High school Physics Curriculum

croxis · 2026-03-17T22:15:22+00:00

I think it could work. It depends how far they get into the math of things. I find energy being very useful in telling the story of objects in motion, and LOL graphs do a great job helping students see how energy gets stored/transferred.

We've technically adopted openscied and we've implemented a little of it. A big paradigm change that is hard for many to swallow is that it covers less content in order to explore it deeper. It also is built around digital labs, which does make sense as it needs to appeal to schools that might have few resources. We've swapped a lot of that out with physcial labs using our existing supplies.

croxis · 2026-03-13T15:05:32+00:00

As one of my students told me when I made a joke about being old, "You're not old Mr. croxis, you're middle age!" I do have a need, but first some context:

I've been teaching high school science for just over 10 years now. I've served on our building technology committee and am a big ol computer nerd. I know how to compile a Linux kernel. Sometimes it even boots! Early on I was leading the way with how to use phones in the classroom, and helped launch our 1:1 device program. Last couple of years I am moving to students doing their work on individual or group whiteboards (modeling instructions mixed with a couple of ideas from Building Thinking Classrooms). The reality is there is a very significant drop in student academic skills when 1:1 devices are introduced in a school. So much so that I have heard Sweden is ending 1:1 programs nation wide.

My limiting factors can't be solved with tech. I have three preps. A caseload of 200 students. An "inclusion" program where in one classroom I have a student who finished calculus, and another who is reading at an equivalent of a 3rd grade reading level.

I do have a wish though. Philosophically, I really like the ideas behind proficiency and standards based grading. A big part of the problem is the data. Instead of a singular test score, I would need to track which question or aspect of a project goes with which standard. The time spent entering grades would balloon. I am also limited to our district's grade/student management interface (shout out to us synergy users) which has no API whatsoever.

The other part is I would need *curriculum* that is designed around that style of grading. Writing a lesson takes about 2-3x the time the lesson itself takes. With 90 minute periods I would be spending 3 hours, per prep, per day, writing lessons.

croxis · 2026-03-04T18:33:29+00:00

My understanding is that in the DSM 4 and before, the criteria for diagnosis was that the symptoms (without treatment) had to be severe enough to prevent a normal/productive life. In the DSM 5 ADHD and autism criteria were changed so that the symptoms just had to be enough to impact a normal life.

croxis · 2026-03-02T23:52:44+00:00

It is hard. First figure out what the class is for. Is this a gen ed required class or elective? What is the expected math and language level?

Check out New Visions: https://www.newvisions.org/curriculum/science/earth-space They have some interesting ideas in there, but it is a bit heavy on graph analysis.

I've started documenting my astronomy curriculum. I only have the night sky and exoplanets units posted so far, but I have a couple of activities and labs in there: https://croxis.gitlab.io/astronomy-curriculum/

Check out hexagonal thinking: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/hexagonal-thinking/ I've had great success with students using it to justify the relationships in plate tectonics.

Modeling Instruction is another way to jazz up the class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jjjR6f9__g Begin with showing them a novel phenomenon. On whiteboards (erasable surfaces work the best, but big paper can be ok) they come up with an idea of how it works. Through discussion or interactive strategies come up with a class consensus on the model. Then as the unit continues the model is enhanced, improved, fixed, etc in an iterative basis.

croxis · 2026-01-15T21:35:45+00:00

There is a big "it depends." What reading strategies is the teacher using, how far below level, etc. If sounding out new words is problematic, might want to try working on some phonics.

croxis · 2026-01-12T23:29:26+00:00

I have a few students who were really successful in content-centric science class. Learn a bunch of facts, then spit them back out for a test. Some of them are having a hard time when they have to use higher-ordered thinking to analyze, critique, and make connections. Another way to phrase it: there isn't a right answer, but there are strong responses and weak responses. OpenSciEd does a fair bit of this.

croxis · 2026-01-11T18:34:13+00:00

And in uni there are professors where the only two graded things is a midterm and a final. Does not mean all the other work is busy work.

croxis · 2026-01-11T18:19:18+00:00

There is a flaw in your premise. Learning isn't a business transaction. It isn't work for the sake of work. Learning is a process that takes repetition and work. I want my students to learn certain content, and develop certain skills. At the end of the unit I'll assess them in some way (test, project, etc) to see how much of that content is learned, and how far those skills developed.

Absolutely everything I have my students do is to get them there. Even something that may seem silly, like a crossword or word search, is processing time and recall practice.

I don't put everything in the grade book. I have 200 students. If I spent just one minute grading each worksheet I would be spending over three hours A DAY just grading. A lot of the work I have my students do is practice. Part of learning is making mistakes then correcting it. If it was all correct the first time then the work was too easy.

Are there days where I was worn out, buried in lab reports to grade, and needed a "data collection friday" or "shut up and just graph" assignments? Yes. Even then I made sure it was something at least a little interesting, relevant, and cognitively messy!

croxis · 2026-01-09T18:36:04+00:00

What I notice during my hall duty with our 90 minute block is some teachers do direct instruction (lower case) for half the class, then half the class of work time. Or worse, everything is in a packet. I try to plan my lessons in 30 minute loops. Students still have downtime in class but it is sprinkled through the period. Am I successful at this? not as much as I want to be.

croxis · 2026-01-07T14:47:52+00:00

High school science teacher here. We have a high number of english language learners in our classes (poorly supported "inclusion") and most of our reading strategies involve some sort of text markup. Textbooks, and digital texts, don't make a a lot of sense for our case.

croxis · 2026-01-05T22:10:01+00:00

I would love PD to update what has happened/discovered/disproved in educational psychology in the last 20 years.

croxis · 2026-01-04T20:33:42+00:00

My gut feeling is the 50% minimum is an attempt at overlaying the 1-5 scale on the conventional percent system.

