Teacher Centered Instructionvs.

Student Centered Instruction

Sage on the Stage: Teacher is the primary conduit of information. Ex: Lecture

Guide on the Side: Teacher facilitates student experiences with content.

Teacher-Centered

Advantages Teacher controls content, time, activity A lot of material can be covered Easy to plan

Disadvantages Inefficient for many learners Low motivation Limited opportunities to check progress

Student-Centered

Advantages Tends to be more motivational Provides more opportunities to experience

content

Disadvantages Lack of teacher control/organization Time & resource dependent

Pendulums

Prominent position in the history of mathematics and science

What have pendulums been used for?

In classrooms, pendulums are a common activity for teaching about the control of variables.

Pendulums

Make a pendulumWhat variables could students explore with

a pendulum?What issues would students have to work

through?

Pendulums What variables could students explore with a

pendulum? Period Length Weight Angle of release

What issues would students have to work through? Holding the point of swing steady Measuring the period Manipulating multiple variables simultaneously

TaskCreate 2 informal plans for instruction

Teacher-centered lesson Student-centered lesson

Lesson Focus: PendulumsTeaching objective:

TSSBAT list two everyday items that make use of pendulums.

TSSBAT identify the variables which affect the period of a pendulum.

TSSBAT design an experiment to test for the effects of multiple variables on a system.

http://monet.physik.unibas.ch/~elmer/pendulum/

http://www.walter-fendt.de/ph11e/pendulum.htm

http://www.calacademy.org/products/pendulum/