Developing the skills of scientific inquiry with

webcams and Vernier’s LoggerPro3 software.

Michael Komljenovic

Abbey Park High School

Halton District School Board

STAO 2005

My Website-http://chatt.hdsb.ca/~komljenovicm

My Blog-http://novemberlearning.com/blogs/komljenovicm/

Agenda

Closing the digital disconnect with the millennial students.

Webcams as a scientific instrument: developing inquiry skills

Assessing & evaluating scientific inquiries.

Moving from cookbook labs to independent inquiries.

Lessons learned from practice

Time to play!

Millennial Students (born 1980 – 2000)

Closing the gap between internet-savvy students and their schools.

Millennials are the first generation that have grown up surrounded by digital media.

Webcams as a Scientific Instrument: Developing Inquiry Skills

Empowering students through technology and a constructivist approach.

• students use new technological modeling tools & software

• students carry out activities that are much more like real science

• encourages learner inquiry, students can learn the nature of science as a model of reality

• acknowledges the critical role of experience in learning; learning as a process

• nurtures learners natural curiosity

• bases itself on the principles of the cognitive theory, “brains-on” approach

• supports cooperative learning

• involves learners in real world situations

COOKBOOK LABS INDEPENDENT INQUIRIES/

GUIDED DISCOVERY LABS

Beginning of unit/ course End of unit/ course

References

“A Modeling Method for High School Physics Instruction”, Malcolm Wells, David Hestenes, & Gregg Swackhammer. “” Am. J. Phys., 63(7) (1995): 606-619 http://modeling.asu.edu/modeling-HS.html

Millennials at Workhttp://www.generationsatwork.com/articles/millenials.htm

Vernier Software http://www.vernier.com/index.html

What can a physics teacher do with a computer? Joe Redishhttp://www.physics.umd.edu/perg/papers/redish/resnick.htmlhttp://www.physics.umd.edu/perg/papers/redish/resnick2.htmlhttp://www2.physics.umd.edu/~redish/Book/ on-line book - The Physics Suite