NVESTIGATIVE

CIENCE

EARNING

NVIRONMENT

 

 

 

Bevel: ABOUT ISLE

Bevel: ISLE DEVELOPERS

Bevel: ISLE USERS

Bevel: ISLE ASSESSMENT

Bevel: ISLE CURRICULUM

Bevel: ISLE LABS

Bevel: ISLE IN PRACTICE

 

 

*   David Brookes, Ph.D.

*   Post-doctoral Researcher

*   University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

*   1110 W. Green St - Physics & Astronomy

*   Urbana, IL 61801-3080

*   (217) 244-9249, NJ 08854

*   dbrookes@uiuc.edu

  

Introduction

Here is my picture of you, dear reader:  You are interested in ISLE, you are dissatisfied with the way physics is currently taught.  Maybe you have been through one of Prof. Ekina’s and Van Heuvelen’s workshops.  You’ve heard some conflicting stories.  Most of all, you want to know how to make ISLE work out in practice in the real world, down in the dirt, with real students and with practical constraints.  I have tried to implement ISLE at the level of an introductory, algebra-based, university physics course with 200 students in it.  And I believe that I succeeded in part, and learned a lot on the way. I also know you don’t have a lot of time to read.  So I’m going to try and give a summary of what I want to say in bullet form, right here at the start.  If this bulleted list looks interesting and/or helpful to you, I hope you will read the more detailed story that I have written underneath it.

 

Practical experience for people who want to implement ISLE in a university introductory physics course. (The short version).

This is a short bulleted summary of things I think I learned over one year of trying to implement ISLE in a large enrollment university introductory physics course.

  1. Articulating my learning goals.
  2. Seeing the course, my teaching methods, goals, assessments, and student knowledge and motivation as a complete whole.
  3. Planning course ahead before I started the semester. ISLE doesn’t work well when done at the last minute
  4. Process is more important than content in ISLE. If content got in the way of process, I removed it!
  5. I thought very carefully about assessment and how my choice of formative and summative activities can affect every component of the course.
  6. I tried to turn lecture into a large room meeting and a time for telling.
  7. I found that I struggled at first to get students to ask the questions they ought to ask.

Click here for the Long Version

 

Links:

·       ISLE papers

·       Physics video website

·       Scientific abilities

·       ActivPhysics

 

 

 

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Bevel: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS