danaleeling

Laboratory four In this online term the conservation of marble momentum was moved to Wednesday as an at home exploration. The exploration of the conservation of gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy was shifted to the Thursday lab class. This term I opted to bring leaves from home as I have a good supply now on the west side of the house. I brought extras, which allowed me to swap out leaves as needed after the first class.  A poll of students indicated only one student had watched the Wednesday momentum video and none had tried the exercise outlined in the video. I went ahead and had the students engage with the momentum experiment at the start of the 8:00 section.  Marlin and Hart One group sought to simplify the vertical measurement and improve the accuracy of that measurement. Error in the height measurement has always been a factor. If the height measurement is off by one centimeter either way, then the velocity could vary by up to  ± 3 cm/s away from t...

Laboratory three hybrid term fall 2020 was the measurement of the acceleration of gravity using a falling ball. As with the other laboratories this term, a video of the "at home" variation was pre-posted. Marlin and Hart working at one meter Drops were done again this term from one, two, four, and five meters. Drops from three meters are no longer being done in this laboratory due to the height being difficult to obtain. Pendura working solo at one meter MJ and Carmina working at two meters The morning boards Data from the morning session showing the raw and percentage error. As in the first two classes, the class no longer goes up to A204. All work is done in A101 on their own technology. Loyida on the right Rojane on the left drops the ball, Loyida below records the time and returns the ball Kayleen on recording duty The boards at the end of the 11:00 session The strength of Desmos is the ability to regress against a function with variables chosen by the user and a functio...

As a way of obtaining a quick snapshot of how the students are handing this online term just ahead of midterm, a convenience sample of students were polled with the prompt, "In general in my online classes this term I am feeling like I am..." Three possible responses were offered: Keeping up with all of my class work, I am confident, I got this. I am a behind in my class work in some classes, I am struggling. I am overwhelmed by my class work, I am not surviving. Note that no student responded that they are overwhelmed. This is, however, a biased sample. Students who are not surviving are less likely to see that a poll was posted and may have already given up and stopped participating in their courses.  The six sections polled started the term with 120 students. Of the 120 students fourteen students have withdrawn from the sections. Two of the fourteen students withdrew themselves, one noting "Well I'm having problems all the way. So I decided to withdraw from this c...

The submission rate as a percentage of all students in MS 150 Statistics, both sections, is falling over time. This is negatively impacting student performance as missing assignments zero out. This term I am experimenting with no locking out of late submissions, so in theory these numbers could improve with time. The trend, however, is a matter for concern as the drop represents students who apparently were able to submit assignments and now are not submitting assignments. I have no further insight into the possible causes at this time.  MS 150 Statistics has the best data in terms of number of assignments and number of students, but there are signs that this is happening in my other courses as well. Only MS 150 Statistics is generating large enough sample sizes to be certain that there is a trend.

A convenience sample survey of students in four courses were asked the following question via an update poll in Schoology: "Not including this class, in general, about how quickly do instructors respond to your messages, emails?" Of related concern is that five days after posting the update, which generates a notification to the students, only 30% have responded. 

This pandemic term is online except for the laboratory sessions which are residential on campus. Laboratory one, the density of soap, was done wholly in the physical science laboratory. The class did not move upstairs to the computer laboratory to complete this lab. Students were asked to bring their technology with them to class.  This worked well as it allowed me to troubleshoot individual quirks of specific technology. I deliberately chose to leave the laptop at home. If I am serious that the course requires no more than a smartphone for the students, then I do not myself need more than a smartphone in class. That said, the app does have some serious limitations for an instructor. Laboratory one was done without modification other than remaining in A101. No photos were captured of this first laboratory. Lab two started at eight o'clock with only six students, so I went with riding the RipStik. That generates a very constant speed, much more constant than the rolling ball. This a...