Name



QCP521

Teaching of Physics II:

Microteaching Lesson Plan

- Physical Quantities & Units

Chong Guang Hui

PGDE

LG01

17 Oct 2005

Reflection on Micro-teaching

1) Even though I had thought of alternative ways to present at the last minute (on the day itself), I should have stuck to the lesson plan. I should not have reordered the plan confusing even myself and because this was the first and only presentation; I did not anticipate I would suffer from such stage fright and have such long pauses.

2) I will appear more confident if I omit words like “maybe” and “perhaps” which was what my fellow teacher trainee feedback to me. This is important as I want to give students a sense of confidence that I know what I am doing and that I mean to carry out the lesson in its entirety. So I must omit all these “uncertain” words.

3) I know I am better at writing than at presentations so I could have prepared a script or pointers on small placards which I can refer to when rehearsing the presentation, at least 2 days before the lesson.

4) I can have a one-page printed checklist of what I must cover as a summarized lesson plan on the table to help me organize the lesson.

5) During the presentation I couldn’t even remember much of what I was presenting. This means that students will probably not remember much either. I can make it easier for myself by reminding myself that I need not be a perfectionist or to teach everything in one lesson. Students will come across various scalar quantities like mass, length, volume, temperature, distance, speed, time, work and energy and vector quantities like displacement, velocity, acceleration, force, momentum and moment in subsequent lessons. Thus, I can emphasize this to them in later lessons and hence there is no hurry that I try to explain everything all at one shot.

6) I need to try to avoid thinking too deep and simplify my thinking on basic explanations which are held to be sound by most physics teachers and educators. If I don’t like the way some material is presented, I can always choose another which appeals to me, with an eye to giving my students holistic learning in mind.

7) Although I felt nothing good was in the presentation and in fact the whole micro-teaching “bombed” for me, I should not take this as a total loss but as a total learning experience. I learnt practically everything I cannot do in this one lesson. Although I came somewhat prepared, I will need to do my preparation differently the next time and to structure my lessons practically around the scheme of work.

8) I was trying too hard to impress rather than teach lesson proper. Solution: don’t be shy! No matter how stupid the lesson may seem to you when you really try to make sense of it.

Introduction and Rationale of the Lesson

The “O” level syllabus states that it is “designed to place... greater emphasis on the understanding and application of scientific concepts and principles. This approach has been adopted in recognition of the need for students to develop skills that will be of long-term value in an increasingly technological world...”

Seen in this light, the main objective of the lesson is to get students to venture more deeply and/or philosophically into what it means by “a unit” or “a unit of measure”, if time permits. A teacher-centred approach is used in the lesson to scaffold student's thinking and students are encouraged to further investigate particular SI units that are of interest to them after the lesson.

Relevant and interesting websites will be shown to facilitate covering of the lesson objectives, particularly the “O” level syllabus deliverables. Students will be encouraged to participate in the lesson to construct some of their own knowledge and understanding of Physical Quantities and Units. It is thus hoped that after the lesson, students will be able to take an informed interest in matters of scientific import.

Lesson Planning

Topic : Physical Quantities and Units – especially SI units

Class : Secondary 3 Express (Pure Physics).

Lesson Objectives : At the end of lesson, students should be able to :

a) be able to explain that all physical quantities consist of a numerical magnitude and unit

b) recall the following base quantities and their units: mass (kg), length (m), time

(s), current (A), temperature (K), amount of substance (mol)

c) use the following prefixes and their symbols to indicate decimal sub-multiples and multiples of the SI units: micro (⎧), milli (m), centi (c), deci (d), kilo (k), mega (M)

d) state what is meant by scalar and vector quantities and give common examples of each

e) add two vectors to determine a resultant vector/scalar

f) describe how to measure a variety of time intervals by means of clocks and stopwatches, including the period of a simple pendulum

Concept Map :

Learning Aids & Resources :

Set Induction : Wall Clock

IT : i) Powerpoint slides

ii) Internet websites

Worksheets : Blank paper for mindmap

Project Work : To investigate an SI Unit (Groupwork, Appendix)

Set Induction :

• Step into classroom and point to the wall clock. Wait until every student’s attention is with the teacher on the wall clock. Pose the question to students, “How do we describe the time taken for an average class to settle down?” Explain to them the time taken such as this can be measured and specified as a time interval.

• Ask students whether they have thought of the importance of time-measuring devices found in everyday life, for example using an hourglass for games like pictionary, in analogue and digital clocks/watches, stopwatches, and even in old-fashioned clocks where the period of pendulum is 1 sec.

