Science Modeling Talks

In this episode, Mark talks with Paul Sasso, a physics and astronomy teacher from Maine. They talk about Paul's experience as a new teacher and his introduction to modeling instruction, and later to the new modeling astronomy materials. After taking the modeling astronomy workshop and returning as both participant and "intern," Paul was invited to attend modeling workshop leader training. They talk about that experience and then dive into more thoughts on the astronomy and exoplanets materials, the virtual course, and engaging hands-on activities for the students.

Guests

Paul L. Sasso Paul L. Sasso is a high school Science teacher in Maine and for the past 13 years has been teaching all levels of Physics, and more recently Astronomy. He also directs the STEM Makerspace at school, which is a hub for 3D printing,and robotics (supporting students projects schoolwide). Paul has been a Modeler since 2017 when he took his first workshop in Physics Mechanics. He comes to teaching from a career in Engineering with Motorola, Siemens and General Dynamics. Restoring old VWs, remote camping, stargazing, photography and keeping up with his wife keep Paul busy the rest of the time.

Highlights

[15:32] Paul Sasso "[In the astronomy modeling class] There are people that have been teaching astronomy for a long time, but I believe the course has so much to offer, and just the different approach to it and the use of real data and the use of very current, real relevant, data science activities for the students. So there's a lot to be had, a lot to be taken away from it, no matter what your level."

Resources

Download Transcript Ep 55 Transcript Links [8:37] Unistellar Citizen Science [14:41] Current Astronomy Modeling with Exoplanets course, already underway

In this episode, Mark talks with chemistry teacher Scott Milam. They talk about his interest in the history of chemistry thinking and the development of models in chemistry as far back as hundreds of years ago. They talk about how Scott thinks about teaching chemistry, and the questions he is focusing on right now. This leads them to talk about setting up assessments so he focuses very intentionally on key goals in each unit. They also talk about his chemistry content, his YouTube Channel, and Scott's book Teaching Introductory Chemistry.

Guests

Scott Milam Scott Milam currently teaches chemistry and IB chemistry HL at Plymouth High School in Michigan. Scott holds a BS and MS in Chemistry. He completed his initial training in Modeling Instruction pedagogy in 2015, and has led workshops in 2018, 2020, and 2021. He helped lead the Intro to Modeling Instruction workshop 3 times and led the Chem I follow-up workshop this fall. Scott was the 2017 Michigan Science Teacher of the Year and was a 2019, 2021, and 2023 PAEMST finalist. Scott is the recipient of AMTA's 2023 Malcolm Wells Award Leadership and published "Teaching Introductory Chemistry" in 2022. Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | X (Twitter)

Highlights

[2:32] Scott Milam "I find that me being able to add stories of the smartest people in the world at this time, having these thoughts that were incorrect into my instruction is really powerful for students in that it shows them it's okay to not be at perfection, that as long as you're progressing and moving up, that you're doing something useful and productive." [15:45] Scott Milam "what I try and do is listen very carefully to what my top students are doing that's getting them to make sense of these different things, share that with all of the students."

Resources

Download Transcript Ep 54 Transcript  

In this episode, Mark talks with Mark Lattery, professor of physics at University of Wisconson, OshKosh. He has taught using modeling methods since 1999. He does research in experimental particle physics and modeling methods. They talk about modeling physics in Mark Lattery's college-level physics course for non-majors, and how Mark first learned about modeling early in his teaching career.

Guests

Mark Lattery Mark Lattery received a Ph. D. degree in experimental particle physics and a M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Minnesota/Twin Cities. He is Distinguished Professor of Physics, the 2021 David Hestenes Award for Exceptional Contributions to Modeling Instruction recipient, and President of Modeling Teachers International, a new subsidiary of the American Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA). Lattery is also an experimental particle physicist and a member of the PANDA Collaboration at FAIR. For excellence in teaching, Lattery was named UW-System Wisconsin Teaching Scholar and Wisconsin Teaching Fellow. His research interests include physics education, experimental particle physics, and the history and philosophy of science. The author of many peer-reviewed research articles, Dr. Lattery has published in such diverse journals as Physical Review Letters, The Physics Teacher, School Science and Mathematics, Physics Education, and Science & Education. Dr. Lattery is author of the book, Deep Learning in Introductory Physics: Exploratory Studies of Model-Based Reasoning (Information Age Publishing, 2017). Website

Highlights

[8:13] Mark Lattery "I guess the most important thing I've learned about modeling theory is the richness and diversity with which one can describe the scientific modeling process, and how we use that process to learn new things." [32:34] Mark Lattery "if I give a two-day workshop, I come up with the simplest possible content that I can think of. So the focus is not on the subject matter content, but on the pedagogical aspects about models and modeling." [34:22] Mark Lattery "within the modeling community, there's this open invitation, please join us and be part of creating what modeling in the classroom might look like in the future."

