Day 50: Poster Presentations

College-Prep Physics: Students presented their mini-posters to each other today. Although they worked in groups of three, I wanted each student to present their poster. So each person in a groups was assigned a number (1, 2, or 3). All the 1s presented to each other, all the 2s presented to each other, and all the 3s presented to each other. The students who were listening had a feedback rubric to fill out. To save paper, I turned the rubric into a Google Form and had students use iPads to complete a form for each poster presentation. Each student had 4 minutes 45 seconds to present, and then 15 seconds to move to the next poster. I used OnlineBoxingTimer.com to set up each “Round” and “Rest” time and projected it. (Last year I used the iPad app Circle Timer, but I like that this boxing timer is web-based.)

NGSS Science and Engineering Practices:
#8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

Day 49: Mini-Posters

College-Prep Physics: Students worked on making their scientific mini-posters for their pull-back toy truck lab.

NGSS Science and Engineering Practices:
#8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

Day 65: Mini-Poster Presentations

College-Prep Physics: Today the students presented their mini-posters to each other. Rather than having each group present to the whole class, I had students rotate through the posters “speed dating” style. Each student got to present their poster to a small group of peers, with the groups rotating through the posters. Students also had to fill out an anonymous evaluation for each poster: Experimental Design Poster Checklist 2014. Presentations/evaluations lasted 5 minutes each with 30 seconds to rotate to the next poster.

Day 64: Mini-Posters

College-Prep Physics: Students hard at work on their mini-posters for their pull-back toy truck lab.

Day 63: Experimental Design

College-Prep Physics: We’re wrapping up constant velocity motion, but have 1 week left before Christmas break. So to help prepare students for their midterm projects (which is a student-designed lab experiment), I asked them to design an experiment for a pull-back toy truck. Later in the week they will create a mini-poster and present their poster to peers.

I also gave students some scaffolding with an experimental design packet. While they probably didn’t need it for this activity, I found that last year’s students had  a hard time with experimental design for the midterm and final projects because it was a lot more open ended than today’s activity. They’ll use the packet again for their midterm project proposals.

Here’s the experimental design packet (inspired by an Inquiry Boards framework for younger students): CP Lab Experiment Proposal – Pull Back Car 2014