[Reminder to physics ed colleagues: Will you please forward this to
local high school physics teachers? and to your local science
coordinator? and to student teachers? Teachers tell me that they
appreciate reminders, for they are sometimes too busy to read e-mail.
-- Jane Jackson, ASU Modeling Instruction]
30 MODELING WORKSHOPS in PHYSICS NATIONWIDE
30 Modeling Workshops in high school physics will be offered this
summer in states listed below. Most workshops are two or three weeks
long.
Modeling Instruction is designated as an Exemplary K-12 science
program by the U.S. Department of Education.
Modeling Workshops are STEM courses that thoroughly address most
aspects of high school science teaching, including integration of
teaching methods with course content. Workshops incorporate
up-to-date results of physics and science education research, best
high school curriculum materials, use of technology, and experience
in collaborative learning and guidance.
Participants are introduced to the Modeling Method as a systematic
approach to design of curriculum and instruction. The name Modeling
Instruction expresses an emphasis on making and using conceptual
models of physical phenomena as central to learning and doing
science. Mathematics instruction is integrated seamlessly throughout
each course by an emphasis on mathematical modeling.
In each workshop, content for an entire semester course is
reorganized around models to increase its structural coherence.
Participants are supplied with a complete set of course materials and
work through activities alternately in roles of student or teacher.
Teachers use computers as scientific tools to collect, organize,
analyze, visualize, and model real data.
Mechanics, Electricity & Magnetism, Waves, and Models of Light
Modeling Workshops are offered this summer at these locations:
* Alabama: McGill-Toolen HS - Mobile
* Arizona: Arizona State University - Tempe (mechanics, e&m, light);
Pima Community College - Tucson
* California: Whittier UHSD (near Los Angeles);
Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo;
CSU-Fresno (in planning stages)
* Florida: Florida International University - Miami (mechanics, light)
* Illinois: Wheaton-Warrenville South High School, Wheaton (mechanics, e&m)
* Indiana: Guerin Catholic High School, Noblesville
* Kansas: Southeast High School - Wichita (mechanics, waves)
* Kentucky: Western Kentucky University
* Louisiana: New Orleans
* Maine: Kennebunk - First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church
* Michigan: Waterford (near Oakland; FULL!);
Muskegon (southwest part of state: near Grand Rapids);
Roscommon (north-central part of state)
* New York: SUNY-Buffalo State College (mechanics, e&m);
Teachers College - Columbia University (mechanics, light);
Millbrook School, Millbrook
* Ohio: The Ohio State University - New Albany HS (mechanics,
curriculum development);
Bowling Green State University
* Pennsylvania: St Vincent College, Latrobe (near Pittsburgh)
In addition, 20 Modeling Workshops in chemistry will be held, and
four in biology, plus a few in physical science. We hope to see you
at a Modeling Workshop this summer!
MODELING WORKSHOPS have these features:
* aligned with Common Core Math Standards and ELA.
* include all 8 scientific practices of NRC Framework for K-12
Science Education.
* address multiple learning styles.
* address naive student conceptions.
* collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking.
* systems, models, modeling.
* coherent curriculum framework, but not a curriculum; thus flexible.
* compatible with Socratic methods & project-based instruction.
* science & math literacy.
* authentic assessments.
* high-tech and low-tech options for labs.
Models and theories are the purpose and the outcomes of scientific
practices. They are the tools for engineering design and problem
solving. As such, modeling guides all other practices.
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TEACHERS SAY:
* In thirty years of teaching, nothing has impacted my teaching like
the ideas I've learned in modeling. It is the best idea to enter the
teaching methods I have ever seen. (Jane Nelson, retired national
leader in physics teaching)
* Most useful course I have taken since becoming a teacher.
* Thanks to taking physics modeling course work, I am highly
qualified in physics.
* In the one year that I have been modeling, I have seen wonderful results.
* Modeling has changed the fundamental way I teach. I believe
eventually, maybe even in our lifetimes, all science will be taught
this way.
* We have had 3 physics teachers and 5 chemistry teachers enhance
their professional development at your ASU modeling workshops.
Modeling has made a world of difference in our science courses.