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Psychology
Image by Gerd Altmann, Pixabay, Free for commercial use
What is psychology
“Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. The discipline embraces all aspects of the human experience — from the functions of the brain to the actions of nations, from child development to care for the aged. In every conceivable setting from scientific research centers to mental healthcare services, “the understanding of behavior” is the enterprise of psychologists.”
– American Psychological Association
What is a psychologist
According to the American Psychological Association ,
Psychologists help people learn to cope more effectively with life issues and mental health problems…. [they] help a wide variety of people and can treat many kinds of problems.
Some people may talk to a psychologist because they have felt depressed, angry or anxious for a long time. Or, they want help for a chronic condition that is interfering with their lives or physical health.
…Psychologists can help people learn to cope with stressful situations, overcome addictions, manage their chronic illnesses and break past the barriers that keep them from reaching their goals.
They are trained to administer and interpret a number of tests and assessments that can help diagnose a condition or tell more about the way a person thinks, feels and behaves. These tests may evaluate intellectual skills, cognitive strengths and weaknesses, vocational aptitude and preference, personality characteristics and neuropsychological functioning.
Historical origin of psychology
Ideas relating to psychology date back to the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians.
However, there was no formal, scientific study on this topic until the late 1800’s.
Wilhelm Wundt (Germany) founded the first laboratory of psychological research in 1879
G. Stanley Hall brought scientific study of psychology to the United States from Germany in the early 1880s.
In Vienna, Sigmund Freud developed a form of psychology called psychoanalysis. Freud presented this as a scientific investigation of how the human mind works.
However, in later years most scientists have come to disavow many of Freud’s methods as well as conclusions.
Much of psychology up to the late 20th century was based on hunches and plagued with confirmation bias.
Many ideas and techniques of early psychologists like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung are no longer considered valid by most scientists.
Progress in this psychology began accelerating with the rise of neuroscience and cognitive science.
In these fields we view the mind as something that should be described with precisely defined terminology.
The mind should be investigated by making clearly stated hypothesis, followed by properly controlled experiments, with peer review critically evaluating the results.
Today we study how the human mind works in these ways.
• functional MRI brain scans
• neurobiology
• how experience affects neural development (neuroplasticity)
• evolutionary psychology
• linguistics
• behaviorism
It is a goal of modern psychology to use the results of such experiments to better understanding how the mind works, and thus to improve the quality of life of their patients.
Psychology and pseudoscience
See The “Is Psychology a Science?” Debate, by Gregg Henriques, Psychology Today Jan 27, 2016. The introduction is as follows:
If one is a psychologist or even has a passing interest in the field, one has likely encountered the question about whether psychology is truly a science or not.
The debate flared in the blogosphere a couple of years ago, after an op-ed piece by a microbiologist in the LA Times declared definitively that psychology was not a science,
This was followed by several pieces in Psychology Today and Scientific American declaring definitively that psychology is, in fact, a science.
Just last month a long time scholar of the field authored the paper, Why Psychology Cannot Be an Empirical Science, and once again the blogosphere was debating the issue.
So what is the right answer?… binary, blanket “yes” or “no” answers to the question fail. The answer I offer is that yes, it is largely a science, but there are important ways that it fails to live up to this description….
Image by Gregg Henriques
Is psychology really just common sense?
In What is psychology’s place in modern science?, Strayphoenix6 writes
One rather strong example of the whole “it’s common sense” idea stands out to me from my first day as a neuroscience student. My professor got up in front of the entire class and told the class that “babies do not recognize the difference between an attractive and an unattractive face.”
He then asked who thought this was common sense. A significant portion of the class raised their hands, and when he asked a student why the student responded, “Duh, babies aren’t sexually active. Anyone could have told you this.”
The professor then switched to the next slide and pulled up a study that read “infants display gaze preference for faces rated as highly attractive.”
The whole room went totally silent and my professor told us, “Psychology seems like common sense. But this is a trap, because the right answer and the wrong answer may both seem to make logical sense. What matters is what we actually observe, not what we imagine to be the truth.”
Babies prefer to gaze upon beautiful faces, Anna Gosline, New Scientist, 9/6/2005
Preference for attractive faces in human infants extends beyond conspecifics
Paul C. Quinn et al, Dev Sci. 2008 Jan; 11(1): 76–83. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00647.x
Damon, F., Méary, D., Quinn, P. et al. Preference for facial averageness: Evidence for a common mechanism in human and macaque infants. Sci Rep 7, 46303 (2017). [Scientific Reports is an online open access scientific mega journal published by Nature Publishing Group] https://doi.org/10.1038/srep46303
Practical psychology
How can students gain self-esteem? Myths and facts
Analyzing thinking errors – The thinking error at the root of science denial
What cognitive science teaches us about learning
Scientific definitions of psychopathy
Mysterious link between immune system and mental illness – He Got Schizophrenia. He Got Cancer. And Then He Got Cured.
False memory syndrome
One of the most important advances in practical psychology was the recognition of false memory syndrome. People with false memories had made claims which led to the imprisonment or punishment of thousands of individuals in the United States during the Satantic Ritual Abuse panic, and it was only years later, through a combination of journalistic detective work, that the dangerous phenomenon of false memories was exposed. Examples of false memories
Satanic ritual abuse (SRA) a widespread panic in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s. Allegations of SRA involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of people in the context of occult or Satanic rituals. Many people eventually alleged a conspiracy of local, national, or even worldwide SRA organization in which children are abducted or bred for human sacrifices, pornography and prostitution.
Thousands of parents suddenly alleged that they “recalled” child abduction and murders by satan worshippers in their own homes, churches, or town halls, or in “secret basements.” Huge numbers of Americans came to believe that these events were real – after all, how could a person remember an event that never occurred? Yet later investigations showed that none of this ever occurred.
Speaking of Psychology: How Memory Can Be Manipulated, interview by Kaitlin Luna with Elizabeth Loftus, PhD, American Psychological Association
False memories and false confessions: the psychology of imagined crimes
How to Instill False Memories, Scientific American, Steven Ross Pomeroy, 2/19,/2013
False Memories, Psychologist World, Emma Bryce,
Clancy, S.A. (2005). Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped By Aliens. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness characterized by relapsing episodes of psychosis.
Major symptoms include hallucinations (often hearing voices) and delusions (having beliefs not shared by others).
Other symptoms include disordered thinking, social withdrawal, decreased emotional expression, and lack of motivation.
Symptoms typically come on gradually, begin in young adulthood, and in many cases never resolve.
There is no objective diagnostic test; diagnosis is based on observed behavior, a history that includes the person’s reported experiences, and reports of others familiar with the person.
Many people with schizophrenia have other disorders such as panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depressive disorder, or a substance use disorder.
About 0.3% to 0.7% of people are affected by schizophrenia during their lifetimes.
