Recently, I haven't had any "Oh, NOW I get it" moments. Nothing really awesomely pertinent, important, and insightful has given me this kind of feeling. The closest thing to this feeling that I got recently was when I was taking a physics test.
The question was that if there was a 64 newton force applied to the first of two barrels, which weighed 13 ad 6 kgs, respectively, how much tension was in the chord connecting the two barrels if the coefficient of friction for the barrels was .329. Basically the way we had been taught to do it was to find the acceleration of the entire body as a whole, and since the acceleration would be the same for both the first and second barrels, we could take the acceleration and multiply it by the mass to get the net force. Then we could calculate the force of friction (.329 * 6 * 9.8 for the smaller barrel) and add that to the net force to get the forward force of tension. During the test, I started playing with variables and started cancelling terms out. I realized that there was a much easier way to do this that our teacher hadn't taught us; we could take the ratio of the mass of one of the barrels to the combined masses and multiply that by the applied force to get the applied force on each barrel. So basically, I confirmed for myself WHY this type of problem works the way it does.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Change of Mind: TED Project
My mind has changed a lot (quantitatively, not necessarily qualitatively) on the TED Project. At the beginning of the year, when we learned we would be doing this again, I thought that this would be almost as rushed/unorganized/confused as last year. However, when you told us we would be revising it and everyone would know what they were doing, I felt as if it might get better. We revised it, and I liked many of the revisions. However, I still felt as if the actual goal/end result of the project seemed unclear, even though it was right there on the TED project presentation page. Maybe that's because I felt the goal/end result of the project was kind of vague.
A little while into the project, after nobody had been working on it, I had several realizations. First of all, the goal of the project, and how we were to reach it, was as vague, or perhaps more vague, to others in my group than it was to me, so we were in the dark as to how to start. Another realization was that some teachers felt that it just plain was not possible to give us homework time due to schedule constraints. The third realization, which wasn't really a realization since I had known this since last year, was that because most of us hadn't met face-t0-face, collaborating would be difficult. It's hard to work with people you don't know at all.
During our face-to-face meet, I realized that many of the students were unmotivated because their teachers didn't have as strict requirements for the project or hadn't informed them of what they had to do. Afterwards though, I felt that we could get more accomplished.
And here I am, waiting for my mind to be changed again.
A little while into the project, after nobody had been working on it, I had several realizations. First of all, the goal of the project, and how we were to reach it, was as vague, or perhaps more vague, to others in my group than it was to me, so we were in the dark as to how to start. Another realization was that some teachers felt that it just plain was not possible to give us homework time due to schedule constraints. The third realization, which wasn't really a realization since I had known this since last year, was that because most of us hadn't met face-t0-face, collaborating would be difficult. It's hard to work with people you don't know at all.
During our face-to-face meet, I realized that many of the students were unmotivated because their teachers didn't have as strict requirements for the project or hadn't informed them of what they had to do. Afterwards though, I felt that we could get more accomplished.
And here I am, waiting for my mind to be changed again.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Blogging Around
Before the actual blog, I want to point out that I find it amusing that Thomas's blog has three s's in a row in the URL.
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Mitchell B's post was about God (or lack thereof). It was a long rant about ideas about God and applications of religion to the real world. My post agreed with him on many points, pointed out some flaws in how the post was constructed, and argued one small detail in his post (because other than that, I agreed with him).
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Alli S's post was about homework. My 360 was about homework as well. Basically, I agreed with her on many points.
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Mitchell B's post was about God (or lack thereof). It was a long rant about ideas about God and applications of religion to the real world. My post agreed with him on many points, pointed out some flaws in how the post was constructed, and argued one small detail in his post (because other than that, I agreed with him).
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Alli S's post was about homework. My 360 was about homework as well. Basically, I agreed with her on many points.
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Albert X said... Alli,
Thanks for the comment :P Just to answer your question about how homework can have negative effects, I'm talking about time constraints (in my case, specifically band stuff), sleep problems with some people, and grading issues (although grading issues mostly shouldn't be a part of it, since if your don't NEED to do the homework, that imply that if you did it, you would do well). Basically, stuff you've mentioned in your blog.