Resources

Download Transcript Ep 53 Transcript Links UWOSH - Next Generation Modeling Courses for Teachers [1:00] PANDA [17:43] Deep Learning in Introductory Physics, Information Age Publishing [28:54] Modeling Teachers International

In this episode, Mark talks with Karle Delo about how teachers could use AI tools to generate ideas for connections between topics of study and areas of interest for their students. She talks about how to get started using AI and discusses the importance of not ignoring it entirely. She has many good resources and encourages teachers to take a look and see what could help them improve their practice or even streamline the sub plan building process.

Guests

Karle Delo Karle Delo is the Curriculum Director and an instructional coach at Ovid-Elsie Area Schools in Mid-Michigan. Before becoming a coach, she taught middle school science for ten years and used Modeling Instruction in her classroom. In her current role, she provides support and training to teachers on how to build 21st-century skills among students. She is also a frequent speaker at education conferences, and in 2023, she was named one of the top 30 K-12 EdTech Influencers to follow by EdTech Magazine. On her TikTok and Instagram channels, @coachkarle, she creates videos about Canva, Google for Education, and the latest AI tools for teachers. Linktree | Facebook | Instagram | X (Twitter) | TikTok

Highlights

[10:35] Karle Delo "one great way to use [AI] that I've found is coming up with ideas for lesson hooks, for ideas to relate the content to your students specifically." [26:47] Karle Delo "If you wanna use it to think for you, that's not gonna be a great product. If you're using it to make you a better thinker. And as that thought partner brainstorming buddy, it's going to have a much bigger positive impact on what you do."

Resources

Download Transcript Ep 52 Transcript Links [10:49] Magic School.ai [12:35] EduAide [14:39] AI for Education [15:47] Chat GPT [16:08] Google Bard

In this episode, we hear from Larry Dukerich, one of the key people who developed modeling resources for chemistry instruction. He talks about how modeling changed the way he taught and expands on the three main ways that modeling differs from a traditional lecture-style classroom.

Guest

Larry Dukerich Larry Dukerich received his B.S. in Chemistry from Michigan State University and his Masters of Natural Science from Arizona State University. He taught high school chemistry and physics, including regular, honors and AP courses, in Michigan and Arizona for 34 years. He was a Woodrow Wilson Dreyfus Fellow in Chemistry in 1986 and a Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Science Teaching in 2000.Since 1995, he has conducted numerous summer workshops for physics and chemistry teachers as part of the Modeling Instruction Program at ASU, and later in Pennsylvania, N Carolina, Tennessee, New York City, Missouri, California and Colorado. He has also made presentations about and conducted workshops on Modeling Instruction at NSTA, ChemEd and BCCE conferences.He is one of the lead contributors to the curricular materials used in Modeling Instruction in chemistry.

Highlights

[11:00] If you go to a workshop, you’re going to be exposed to a reform pedagogy, which is going to require you to change the way you manage your classroom. If you are looking for a way to improve your instruction then this is going to be something for you. [16:10] When you go to a workshop, teachers play the role of student as they run through the experiments, collecting data, analyzing it, having to interpret it, and explain what’s going on. And same thing with worksheets, tests and quizzes, that sort of thing. And they get the feeling for how modeling instruction differs from their traditional classroom practice. [32:33] It’s a culture, not a cult. I have just found, once I started teaching with modeling that I found the experience in the classroom much more satisfying. My students found the course enjoyable and wanted to take more science. Places that have been implementing modeling have seen science enrollment grow, an increase in the number of advanced courses that students take. It’s something that I think people can be excited about.

