danaleeling

In keeping with the basic template as spring term, I led with an introduction of constructivist pedagogy. In keeping with work done last term I intentionally did not use the term conservation of momentum. I did make a couple modifications. I dropped references to velocity in versus velocity out. That has been hard to measure. I also shifted to referring to mass in versus mass out and brought along a mass balance so that students could obtain marble masses. Unprompted, the students in the first section all converged on finding and using marbles of the same mass. Darall explores the interaction of marbles on the ruler This term the focus on mass in versus mass out seemed to lead the students more easily to a graph than number in versus number out. In the afternoon section the students did not select identical mass marbles. What drives a section to make that choice is unclear. Once one group decides that the marbles should be equal mass, the other groups seem to decide that th...

This term I began again with an eastern start to the hike, if anything increasing the time spent on the east end of campus. One tree in particular forms the starting point - a Premna obtusifolia that has sporophytic moss, Lemmaphyllum accedens, Phymatosorus scolopendria, Davillia pectinata, and Davallia solida. A heavy overcast threatened rain throughout the period, and rain was falling south of campus, but the hike remained rain free. Lemmaphyllum accedens Davillia pectinata Davillia solida Phymatosorus scolopendria Last spring I took a northerly route to see the Lycopodiella cernua in the soccer field. This term a pre-walk revealed a whole new area of Lycopodiella cernua up in the area of the future student union. Dicranopteris linearis I started with the Dicranopteris linearis and my story of scrambling around a hill in Weno amid D. linearis looking for Lycopodiella cernua. The two maintenance crew members were puzzled by my searching the ground i...

Lycophyte and monilophyte presentations saw weak attendance as the class met in the last time period of the day before a state holiday on Wednesday. The state holiday, Pohnpei Liberation Day, is celebrated with track and field event finals. Heats had been held on Monday and Tuesday, negatively impacting attendance, most especially so in the last period on a Tuesday when the class met. Life cycle of a fern Some of the students are competing in events, others are coaches and officials. And for perhaps almost all of the students, there is a sibling or cousin competing in one of the many events including basketball, volleyball, swimming, wrestling, Micronesian all around, and track and field events. Tori-Ann and Eve Sophie handle Mwoakillese names of ferns and allies Marissa and Don teach non-Pohnpeian speakers the difference in the dialects on island Adore, Russell, and Paltiela name the plants in Northern Noumenean lagoon Chuukese Jaylino covered Woleaian na...

Laboratory three measures the acceleration of gravity. This term I began with the results of 021 and 030 sketched on the board and asked whether a falling ball falls at a constant velocity or an ever increasing velocity. The students were split in their opinions, with many choosing to be non-committal. I noted that our experience with linear constant velocity and ever increasing velocity meant that a time versus distance graph would distinguish these two instances. If there was an increasing velocity, then underneath that increase would be an acceleration that could be called the acceleration of gravity. I then covered the specific procedure. Later in the computer laboratory I would find that for one lab team, plotting all of their data individually would reduce their error. This was an approach I had not taken with the data before.  Ray drops and times, Erson holds the meter stick Mayson drops and times, Kimmy holds the meter stick Susan and Maybolee...

Building off of the distance and velocity versus time graphs from Monday , I worked from the velocity versus time graph backwards to what distance must have been covered in that time. On the left board I began with a blank time versus distance graph and a linearly increasing velocity with a slope of two m/s on the time velocity graph. The other notes on the board above were added later, the board began with just the two graphs. On the right board I diagrammed time versus velocity graphs for a speed of two meters per second. I made a hand waving argument that neither the start speed of 0 m/s nor the end speed would yield the correct distance from the d = vt formula. At 0 m/s the formula says I covered no distance. At the end of one second the 2 m/s suggests I would have covered two meters, but that would only be true if I had been at 2 m/s for the whole one second. And I was not. I started from 0 m/s. I suggested that halfway, the average speed, could be used in d = vt. Thus a...

This past summer I read Steven Strogatz's Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe . I was reminded that the earliest steps towards calculus were taken by those who were trying to solve physical science problems. And their approaches were both algebraic and geometric in their reasoning. I realized I could try retooling my approach to acceleration from a more Galilean approach, to not provide the quadratic regression from the get go on day one, but to edge into this relationship more carefully. To build more slowly from the material of the second week, and to not presume that a parabolic curve is the automatic result of a constant increase in speed. I began class on Monday by sketching a time versus distance graph onto the board with a speed of one meter per second and the week ago Monday RipStik speed of 1.67 meters per second. I reminded the class that we had found slope was speed, and that increased speed led to an increased slope, a steeper slope....