- #1
ks_physicist
- 189
- 1
I am really struggling with what to do with this class. It is a general "science" class, meant to be the third science credit for students who are not very science-minded; as such, it does not count toward the admissions standards of the state universities around here--it is a high-school-graduation-credit-only course.
I have a fantastically wide range of abilities in this class, from high-functioning special ed to HILM* slackers to one student who probably just was a victim of a scheduling conflict and couldn't get into one of the higher classes.
I'm trying to teach a quarter of physics, one of chemistry, one of biology, and one of Earth science, but I'm having a really hard time differentiating to these students. I feel like I should be making things more 'relevant' to their background and probable futures, but when I try to do that it ends up not nearly as fun as I had hoped.
I'm only a couple of years into teaching--and am finishing up a non-traditional education program that put me into the classroom immediately. As such I don't have a lot of experience to fall back on--so I'm looking for experienced voices!
1. What kinds of activities should I be looking to attack with them? I'm thinking do Newton's laws all together and hit only the most important topics and practice. Then do...maybe thermodynamics? What would be the most important non-college-bound physics topics to teach them? I only have about a month in which to finish up physics.
2. Any advice on how to differentiate to hit this extremely wide range of student ability levels?ETA: *HILM: High IQ, Low Motivation
I have a fantastically wide range of abilities in this class, from high-functioning special ed to HILM* slackers to one student who probably just was a victim of a scheduling conflict and couldn't get into one of the higher classes.
I'm trying to teach a quarter of physics, one of chemistry, one of biology, and one of Earth science, but I'm having a really hard time differentiating to these students. I feel like I should be making things more 'relevant' to their background and probable futures, but when I try to do that it ends up not nearly as fun as I had hoped.
I'm only a couple of years into teaching--and am finishing up a non-traditional education program that put me into the classroom immediately. As such I don't have a lot of experience to fall back on--so I'm looking for experienced voices!
1. What kinds of activities should I be looking to attack with them? I'm thinking do Newton's laws all together and hit only the most important topics and practice. Then do...maybe thermodynamics? What would be the most important non-college-bound physics topics to teach them? I only have about a month in which to finish up physics.
2. Any advice on how to differentiate to hit this extremely wide range of student ability levels?ETA: *HILM: High IQ, Low Motivation
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