Resources

Download Transcript Ep 51 Transcript Links [24:59] - Assessment of Basic Chemistry Concepts or “ABCC” AMTA members can download it (as well as the Excel item-analysis workbook) at the AMTA website, modelinginstruction.org , in the members-only section . Non-members can email Larry Dukerich: [email protected] [26:33] – paper that Larry wrote for J. Chem Ed in 2015 (Users must log in to read the whole paper. The abstract is available without logging in)

In this episode, Mark talks with Deanna Cullen, about her work as a teacher, how she came to modeling, and how it changed her teaching. They talk about the work she is doing now with the Journal of Chemical Education and with ChemEdX, the Chemical Education Exchange. They also talk about Target Inquiry, a 2 1/2 year long professional development program which gives teachers the opportunity to do research and develop labs to build inquiry skills. They talk about summer conferences for chemistry teachers and the benefit of that kind of professional development.

Guests

Deanna Cullen Deanna Cullen is the High School Editor for ChemEd X the Chemical Education Exchange, Adjunct professor at Grand Valley State University, spent over 25 years teaching chemistry, science & biology - primarily high school - through June 2017. She is the former associate editor with the Journal of Chemical Education. For two years she was a chemistry laboratory technician. She regularly attends state, national and international science conferences. Deanna is passionate about supporting science teachers and working with authors. Twitter

Highlights

[8:15] Deanna Cullen "One of the posts (on ChemEdX) that gets a lot of views during modeling instruction courses is one that Erica Posthuma posted about build-a-boat and developing culture in your classroom" [28:55] Deanna Cullen "we teach students to be scientists. Scientists make observations, they analyze data and they form conclusions. And we know that scientists make further observations that will cause them to reanalyze and reformulate a conclusion. And that's what our students do in modeling instruction. So they're learning to be a scientist."

Resources

Download Transcript Ep 50 Transcript Links Journal of Chemical Education Chemical Education Exchange Target Inquiry

In this episode, Mark talks with Kathy Malone about her first exposure to modeling instruction methodology through the very first modeling physics workshop. They talk about Kathy's role in working to create the initial biology modeling materials, her research and work in Kazakhstan, and finally the research she has just recently published.

Guests

Kathy Malone Kathy holds undergraduate degrees in biology and physics education and master's degrees in Science Teaching and Instructional Science. She took her first course in physics modeling at ASU in 1995. She has since taught physics using modeling at both the high school and college levels, and started co-leading physics modeling workshops in 1998. Her developing interest in modeling led Kathy to earn a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in physics education based on research on physics modeling at the high school level. Her research focused on the cognitive and metacognitive skills developed by students in modeling classes. After teaching for about 30 years at the high school level she moved to the college level in 2014 teaching graduate and undergraduate education courses. Her research focused on curriculum development and research in modeling but she shifted her focus to biology modeling which at the time was in its infancy. She has also taught graduate-level education in Kazakhstan for several years. She "retired" from teaching education courses in 2022 and then started teaching at the University of Hawaii at Hilo in the Physics and Astronomy department. She is currently using modeling techniques in her physics and astronomy classes.

Highlights

[12:07] Kathy Malone "teaching, especially modeling, is very much a jazz performance to me, because what it is, is that it's not me. It's the whole class, right? So we're performing together, trying to reach a goal." [23:04] Kathy Malone "I can see as the years progressed I was no longer a teacher of science. I had become more of a teacher of thinking... because models are all around us, they're not just science."

Resources

Download Transcript Ep 49 Transcript Links Science Modeling Talks Episode 31 Anita Schuchardt Kathy Malone's Research Gate Page

In this episode, Mark talks with Mitch Sweet, who teaches using modeling methodology at Scottsdale Community College. They discuss his journey with modeling, and the many workshops he attended before becoming a workshop facilitator. They talk about building a community of modelers and the differences between high school and college. Finally, they talk about the work that Mitch and others have done researching the effectiveness of using proportional reasoning to get students to link about how changing one variable would affect the other, rather than just blindly plugging numbers into an algorithm.

Guests

Mitch Sweet Mitch has been teaching, primarily chemistry, for the past 15 years at both the high school and college level. He took his first Modeling workshop in 2010 and began co-leading Chemistry Modeling workshops in 2016. Mitch currently teaches Fundamental Chemistry and General Chemistry I and II at Scottsdale Community College.  

