just up on tki

[Parker-Price]

Hi Andy, and everybody
The good news for you is that you still have a good few months before you 
have to finalise your tasks.  At my school we are having to send final 
drafts of our teaching and learning materials this term to get them 
published for 2011, so have been talking about the issues with 'issues' for 
quite a while.  Not that we have any simple solution.
The physics 'implications' standards have two very good things going for 
them:

1. students do physics which is relevant, it is about issues, and we should 
choose issues that matter to them.  For too long we have only justified the 
physics we have taught because 'you have to do this to get the credits'. 
Lots of research has shown that people can learn heaps of science if they 
can see some reason for learning it.
2. teachers don't have the minute details of the content dictated to them.

The Big Problem, I agree, is that we could end up doing a sort of 
wishy-washy project which is little more than cutting and pasting pseudo 
science from the internet.  I believe quite strongly that we should not be 
doing this, and that if students do that they should not get the standard.
We have decided to offer the 'implications' standards but we are also 
producing learning resources for the externals, so students who don't want 
/can't do the exams will be able to use materials which teach the basics of 
waves/electricity/heat.  In addition to this they will get materials which 
help them address the physics relevant to an 'issue'.

For example, for the waves implications we are developing materials about 
noise control (this being the issue).  We haven't worked out the details 
completely, but I think it will most likely be a case study.  I hope that 
good students go into this deeply and take account of a lot of good physics. 
Bright ones could even go into noise cancellation (well, they explain in on 
the blurb on the box of the Panasonic headphones I just bought) as well as 
noise perception and the dB scale.
There is no reason not to do some really good physics teaching.

My Big Question is  - will this standard allow wishy-washy shallow science 
that isn't anything that any of us would call 'physics' going to get A/M/E 
as well?  Is that standard so vague that this can't be stopped?

I would very much like to hear how other teachers propose to deliver good 
physics to students who are studying for this standard.  Please contact me 
on or off list.  for those of you who are going to SciCon, I have a workshop 
planned for comparing notes about delivering the level 1 matrix.  Please 
come along!

cheers
Kerry

Kerry Parker
also at  kerry.parker at tekura.school.nz (Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, The 
Correspondence School)


 ----- Original Message ----- 
From: <andydyson at actrix.co.nz>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 10:19 PM
Subject: just up on tki


> Hi all
>
> Just up on tki
>
> http://www.tki.org.nz/e/community/ncea/sciences-lvl1.php
>
> draft resources for the new internal assessments for Science.
>
> One of the Physics ones will not work.
>
> 1.2A looks at current drawn in a parallel circuit with 2, 4 and8 ohm
> resistors from a power pack. Have you got these resistors? Think 12V and
> 2ohms and power! Was this one really trialled?
>
> Two of the Physics ones are about garbage.
>
> 1.2B is entitled "Are Biomags Dangerous?" and attempts to look at the
> biological effects of magnetic fields. And this is serious Physics in New
> Zealand? I do hope the rest of the world doesn't hear about this!
>
> 1.3B is entitled "Are Cell Phones Dangerous?" and wonders if the radiation
> from cellphones has a biological effect. And this is Physics?
>
>
> Can we have a Chemistry standard involving fluoride in drinking water?
>
> And what about Biology standards about Intelligent Design or vaccines and
> autism?
>
> Why is it only Physics that gets the crank crap stuff?
>
> Andy Dyson,
>
> Kerikeri
>
>
>
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