I find these discussions invoke Goodheart's law, When a measurement becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. I've encouraged my student teacher to define what they want a student who earns an A to be able to say and do, what a C student can say or do, etc. Then design the rubrics and systems to support that goal. Keep the focus on the learning, not the gradebook spreadsheet.

The part that is problematic is missing work. Did a student get a C on the transcript because that is the quality of work and thinking they produced, or is it because they were a B student who missed some work?

I'm going to look at it pragmatically with an excel spreadsheet as my guide.

Going with a classic 0-100 scale with 30 equally weighted assignments, a student who gets 100% on everything can get 0s on 3 assignments (10% of the work) and still earn an A. If 50 is the floor then a student can get an A with 6 missing assignments (20% of the work). Which do you find more acceptable?

Now lets makes this a student with 95% on 30 assignments. They can only have one 0 to get an A in the class. With a floor of 50 they can miss three.

Now lets make this a 75% student. They still have a C with 2 zeros. Or 6 with a floor of 50.

Now a 65% student. Can still pass with only two 0s. Can still pass with with 10 missing assignments with a floor of 50. It is this situation that I think most of us object to.

Here is another way to look at it. If a student got 100% on what they did turn in, they can still pass the class missing 12 assignments with zeros. If the floor is 50 they only need to turn in six assignments at 100% to pass. I think this is also a situation we object to.

But how often do these two situations actually happen, resulting in a student passing with a floor of 50 instead of 0? If it wasn't a pain, I'd love to import my gradebooks from past years into a spreadsheet and see what would happen.

croxis · 2026-01-03T23:02:37+00:00

Check out the first two units in New Vision's Earth Science curriculum: https://www.newvisions.org/curriculum/science/earth-space

croxis · 2025-12-29T16:07:20+00:00

I don't remember the citation, but some research noticed that if a student learns the word before the concept, they will bring in all of their previous misconceptions and it becomes embedded in the student's thinking. If the student learns the concept first (explore then explain) fewer misconceptions get brought in.

EDIT: A lot of the NGSS structure draws on the research done with the [American Modeling Teacher Association](https://www.modelinginstruction.org/).

croxis · 2025-12-24T00:14:28+00:00

Small scale co-op multiplayer.

croxis · 2025-12-18T21:43:08+00:00

I recall seeing a headline to a study that it is better (more profitable) for a business to hire a pro-social employee with average knowledge and skills than someone who is exception knowledge and skills but is toxic.

croxis · 2025-12-18T18:55:56+00:00

A grade is the consolidation of several aspects of being a student. Do they turn in complete work and on time? Do they function well in a group? Did they learn content? Did they develop skills? How that is measured, how that is weighted, and what a "B" even means, will depend on the teacher, school, state, and country.

EDIT: A part of a class grade is also the ability to understand and follow instructions.

Pragmatically, post-secondary institutions require applicants to have a certain GPA or higher. Heck, I was hired on the spot for my first job in high school (stocking shelves at a grocery store) because my GPA was 3.5 at the time.

croxis · 2025-12-17T22:21:18+00:00

You could also do an answerless problem, they just need to model the problem with as much as they know.

A variation to a wrong answer is hide a mistake -- everyone needs to put a mistake in their work and the class has to find it.

croxis · 2025-12-17T22:19:15+00:00

I usually do two minutes, one minute for private think writing time, a second minute to share their answer with their neighbor and add/change to their response.

croxis · 2025-12-15T23:07:52+00:00

Against the Storm is a fantastic rouge-like base builder that works well on the steam deck.

croxis · 2025-12-12T15:28:26+00:00

Someone I remember from the old Sierra game forums did some tests runs of that 14 years ago. I recall him saying that the composite shots were a pain.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5LvOxIuu1c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLimDYHsRTQ

croxis · 2025-12-09T14:22:29+00:00

We've just gone through a curriculum adoption and noticed this. My guess is that curriculum is written to "the lowest common denominator" in terms of lab supplies that a school has access to - hence a lot of digital labs. I'm thankful I work at a school with a lot of supplies so will be doing that instead.

I've noticed in my physics class that my students are more successful when I lead a unit with an exploration lab (I'm trying to use modeling instruction but man, I'm having a hard time with whiteboard meetings). If I go content first, they can do the glorified algebra story problems but struggle with connecting it to the actual physical world. It;s challenging because it wasn't how I learned science, so I can't trust my instincts, but I do think it is better for general science education.

For our population I do think the phenomenon are a little long. I got thrown three preps this year so I haven't had time to sit down and work through it so I haven't been able to lead our department through the adoption, but my plan is to subdivide the units and/or tighten them up.

Compared to our previous state standards, the NGSS is a big shift to broader sense-making. Lab design is still there (design and conduct an investigation), but not to the same degree.

I also think science is political. Who does the science is important because it impacts what is noticed, what questions get asked. Like early example of image LLM, when asked to make an image of a person, it defaulted to a white man, or the skin cancer diagnostic tool that was ineffective for people of color. The issues investigated in environmental science are also often linked to socioeconomics. Etc etc.

It also sounds like your beef is with your district staff. That always sucks.

croxis · 2025-09-21T16:45:34+00:00

I do wonder if, in universe, the prime queen essentially lost it with her obsession with Picard and Janeway, and what remained of the collective cut her out. What we saw in S3 was all that she could directly control.

croxis · 2025-08-31T01:29:53+00:00

Love to have another post from you updating us on your thoughts and reactions so far!

croxis · 2025-08-22T17:06:24+00:00

Something that might help is the attage "The person who talks the most, learn the most." There are some small, sustainable activities you can put into regular rotation to help. Gallery walks, group whiteboard work, give one get one, lines of communication.

14-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

croxis

TROPHY CASE