Ron,
Don't let them do that to you and your students! Lobby for more time. I have been teaching the standard level Physics in one year for almost 10 years. We "cover" the material in one year which means I never meet the minimum time requirements before the exam. The exam is given during the first half of May. Our course runs until mid-June so eventually we get close to the minimum required hours, but too late for the exam. My kids take the exam about 4-6 weeks short of the required instructional time.
BUT even if my kids had the required instruction time before taking the exam, it is not enough time! My kids have had very little science instruction before they come to me as juniors. Basically, they have had HS Biology and HS Chemistry. Even though I teach in one of the biggest school districts in California, most of the elementary schools in my district do not allow the students to study anything except Math and English and one of the middle schools doesn't offer ANY science instruction. All their science teachers transferred to other schools last year. We are an "improvement" district which means our scores are really low. I guess the science tests do not have as much "weight" in the overall scheme of things.
What that means to me is: I have to teach all the Physics standards from K-8 grades, plus my state standards, plus the IB objectives. Up until the new 2009 IB objectives, all the standards overlapped pretty well. But now with the extra 3 pages of Environmental Physics objectives, it is even worse.
We don't have the time to explore the beauty of Physics. And my kids never score high. If the aim is to teach the standards and objectives as they are meant to be taught, to make sure all your students understand the concepts, and to score well, hold out for more time. I tried to arrange for 1 1/2 years. Our students take TOK (Theory of Knowledge) the second half of their junior year and the first half of their senior year. I tried to arrange to have them twice a day the first semester of their Junior year, but I have too many students. This year I have 60 IB Physics students which brings me to the second point:
make sure you have enough time for yourself!
It takes me 30 minutes of uninterrupted time to grade one IB Lab Report. I thought I was just slow, but after checking with several other IB teachers that is about normal. With 60 students that is 30 hours, outside of instructional hours, just to grade one set of lab reports. IB only requires two full blown lab reports, but how can you expect your students to write a decent lab report without experience. We write two together, which doesn't count towards IB, and at least five they write themselves. That is not very many during the course of a year, but I don't have enough time to grade any more. I have gone to more peer grading which is like the blind leading the blind. When I complained that I didn't have enough time to grade my lab reports, my IB administrator asked me if I could work on the weekends to grade them (without pay of course, but maybe he could comp me a few days) and/or to cut down on the number of IB Lab Reports assigned. It takes me
about 2 week-ends of uninterrupted grading to grade one set of lab reports. Our higher level teachers have an extra conference period every day because they run an afterschool lab once a week, but even that is not enough time. Next year our Higher Level Biology classes will meet for two class periods a day instead of the afterschool lab. The after school lab interfers with the sports, drama, and music programs. And that will give them 2-3 more hours a week of instructional time.
Bargain for time to plan and time to grade. And bargain for more time for your students.
Good Luck,
Barbara Bay
--- On Tue, 4/7/09, Ron Curtin <Ron.Curtin@charlottecountryday.org> wrote:
From: Ron Curtin <Ron.Curtin@charlottecountryday.org>
Subject: [Phys-l] IB Physics
To: "'Forum for Physics Educators'" <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>
Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 6:05 AM
For those of you who are teaching IB Physics (Standard Level): Our school is
considering trying to do the entire SL IB Physics curriculum in one school year.
These 11th grade students would have had no Physics in high school at all
before taking this IB class, and they would be expected to be ready for the IB
exams during the first week of May. This seems like an awfully short time to
cover a lot of material. Are any of you out there trying to do the same thing?
Thanks.
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