Bruce showed us how he and other actually use ComPADRE, walking us through many of the collections and discussing various features.

Here’s the recording.

This week (3/6) we’ll be talking about some research that has been done on the Force Concept Inventory. Join us!

We spoke with Bruce about some of the design features and challenges involved in the ComPADRE project. He asked us what we might consider if we had to start from scratch, and this led to a great conversation. This week (2/27) he’ll be back to walk us through using ComPADRE.

Here’s the recording.

Melissa shared how she has changed two courses at Carleton College to address learning objectives around being a citizen scientist. We discussed logistical issues and we brainstormed ways that you could motivate this work.

Here’s the recording.

This week (2/20/13) we’ll be talking with Bruce Mason about Compadre.

We spoke with Todd about how he has instituted his Learning Objectives-Bases Assessment (LOBA) approach, and we broadened the conversation to larger Standards-Based Grading issues.

Here’s the recording.

This week (2/13 9:30pm ET) we’re going to talk with Melissa Eblen-Zayas from Carleton College about “Encouraging physics students to be thoughtful citizen scientists.”

We talked with John Burk and others about different ways to manage student capstones. We discussed whether there’s a distinctions between capstones and projects. We also discussed scheduling time for students to present in the Global Physics Department. If you have students doing a project where they would benefit from presenting to us, feel free to contact Andy (andy.rundquist@gmail.com or @arundquist).

Here’s the recording of the session.

This week (2/6) we’ll be talking with Todd Zimmerman about Learning Outcomes Based Assessment (LOBA).

We spoke with Ramon about his experience being on the writing team for the Next Generation Science Standards. NOTE THAT TOMORROW IS THE LAST DAY TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK FOR THE CURRENT ROUND. He noted that it’s probably better to give feedback through AAPT.

Here’s the recording.

This week (1/30) we’ll be talking about planning spring GPD dates for student capstone projects. If you have students doing projects, please consider encouraging them. We’ll likely spend time talking about capstones in general this week as well.

We spoke with Aatish about a summer program he does with high school students with Arduino microprocessors. The students design and build a self-balancing robot.

Here’s the recording.

We talked with several physics educators who attended the AAPT winter meeting regarding cool things they saw, heard, and talked about.

We also discussed the Next Generation Science Standards. Note that we have Ramon Lopez joining us on 1/23 (this week!) to talk more about those.

Here’s the recording.

We talked with Rob Walsh about Scholastica, a company that facilitates the logistics behind running an academic journal. We heard about the various tools for authors and editors, and brainstormed how a school or an organization could make use of their hosting capabilities.

Here’s the recording.

The minutes for this past week will come on on Monday. Next week (1/16) will be about Arduinos.

Matt showed us how he’s reprogrammed some robots to follow x vs t, v vs t, and a vs t curves that go beyond the simple constant velocity buggies so popular in the Modeling curriculum. He showed us examples, and we discussed the pedagogical and curricular value.

Here’s the recording.

This week we’ll be talking with a representative from Scholastic about journal publishing. Join us!