Spring 2012 - Thornton HS
The Chicago Section of the AAPT
at Thornton Township HS
Saturday, April 28, 2012
15001 S. Broadway, Harvey, IL
Dr. Eugenia Etkina has 30 years of teaching experience in physics and astronomy instruction at middle school, high school and university levels. Before coming to Rutgers she taught high school physics and astronomy for 13 years in Moscow, Russia. She earned her Ph.D. in physics education from Moscow State Pedagogical University. In 1997, she was appointed an assistant professor at the GSE, became an associate professor in 2003 and a Full professor in 2010. She created a unique program of physics teacher preparation in which prospective teachers enroll in five teaching methods courses mastering the art and science of teaching physics. She also created an Investigative Science Learning Environment (with A. Van Heuvelen) - a comprehensive inquiry-based physics learning system that engages students in experiences similar to that of practicing physicists who construct and apply knowledge. She also developed a new approach to helping students acquire scientific abilities.
Eugenia Etkina
Rutgers University
Program
8:00 to 8:20 Registration
8:20 to 8:30 Welcome
8:30 to 10:00 Contributed Talks (Sessions A)
10:00 to 10:15 Break
10:15 to 11:00 Invited Talk: Eugenia Etkina
Helping your students learn physics and think like scientists
ABSTRACT: We often spend the first week of classes teaching our students how science works and then switch to our traditional delivery mode telling them what the laws of physics are and how to use them to solve back of the chapter problems. Is it possible for our students to learn physics concepts and laws by actually practicing science? What does it mean to practice science in a high school classroom? In this talk I will describe two curricula, “Investigative Science Learning Environment” (ISLE) and Physics Union Mathematics (PUM), that engage your students in the processes mirroring scientific practice when learning physics. These curricula help them experience physics first hand as their own creation. They engage the students in data collection and analysis, help them learn how to devise their own explanations, how to test them with new experiments, and how to make meaningful connections to mathematics.
11:00 to 11:15 Break
11:15 to 12:03 Contributed Talks (Sessions B)
12:03 to 1:00 Lunch, Business Meeting and Take Fives
1:00 to 3:00 Workshop: Eugenia Etkina
Physics Pedagogical Content Knowledge
ABSTRACT: In this workshop the participants will learn about the concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and how this concept relates their practice. PCK is what distinguishes a content expert from an expert teacher of that content. Some elements of physics PCK include knowledge of student ideas in different areas of physics, knowledge of effective instructional methods that help students master fundamental physics ideas and ways of reasoning, and knowledge of assessment of student learning. Workshop participants will see examples of these elements relevant to their practice and learn about the most important element that determines the teacher's choices and decisions in every lesson.
Abstracts, Affiliations, and Contact Information