Monthly Archives: July 2010

Calibrated Peer Review – Creating an Assignment

Posted on July 18, 2010 by talkingphysics

I’ve been using calibrated peer review for several weeks now and I’m really enjoying it.  The assignments take a while to write, but the results are impressive.  I’ve been blown away by the quality of the students’ writings and they … Continue reading →

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The Story of Physics – Chapter 1

Posted on July 5, 2010 by talkingphysics

For my Calibrated Review Assignment I have my students write short stories summarizing the physics concepts in each chapter.  This came out of a paper I was going over for a colleague in which she allowed her students to pick … Continue reading →

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Calibrated Peer Review – A Teachers Friend

Posted on July 5, 2010 by talkingphysics

I like the idea of having students write in physics.  Too much emphasis on solving problems, not enough on thinking about and talking about physics.  But in large classes written assignments can be overwhelming to grade.  Ugh!  Along comes Calibrated … Continue reading →

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Making of a Free-Body Diagram

Posted on July 5, 2010 by talkingphysics

Free-body diagrams are a pretty useful tool and I wanted to devote a little time to talking about the ones I created for the Danny Macaskill video.  In particular look at the short clip starting at 50 seconds: I had … Continue reading →

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Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps

Posted on July 5, 2010 by talkingphysics

Here is a video of Danny Macaskill, a highly talented cyclist.  The things he can do with his bike almost seem magical.  Almost.  Physics is involved, of course.  Take a look at this video. How can you lift his bike … Continue reading →

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Welcome to Talking Physics

Posted on July 4, 2010 by talkingphysics

One of the greatest joys as a physics instructor is to overhear my students “talking physics”. This means to hear them asking the kind of questions all instructors dream of our students asking and throwing ideas back and forth. My … Continue reading →

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