Onto the blog itself; I found it amusing that we did the same topic >_<. I agree with you on all points. Especially on the last part about having less homework. Ideally, if that were to happen, teachers would have to give out less repetitive work in order to touch bases with all things learned in class, and give assignments that require you to use what you learned in class. (In short, less work but more thinking.) In addition to that, perhaps giving students summaries of what was taught in class or examples of more complicated concepts via a website, a textbook, or a handout would help students understand what they were doing so that they wouldn't feel as swamped. Separate from that, what our math teacher does is a good idea in theory, but it can have negative consequences. Since you're learning new concepts, if you don't do your homework, you might not understand what the class has learned come test time. Responsible students would keep up with the class by doing homework when necessary, even if it doesn't count for a grade (I applaud you for that). Sadly, not everyone is responsible, so what our math teacher doesn't isn't always possible. Moreover, that method probably wouldn't work in a class that deals with more abstract concepts (English) or a class that requires you to learn outside of class (social studies). An ideal method of homework distribution to maximize learning and minimize work would be personalized homework, but as Ali said, that just isn't possible yet. (Wow, you actually read all that? Nice :D)
Sunday, October 5, 2008
360 degrees: Homework
Homeowork: Anything your school assigns you to do after school hours.
Specifics: Marching band, homework. And I have no clue where this will go.
In my opinion, practice can be good. If you apply yourself, you can get better with practice. For example, if you do your math homework, you will better understand what you are/were learning in class, allowing you to succeed in the class. Another example would be band. You can practice your music and get better at it. You can go to rehearsals and practice your marching, helping you remember what to do where and when while you march.
However, when you're part of a large group, practice can only go so far. My math teacher understands this; some people need to do their homework to keep up with the class, some simply don't have to do it. Thus, she makes the homework optional for people getting good grades. If the "group" were smaller and/or more select, then more people (who wouldn't have had to do homework in the larger class) would likely have to do homework. If you eliminate everyone but yourself, essentially having a 1 on 1 learning experience, you would have to do homework every day, since your lessons would be taught at your own pace. One of the TED videos talks about this (the one with the pirate shop.) A good example of having a 1 on 1 learning experience and needing to do "homework" every day would be taking private lessons in piano. If you don't practice, your teacher will notice because you are the only one your teacher is teaching while you're in your "class". As such, you pretty much need to practice every day to get better. However, school does not give students the 1 on 1 experience in class (you can go to a tutor for that, though). Thus, some people will be ahead and some people will be behind in the class. Those who are behind will definitely need to practice; according to most teachers, those who are ahead will also need to practice... Why? In my opinion, in many cases, once you fully understand the material being taught in class, any practice after that is just repetitive work. It's not helpful (and can be hurtful in different ways). Of course, I'm not saying that I don't need to do homework in most of my classes; there are only three or four classes that I feel I wouldn't need to do homework in because I'm ahead of my classmates, those being math (which, luckily, I don't actually have to do any homework in), physics, band, and occasionally chemistry. Honestly, if I didn't have to do homework in these classes, I feel as if I could actually get a lot more done. Especially band.
In all honesty, I don't like to work. There aren't that many people that do. But man, marching band does have a ton of work. And for me, only about 1/3 to 1/2 of that work is actually helpful. We spend 50 minutes in class each day learning music. Now, I can't really complain about that, since it's in class work. Although we aren't really learning anything new most of the time and are just practicing, it really isn't that bad. What I do dislike is the 3 hours we spend Tuesdays and Thursdays (and the 4-5 hours we spend during football games) standing outside in the cold, causing damage to our instruments, doing repetitive work, and essentially accomplishing... (a lot for some people, but little to nothing for people who either work hard and already know everything they have to do or for those who don't work hard and don't care, making any work they do useless anyway.) As our teacher says, if one person is out of step or is in the wrong place, everything looks bad. So why not make that one person get in the right place, as opposed to making everyone else do nothing different. I feel as if the people who need to practice marching (in the eyes of the band directors, that is) should practice marching, and those who don't need to should have to option not to go. I feel like that time could go to a lot better use. Of course, it's not as if this practice goes to waste; we got second place at a competition yesterday. Horray. But I feel as if the marching band system could be much more efficient.
In the end, I just want to see less homework for those who don't need to do it. Or perhaps less homework in general, and more tests so that those who don't understand the matieral without doing the homework have to go ahead and do homework of some sort to understand the material anyway.
I'm also curious as to why teachers assign so much homework and make it worth as much of our grades as they do. Our grades should reflect how much we learned/understand, not how much busywork we can do. The incentive to do homework shouldn't be to get a grade, it should be to learn.
Specifics: Marching band, homework. And I have no clue where this will go.
In my opinion, practice can be good. If you apply yourself, you can get better with practice. For example, if you do your math homework, you will better understand what you are/were learning in class, allowing you to succeed in the class. Another example would be band. You can practice your music and get better at it. You can go to rehearsals and practice your marching, helping you remember what to do where and when while you march.
