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Showing posts from July, 2023

Student evaluation comments summer 2023

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The summer 2023 student evaluations included comments focused in four areas.  Changes Needed: Please write down specific suggestions you would like to make for this Instructor. Changes Needed: Please write down specific suggestions you would like to make for this course. Changes Needed: Please write down specific suggestions you would like to make for the course materials. Other Comments 347 students had responded to the survey at the time this article was drafted. An analysis of the survey items was done earlier. The patterns seen in the 275 responses analyzed have held generally the same with the addition of 72 additional surveys.  There were 794 comments made by the 347 students across all four focus areas. In the following the comments from all four areas were combined. The intent is to look for broad themes in the comments rather than specific recommendations at the instructor, course, or course materials level. The comments were divided into three categories. One category

Physical science laboratory report rubric update

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The rubric used to mark physical science laboratory reports was created circa 2007 with modifications and edits occurring over the next ten years.  By 2021 the rubric had 16 criteria each worth up to five points for 80 possible points per laboratory report. The rating scale varied for each criteria and included specific language related to the rating. The result was a complex rubric that led to students focussing more on meeting format requirements than on the science being investigated in the laboratory. This was evidenced by course student learning outcome SC 130.3 consistently underperforming other course learning outcomes. SC 130.3 Generate mathematical models for physical science systems and use appropriate mathematical techniques and concepts to obtain quantitative solutions to problems in physical science. In an effort to surface science content and mathematical models more clearly, a simpler rubric was developed. Rubric in Google Sheets The result is a 45 point rubric with a ti

Student evaluations of instructor, course, and course materials overview summer 2023

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Student evaluations of instructor, course, and course materials provide guidance for the institutions on areas of relative strengths and areas where there may be room for improvement. Bearing in mind that old data is not usefully actionable data, the intent of this report is to convey broad themes in the evaluations to decision makers as rapidly as possible.  This report presumes familiarity with the student evaluations form in use at the institution. This report is based on 275 student evaluations. The responses were converted to numeric values: Strongly disagree: 1 Disagree: 2 Neutral: 3 Agree: 4 Strongly agree: 5 The overall average response on a five point scale was 4.31 with a standard deviation of 1.00. Spring 2023 the mean was 4.35 with a standard deviation of 0.98. With 275 evaluations changes are likely to be small as further evaluations are submitted. As noted in the past, students tend to respond with agree or strongly agree. Teasing information out of means that are similar

Summer playthings in physical science

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With the intent of showing that simple toys can be used to generate physical science laboratories, the student engaged in a speed round of investigations and Desmos analysis .  Benalyne measures the bounce height Joanalynn measures the bounce height Drop height versus the height of the first bounce is a very linear system. Even with a marble and a 30 centimeter ruler. A hard surface table helps. Fancylynn and Piruno The second exercise was the height of the nth bounce. All drops were from 30 centimeters. Turns out that each bounce will be about 70% to 75% of the previous bounce for a marble on a hard surface. These are simple exercises that could be done almost anywhere. Although less obvious for a marble than for a plastic high bounce ball dropped from heights starting at one meter, there are still the hints of exponential decay. Note that the coefficients came from a regression in Desmos , but regressions cannot take custom colors. Coefficients were reproduced in an equality and then

Site swap mathematics

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Site swap mathematics is a chance to expand the concept of what constitutes a mathematical model. Site swap mathematics is not something taught in the usual stack of mathematics, as if there is only one path and that path is from addition to calculus. While one might argue that site swap mathematics has no useful application, neither do quadratic equations for the elementary school pre-teacher program majors or for my agriculture and natural resources program majors. Neither are going to have to factor a quadratic equation to get through their working day. Site swap is no more useless than most of the other math they have been exposed to after eighth grade.  Site swap diagrams on the board. Some of the preliminary material from the morning session. Joanalynn and L-Jane L-Jane Maymayon and A-Ann Ivan tries to feed a third ball to Cordny Benalyne "dapadap" with two balls A-Ann tackles juggling while seated Piruno L-Jane engaged in a high two ball dapadap while sitting