How do you make a classroom active learning outside, in the sun? Whoa? Not easy! How do you teach physics outside, in the sun? Again not easy. I am trying all the tricks out here to make it work. Some aren’t sticking. Some are extra sticky.

After a couple of weeks, I have decided to take a cue from one of our chemistry superstar faculty members, Professor Melissa VanAlstine-Parris (MVP). I have started to do POGIL-like classes this year. Note MVP, I said POGIL-like. Anytime I think group work + worksheets + active learning I think POGIL. However, POGIL is more than just that, learn about it here. My take on this I call POGIL-like. I have used before in class, not-often but from time to time.

First off MVP doesn’t get the credit she deserves. I just don’t understand this! She is a leader on campus with STEM education, she has an NSF grant with Professor Stockman, and she is on almost every important committee on campus. She is easily one of Adelphi’s top 10 faculty members. Her and her colleague Professor Dave Parkin are POGIL black-belts (I don’t think that is a thing). I honestly don’t even really know what POGIL is. All I am saying is that both her and Professor Parkin inspired me to continue my transition to doing active-learning worksheets with students in groups. I have also been influenced by Real Time Physics created by David R. Sokoloff, Ronald K. Thornton and Priscilla W. Laws.

Both POGIL and Real Time Physics have been studied extensively by STEM educators and is some serious stuff. There are text books that help instructors carry out these activities and of course these have all be vetted by research.

As you may or may not know, I tend to take a more informal, if somewhat nutty, approach to teaching. I make my worksheets in the morning for class, distilling the information to some easy to read notes, concept discussion questions, and problems/exercises. I feel like I should stop reinventing the wheel and use the texts that do this stuff. But I spontaneity of developing the lessons in real time and I like that I can tailor it to the classroom space that I have to work with. Of course, almost every lesson comes with a pre-video lesson and a textbook reading assignment.

Here are some pictures of the process and down below is an example of a worksheet.

Worksheet Example