Testimonials

 A Michigan teacher sent us a reflective essay assignment from a student who had engaged in our curriculum. The adolescent who wrote this is a special needs student who had taken physics twice before engaging in our curriculum:

    "my experience of [name omitted]'s physics class was not the easiest. There were times i thought i wouldn't get close to the grade i am at today(B). I took physics before at a past school and the way they taught it made no sense to me. i failed that class as well. from just that information you can see i have learned physics in a much easier way. the work that this class brought was tough, but once i sat down and only focussed on getting the work done, it became more simple. the physical parts of the assignments made it easier to understand what’s happening and how to get the answer needed. the work that [name omitted] had us do was mostly in groups,which made it a lot easier because we could put all of our brains into one problem and get the correct answer more quickly. the amount of effort [name omitted] showed to keep the equations available to us groups when needed, to actually going to each group and making sure they understood the lesson and knew how to get the answers needed. [name omitted]'s class was hard for me, but with the help of groups, and her coming around and helping us understand each part of a project and the questions being asked,it made the class go a lot more smoother, and also allowed me to understand everything a lot more easily. the work that was assigned wasn’t hard if i only focussed on trying to figure out the answer to the problem. physics was indeed stressful,trying to understand things at a more deeper thought was a challenge. with the help of [name omitted] and the groups, it showed me how to understand it easier. with all the assignments that i have worked on for this physics class, it taught me that everything has a deeper connection to something. like how travelling down a hill, with a 300,000 lbs truck can have a more greater effect on a wall than a car travelling the same speed but only weighing 10,000 lbs. everything has a deeper meaning and everything that happens one time, may not happen the same way the 2nd time around. my feelings towards physics before [name omitted] class was that i hated it, now after [name omitted]'s class i feel more experienced with this subject but also i feel like i understood it a lot more easier in her class. [name omitted] was a big help when it comes to having her kids understand  what's she’s asking in each problem. i thank [name omitted] for showing the effort and drive to get every kid in her class to understand each question and understand how to answer each one as well. i also thank her for allowing us to do group work,because this really helped me as well when not understanding something and she’s busy helping another group, i could turn and ask one of my group members and find out very quickly the answer i was looking for. "

- PIRE-CESE Student

   "This is how NGSS should be taught. I taught the periodic table with the schools curriculum, which was called "NGSS" and I thought the students... I thought I had prepared them and they had learned all there was to learn about the periodic table and the trends. Then I taught the Periodic Table lesson through the PIRE-CESE grant. This student was the first student to walk into the classroom, He looked at the driving question on the board and saw the words "periodic table" written on the board. He said "Oh No! I Know NOTHING about the periodic table," even though we had already covered it in class. At the end of the lesson, he actually stood up and he said "Wait..." he went into the discussion about the the periodic table and actually gave a summary of the entire lesson in just a couple sentences. He said "Oh my gosh! this is so easy! I get it!" and really went into details that showed he understood. He has ADHD and he can be a little loud sometimes. I like to let him speak freely and use that energy, The whole class clapped for him when he was done explaining."

- PIRE-CESE Teacher