Other+School+Stories

Winward School

Tennessee Schools video @http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VQXNf9czL4c&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DVQXNf9czL4c

A person named Bethanyis doing research on MetaCog and PF. She sent out questionaires... here's a response that was posted on the listserve.

River Dell High School in Oradell, NJ. 

Bethany Tipton Science Department Chair / Biology I and II / Paleo Club Sponsor WB Ray High School Corpus Christi, Texas 78411 361-878-7300- X 21815 361.249.5047

From: mefron  Date: July 8, 2011 7:35:24 AM PDT To: PhysicsFirst  Subject: Re: [physicsfirst] Questions Reply-To: PhysicsFirst 

This is the Discussion List for those interested in Physics First.

Hi Bethany, This is Michael Efron responding to your questions. I teach science (physics and chemistry) at Cape Elizabeth High School in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

On Jun 26, 2011, at 12:20 PM, Bethany Tipton wrote:

Our alignment of courses is: physics, chemistry, biology and then senior electives. We have been doing this alignment for ten years now. At first there was a lot of concern about our switch to physics first. There was opposition from the earth science teachers who were teaching 9th grade earth science. There was some opposition from parents -- but far more parent support. The major opposition came from middle school teachers who felt that this would put enormous stress on them to accelerate middle school students in their math programs. They felt that there was already too much pressure pushing the kids to accelerate. This concern has become true. Our middle school in presently in the midst of looking hard at their math teaching -- pressure from parents and the school board. From my perspective this pressure is correct -- the middle school math program is not demanding enough for the students. We use "modeling" as our instructional mode for 9th grade physics. Our major success has come from using Concept Inventories (especially the FCI) to demonstrate student learning from the course. Our FCI scores have been outstanding for our honors students. They score higher than our seniors ever did and their scores match the best taught college first year students. The weakness has been with our College Prep 9th graders. Their FCI scores are "acceptable" and much higher that the CP seniors' scores who took physics in their senior year. The CP scores match gain scores of "traditional" teaching -- even though we use "modeling" instruction. Another indication of success has been the enrollment in seniors taking science electives in their senior year. This number has increased greatly -- from around 40% of seniors to a present of 85% of seniors. Our number of students taking a second year of physics in their senior year has doubled. This increase may have as much to due with increased difficulty in college entrance however, as it does with improvements in our science program.
 * 1. Does your school still utilize this alignment for the sciences?**
 * If no, please give a possible reason as to why,**
 * If yes, how long has this sequence been enacted and how long have you taught it?**
 * Also can you elaborate some success that has led to the continued implementation of the program?**

I don't have any data to share on this question. This is a hard question to answer and a hard question to collect data on. My sense is that since the emphasis with "modeling" is on thinking and concept development -- that we have given our 9th graders a strong base of conceptual thinking. This is especially true for our honors students, less true for our CP students. The CP students end their 9th grade year -- still weak conceptually. Well, weaker than I wish for them. Our chemistry program has traditionally taken the ACS national test at the end of the chemistry year. When we made the switch, chemistry moved from the junior year to the sophomore year. The sophomores are getting the same scores on the ACS test as did the juniors (both honors and CP). With regards to metacognition -- the emphasis with modeling is is to start every unit with a lab that allows the students to build their understanding from data as to how the world really operates. The argument is clear -- students do not change their alternate understandings of the world unless they experience for themselves -- a conflict between their understandings and actual experience. So with lots of discussion and arguing about hypotheses and results -- students can adopt new understandings. I have not called this process "metacognition" but I think it comes close. This is why we adopted "modeling" as well as physics first. Again, I say this without data to prove it, I think the experience in our 9th grade program does lay a strong foundation for later science courses, in having our students think about how they know something, thinking about how they understand. This is more true for our honors students, less true for our CP students.
 * 2. Do you (or did you) feel that offering physics first assisted in the development of metacognition in later sciences and understanding of more abstract concepts? How?**

My answers here would repeat a lot of what is answered in question 2.
 * 3. How do you believe the realignment of the physics to a freshman level has aided in later biology and chemistry success?**

This is an issue for us. Modeling does not use a textbook, and so our implementation of physics first has not helped students with fluency in science texts at all. We have integrated use of a textbook with our CP classes. We did this for two reasons; - we continue to experiment with changes to the program to increase mastery for our CP students - an attempt to foster greater literacy skills for the CP students, since their literacy skills has been identified a the central learning issue of the high school Near as I can tell (somewhat from the data) using the textbook with modeling does not increase physics learning at all. Our highest CP scores are independent of how much textbook integration has happened. The textbook we have been using is Hewitt's and the instructional mode within Hewitt's Conceptual Physics is not compatible with "modeling." We may get better results if we pick a textbook more compatible with the modeling approach. We are getting close to needing to buy a new text.
 * 4. Can you give examples of any literacy skills (fluency in science texts, vocabulary, reading comprehension) increases or marked performance change in students taking biology as a capstone course verses a freshman course?**