Resources
for teachers

Flipped learning


I'm a big believer in the flipped classroom.


The idea is simple: students meet new content at home through a short video, and class time is spent putting that content to work.


This has two big benefits. 

  1. students learn at their own pace. They can pause, rewind, and rewatch until an idea clicks, which keeps their cognitive load manageable in a way that's impossible when they're trying to keep up with a teacher at the front of the room. The video is also always there when they need it for revision.
  2. it frees up class time for the things that really benefit from having a teacher in the room: checking for understanding, answering questions, working through problems, and peer discussion and review. Instead of copying notes, students are actively applying what they've learned, and I can see straight away who's got it and who needs a hand.


Of course, flipping only works if students actually watch the video. That's why I keep videos short and focused and give students a few questions to answer while they watch. It gives them a reason to engage, and it tells me where the class is at before the lesson even begins.


Here is an example of a flipped lesson plan I use, showing how the at-home video and the in-class activities fit together. Feel free to adapt it for your own classes.

Mystery Boxes - a resource for teaching science models


  • Mystery boxes are small discs that contain a small ball bearing. Within the disc, there are different types of walls, As students play with the disks by listening and making any other observations, they can try to infer the shape of the walls. They can make even more observations, by using a small magnet.
    Since the box is sealed, they are unable to true 'know; the wall arrangement.
    The boxes are designed by School Lab at CERN, and are a very useful resource to teach your students the practice of science
  • the development of models based on observations and the refinement of them
  • the use of other tools to help validate their models

This allows the teacher through inquiry based instruction , help students work like real scientists.

The boxes can be downloaded and printed from a 3D  printer from Thingverse
I painted them differently from each model , but you dont have to

IMPORTANT: Never tell the students the design. Thats not how science works

​You can download my lesson plan instructions

Picture

Resources to teach Particle Physics


  • CERN - Cern's website has a wealth of resources. As well as updates of the latest work and access to all academic papers, they also have freely available images, videos and animations
  • A closer look at the LHC - a Spanish based website, this site is translated in English and has a wealth of information on CERN and the LHC, and the physics application. It is specifically focused at helping educators teach the concepts at a high school level
  • The Perimeter Institute , the institute for Theoretical Physics, based in Toronto Canada has some excellent teacher resources, not only for senior years but junior years as well.
    You can get them     here. Very comprehensive, with files, videos, full lesson plans, with explanations. Best of all they are free
  • ScoolLab - the educational outreach from CERN and based there, ScoolLba website has a number of resources to teach modern Physics, including 3D printing files
  • 3D quark. model - article from AAPT Physics Teacher journal about using 3D quark models, written by Julie Woethe who directs School Lab
  • A better way to teach color as charge for quarks - article on an alternative way to teach anti-colour in quarks . Written by Jeff Wiener, in charge of teacher outreach at CERN, and designer of School Lab
  • Other particle accelerators resources - Fermilab, SLAC, ANSTO Synchrotron
  • Quantum 3 - this is a great educational app to teach the quark combinations for various hadrons. Better than playing Candy Crush :-)

Tools for Diagrams from oPhysics by Tom Walsh


Graph Maker - useful if you need graphs for images and mathematical problems 
Mechanics Drawing Tools - allows you to construct diagrams needed for mechanics topics,
Circuit drawing Tools - electrical circuit diagrams made easy