This page is for teachers to share their experience of using this website “C21 Physics Teaching for the 21st Century” in their classes. Of particular interest to others is tips for how to make the best use of the C21 resources.
The following is feedback we’ve received from a physics teacher,ย Shaun Dychko, in Vancouver:
My experience, as a physics 12 teacher in Vancouver, is that C21 is a great source of presentation ideas for students. During the energy unit I had students create Powerpoint presentations and they really got into their topics. Seeing how well they understood their chosen articles, how enthusiastic they were about explaining them, and seeing the great debate and banter these articles created makes this some of the best “teaching” I’ve done this year. These presentations were about 10 to 15 minutes long, and presented by groups of two students. They would typically take turns presenting Powerpoint slides which would consist of their own text combined with pictures and equations copied from this website. Some groups had maybe 6 or 7 slides, while others had up to 15, but pretty much all of them demonstrated a really good understanding of a real world physics application.
By the way, if you use http://www.random.org/ to generate the order of presentations, everyone accepts it as “fair”. Assign each group a random number and make the presentations go from smallest to largest number. Random.org is also kind of fun to use in real time with the class since it feels a bit like a lottery, and if you want to you can discuss what it means for something to be “random”.
What has your experience been? Please leave your comments below this article.