This morning I had breakfast with several physics teachers from around New England. We were getting together to plan for the 30th annual New England Physics Olympics. I was joined by teachers from Wellesley High School, North Kingston High School, Thayer Academy and Apponequet High School. I just finished updating the Olympics website with the list of events for this year.
We usually field 8 BUA students at this event, so if you are interested, let me know. Maybe even field two teams this year.
While at breakfast, we were discussing lab reports. I just finished grading the first batch of students lab reports. Several of my fellow teachers also mentioned that for those of us teaching 9th grade physics, it is a huge learning curve for the students. Most of them have never written a lab report before. If they have done any science writing, they often are not used to the idea that the quality of their science writing should be on par with what they are doing for their history or English class. In my case, I have just waded through 40 freshmen reports about Galieo’s Law of Falling Bodies. For most of my students, this is the beginning of a process of learning to write.
