Tracy's+Lessons

These Lessons are for teaching physics. They were written for 11-12th graders but can be used for other grades as well. ENJOY!

1) This lesson is for understanding horizontal projectile motion

2) This Lesson is on the historical views of gravity from Aristotle to Eistein. It is a cubing activity.

3) This Lesson is a lab on vector addition. The lab I use is from the //Glenco Physics// workbook but any lab would work.

4) This lab uses Galilieo's work that students will replicate to figure out the acceleration due to gravity

5) This Lesson is a Treasure Hunt to begin the Roller Coaster Project.

THE NEXT CLASS: Continuing on a literacy journey What this is is a list of ideas and copies of the items used that I used in class. ENJOY

1) Lesson addition: Reading reflection: I have had my Regents level students reading the textbook this year. In previous years I have been skeptical of the book and its benefits. My Colleague gave me a copy of a reading sheet she uses with her students. I am using it this year and have posted a copy of the sheet here for you to look at. It ensures that the students are reading the book and gives them a chance to reflect on what they just learned. The “questions I still have” Section gives me a chance to see what parts I will have to emphasize in my lesson. It also helps to see if students are copying or doing it themselves. So far all have had their own questions. Hopefully that will stay that way.



2) Lesson additions: Wiki page: I set up a wiki page for my students to use. It is a chance for students to be able to discuss and interact with each other. Right now it is for extra credit but that will change soon.

3) Lesson additions: I have students do a full lab write up so they can get used to writing scientifically. It is different from most other forms of writing they are familiar with. The following is the outline for the lab report and my new and improved rubric.





4) Lesson additon: Writting assignment Studetns will be asked to apply thier knoweldge of Newton's Laws to a paper applying the laws to drving and cars. The following is the worksheet they will get.



5) Lesson addition: Paraphrashing a physics problem Studetns will be given a problem. The first person in the row will have to underline the important information and write that information down on a seperated sheet and pass that back. The next person will write from the information underlined the lables for each variable and pass that back. The Next person will have to write down the formula that needs to be used and will pass the formula and varriables back and the last person will solve. Attached is my template.



6) Lesson addition: Highlighting the Review book. As a do now I had students read and highlight the important concepts in the review book. After they highlighted we then went over what they highlighted as a review for the unit. I then had them add notes or paraphrase ideas in the margin of the review book. It was interesting to see what they found was important. We worked on highlighting skills for I found they like to highlight EVERYTHING. They need work on figure out the main idea and the important concepts in a paragraph. What I do need is how do I make something like that interesting? Help on that one is needed.

7) Lesson additon: Egg Drop Using the concept of word choice from the lesson the 6+1, I came up with a way of adding word choice thinking to my egg drop lesson. The egg drop lesson involves students building a contraption to catch an egg out of nothing but 5 peices of paper and 1 meter of tape. The students get 30 minutes to build it and then we test them out (it is Egg-citing! Many students crack under the pressure) after each student tests their contraption the students will write down why they thought the contracption worked.... or didn't work. My addition from this lesson is have them write their reasons and then switch it with a partner. Then it is the partners job to fix the word choices to more scientific words. They will then share thier changes. This will get them thinking about scientific word choices.

8) Lesson addition: Highlighting Projectile Motion Problems. Students have problems with projectile motion questions. The problem is there is horizontal and vertical motions happening simultaneously. This means there are horizontal and vertical data that is given in a problem but needs to be keep seperate when solving. I have been working with underlining the important information in a problem. This would be taking it a step further. I will give the students 2 different colored highlighters. For the horizontal information they are to highlight it in one color and the vertical will be another.  9) Lesson Addition: Wiki reading from the Physics of Superheroes Sometimes you just don't have time to get all the interesting assignments in. I wanted students to learn a bit about the science of Superheroes. It is a fantastic book. So I put it as an extra credit on my wikispace. Students have to read an excerpt from the book and have a discussion with each other on it. Students get a chance to see some of the fun of science. Those who write comic books are not far from truth. Below is the link I had students read and reflect on as well as discuss. I do like my Wikispace The [|Physics of Superheroes II]

10) Newspaper article: Students do like to do creative writing in science. Problem is science is very factual. Having students write a Newspaper article gets in the facts but it also gives them a bit of creativity. The following is a worksheet designed to go with a Demo/activity. It guides students into thinking about the demo and their use of words to describe it. The students will then use the sheet to write the article. I have struggled with what to have the students do when I show the Vandegraff generator. I have had students get into groups and explain each little demonstration but I like the idea of the Newspaper article better. It will make students think about what is going on, in terms of physics, with the demos and will allow them to have a bit of fun. Perhaps I will even take the best article and submit it to the school newspaper. It will keep students on task, focused on the lesson and also give them an assessment piece that will allow me to make sure they understood the demo.



11) KWL: One thing I have always noticed is students know nothing about magnets and magnetism. I find it sad that the only things they know are opposites attract, likes repel, and magnets have a north and south side. I try to point out to the students how much we are adding to their knowledge by doing the magnetism unit. This year I did a KWL with them. I had them write down what they knew about magentism. I had them then write what they wanted to know. I then had them get into groups and share. They then had to write down the 3 things every body new and the 3 things every one wanted to know. We then shared. I then collected the KWL. I made sure to try to answer most of the "wanted to know" questions in the unit. As a reivew I handed them back and had them fill the the Learned section. We then talked about it and also went over thier "want to know" questions to see if they could answer them now.



12) Web search: Magnetism to start out with the magnetism I have the students do a web search on information. I give them a web search sheet. They are to find CREDIBLE sites to answer the questions. Before going to the computer labe we have a discussion on what is a credible site and what is not.They are not allowed to used wikipedia or yahoo answers. They have to write down the name of the website and the URL and why they think it is credible. Then we go to the computer lab and they have to find the answers. We talk about them through out the unit.



13) Paper: Bad Physics There is SO much bad physics in movies. There is actually a book on it. For this lesson we will start by reading a section out of "Bad Movie Physics" by Tom Rodgers. We will talk about the movies where we see this particular "bad physics" and then the students will pick a movie and write about 3 places they see bad physics in the moive. The following is the information on it. I have included information on how to write a letter. I find students forget those simple things and it is important that all areas reinforce these life skills, not just english.



14) Vocabulary search In the waves unit, there are a lot of vocabulary words. Most of them are ones they have seen in math. Many have forgotten what they mean so we go over them. In previous years I have just had them look up the definitions and we go over them. After taking this course I decided to try something different. I gave them the definition sheet as usual. Then I told them I was a nice guy and have the definitions for them so they don’t have to look them up. However, they are not in order AND the word it defines is not with it. I hung pieced of paper with each word on it around the room. I then put the students in groups and had them cut out the definitions and paste them on to the word that they thought the definition was for. I had each group put a symbol on their slip so I could tell whose was whose. If they had the same definition as another group they were to paste it over top. Afterwards we went over each one and gave them the correct definitions. I think next time I might keep count of how many each group gets right. More at stake for them to think about the definition and what word it associates with. I have not had a chance to test the kids yet to see if this has helped their understanding and retention but I did notice students making some great connections. I have one who managed to figure out what a Longitudinal wave is by making connections with her knowledge of longitudinal lines. The kids seemed to love the cutting, pasting and moving. I would like to find a better way of going over that is just as interesting. Maybe I will next year.