ImagineIT: Phase Two
My ImagineIT project will be implemented across multiple sections of a 9th grade physics course at Disney II Magnet. Being a magnet school, the students come from all over the city, and the population is therefore very diverse academically, socially, and emotionally. I see these students every other day on a block schedule for ~100 min. I chose this course as I have the most experience teaching this content and built the course over the last three years. This familiarity will allow me to integrate the project throughout the year, with the goal of having one major element in each unit. This project’s goals are twofold: from the content side, to model the social nature of science, an often overlooked facet of the nature of science; and from the practice side, to increase student engagement through the use of authentic audiences for sharing learning. Performances of understanding will vary in scale, and may include things such as:
Project-based learning, the subject of my deep play group, will ground classic physics content in tangible projects, and provide ample opportunity to share and reflect on learning as projects develop throughout each unit. Social media and digital tools will provide easy and free routes to broad public sharing.
To measure student engagement throughout the year, test score and assignment completion comparisons will be made with last year’s data. Authentic audiences will consist of real people with whom students’ work will be shared. These people will ideally represent varied groups, such as elementary students at our other campus, university students, teachers, family, peers, international students, and friends outside of school. The sharing may take place face-to-face or using technology, and may be directly communicated or indirectly made available for viewing. Varying the audience will keep the sharing feeling fresh, and show students that the applicability of their learning is broad and interesting to many other groups. By participating in this sharing, students will be held more accountable for their learning and will be pushed to understand the content in greater depth. By contributing to communities students will engage in the scientific process as mirrored in real world, learning the nature of science experientially, and gaining an appreciation for the bold human endeavor we call science.
- Showcases for specific projects/maintaining “Physics Hallway”
- Portfolios/blogs/websites to show ongoing learning and reflection
- Seeking and sharing feedback with elementary/middle grades and university students
- Collecting school-wide data and publishing the results to the school community
- Maintaining social media presence through class period hashtags and digital tools
- Empowering students to create class society and connect to other communities
- Developing and sharing personal connections to content
- Gamifying the classroom to build social connections between classroom groups
Project-based learning, the subject of my deep play group, will ground classic physics content in tangible projects, and provide ample opportunity to share and reflect on learning as projects develop throughout each unit. Social media and digital tools will provide easy and free routes to broad public sharing.
To measure student engagement throughout the year, test score and assignment completion comparisons will be made with last year’s data. Authentic audiences will consist of real people with whom students’ work will be shared. These people will ideally represent varied groups, such as elementary students at our other campus, university students, teachers, family, peers, international students, and friends outside of school. The sharing may take place face-to-face or using technology, and may be directly communicated or indirectly made available for viewing. Varying the audience will keep the sharing feeling fresh, and show students that the applicability of their learning is broad and interesting to many other groups. By participating in this sharing, students will be held more accountable for their learning and will be pushed to understand the content in greater depth. By contributing to communities students will engage in the scientific process as mirrored in real world, learning the nature of science experientially, and gaining an appreciation for the bold human endeavor we call science.