Causes
Males are more often affected and onset is on average earlier in age. The causes of schizophrenia include environmental and genetic factors. Possible environmental factors include being raised in a city, cannabis use during adolescence, infections, the ages of a person’s parents, and poor nutrition during pregnancy. Genetic factors include a variety of common and rare genetic variants.
Prognosis
About half of those diagnosed with schizophrenia will have a significant improvement over the long term with no further relapses, and a small proportion of these will recover completely. The other half will have a lifelong impairment, and severe cases may be repeatedly admitted to hospital.
Social problems such as long-term unemployment, poverty, homelessness, exploitation, and victimization are common consequences. Compared to the general population, people with schizophrenia have a higher suicide rate (about 5% overall) and more physical health problems, leading to an average decreased life expectancy of 20 years. In 2015, an estimated 17,000 people worldwide died from behavior related to, or caused by, schizophrenia.
Treatment
The mainstay of treatment is an antipsychotic medication, along with counseling, job training, and social rehabilitation. In those who do not improve with other antipsychotics, clozapine may be tried.
In situations where there is a risk of harm to self or others, a short involuntary hospitalization may be necessary.
Long-term hospitalization may be needed for a small number of people with severe schizophrenia.
Mysterious link between immune system and mental illness
External articles
Schizophrenia. NIMH
‘Cat Scratch’ Bacteria, Bartonella, Linked to Psychiatric Symptoms in People
Infection with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii has been associated with a number of neurological disorders, particularly schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Protozoa Could Be Controlling Your Brain. Scientific American
Toxoplasma gondii and Schizophrenia, By E. Fuller Torrey, Robert H. Yolken
Emerg Infect Dis. 2003 Nov; 9(11): 1375–1380. doi: 10.3201/eid0911.030143
Learning Standards
Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework
PreK–12 STANDARD 5: Mental Health. Students will acquire knowledge about emotions and physical health, the management of emotions, personality and character development, and social awareness; and will learn skills to promote self-acceptance, make decisions, and cope with stress, including suicide prevention.
Benchmarks: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Stresses are especially difficult for children to deal with and may have long-lasting effects. 6F/H1
Biological abnormalities, such as brain injuries or chemical imbalances, can cause or increase susceptability to psychological disturbances. 6F/H2
Reactions of other people to an individual’s emotional disturbance may increase its effects. 6F/H3
Human beings differ greatly in how they cope with emotions and may therefore puzzle one another. 6F/H4
Ideas about what constitutes good mental health and proper treatment for abnormal mental states vary from one culture to another and from one time period to another. 6F/H5
Psychological distress may also affect an individual’s vulnerability to biological disease. 6F/H6** (SFAA)
According to some theories of mental disturbance, anger, fear, or depression may result from exceptionally upsetting thoughts or memories that are blocked from becoming conscious. 6F/H7** (SFAA)
AP Psychology is an introductory college-level psychology course. Students cultivate their understanding of the systematic and scientific study of human behavior and mental processes through inquiry-based investigations as they explore concepts like the biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, learning and cognition, motivation, developmental psychology, testing and individual differences, treatment of abnormal behavior, and social psychology.
How can students gain self-esteem? Myths and facts
What is self-esteem? The degree to which the qualities and characteristics contained in one’s self-concept are perceived to be positive. It reflects a person’s physical self-image, view of his or her accomplishments and capabilities, and values and perceived success in living up to them, as well as the ways in which others view and respond to that person.
The more positive the cumulative perception of these qualities and characteristics, the higher one’s self-esteem. A reasonably high degree of self-esteem is considered an important ingredient of mental health, whereas low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness are common
– American Psychological Association Dictionary of Pyschology
Created by FireflySixtySeven, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia
Should families and schools raise a student’s self-esteem, and if so, how? Here it becomes essential to differential myths from facts
Exploding the Self-Esteem myth
“Boosting people’s sense of self-worth has become a national preoccupation. Yet surprisingly, research shows that such efforts are of little value in fostering academic progress or preventing undesirable behavior
A 1999 study by Donelson R. Forsyth and Natalie A. Kerr of Virginia Commonwealth University suggests that attempts to boost self-esteem among struggling students may backfire.
College students getting grades of D or F in a psychology course were divided into two groups, arranged initially to have the same grade-point average. Each week students in the first group received an e-mail message designed to boost their self-esteem [see example at left]. Those in the second group received a message intended to instill a sense of personal responsibility for their academic performance (right).
By the end of the course, the average grade in the first group dropped below 50 percent—a failing grade. The average for students in the second group was 62 percent—a D minus, which is poor but still passing. “
Quote and table from Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth, Roy F. Baumeister et al.
By Roy F. Baumeister, Jennifer D. Campbell, Joachim I. Krueger and Kathleen D. Vohs, Scientific American, January, 2005, Vol 292, Issue 1
Self Esteem Doesn’t Make Better People Of Us
Self-esteem is bad for you (and even worse for your kids).
Michael J. Formica, Psychology Today, May 17, 2008
The American philosopher and psychologist William James first coined the term self-esteem in his seminal work The Principles of Psychology. He suggested that self-esteem can be objectively measured through a simple ratio of goals and aims to attainment. What he was talking about is what we refer to today as an evidence-based measure.
Since it was first introduced in 1890, the notion of self-esteem has morphed into something entirely different than was originally intended. Our modern interpretation is no longer an objective and measurable equation of “do good/feel good”. It has, in fact, come to mean something quite the opposite. We have lost sight of the “do good” piece and now, apparently much to our detriment, focus solely on the “feel-good” piece.
…. An exhaustive 2005 study published in Scientific American by psychologist, Florida State University professor and PT Interactions Blogger Roy Baumeister demonstrated that less than 200 of the more than 15,000 articles published on self-esteem between 1970 and 2000 met any sort of standard for academic or scientific rigor.
Baumeister’s Scientific American article, in addition to both challenging and largely discrediting the existing research on self-esteem, also demonstrated that artificially boosting self-esteem actually lowers performance.
Further, high self-esteem was found to have no positive correlation with a person’s ability to have successful relationships. Quite to the contrary, Baumeister writes, “Those who think highly of themselves are more likely than others to respond to problems by severing relations and seeking other partners.”
Baumeister and his team also found that, again contrary to previous belief, low self-esteem does not cause teens to engage in earlier sexual activity. In fact, those with high self-esteem were found to be less inhibited and more likely to be sexually active.
In another contrary finding, there was no correlation of aggression and violence with low self-esteem, also a commonly held belief. In point of fact, perpetrators of aggressive and violent acts typically hold a more favorable, and possibly even inflated, view of themselves.
Self-Esteem Is Overrated
Sandra Upson, Scientific American, September 1, 2013
Scientificamerican.com Self-esteem-overrated
Self-Esteem Can Be an Ego Trap.
If your self-worth depends on success, you may be in for a fall. To feel good about yourself, think less about you and more about others
By Jennifer Crocker, Jessica J. Carnevale, Scientific American 2013
Scientific American – Self-esteem-overrated
Narcissism and Self-Esteem Are Very Different
They have very different developmental pathways and outcomes. By Scott Barry Kaufman, October 29, 2017, Scientific American
Scientific American – Narcissism-and-self-esteem-are-very-different
Why Do People Mistake Narcissism for High Self-Esteem?
Why people form such positive first impressions of narcissists. By Scott Barry Kaufman, December 3, 2018, Scientific American
Scientific American – Why-do-people-mistake-narcissism-for-high-self-esteem
How the Self-Esteem Craze Took Over America And why the hype was irresistible
By Jesse Singal, 5/2017, The Cut
Self-esteem-grit-do-they-really-help
Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles?
By Baumeister RF, Campbell JD, Krueger JI, Vohs KD.
Psychological science in the public interest : a journal of the American Psychological Society, 2003 May;4(1):1-44.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26151640
Journals.sagepub.com – Copy of article
Related topics
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – claims and reality
Building a RC car: Elective
In this elective our students will build a remote control car from a lego-like construction set, addressing the learning standards listed below.
Goals: Fun, and developing fine motor skills; Reading and precisely following. step-by-step instructions. Discerning exact sequence of cause-and-effect for simple machines.
Here one of our students is engaged in the build.
Learning Standards
Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
Using simple machines in engineering
HS-ETS4-5(MA). Explain how a machine converts energy, through mechanical means, to do work. Collect and analyze data to determine the efficiency of simple and complex machines.
7.MS-ETS3-4(MA). Show how the components of a structural system work together to serve a structural function. Provide examples of physical structures and relate their design to their intended use.
Appendix VIII Value of Crosscutting Concepts and Nature of Science in Curricula
Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Explanation. Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science and engineering is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts or design solutions.
College Board Standards for College Success: Science
Standard PS.1 Interactions, Forces and Motion
Changes in the natural and designed world are caused by interactions. Interactions of an object with other objects can be described by forces that can cause a change in motion of one or both interacting objects. Students understand that the term “interaction” is used to describe causality in science: Two objects interact when they act on or influence each other to cause some effect.
Massachusetts Digital Literacy and Computer Science (DLCS) Curriculum Framework
6-8.CS.a.4 Identify and describe the use of sensors, actuators, and control systems in an embodied system (e.g., a robot, an e-textile, installation art, smart room).
What’s the role of a teacher? Thoughts on the social emotional learning trend
An essay on the role of a teacher today, and the wisdom of the standardized social and emotional learning phenomenon.
image from casel.org
By Nick Parsons, Chemistry Teacher. 12/18/2019
In wrapping up and reflecting on the 2019 year, I’ve been thinking about school a lot… too much. Overall, teaching has been mostly good to me.
I liked school as a kid for the common, superficial reasons, like socializing and doing extracurriculars (by extracurriculars I mean sports, not all the other stuff I “did” to pad up a resume).
I REALLY liked school for deeper, private, and more personal reasons, such as being a place where I had the opportunity to challenge myself and either: (1) fail, reflect, and grow to do something more challenging or (2) succeed, reflect, and grow to do something more challenging.
For reasons I don’t understand, satisfying the incessant, burdensome need to challenge myself and be better always, and probably forever will, feel better than almost anything else.
On a day to day basis, I slept through most of my school day because it was usually boring and school/ practice/ homework was a 7:20am-9pm job, with 2 hours somewhere in there to eat, shower, and take a break to collect myself to get through the current day, in preparation for the next day. The majority of days I would feel stressed, tired, and mostly, just content – not overly happy, not overly sad. I certainly was not a daily ray of sunshine.
I LOVED all of the teachers I had in high school, but I can’t remember any going out of there way to help me sort out, identify, regulate, reflect, or otherwise support my social-emotional state… and that was totally fine. Honestly, if they did it would be weird. Plus, I trusted they were all conscionable, decent humans and if there was something seriously wrong with me, I bet they’d notice and reach out.
Not only that, I knew who the adults were who would support me as a young person. They were the same people who held me to high expectations, saw me at my highs and lows, would call me out if I was lacking focus or being a jerk. It was all love and it was real.
I liked school because it was satisfying, and I got through it because I was hooked on that feeling and I had genuine, supporting people that would afford me opportunities to challenge myself, hold me accountable to engage with these opportunities, and support me, if necessary, in adapting to these challenges so I could be better equipped to face them in the future.
I liked school (and coaching) SO much, I decided to do it, not as a job, but as a vocation (there is a difference). My average work day is essentially the same as in high school. During the hours of 7am-9pm I go to school, then coach, then come home to lesson plan or grade. Somewhere in there, I get two hours to eat, shower, and collect myself to get through the current day, in preparation for the next.
The majority of days I feel stressed, tired, and mostly, just content – not overly happy, not overly sad. I’m a little more outwardly positive and “sunshiny” because I don’t want to be that weird, mopey coworker, and students are more productive if I, at least, give the outward appearance of being happy and enthusiastic. Thankfully, I usually am. Somedays, I have to pretend, But mostly, my students can read my by the end of a semester, understand how I’m feeling, and they’re usually cool and respectful of it.
I’m a firm believer in creating fair, well thought out policies and adhering to them with fidelity. I teach chemistry – not because I have some deep, inherent passion for it – but because it’s “hard”, demanding, and doesn’t require much background knowledge – almost every student starts on an even playing field of knowing pretty much nothing. It’s the kind of subject where if you work hard, challenge yourself, fail, and reflect, you do REALLY well in. And nothing feels better to me when students do really well.
We definitely do not take content time aside to share our feelings, but I for sure will ask students how their days are going, what their other classes are like, how their game went last night, if they were able to get sleep after their rehearsal last night. BUT only if they got the work asked of them first.
Once in a while I remind the children that they have my unconditional support. Far more often, though, I’m reminding them that school is like a job, effort doesn’t matter much to me because it isn’t a material thing I can grade, and in my room, to do well, they need to be producing the best work they can. If they don’t, they’ll know when it’s graded. And no, I don’t allow revisions or retests. My favorite teacher’ism might be, “Hey now, don’t get mad about it, just get better.”
In general, I have good relationships with students. I hear through the grapevine and through survey data that they like my class, that they know I care about what I’m doing, I put in a lot of effort into my job, and they admit that they learn some chemistry by the end of it.
I’d be omitting the truth if I didn’t say I also constantly badger kids to put their phones away, cold-call the kids sleeping in class, cold-call the kids who are otherwise distracted, or raise my voice to talk over students talking over me. And I definitely piss off a kid once in a while with my daily urgency for order, focus, and productivity above having “fun”.
If a kid gets disrespectful toward me after I hold them accountable for violating clearly laid out classroom policies that are fair, constantly revised, and regularly communicated, I don’t ask them how they’re feeling or worry about how I can help them regulate their emotions. I got 20+ other kids that need to learn! I don’t have the time or capacity for that. Plus, I don’t need to: I’m a teacher, they’re students. On a professional level, in no way are we equals.
They get another chance, in that moment, to do better. If they can’t do that, well they can talk about it with an administrator, or at home with their family after I notify whoever is taking care of them that I’m not tolerating that kind of nonsense. Usually the kid gets better after that, sometimes they don’t. While I would like better outcomes in these situations, I’m not going to take on that burden of altering their psychology and modifying their behaviors. I’m a teacher, not a psychologist or a therapist. That’s not my place.
Since I got into teaching, all I’ve been listening to is this SEL (social emotional learning) thing and how I’m supposed to teach students how to recognize and regulate their emotions to feel good all the time. But again, I teach chemistry, no one taught me or trained me how to be a therapist.
Most schools push for this SEL thing, but there are only 6’ish hours in a school day. I’ve observed, substituted, and taught in 5 schools in the past 5 years. I’ve noticed that SEL pushes out other time-consuming tasks like content and discipline.
I’ve also noticed and have crossed paths with plenty of literature saying rampant depression is ailing teens, in-person communication is bizarre for them, and that they are encouraged to fight for their right to feel good all of the time. Plus, I’ve had a lot of students who are far more interested in me being their friend rather than their teacher. Like, no… that’s super weird, not to mention unprofessional.
I’ve also witnessed, experienced, heard about, and read about early career teachers leaving the profession ENTIRELY from burnout, veteran teachers saying “school wasn’t always like this”, and almost unanimously, by all kinds of teachers, some level of regret for even entering the profession. I was warned by SO many teachers to not enter the profession when I made the decision to. That’s not hard, qualifiable, or quantifiable data, but it was a lot – trust me!
I think I was better off in school as a student than my current students that I teach. I went to school to learn, because that was the whole purpose of school. I definitely didn’t go to feel good, and it wouldn’t matter! Going to school wasn’t a “choice” thing for me – I went because it was my job. I got the sense that it was my job and I would work hard during it because that was prioritized more by my teachers and parents than them worrying about how my social-emotional state was.
It feels backwards now. Every year, I get the sense students think my role in the room is to be some entertaining, funny guy that is supposed to make them feel good and never make them feel guilty, ashamed, embarrassed, or like they’re doing a bad job. It’s not my goal as a teacher for kids to feel that way, and it’s not something I particularly enjoy, but yah, that’s going to happen. School is hard, and if it isn’t I don’t know if we could define whatever “it” is as school.
And I know why they feel this way. Social-emotional learning is the new “in” thing. I suspect they’re interpreting the message from SEL as, “Yes, getting good grades is important, but definitely not as important as feeling good.”
This is sad, because I think we’re robbing kids of opportunities to intrinsically “feel”. Instead, unqualified, therapist like, social-emotional focused teachers (like myself) are unintentionally pushing these half-baked, extrinsically sourced emotions onto kids. Then, when they find themselves in situations where intrinsic, genuine, and powerful emotions rise up, they’re not equipped with dealing with them because they haven’t been put in organic situations to deal with them independently.
I also worry that this constant expectation about how to feel and in what situations is making students (and plenty of adults) abhorrently intolerant to events, people, or actions that make them “feel” bad. I’m not saying people should never feel offended, mad, or hurt in their dealings with people and events, but there needs to be less pressure on people to HAVE to feel certain ways.
People make mistakes and upset other people. It happens, and I don’t think it’s going to stop happening while humans roam the Earth. But if we’re encouraged to reject anything that upsets or offends us in lieu of experiencing the myriad of emotions that naturally emerge in these situations, the opportunity to develop self-regulation, empathy, and perspective taking is in danger of being lost. Further, the inclination and need to reflect upon, think critically about, and consider future actions in regards to whatever it was that is upsetting becomes unnecessary and unimportant. Absentmindedly rejecting sources of negative emotions bring too hasty of closure.
And I think that is happening everywhere, especially in classrooms. Because emotions have become so embedded in the teaching profession, the line between what is personal and professional and how to feel about a person or event are becoming blurred. My biggest fear is that demanding expectations, conduct policies, and rigor, the stuff that makes school “school”, become villainous ideas that can be rejected and attacked.
I dunno. This SEL thing is complicated. But I liked how I went through school as a student, and I know I’m better for it. I’m really proud of who I’ve become and what I do and school was a big part of that.
I also know that whatever I do as a teacher, it’s going to be focused on:
1. Enabling my students to be equipped to be successful in the real world, and…
2. Providing them reasonably challenging obstacles, a focused environment to work hard in, and several opportunities to achieve something that they thought was beyond their current capacities, and…
3. Most importantly, to get them to FEEL, GENUINE satisfaction and joy at being successful, in SOMETHING. It only takes once to get hooked to that feeling.
Long story short, I like going to my teacher job to just teach because it is simple and rewarding. I think my students benefit the most from that as well.
Should schools have Blizzard Bags during snow days?
The idea behind “blizzard bags” and similar programs is to provide an alternative to making up school days missed due to weather disruptions or other unplanned school closures. The MTA Board has some serious concerns about blizzard bags.
Image from wwjnewsradio.radio.com
Share your thoughts on ‘blizzard bags’, MTA
In February, we asked MTA members for their thoughts on what the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education refers to as “alternative structured learning day programs” — otherwise known as “blizzard bags.” Your input will help guide our activism on this matter.
We asked, you answered: Your ‘blizzard bag’ responses. MTA
The “Blizzard Bags” program that allowed Massachusetts students to do class work at home during a winter storm and not have to make up the day in the summer comes to an end with this academic year.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced in June that it was discontinuing the Alternative Structured Learning Day Program, commonly known as “Blizzard Bags,” in fall 2020. It based its decision on a review of the “development and implementation of these programs.”
Some parents argued that “Blizzard Bags” could not take the place of a full day of school with face-to-face instruction or adequately address the needs of students on Individualized Education Programs.
Also, the Massachusetts Teachers Association voiced “serious concerns” about “Blizzard Bags” as a means of making up for a lost day of classroom instruction.
In the fall of 2018, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education established a working group to review the policy. Representatives from the Massachusetts Teachers Association participated, along with representatives of administrators from 10 Massachusetts school districts.
“The decision to discontinue the use of Alternative Structured Learning Day Programs is based upon a variety of factors, including concerns about equitable access for all students,” Jeffrey C. Riley, commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, stated on the state DESE website on June 27. “In addition to making every attempt to reschedule school days lost due to inclement weather, leaders should consider holding the first day of school prior to Labor Day. Other possibilities include scheduling a one-week vacation in March instead of week-long vacations in February and April.”
‘Blizzard Bags’ to be dropped by Massachusetts schools after this winter. MassLive.com
But here’s a question that almost no one seemed to even ask: Do snow days actually affect a student’s learning? This study claims that they don’t:
“Snow days don’t subtract from learning”
School administrators may want to be even more aggressive in calling for weather-related closures. A new study conducted by Harvard Kennedy School Assistant Professor Joshua Goodman finds that snow days do not impact student learning. In fact, he finds, keeping schools open during a storm is more detrimental to learning than a closure.
The findings are “consistent with a model in which the central challenge of teaching is coordination of students,” Goodman writes. “With slack time in the schedule, the time lost to closure can be regained. Student absences, however, force teachers to expend time getting students on the same page as their classmates.”
Goodman, a former school teacher, began his study at the behest of the Massachusetts Department of Education, which wanted to know more about the impact of snow days on student achievement. He examined reams of data in grades three through 10 from 2003 to 2010. One conclusion — that snow days are less detrimental to student performance than other absences — can be explained by the fact that school districts typically plan for weather-related disruptions and tack on extra days in the schedule to compensate. They do not, however, typically schedule make-up days for other student absences.
The lesson for administrators might be considered somewhat counterintuitive. “They need to consider the downside when deciding not to declare a snow day during a storm — the fact that many kids will miss school regardless, either because of transportation issues or parental discretion. And because those absences typically aren’t made up in the school calendar, those kids can fall behind.”
Goodman, an assistant professor of public policy, teaches empirical methods and the economics of education. His research interests include labor and public economics, with a particular focus on education policy.
Snow days don’t subtract from learning. The Harvard Gazette
Flaking Out: Snowfall, Disruptions of Instructional Time, and Student Achievement, by Joshua Goodman, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, April 30, 2012
Flaking Out: Snowfall, Disruptions of Instructional Time, and Student Achievement
Why learn math?
Why learn math? When are going to use this in real life?
When students ask “when will we ever need this in real life?” they often aren’t actually being curious about their future. They are actually just unhappy with being assigned work in the present. But some students truly do want to learn the answers to this question – and teachers, one would hope – should know answers as well. And there are several answers to this question, not just one.
I. First we should recognize that this is an unfair question. Douglas Corey, at Brigham Young University, writes:
In truth, the when-will-I-use-this question is unfair for the teacher. She doesn’t know when you will (or even might) use it (except on the exam and in the next course in the sequence). She might explain how other people have used it, but, as we saw above, that response is not convincing. The difficulty in answering this question lies with an implicit assumption hidden beneath the question. The student has an idea of the kinds of situations that she will encounter in her life, and when the response from the teacher doesn’t apply to any of these situations, the mathematics seems useless. But it is fraudulent to assume that we know at a moment of reflection the kinds of situations in which we might use something. Why? Because we typically don’t know what we don’t know.
– When Will I Ever Use This? An Essay for Students Who Have Ever Asked This Question in Math Class
II. Does a football team go onto the field and lift weights? Of course the team doesn’t do that. However if they didn’t practice lifting weights then they certainly wouldn’t have a chance to win.
III. We’re actually not learning hard math that mathematicians study in university. For every subject that you think you are studying – algebra, trigonometry, calculus, etc. – you’re really just learning the introduction to these subjects! Yes, even after a year in high school calculus all you have done is scratch the surface of that field of math.
So why learn any of these math topics at all in grades K-12? Because children don’t know what they are going to be 10 or 20 years from now. So consider: If we don’t teach students how to be fluent and literate in English, then how can they read and learn anything? How can they communicate using the written word? They literally would be unable to even consider a career, right?
Now realize that the same is true for math. If we don’t teach students how to be fluent and literate in mathematics and logical thinking, then how could they ever even have a chance to consider a career in medicine, engineering, coding, chemistry, artificial intelligence, astronomy, physics, or math? No one ever would even be able to consider such a career.
IV. Here I’m excerpting some thoughts from Al Sweigart.
A math teacher is giving a lesson on logarithms or the quadratic equation or whatever and is asked by a student, “When will I ever need to know this?”
“Most likely never,” replied the teacher without hesitation. “Most jobs and even a lot of professions won’t require you to know any math beyond basic arithmetic or a little algebra.”
“But,” the teacher continued, “let me ask you this. Why do people go to the gym and lift weights? Do they all plan on becoming Olympic weight lifters, or professional body builders? Do they think they’ll one day find an old lady trapped under a 200 pound bar bell and say, ‘This is what I’ve been training for.’”
“No, they lift weights because it makes them stronger. Learning math is important because because it makes you smarter. It forces your brain to think in a way that normally it wouldn’t think: a way that requires precision, discipline, and abstract thought. It’s more than rote memorization, or making beautiful things, or figuring out someone’s expectations and how to appease them.”
“Doing your math homework is practice for the kind of disciplined thinking where there are objective right and wrong answers. And math is ubiquitous: it comes up in a lot of other subjects and is universal across cultures. And all this is practice for thinking in a new way. And being able to think in new ways, more than anything, is what will prepare you for an unpredictable, even dangerous, future.”
IV. We learn mathematics without realizing its ramifications and applications
This attitude comes partly from ignorance and partly from our faulty education system. We learn mathematics without realizing its ramifications and applications. You have been led to believe that it is useless but it is not. Look around the world in which you live. Almost everything that you experience and enjoy is possible because of mathematics.
You drive a car. A car company uses CAD software which lets it design and model components with absurd ease. Do you know how a CAD software works? It uses rigorous mathematics from geometry to matrices.
That’s one part of it. The calculation part. To display a model on your computer screen is yet another story. Processes are set, algorithms are developed and executed. But merely developing an algorithm is not sufficient. You have to optimize it. To develop and optimize an algorithm you need mathematics. Somebody has to develop the optimization algorithm. Know that the optimization algorithm is an algorithm to optimize a different algorithm. To develop such feat you would probably need to master functions, graphs and calculus. To perform stress analysis on such a component you would need yet another algorithms. To develop them you would probably need to study finite element analysis and matrices. This is true for any industry and not just for car industry.
Consider a security firm. It need to be able to identify a person’s face. They need a face recognition algorithm. Now some geeks have developed many such algorithms. Some of them are simple and less accurate while some are highly accurate but difficult to employ.
Development of each such algorithm requires extensive knowledge of matrices, probabilities, and other 100 things but do you know what is beautiful? The security firm may audit itself and using yet another mathematical process, assess exactly what type of algorithm it would need. Mathematics. Again. This is true for any forensic analysis. Fingerprint matching, face matching, pattern recognition and what not. Many private and public security firms, law enforcement agencies and spy agencies are using and developing such specialized tools thanks to mathematics.
Let’s come to gaming. You will be thrilled to know that while playing combat games, you are actually fighting with an algorithm which can ‘learn’ you. Genetic algorithm, neural networks and such things. Google it. Imagine yourself at a scene in a game. You can’t see what’s behind you in a scene, but as you look at it, the scene develops. There are special compression algorithms who use the information of the scene in compressed format when nobody is looking at it. I guess I don’t have to repeat now but still, I will. Mathematics.
Investment funds, hedge funds and other financial institutions predict the market and make decisions using mathematical software. Again, it require, number crunching, statistics, pattern recognition (which itself requires a lot of mathematics), optimization, functions and graphs and calculus (for effective predictions). Insurance companies need to use probabilistic models of customers to come up with new policies. They invest money in stock market. Now again read this paragraph just put insurance companies in place of investment funds.
Kedar Marathe, Tata Technologies, answering on Quora.
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V. Kalid Azad, of BetterExplained, writes in How to Develop a Mindset for Math
Math uses made-up rules to create models and relationships. When learning, I ask:
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What relationship does this model represent?
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What real-world items share this relationship?
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Does that relationship make sense to me?
They’re simple questions, but they help me understand new topics. If you liked my math posts, this article covers my approach to this oft-maligned subject. Many people have left insightful comments about their struggles with math and resources that helped them.
Math Education
Textbooks rarely focus on understanding; it’s mostly solving problems with “plug and chug” formulas. It saddens me that beautiful ideas get such a rote treatment:
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The Pythagorean Theorem is not just about triangles. It is about the relationship between similar shapes, the distance between any set of numbers, and much more.
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e is not just a number. It is about the fundamental relationships between all growth rates.
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The natural log is not just an inverse function. It is about the amount of time things need to grow.
Elegant, “a ha!” insights should be our focus, but we leave that for students to randomly stumble upon themselves. I hit an “a ha” moment after a hellish cram session in college; since then, I’ve wanted to find and share those epiphanies to spare others the same pain.
But it works both ways — I want you to share insights with me, too. There’s more understanding, less pain, and everyone wins.
Math Evolves Over Time
I consider math as a way of thinking, and it’s important to see how that thinking developed rather than only showing the result. Let’s try an example.
Imagine you’re a caveman doing math. One of the first problems will be how to count things. Several systems have developed over time:
fro Kalid Azad, BetterExplained
No system is right, and each has advantages:
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Unary system: Draw lines in the sand — as simple as it gets. Great for keeping score in games; you can add to a number without erasing and rewriting.
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Roman Numerals: More advanced unary, with shortcuts for large numbers.
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Decimals: Huge realization that numbers can use a “positional” system with place and zero.
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Binary: Simplest positional system (two digits, on vs off) so it’s great for mechanical devices.
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Scientific Notation: Extremely compact, can easily gauge a number’s size and precision (1E3 vs 1.000E3).
Think we’re done? No way. In 1000 years we’ll have a system that makes decimal numbers look as quaint as Roman Numerals (“By George, how did they manage with such clumsy tools?”).
Negative Numbers Aren’t That Real
Let’s think about numbers a bit more. The example above shows our number system is one of many ways to solve the “counting” problem.
The Romans would consider zero and fractions strange, but it doesn’t mean “nothingness” and “part to whole” aren’t useful concepts. But see how each system incorporated new ideas.
Fractions (1/3), decimals (.234), and complex numbers (3 + 4i) are ways to express new relationships. They may not make sense right now, just like zero didn’t “make sense” to the Romans. We need new real-world relationships (like debt) for them to click.
Even then, negative numbers may not exist in the way we think, as you convince me here:
You: Negative numbers are a great idea, but don’t inherently exist. It’s a label we apply to a concept.
Me: Sure they do.
You: Ok, show me -3 cows.
Me: Well, um… assume you’re a farmer, and you lost 3 cows.
You: Ok, you have zero cows.
Me: No, I mean, you gave 3 cows to a friend.
You: Ok, he has 3 cows and you have zero.
Me: No, I mean, he’s going to give them back someday. He owes you.
You: Ah. So the actual number I have (-3 or 0) depends on whether I think he’ll pay me back. I didn’t realize my opinion changed how counting worked. In my world, I had zero the whole time.
Me: Sigh. It’s not like that. When he gives you the cows back, you go from -3 to 3.
You: Ok, so he returns 3 cows and we jump 6, from -3 to 3? Any other new arithmetic I should be aware of? What does sqrt(-17) cows look like?
Me: Get out.
Negative numbers can express a relationship:
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Positive numbers represent a surplus of cows
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Zero represents no cows
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Negative numbers represent a deficit of cows that are assumed to be paid back
But the negative number “isn’t really there” — there’s only the relationship they represent (a surplus/deficit of cows). We’ve created a “negative number” model to help with bookkeeping, even though you can’t hold -3 cows in your hand. (I purposefully used a different interpretation of what “negative” means: it’s a different counting system, just like Roman numerals and decimals are different counting systems.)
By the way, negative numbers weren’t accepted by many people, including Western mathematicians, until the 1700s. The idea of a negative was considered “absurd”. Negative numbers do seem strange unless you can see how they represent complex real-world relationships, like debt.
Why All The Philosophy?
I realized that my **mindset is key to learning. **It helped me arrive at deep insights, specifically:
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Factual knowledge is not understanding. Knowing “hammers drive nails” is not the same as the insight that any hard object (a rock, a wrench) can drive a nail.
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Keep an open mind. Develop your intuition by allowing yourself to be a beginner again.
A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen. The master poured the visitor’s cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. “It’s overfull! No more will go in!” the professor blurted. “You are like this cup,” the master replied, “How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup.”
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Be creative. Look for strange relationships. Use diagrams. Use humor. Use analogies. Use mnemonics. Use anything that makes the ideas more vivid. Analogies aren’t perfect but help when struggling with the general idea.
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Realize you can learn. We expect kids to learn algebra, trigonometry and calculus that would astound the ancient Greeks. And we should: we’re capable of learning so much, if explained correctly. Don’t stop until it makes sense, or that mathematical gap will haunt you. Mental toughness is critical — we often give up too easily.
So What’s The Point?
I want to share what I’ve discovered, hoping it helps you learn math:
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Math creates models that have certain relationships
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We try to find real-world phenomena that have the same relationship
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Our models are always improving. A new model may come along that better explains that relationship (roman numerals to decimal system).
Sure, some models appear to have no use: “What good are imaginary numbers?”, many students ask. It’s a valid question, with an intuitive answer.
The use of imaginary numbers is limited by our imagination and understanding — just like negative numbers are “useless” unless you have the idea of debt, imaginary numbers can be confusing because we don’t truly understand the relationship they represent.
Math provides models; understand their relationships and apply them to real-world objects.
Developing intuition makes learning fun — even accounting isn’t bad when you understand the problems it solves. I want to cover complex numbers, calculus and other elusive topics by focusing on relationships, not proofs and mechanics.
But this is my experience — how do you learn best?
This section by Kalid Azad was made under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
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Teaching science with augmented reality
Using virtual reality in the classroom
We learn through lectures and reading. We especially learn through illustrations, photographs, diagrams, and animations. But a limitation is that so many of these images are flat, two-dimensional. Not surprisingly, many folks have trouble visualizing what a system is really like, if they only have two dimensional pictures.
An obvious practical solution is to make a lesson hands-on: Students can take a field trip to see gears and machines in a power plant; see ancient ruins on site; travel to a valley and fly over a vast ecosystem to see different parts of the environment. But there’s only so much that a school can do in practice: we can’t purchase every manipulative and lab, or travel to see every place that we talk about.
Yet with today’s technology we can actually model machines, cells, valleys and volcanoes, ecosystems, distance cities, and archaeological sites, in three dimensions – and then bring all of this into the classroom. We bring these models in to a virtual space that students can explore.
And that’s what we are already doing in our classrooms! First, let’s learn a few terms: XR, AR, and VR.
XR- Extended Reality
the emerging umbrella term for all immersive computer virtual experience technologies. These technologies AR, VR, and MR.
Augmented Reality (AR)
When virtual information and objects are overlaid on the real world. This experience enhances the real world with digital details such as images, text, and animation. This means users are not isolated from the real world and can still interact and see what’s going on in front of them.
CRISPR enzyme floating in three dimensions.
Photo by RK (c) 2019
Virtual Reality (VR)
Users are fully immersed in a simulated digital environment. Individuals must put on a VR headset or head-mounted display to get a 360 -degree view of an artificial world. This fools their brain into believing they are walking on the moon, swimming under the ocean or stepped into whatever new world the VR developers created.
A team of researchers at ESA’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, are investigating new concepts for controlling rovers on a planet and satellites in orbit. Image from the ESA, esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2017/07/Reality_check
Mixed reality (MR), aka Hybrid Reality
Digital and real-world objects co-exist and can interact with one another in real-time. This experience requires an MR headset… Microsoft’s HoloLens is a great example that, e.g., allows you to place digital objects into the room you are standing in and give you the ability to spin it around or interact with the digital object in any way possible.
Image from Microsoft
Excerpts of these definitions from Bernard Marr, What Is Extended Reality Technology? A Simple Explanation For Anyone, Forbes, 8/12/2019
Augmented reality in Ecology & Environmental Science
When students actively participate in augmented reality learning, the class is effectively a lab, as opposed to being a lecture. Here we are studying ecosystems with an app from the World Wildlife Foundation, WWF Rivers.
Photo by RK (c) 2019
This student has their head in the clouds 😉
Photo by RK (c) 2019
Here we are using the Google Expeditions app, on a Pixel 3A smartphone. The plug-in is “Earth Geology” by Vida systems. For more details see Google Expeditions – Education in VR.
AR in Earth Science
As we walk around the room, we see the Earth and all of it’s layers in a realistic 3D view. Here we stood above the arctic circle, and took screenshots as we moved down latitude, until we were above the antarctic.
Photo by RK (c) 2019
Photo by RK (c) 2019
AR in Physics & Engineering
A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes the direction or magnitude of a force. They are the simplest mechanisms that use mechanical advantage to multiply force.
Here we are examining gears, including bicycle gears.
Photo by RDK (c) 2019
Related Special Education topics
If you can’t visually imagine things, how can you learn?
If someone can’t visually imagine things, how can you learn? We know some people can’t conjure up mental images. But we’re only beginning to understand the impact this “aphantasia” might have on their education.
A discussion of an inability to form mental images , congenital aphantasia. This is believed to affect 2% of the population.
by Mo Costandi, Jun 2016, The Guardian, UK
Learning Standards
What kind of learning standards will students address when using augmented reality science lessons?
NGSS Cross-Cutting Concepts
6. Structure and Function – The way an object is shaped or structured determines many of its properties and functions: Complex and microscopic structures and systems can be visualized, modeled, and used to describe how their function depends on the shapes, composition, and relationships among its parts; therefore, complex natural and designed structures/systems can be analyzed to determine how they function
Massachusetts Digital Literacy and Computer Science (DLCS) Curriculum Framework
Modeling and Simulation [6-8.CT.e] – 3. Select and use computer simulations, individually and collaboratively, to gather, view, analyze, and report results for content-related problems (e.g., migration, trade, cellular function).
Digital Tools [9-12.DTC.a] – 2. Select digital tools or resources based on their efficiency and effectiveness to use for a project or assignment and justify the selection.
American Association of School Librarians: Standards Framework for Learners
1. Inquire: Build new knowledge by inquiring, thinking critically, identifying problems, and developing strategies for solving problems
Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles
AP-CSP Curriculum Guides
LO 3.1.3 Explain the insight and knowledge gained from digitally processed data by using appropriate visualizations, notations, and precise language.
EK 3.1.3A Visualization tools and software can communicate information about data.
EK 3.1.3E Interactivity with data is an aspect of communicating.
NGSS leaves out critical guidance on importance of teaching about vectors
As we all know the NGSS are more about skills than content. Confusingly, though, they ended up also listing core content topics as well – yet they left out kinematics and vectors, the basic tools needed for physics in the first place.
The NGSS also dropped the ball by often ignoring the relationship of math to physics. They should have noted which math skills are needed to master each particular area.
Hypothetically, they could have had offered options: For each subject, note the math skills that would be needed to do problem solving in this area, for
* a standard (“college prep”) level high school class
* a lower level high school class, perhaps along the lines of what we call “Conceptual Physics” (still has math, but less.)
* the highest level of high school class, the AP Physics level. And the AP study guides already offer what kinds of math one needs to do problem solving in each area.
Yes, the NGSS does have a wonderful introduction to this idea, (quoted below) – but when we look at the actual NGSS standards they don’t mention these skills.
In some school districts this has caused confusion, and even led to some administrators demanding that physics be taught without these essential techniques (i.e. kinematic equations, conceptual understanding of 2D motion, kinematic analysis of 2D motion, vectors, etc.)
To help back up teachers in the field I put together these standards for vectors, from both science and mathematics standards.
– Robert Kaiser
Learning Standards
Massachusetts Science Curriculum Framework (pre 2016 standards)
1. Motion and Forces: Central Concept: Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation describe and predict the motion of most objects.
1.1 Compare and contrast vector quantities (e.g., displacement, velocity, acceleration force, linear momentum) and scalar quantities (e.g., distance, speed, energy, mass, work).
