on the graph when they print it, then they better write it on
or fix it and reprint it.  We use Graphical Analysis and it really is nice
for this.  When you fit the line it does extend it to the vertical axis AND
it gives you the slope and y-intercept.
So at least when students leave my class, they understand the value of graphs
and they can make good graphs.  But, as stated by others, not all high school
teachers have been trained/made cognizant or whatever of PER and they are
stuck in the old way of lecture only type of teaching.  Even newer teachers
don't seem well-prepared in this aspect and I blame that on education
schools/courses.  They don't seem to be aware of the research on physics
education unless they are at an institute that is very involved in it.  It
doesn't help that the math classes are totally disconnected too.

--
Julie Hilsenteger
Physics Teacher
Centennial High School
3505 SE 182nd
Gresham, OR  97030
503-661-7612
julie_hilsenteger@centennial.k12.or.us