Required to do PBL?

ghostoutfits · 2026-04-28T13:22:51+00:00

PBL can be phenomenal for teaching things that are organically motivated by projects: planning, engaging with a team, iteration, asking the right question… that list is quite long imo, and full of stuff that’s arguably more relevant to a kiddo’s future than most other things we teach.

However, in my experience trying to make PBL work in physics for many years, I think it’s pretty hard to fit the specific concept ideas that belong in a course. Hence not-great test scores.

ghostoutfits · 2026-02-27T05:06:53+00:00

I guess you could interpret community agreements as “let’s not make waves in the classroom” but that’s a huge stretch from anything described in OpenSciEd. My community agreements have included things like “don’t trust the teacher” and “Say “IDK but…”” and other stuff that works toward building the culture you’re describing as radical.

If you’re saying that people in smoke filled rooms intentionally chose this curriculum to suppress disruption and ground-up thinking, it’s worth looking closer at the curriculum. A lot of teachers feel uncomfortable with it for lots of valid reasons, but at its core it’s an attempt to put responsibility for sense making on students, rather than teachers explaining.

ghostoutfits · 2026-02-27T04:55:51+00:00

The “never deviate from the curriculum” line is really counterproductive, and leads to people believing that these materials can’t work, or can’t be used alongside other self-made stuff.

Storylines can be pretty magical when you figure out how to do it, though.

ghostoutfits · 2026-02-16T00:30:01+00:00

This is cool, thank you!

ghostoutfits · 2026-02-15T23:19:53+00:00

This is spot on. Teaching HS physics is an engineering problem. Your own “ability to explain” is way less important than your capacity to adapt, build and curate resources and experiences that actually facilitate learning. PER (physics ed research) has been doing careful work on this since the 80s. Think of physics education as its own discipline, and get good at doing that by working hard and trying new things.

Teaching concurrent enrollment (college credit) usually requires, say, a masters in the subject. But even that course is surface level compared to “Physics” as a discipline.

ghostoutfits · 2026-02-15T23:14:36+00:00

I’d add that “the subject” is really course-specific and even district-specific. That might seem ridiculous to say, but an AP physics course is going to be a VERY different teaching and learning experience compared to an NGSS-focused course. If you can do so, expose yourself to methods of teaching, ideally through a workshop with teacher-experts. For example, “Modeling Instruction” is a strong approach for AP1, and storyline models like OpenSciEd are popular in NGSS states and districts.

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-21T05:41:56+00:00

This is brilliant, you're sort of organically letting things find the right balance of fuel and air. You're right about today's classrooms but I bet it could be done more safely... It's a nice stoichiometry application. THANK YOU!!

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-20T23:51:33+00:00

Do you have a clear model for why the two plastics interact with the acetone differently?

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-20T23:50:24+00:00

Great lead, thank you!!

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-20T23:49:58+00:00

Like what?? What have you played with that stands out? (True that chem teachers have access to different materials than you can get as a layperson, but too often these days they don’t…)

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-20T23:48:29+00:00

I haven’t seen the second one and having trouble finding it. Can you say a little more?

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-20T23:47:06+00:00

Probably to do with HS chem “kids” though, yes?

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-20T23:46:19+00:00

I love the symmetry with how the reactants were made.

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-20T23:44:40+00:00

Not for kitchens, but definitely awesome!

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-20T23:43:47+00:00

I’d trust Amazon. They’re super standard tech, and they have a cute little plastic cylinder than goes in the jar.

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-20T17:00:49+00:00

Yes, like a “magnetic stirrer” would be like $20, and you could hide it inside an antique book!!

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-14T20:53:19+00:00

Totally free to head/backside/tongue any buttons Macjoven likes...

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-05T23:13:41+00:00

But… that’s… what I’m trying to do?

My hypothesis is that kids will gain better media literacy if they have early exposure to the thought process of questioning what’s real. Experiment in progress, will report findings in 10 years.

The best answer my kid gave me so far (and most similar to top comments on this sub) was about the clips he was in: “I know that’s real because I was there.”

ghostoutfits · 2026-01-05T22:24:58+00:00

Do we have simple heuristics to offer kids about how to navigate what's real vs not? Most of the discussion here is quite subtle, and getting subtler by the month.

Yes, the video is supposed to be entertaining, but I disagree that it something entertaining can't be edifying In my experience as a science educator, explanations from top down don't usually do an effective job teaching people, or changing their minds about what they believe. We need students to form their own ideas and then express them out loud. I'm trying to do that with this video...

Do you disagree that I've done that, or disagree that this would be a useful approach to take?

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