NVESTIGATIVE CIENCE EARNING NVIRONMENT
Cristine Osborne, Ed.M. Physics Teacher Millburn High School 462 Millburn Ave Millburn, NJ 07041 (973) 376-3600 I mainly use a modified ALG to help my students learn in an ISLE.  I usually go through the online ALG chapters and determine where I think the students will have trouble and make modifications.  I may add questions or omit sections.  For assessments, I look at the ALG and come up with questions that make students integrate their knowledge. Some tests may have some multiple choice questions to hit some details that may get overlooked on an open-ended section of the test. Sometimes I get brave and develop my own cycle.  I have students make observations and then come up with patterns and then finish going through the cycle.  I generally feel that if I like the material and feel comfortable with it then the students do also.  The students do get very frustrated.  One of the biggest frustrations is reading the problems from the ALG.  They don't understand the problems.  This is probably my biggest struggle.  It is sometimes difficult to judge whether they get the material and just don't understand the problem or if they just don't get it at all.  Another big frustration for them is coming up with their own scenarios.  They complain about this all of the time.  They always tell me that they are not creative and they don't have time to think about situations on a test.  When students get frustrated I ask them if they think they will read difficult text in college and they say yes and I say then this is good practice. Sometimes we will read it together and try to underline important parts, make a list of the givens, and what they want to find, and what math. rep. they will use to solve the problem.  I still find it difficult to have the students work in groups.  It is usually pretty inefficient.  I guess I just have to get better at classroom management.
Links: · ISLE papers · Physics video website · Scientific abilities · ActivPhysics