First Day

What a great way to start off this year of teachers college! Bagpipes and the town crier opened the education year, and by the afternoon we were learning useful tools for teaching. Our Physics teacher used the Predict (and explain), Observe, Explain model (POE) for teaching, but with a particularly great strategy during the prediction aspect.

The problem he presented to us is illustrated below:



The three ramps shown above each descend by the same amount. Which ball, released on the left side of the ramp, will reach the right side first? Or will they all end at the same time?

The great part about how the professor taught this lesson was in how he asked students to predict what would happen. With a room full of rusty physics teachers, everyone was nervous about giving the wrong answer, as would be the case for our future high school students. So, rather than asking us what we thought would be the fastest ramp, he asked us, "If someone were to believe that the first ramp would yield the shortest time, what might they use as their reasoning? If someone were to believe that the time would be same no matter what ramp the ball went down, what might be their reasoning?" etc. It took away the fear of being wrong, and enabled us to engage in a productive learning discussion.

I do believe this will be a great year :D

ps. So how do you think someone would be reasoning if they chose the blue ramp to yield the shortest time? The yellow one? The red one?