• Ask students have they ever wondered how the most common unit of the measure of time in seconds came about?

• Ask the students what other physical quantities they encounter in everyday life can be measured.

Lesson Development :

1) Everyday applications

The trigger activity will set the students thinking of the various scales and measurements they encounter in everyday life. eg. Measuring tape, weighing scale, thermometer, stopwatch.

2) Student participation

Students are encouraged to ask questions at any point during the lesson to clarify their understanding. They will have to do a mindmap of the lesson after it has been delivered.

3) Experimental activities

Students are encouraged to take down the URL of relevant websites to have a hands-on of the java applets at home.

4) Collaborative learning

Students need to share their project work findings in the next lesson.

5) IT – Interactive multimedia

The lesson will be conducted in a classroom with the Internet and powerpoint available with links to Java Applets, Internet websites and a demonstration video clip.

Lesson Closure :

Instructions to form into groups of 2-3 to share their mindmaps and present their findings to the class during the next lesson.

Summary of lesson plan

|Time Frame |Activities |Resources |Rationale |

| | | | |

| |Step into classroom and point to the wall clock. Wait until every student’s |Wall clock |Trigger activity to capture students’ |

| |attention is with the teacher on the wall clock. Pose the question to students, | |attention and prepare mindset on topic |

| |“How do we describe the time taken for an average class to settle down?” Explain to| |Physical Quantities and Units. |

|5 mins |them that the time taken can be measured and specified as a time interval. | | |

| | | | |

| |Ask students whether they have thought of the importance of time-measuring devices | | |

| |found in everyday life, digital stopwatches, and even in old-fashioned clocks where| | |

| |the period of pendulum can be exactly described as ? | | |

| | | | |

| |Ask students have they ever wondered how the most common unit of the measure of | | |

| |time in seconds came about? | | |

| | | | |

| |Ask the students what other physical quantities they encounter in everyday life | | |

| |that can be measured. | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | |Thermometer, ruler,| |

| | |stopwatch | |

| | | | |

| |Introduce the concept of “how much” versus “how many” to get students to realise |Imagined weighing |Encourage student participation through |

| |that a physical quantity is always compared relative to some reference and is not |scale |thinking and arouse curiosity on topic. |

|5 mins |always countable. For convenience, we are always rounding off values to the nearest| | |

| |eg. kilograms on a weighing scale | | |

| | | | |

| |Use a pictorial number line to represent measured quantities, and this is likened | | |

| |to a ruler, where the magnitude of measurements are all positive. | | |

| | | | |

| |Introduce Powerpoint presentation on Physical Quantities and Units. |Powerpoint |IT will be useful to show the concept of |

| | | |vectors. |

| |Give brief overview/background on SI Units and mention what they are. | | |

| | |Mindmap |The mindmaps will lead students to |

|20 mins |Explain the need for SI Units. ie. that to do physics, one needs be understood by | |‘construct’ their own knowledge on this |

| |others so as to have one's experiments checked and verified by others. | |topic. |

| | | | |

| |The magnitude of SI Units are always to power 10x. Why? | |SI units present a simple and efficient way|

| | | |to calculate results in base 10. |

| |Explain concept of vectors versus scalars and give examples | | |

| | | | |

| |Teach how to obtain the resultant vectors. |Relevant animations |Animations to be used for a more visual |

| | |of velocity & |representation |

| | |acceleration | |

| | | | |

|30 min |The concept of time interval, and a simple pendulum is explained. |Powerpoint |Students must have prior knowledge of rate |

| | | |and ratio |

| |Activity: Ask students to work out the fraction of a time interval represented by | | |

| |the 2 period lesson as a percentage or decimal. | |- Student-centred learning. |

| | | |- Collaborative efforts. |

| |Each group is supposed to discuss as homework how to present their findings to the | |- Reflective activities. |

| |class during the next lesson | | |

| | | |Students are challenged to apply what they |

| | | |have learned in higher-order thinking. |

| | | | |

|10 mins |Recap activities and inform class of the group presentation requirements for the | |Provide link and extension to next lesson. |

| |next lesson. | | |

References

1) GCE ‘O’ Levels Physics Syllabus (5052)

2) Journals on SI Units from The Physics Teacher

Appendix

Groupwork: Students are divided into 2s and 3s and given these instructions: They are to find out everything they can on the science and history of a particular SI Unit of their choice and to present their findings to their classmates as a powerpoint presentation.

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