Blog Post Week 4

1. The big question addressed in lab, and a description of what you did.

The big question of what was addressed in lab was what affects how long it takes a swing to go back and forth? The way that we tested this was by testing if the weight of the rider affects the swing. We tested this by using two different washers of different weight, and seeing how many times they swung back and forth during a ten second period. After testing we came to the conclusion that weight does not affect how long it takes to go back and forth. 

2. A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture.

In lecture we learned about Newton's second law, which was F=ma, and larger masses are harder to accelerate. We also went over the results of all the different tests that different groups ran in class for testing swings. I also learned that energy manifests in many different ways and can be transferred from one system to another. 

3. Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading:

1. What did you learn?

I learned about how effective and useful formative assessments are in the classroom and how it can provide specific feedback for each student. I also learned about different classrooms this was used in and what ways it was beneficial for these specific classrooms. 

2. What was most helpful?

The different examples and ways that you can provide positive formative assessments in the classroom was most helpful to me. One example that was helpful to me was using post it notes on students' work to give feedback. This is helpful because it is something that I want to incorporate into my future classroom. 

3. What do you need more information on?

One thing I need more information on is how often formative assessments should be given. Formative assessments are important and crucial in the classroom but how often should these be given? It varies between each teacher, but I would like more information on if it is more effective to be using the same formative assessment every week or to be using different formative assessments every week. 

4. What questions/concerns/comments do you have?

What do you do if students are responding negatively to feedback after using different positive formative assessments?