OAPT Ontario Association of Physics Teachers

The 4th Annual Physics Camp

The Ontario Association of Physics Teachers and Ontario Teachers Federation Proudly Present: The 4th Annual Physics Camp

Where: Carleton University Ottawa

When: July 24 - 26, starting at 9:00 each day. (Your evenings are free to explore the nations capital.)

What: Two and a half days of action-packed physics and pedagogy – see details below.

Who: Roberta Tevlin, Dave Doucette, Glenn Wagner (The Three Presidents!)

How: Register now at:

https://event-wizard.com/OTFSummerProgram2012/0/register/

 

Don’t miss this almost free camp for physics teachers of grades 9 -12. For just $100, you get twelve hands-on, workshops, two nights of accommodation, three days of breakfast, lunch and coffee breaks and over $100 in teaching materials. Each year this camp has sold out - so register as soon as possible.

Email your friends so they don’t miss out.

Registration closes June 8!!!!

Once you have registered, email Roberta at roberta@tevlin.ca to let her know so she can keep you updated. (The OTF don’t release contact information to us until it is too late to be useful.) Feel free to contact Roberta if you have any questions. This year’s camp includes the following workshops:

1) Engaging Students for Test Review Using "Teams, Games and Tournament" (grades 9 to 12) You will participate in a co-operative strategy where ALL students engage with key content prior to your unit test. Students walk away with formative feedback on what they need to study and understand before the unit test. TGT gives students the chance to practise skills and develop deeper understanding in a safe, positive and fun environment. The students really enjoy it too!

2) Great Free Resources for Special Relativity (grade 12) Get familiar with resources from TRIUMF, Perimeter Institute, PhET, University of Nottingham and the Albert Einstein Institute and see how they can be woven onto an action-packed, student-centered unit on special relativity.

3) Sound & Waves (grade 11) Help students develop a solid conceptual and mechanical understanding of sound waves, interference and resonance. By purposeful use of hands-on manipulatives, whiteboards and role-playing, students are lead to develop a robust understanding of the related phenomenon. The links to physics education research (PER) and brain-based learning (BBL) will be examined.

4) Cognitive Tools to Improve Learning: Force Schemas and Energy-Bar Diagrams (grades 11/12) Humans are picture thinkers. By using a simple pictorial approach, you can help students develop a cognitive "road map" that will enable them to accurately develop ANY free-body diagram. Also, teach students a graphical technique that shows how energy flows through a system. Both of these cognitive tools will reduce misconceptions and improve student problem solving skills. Just add these to your current lesson plans and you are ready to go!

5) Amazing Light Demonstrations (grades 10 /12) Learn how to make and use a pinhole camera hat, a refraction dance, colourful scotch tape art, a variable single-slit device, a solar heating contest and a quantum eraser.

6) Voltage – the real deal (grades 9, 11 and 12) The current trend of textbook analogies for electric potential difference can leave students (and some instructors) confused. This workshop will explore a sequence of guided inquiry activities to foster the concept of surface charge density as the mechanism for electric potential difference. By scaffolding through static electricity, electrical circuits and capacitance, a robust conceptual understanding will develop. A standardized set of pre-test and post-test conceptual questions (PER) will help frame the set of classroom activities.

7) Never Think Harder Than Your Students: Formative Assessment Strategies (grades 11/12) Learn how to incorporate research-based thinking strategies to help your students develop key concepts from your physics lessons without changing your lesson plans. These highly engaging strategies and handouts are designed to reach every student in your class. Deep thinking assured!

8) Particle Physics for Phun and Profit! (grades 9/12) Receive the latest resource from the Perimeter Institute and see how you can use variety of models and activities in particle physics to connect key curriculum expectations with the research happening right now at the LHC.

9) A Physics Buffet to Satisfy those Hungry Minds (grades 11/12) In the last two decades Chef Dave has developed a host of carefully crafted guided-inquiry worksheets using simple manipulatives (often dollar store variety) to develop rich learning opportunities. In this workshop Dave will offer a ‘buffet’ of tasty conceptual treats on a variety of grade 11/12 physics concepts. Participants can snack – or feast – according to appetite. Think fresh.

10) Hands-On Cosmology (grades 9 /12) Play with elastic bands and paper clips, explore balloon geometry, wander with Alice and Bob in Wonderland and analyse real astronomical data to see how you can expand the universe and your mind. There is a reason the Big Bang theory is so popular!

11) A Newtonian Sandbox: Playing with Newton's Laws (grades 11/12) Engage the minds and bodies of your students by helping them identify Newton's Laws using "dollar store" materials. This activity can be used for formative experience or as a summative evaluation. Either way, it’s guaranteed fun and learning for your students!

12) Make and Take (grades 9 – 12) During this session you will get a chance to put together your own guided-inquiry worksheets, assessment tools, demonstration devices and manipulatives ready-to-use for next year.

 

Chris Tesseyman: Sunset Maria Varlan: Falling Rain Diane Redekop: Canopy of trees