NGSS
Science and Engineering Practices: Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Mathematical and computational thinking in 9–12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to using algebraic thinking and analysis, a range of linear and nonlinear functions including trigonometric functions, exponentials and logarithms, and computational tools for statistical analysis to analyze, represent, and model data. Simple computational simulations are created and used based on mathematical models of basic assumptions.
- Apply techniques of algebra and functions to represent and solve scientific and engineering problems.
Although there are differences in how mathematics and computational thinking are applied in science and in engineering, mathematics often brings these two fields together by enabling engineers to apply the mathematical form of scientific theories and by enabling scientists to use powerful information technologies designed by engineers. Both kinds of professionals can thereby accomplish investigations and analyses and build complex models, which might otherwise be out of the question. (NRC Framework, 2012, p. 65)
Students are expected to use mathematics to represent physical variables and their relationships, and to make quantitative predictions. Other applications of mathematics in science and engineering include logic, geometry, and at the highest levels, calculus…. Mathematics is a tool that is key to understanding science. As such, classroom instruction must include critical skills of mathematics. The NGSS displays many of those skills through the performance expectations, but classroom instruction should enhance all of science through the use of quality mathematical and computational thinking.
Common Core Standards for Mathematics (CCSM)
High School: Number and Quantity » Vector & Matrix Quantities. Represent and model with vector quantities.
Represent and model with vector quantities.
(+) Recognize vector quantities as having both magnitude and direction. Represent vector quantities by directed line segments, and use appropriate symbols for vectors and their magnitudes (e.g., v, |v|, ||v||, v).
(+) Find the components of a vector by subtracting the coordinates of an initial point from the coordinates of a terminal point.
(+) Solve problems involving velocity and other quantities that can be represented by vectors.
Perform operations on vectors.
(+) Add and subtract vectors.
Add vectors end-to-end, component-wise, and by the parallelogram rule. Understand that the magnitude of a sum of two vectors is typically not the sum of the magnitudes.
Given two vectors in magnitude and direction form, determine the magnitude and direction of their sum.
Understand vector subtraction v – w as v + (-w), where –w is the additive inverse of w, with the same magnitude as w and pointing in the opposite direction. Represent vector subtraction graphically by connecting the tips in the appropriate order, and perform vector subtraction component-wise.
(+) Multiply a vector by a scalar.
Represent scalar multiplication graphically by scaling vectors and possibly reversing their direction; perform scalar multiplication component-wise, e.g., as c(vx, vy) = (cvx, cvy).
Compute the magnitude of a scalar multiple cv using ||cv|| = |c|v. Compute the direction of cv knowing that when |c|v ≠ 0, the direction of cv is either along v (for c > 0) or against v (for c < 0).
- Become fluent in generating equivalent expressions for simple algebraic expressions and in solving linear equations and inequalities.
- Develop fluency operating on polynomials, vectors, and matrices using by-hand operations for the simple cases and using technology for more complex cases.
#vectors #teaching #standards #kinematics #physics #kaiserscience #pedagogy #education #NGSS #Benchmarks #scalors #highschool
Tidal power
Content objective:
What are we learning? Why are we learning this?
content, procedures, skills
Vocabulary objective
Tier II: High frequency words used across content areas. Key to understanding directions, understanding relationships, and for making inferences.
Tier III: Low frequency, domain specific terms
Building on what we already know
What vocabulary & concepts were learned in earlier grades?
Make connections to prior lessons.
Ocean tides are caused by tidal forces.
What are “tides”?
Types of tidal power
Tidal barrages may be the most efficient way to capture energy from the tides.
Here, a dam utilizes the potential energy generated by the change in height between high and low tides.
In this example, the motion of the water spins a propeller.
image from technologystudent.com/images5/tidal1.gif
The spinning propeller spins an axle, which transmits the motion up to the generator.
Inside the generator, this motion is used to rotate wires inside a magnet (or vice-versa)
The wire feels the magnetic field changing;
this produces an electrical current inside the wires.
Thus we have converted the energy of moving water into electrical energy.
Tidal fences
Turbines that operate like giant turnstiles.
The spinning turnstiles spins an axle, which transmits the motion up to the generator.
Inside the generator, this motion is used to rotate wires inside a magnet (or vice-versa) as shown above.
Tidal turbines
Similar to wind turbines but these are underwater.
The mechanical energy of tidal currents is used to turn turbines.
These are connected to a generator that produces electricity
Other possible designs
Many other designs are possible, for instance:
Fluid Pumping Apparatuses Powered By Waves Or Flowing Currents
Great animations
Many types of tidal energy convertors (European Marine Energy Centre)
Advantages of tidal power
Environmentally friendly
Relatively small amount of space
Ocean currents generate relatively more energy than air currents. Why? Because ocean water is 832 times more dense than air. It therefore applies greater force on the turbines.
Disadvantages of tidal power
High construction costs
The amount of energy produced is not constant per hour, or even per week.
It requires a suitable site, where tidal streams are consistently strong.
The equipment must be capable of withstanding strong tides and storms.
It can be expensive to maintain and repair.
Related topics
Why Is There a Tidal Bulge Opposite the Moon?
NGSS Three dimensional learning
NGSS has three distinct components: 1. Disciplinary Core Ideas, 2. Cross Cutting Concepts, and 3. Science & Engineering Practices.
NGSS Three Dimensional Learning
Teaching Channel NGSS 3 dimensional teaching
KnowAtom’s blog – Explore the 3 Dimensions
A Way to Think About Three-Dimensional Learning and NGSS
From Carolina Biologica Supply Company,, by Dee Dee Whitaker
The National Research Council (NRC) went to science and engineering practitioners and gathered information on how they “do” science and engineering. That information was organized and the resulting framework is the Next Generation Science Standards.
- What scientists do is Dimension 1: Practices
- Concepts applied to all domains of science is Dimension 2: Crosscutting Concepts
- Big, important concepts for students to master is Dimension 3: Disciplinary Core Ideas
Each dimension is further refined into specific behaviors, concepts, and ideas. Below is a list of the three dimensions with an accompanying explanation and a brief rationale for each.
| Phenomenon
Naturally occurring events. Use phenomena to generate interest and elicit questions. |
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| Scientific and Engineering Practices
Practices: behaviors that scientists engage
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Disciplinary Core Ideas
The broad, key ideas within a scientific discipline make up the core ideas. The core ideas are distributed among 4 domains:
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Crosscutting Concepts
Applicable to all science disciplines, crosscutting concepts link the disciplines together.
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| Artifacts
Tangible evidence of demonstrated student learning. Artifacts need to be durable. A report, poster, project, and an audio recording of a presentation can all serve as artifacts. |
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Resources from New York City
New Visions for public schools – High School Science
New Visions for public schools – High School Biology – Designed to NGSS
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KaiserScience 