However, when you're part of a large group, practice can only go so far. My math teacher understands this; some people need to do their homework to keep up with the class, some simply don't have to do it. Thus, she makes the homework optional for people getting good grades. If the "group" were smaller and/or more select, then more people (who wouldn't have had to do homework in the larger class) would likely have to do homework. If you eliminate everyone but yourself, essentially having a 1 on 1 learning experience, you would have to do homework every day, since your lessons would be taught at your own pace. One of the TED videos talks about this (the one with the pirate shop.) A good example of having a 1 on 1 learning experience and needing to do "homework" every day would be taking private lessons in piano. If you don't practice, your teacher will notice because you are the only one your teacher is teaching while you're in your "class". As such, you pretty much need to practice every day to get better. However, school does not give students the 1 on 1 experience in class (you can go to a tutor for that, though). Thus, some people will be ahead and some people will be behind in the class. Those who are behind will definitely need to practice; according to most teachers, those who are ahead will also need to practice... Why? In my opinion, in many cases, once you fully understand the material being taught in class, any practice after that is just repetitive work. It's not helpful (and can be hurtful in different ways). Of course, I'm not saying that I don't need to do homework in most of my classes; there are only three or four classes that I feel I wouldn't need to do homework in because I'm ahead of my classmates, those being math (which, luckily, I don't actually have to do any homework in), physics, band, and occasionally chemistry. Honestly, if I didn't have to do homework in these classes, I feel as if I could actually get a lot more done. Especially band.
In all honesty, I don't like to work. There aren't that many people that do. But man, marching band does have a ton of work. And for me, only about 1/3 to 1/2 of that work is actually helpful. We spend 50 minutes in class each day learning music. Now, I can't really complain about that, since it's in class work. Although we aren't really learning anything new most of the time and are just practicing, it really isn't that bad. What I do dislike is the 3 hours we spend Tuesdays and Thursdays (and the 4-5 hours we spend during football games) standing outside in the cold, causing damage to our instruments, doing repetitive work, and essentially accomplishing... (a lot for some people, but little to nothing for people who either work hard and already know everything they have to do or for those who don't work hard and don't care, making any work they do useless anyway.) As our teacher says, if one person is out of step or is in the wrong place, everything looks bad. So why not make that one person get in the right place, as opposed to making everyone else do nothing different. I feel as if the people who need to practice marching (in the eyes of the band directors, that is) should practice marching, and those who don't need to should have to option not to go. I feel like that time could go to a lot better use. Of course, it's not as if this practice goes to waste; we got second place at a competition yesterday. Horray. But I feel as if the marching band system could be much more efficient.
In the end, I just want to see less homework for those who don't need to do it. Or perhaps less homework in general, and more tests so that those who don't understand the matieral without doing the homework have to go ahead and do homework of some sort to understand the material anyway.
I'm also curious as to why teachers assign so much homework and make it worth as much of our grades as they do. Our grades should reflect how much we learned/understand, not how much busywork we can do. The incentive to do homework shouldn't be to get a grade, it should be to learn.
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Mitcheeeeellllllllllll
I was thoroughly amused by your post. Nice atheist argument, I agree with most of it. You didn't touch base with all religions, but that's fine, since not all religions have "God." I did find it interesting that you touched base with Buddhism though. The first paragraph reminded me of last years social studies (yay Mr. Williams) and the second paragraph reminded me of a joke you were telling >_<.
Onto business. Jon already mentioned this, but this is a pretty one sided 360... which doesn't work, sadly. Setting that aside... I just wanted to say that I found the statistic that 1/3 people said that line A wasn't the same length as the exhibit A line funny and interesting, although at first I wasn't sure how that tied in to your blog. I liked the points you made in the blog, and the support you provided for the points. There's just one thing I want to take issue with: the "time" thing. Now, I'm taking on side on whether or not the big bang may or may not have occurred, or whether or not the universe had a beginning, but I DON'T think that by saying that you can perceive time as infinitely small, you can say that time is infinitely long in both directions. I'm not saying that time isn't infinitely long in both directions; I'm just saying that what you provided isn't exactly proof of that. For example, all values from 1 to 2. There are an infinite number of values from 1 to 2, but there is still a beginning and an end (that is, [1,2).) Granted, this might be a bad example since numbers do go on forever in both directions. But numbers are concepts, in application to real life, there are no "negative" numbers. You can't hold a negative number of apples. Negative numbers are simply the removal of positive numbers. If viewed like this, 0 is the lowest number. If you still don't like that example, then take a physical object, such as a piece of paper. In theory, you could measure it with infinitely small units of measurement; but that doesn't change the fact that the paper doesn't stretch on forever.