Context: Currently in my classroom students will be pretested then briefly introduced to a new unit and have to summarize and outline the chapter.  From there, we usually have notes together and then solve problems together.  I try to have a lab introduced into each unit however due to time constraints I often feel as though we have to rush through material in order to make sure we cover the vast majority of the standards.  The typical students that I have are considered to be lower achieving and the class is co-taught in order to help meet all the needs of the students.  The community is very supportive of the school and teachers, however, there are students that go through the motions in order to receive their diploma.  I will also have six to ten students that are on an IEP with several others that utilize the co-teacher.  I have a peer-tutor in the class who helps with checking homework and works one-on-one with students.  There are 400 students in the high school with approximately a third of them receiving free or reduced lunch.  Our school has been fortunate enough to lead the county in ACT scoring for the past two years with an average score of 22.2.  My classroom is typically made up of sophomores and juniors with a few seniors mixed in.  The school day consists of seven hours approximately 50 minutes long.  I do not have a lab in my classroom however, I do have a document camera, writing tablet, and CPS clickers.  I have students use the clickers at least once a week either with tests or quizzes.  The quizzes are sometimes ungraded that way I can see the progress of the class and make a decision to move forward.  There is a science lab that I can use but it is often prepped for chemistry experiments.

 

 

Content: I want my students to make a deeper and more meaningful connection to the course material.  Students have a hard time conceptualizing that they are constantly experiencing forces.  This project should be able to take place in every unit my physics and college prep classroom but my primary focus will be in the unit of centripetal motion.  Students will sometimes have to take microscopic ideas and think of ways of representing them in a full scale manner.  

 

Technology: Students will use Camtasia or other similar programs to edit a video where they will give a demonstration and explanation of the main ideas and how they relate to them outside of the classroom.  Are school is fortunate enough to have Flip cameras and Camtasia for the students to use.  I want students creating the videos/clips on their own to show how they are or currently do incorporate forces into everyday life.  With the creation of video clips they may use a site such as www.phet.coloardo.edu where students can run an online simulation to demonstrate a point.  They have prior knowledge of making videos from their world history classroom.  The reason I want to them to make videos is two-fold.  First, they can be creative and second is that they can use it as a review later on in the year when it comes time to study for their exams.

 

Pedagogy: Bloom’s Taxonomy is the motivation for me to push students to apply ideas outside the context of the classroom.  I feel as though my students are at the lower levels of the pyramid and with this new approach I hope to push my students further up the chart.  They will be creating and analyzing problems in a different context to what they were previously tested on.  This will ask students to think in a context for the class.  Second, they are going to have to become universal design learners where they will gather facts and have to think of ways to demonstrate the material in an engaging manner.  While they will not know they have become part of the UDL they should notice a change in the classroom dynamic and conversations should become more in depth.  They become part of the learning process by becoming involved with the content of the chapter.  In Media for Inquiry, Communication, Construction, and Expression it was stated that,

Bringing all these media together means that we can vastly expand the range of learning experiences, opening up the social and natural worlds.  Students can explore the relations among ideas and thus experience a more connected form of learning.  Perhaps most importantly, these new media are interactive, and conducive to active, engaged learning. (Dewey & Bruce 2011)

They use media in place of technology or tools.  This brings my strategies of pushing my students further up Bloom’s Taxonomy by creating and the UDL together and showing that they are infact going to lead to a positive outcome in the classroom.

 

By focusing on these two pedagogical strategies, the students become an active part of the learning process and develop a deeper understanding of the material.  As stated previously this could be done with multiple units, initially I would like to see the videos produce every other unit or every third unit that way students do not become bored with this assignment. 

 

TPACK: By incorporating a new creation aspect to the unit of centripetal acceleration/force, I believe that students will have a more meaningful understanding of the concepts learned in class.  The TPACK framework will play a crucial role in the way my lessons are designed.  I do not want to be adding the simulations and video projects as a direct substitution for labs and presentations, rather I want to use these as tools to push my students further up Bloom’s Taxonomy.  Students will be asked to create and evaluate real-world situations that represent the physics of the world around them.  This project will be a direct fit to the TPACK framework because students will need to show content knowledge by creating and evaluating of centripetal motion with the use of technology.   While students will not be aware of the TPACK framework they will be incorporating all the pieces of it to provide a meaningful context to the material that was previously neglected.

 

SAMR Model: The use of video is a substitution of a presentation that they could demonstrate in front of the class.  Students that are shy can have the benefit of filming in a more comfortable location and have multiple chances of making sure that they present the correct material.  Students can improve their presentation by adding effects such as slow-motion to emphasize certain points.  They also have the ability to review film and then decide if they want to do another take or if they are satisfied with their first take.  Students will be able to share their work with their peers and parents before they turn in their final product.  This project will allow for students to express themselves in a manner that they previously might not have had in a science classroom.  They can add animations and clips from other videos to emphasize their points that could have been done with a presentation but now they have the ability to refine their product until it’s something that they are completely satisfied with.