Ways of learning

One of the issues confronting students when faced with a new instructional approach in the classroom is fear of the unknown.  To help deal with this fear, it is important to know the ways that you learn best.  During the first day of class, I asked everyone to write a short description of one time when you remember learning something.  For me, there have been numerous times when I remember learning something.  For instance, I remember taking apart a 10-speed bicycle when I was in grade school.  It took me only a few minutes to dismantle everything, but many hours to put it back together.  It was challenging to put the spokes back in the tire so that the wheel was not twisted and rotated smoothly.  Sometimes, I had to take something apart because I had not put in a key part first.  But, as long as I took my time and tried different ways of putting things together, the bike was rebuilt.  Along the way, I learned a lot from the experience.

The most important thing I learned was that I like taking things apart and putting them back together.  That is, I like to work with my hands.  And I learned it by struggling with the tools and bicycle parts.  Now I know that I as long as I am patient, I can build, or rebuild many things.  While this experience now helps with household projects, it also has helped reduce the fear I might experience when faced with a new learning experience.

To help the class understand about different ways of learning, please take a few minutes to describe a time in your life when you remember learning something, including how you learned it.   When done, please take a few minutes to read some of the other posts to see how similarities and differences between how you and others learn.

Welcome to PHY1103

General Physics is an introductory course for students to become familiar with basic physical phenomena using algebra-level math.  In the lecture section of the course that I am responsible for, students will be taught using the Modeling Instruction (MI) approach.  In education-speech, Modeling is a constructivist approach that uses inquiry to help students build on their experiences in a social setting.  In “English,” all this means is that we will all use what we know, as a group, to “do” science in the classroom and to learn what we can from the experiences.

We will spend a lot of time in the classroom “playing” with toys and equipment to explore physical phenomena.  And, we’ll spend time discussing the results as a class to develop a “model” of the phenomena that we can use in new ways.  When a particular model no longer works, we’ll either modify it or start a new one.

So, get ready to explore the world in a new way.  Just remember, you’re not in this alone.  You will have your classmates, the instructors, and online resources.  These resources can be found via ASULearn under General Physics.  Make sure to check ASULearn often as new resources will be added often during each week. If you need to contact your instructor, the best way is to email me at allenpe@appstate.edu.  And, take time to get to know your classmates so you find others to work with both in and out of class.

Along the way to learning physics, make sure to have fun!