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Re: [Phys-l] Research/suggestions on dividing soph (hs) physical science course into basic/advanced sections?



Sam,
It's odd to see a post from a familiar name on the Phys-L list! I've been
teaching physics since September now at a charter school in Philadelphia,
and the banter between Denker and Hake is always entertaining, if only
occasionally useful.

I guess there's not much else to report, other than that teaching high
school is much more challenging than I could have ever imagined, I struggle
with exactly this problem of differentiation that your message asks about,
and that I'm rediscovering a love for physics and maths that I had lost in
the course of working and playing too hard at Syracuse. And the winters
here are splendid in comparison.

Hope all is well, and I'll be in touch if I'm up there again-- it's always
good to meet with a physics demo guy when I'm struggling to be handy and
make do with very limited resources!

Best,
Scott

On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 7:08 AM, Sam Sampere <smsamper@syr.edu> wrote:


I'd like to hear more about your final paragraph from your 2 am post...

Thanks,

Sam
________________________________________
As a separate matter, there will always be a few kids who are
exceptionally over-prepared. You need a plan for dealing with
these kids. They won't be numerous enough to justify a separate
section of the course. I suggest letting them do a series of
independent-study projects in the far corner of the room, where
they can do stuff without disturbing the main group of students
too much. (It is amusing to make lists of such projects, but
that should probably be discussed in a separate thread.) The
point is that these kids can more-or-less fend for themselves,
if given the right motivation and sufficient opportunity, and
this can be done with relatively little expenditure of the
critical scarce resource i.e. teacher time.
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l




--
Scott Collison
(484)-832-4882