Finally, the end of the summer session is here. Actually, I shouldn’t say finally because it’s gone pretty fast. I think I might be the only one who is a little disappointed that we’ve had half our classes cancelled (mostly in the last week). Not having taken a formal stats course, I was looking forward to the Chi-squared statistic lecture in 695. /math nerd/ Also, the discussions we’ve had in 649 and [(402+490)/2 == 446???] have been really interesting. Especially the discussion about ID and evolution. Every time that discussion comes up, my eyes roll to the back of my skull and I get this vision of me being fired for making fun of creationists==ID-ists. I guess I haven’t learned as much from our diversity class as I thought, because I still don’t have much tolerance for even engaging in that ‘debate.’ Just the fact that teachers have to qualify their units on evolution with statements about belief/religion/faith is ridiculous. Does one need to ‘qualify’ one’s unit on gravity incase some people have faith that little magic invisible pixies pull all objects to the ground? I don’t see the need. Obviously, the magic pixie theory is possible. Obviously, the magic pixie theory is impossible to verify by the scientific method and in fact there is no scientific evidence that supports it. This might be why it’s not discussed in a science classroom. Ok, enough…
One thing I was hoping for out of the summer session was this: how do we actually use this stuff in our content area classrooms? Socratic seminars and substantive conversations are great, but how do I use them in a physics or math classroom? I have to believe there is a way and I can’t believe I’m the first one to think about this. Is there some resource from which we can get ideas or will we have to reinvent the wheel? This applies to the 504 Tech class too. It’s great that we’re learning how to start a blog and use RSS feeds and make podcasts. But I could have done all this stuff myself in like an hour instead of two or three 3-hour sessions on Friday afternoons. And if I had one-on-one help from experts like Jeff and Liz, it might have taken less than 45mins. Then I could concentrate on how to apply this new stuff to a physics or math class. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to do this stuff in the content area class.
Overall though, it’s been an all around amazing six weeks. Amazing instructors, amazing classmates, and an amazing amount of work. Also, amazing. Meow.
The future: We're going to Leelanau in NoLo, Mich the week of Aug 10. Yes, I did just coin the term "NoLo." There's a lot of baseball to be played in the next 2 weeks: 3 regular season games, one more that isn't rescheduled yet and then the tourney. 31 days until football season + I saw The Dark Night last weekend == me am happy.
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4 comments:
Magic pixie theory! That's hysterical! I wish I had thought of that.
It's good to see people blogging on this topic. It's hard, but necessary to address.
I thought your comment about "qualifying" intelligent design in a science setting in order to be sensitive of people's beliefs. There IS nothing inherently challenging about scientific theories and, if they are emphasized as theories, this should alleviate the conflict. If not, there is always parochial school (or another country that has not extricated religion from its secular institutions). Anyway, I've never heard the "pledge of allegiance" qualified to me.
I couldn't agree with you more. I want to feel like I know what to do with this stuff in the classroom...but I don't. Chemistry doesn't really allow much room for socratic seminars or substantive conversations. And their example of evolution vs. intelligent design will not be a topic of conversation in my classroom!!
Hey Dan, it's kgh/svet from the UM blogs. I see myself teaching in the future perhaps and I've always thought about teaching science/math in a socratic way similar to your concerns. The only thing I can think of that is somewhat similar to socratic style seminars is problem-based learning.
I was doing research on medical school curriculums (as I plan on going in the future) and I was looking for programs thare not strictly didactic and lecture based. What the medical schools do to make the classes more interesting and to teach subjects that do not lend themselves easily to conversational seminars (sciences, et al) is this problem-based learning style. Students are given problems and using their background knowledge, work through the problems to find solutions through a number of strategies. I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but it's something that I've found to be a very interesting strategy to make the sciences/mathematics more interactive and interesting.
yea, i've heard of the problem based approach. but you really need self-starters (hello, med students & Sr engineers) for it to take hold. i think a piece of that could be good in a HS/early college class. i'd have to look at the physics/math literature to get some specific ideas.
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