Highlights

[7:37] Mitch Sweet "the idea is, no matter what it is we're doing in life, we're constantly building models in our head of how we think things work. And that's sort of inherent in the nature of learning." [11:44] Mitch Sweet "we're trying to build a culture with our students where they're really responsible for their own learning, and we're trying to get them to be independent thinkers and to be able to engage with their fellow classmates." [33:41] Mitch Sweet "so getting students to share, getting students comfortable with putting things out there that they're maybe not a hundred percent sure of is a really important part of building the culture within the class. And we found it is more than worthwhile, that investment of time"

Resources

Download Transcript Ep 48 Transcript Links [Paper] David Hestenes - Wherefore a Science of Teaching

In this episode, Mark talks with Dr. Brant Hinrichs, associate professor of physics at Drury, a small university in Missouri. He talks about his studies in physics, his introduction to research on physics education, attending a workshop on Remodeled University Physics, and his own work in physics education research. They talk about the similarities and differences in the modeling approach between high school and college or university settings. They spend time talking about System Schema and energy, especially how we talk about this in a physics classroom. Brant teaches physics, but the discussion would be helpful for teachers of other disciplines as well.

Guests

Brant Hinrichs Brant Hinrichs grew up in Michigan, studied electrical engineering and then physics at the University of Michigan, and then went to graduate school in Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Did a traditional physics PhD in non-linear dynamics - trying to model local field potentials from the brains of awake behaving pigeons. Followed by a two-year post-doc in Tokyo, Japan, again in non-linear dynamics. When he returned to the States, he was introduced to Physics Education Research. Over the following years, he got interested in research - trying to find evidence that his teaching was effective, and he has been doing that ever since. He and his wife are parents to two children, adopted as infants from Japan, and have found their lives to be greatly enriched by their addition to the family.

Highlights

[12:38] Brant Hinrichs "I think textbooks talk about system, but actually visualizing it and seeing what's inside the system and what's outside, and thinking explicitly about where energy is stored... System schema is very useful for visualizing that." [18:09] Brant Hinrichs ""Where is energy stored" has been a fundamental question to ask students and have them think about, and help them to coordinate with all their representations." [33:31] Brant Hinrichs "predictions only ever happen after students have some subset of models from which to grab a prediction and apply."

Resources

Download Transcript Ep 47 Transcript Links [Paper] Using the System Schema Representational Tool to Promote Student Understanding of Newton’s Third Law [Paper] Sharp Initial Disagreements Then Consensus in a Student Led Whole-Class Discussion [Paper] Social positioning correlates with consensus building in two contentious large-group meetings [Paper] Do I belong here?: Describing identities of participation and non-participation in a contentious “board” meeting [Paper] Writing Position Vectors in 3-d Space: A Student Difficulty With Spherical Unit Vectors in Intermediate E&M [Paper] Changing the notation that represents a force changes how students say it [Paper] Analyzing students’...

This episode is a conversation with Dr. David Hestenes. Dr. Hestenes talks about his own education and work in various universities and departments. He talks about his graduate education and then goes in-depth about the research that led to developing the ideas and methodology underlying modeling instruction in physics and later other sciences and mathematics.

Guest Bio

David Orlin Hestenes, Ph.D. (born May 21, 1933) is a theoretical physicist and science educator. He is best known as chief architect of geometric algebra as a unified language for mathematics and physics, and as the founder of Modelling Instruction, a research-based program to reform K–12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. For more than 30 years, he was employed in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Arizona State University (ASU), where he retired with the rank of Research Professor and is now emeritus.

Highlights

[18:21] David Hestenes quoting Malcolm Wells: “It’s not enough to know that the students have alternative conceptions or if you will, misconceptions about how the world works because they interpret everything in terms of those. The question is how do you get the students to have the scientific view of what’s going on in the world rather than the common sense everyday world.” [19:15] David Hestenes: “my theoretical view is that science is fundamentally about making and using models of the real world.” [36:55] Dr. Hestenes: “Well, okay, so what is it that is going to make an effective teacher? The trouble with especially physics teachers is that they’re not connected to anybody. Usually the physics teacher is the only physics teacher in the school…” building up local communities [41:02] Mark Royce: “What in your mind is the reason that modeling is successful?” [46:00] Dr. Hestenes: “Without private funding, I don’t think that there can be any substantial STEM education reform.”

Resources

51:15 http://geocalc.clas.asu.edu David Hestenes – transcription