Getting Ready for 2013!

This year will, I believe, be very exciting! I have two to three points to focus on:

1. New course (Electronics Level 2 for Grades 10-12)
2. Second Shot at Science 8 (focus on UDB)
3. Extra-curricular educational development (personal writings, study, and journey)

New Course

One of the most interesting things I have on my plate is the new Electronics course. I began electronics Level 1 a few years back and I have found it very successful. However, we have recently moved it to the grade 8 and 9 level, and for the students the content became way too hard. Therefore, the first thing I am doing is working towards lowering the scope of knowledge the level 1 group will work towards learning. This is especially true for the math focus, where the math involved in the Electronics course was over their heads (they did not learn any of the algebraic manipulation needed until grade 9 math, so they found it very difficult to see it used in this course). As well, more focus will be placed on repetition of concepts and smaller lab work where measuring and mastering of basic electronic knowledge will be the focus. I have also lowered the projects to two of them (though I will try to get a third one in before the end of the year - perhaps another smaller project...).

Level 2 will focus on the math, complex circuitry, robotics, and alternative power (solar, wind, etc.). I am super excited about it, especially since I have some new toys to play with (Parallax SMART boards, numerous chips, etc.). Should be good!

Science 8

For this second time around, I think I will focus on refining the projects and making sure that I repeat much of the information, working towards having the students master the concepts. However, I want to still be careful that they don't focus on memorizing terms, but actually showing that they understand the main larger concepts. To this end, I will work towards finding ways to assess their knowledge of the main ideas of the units in numerous other ways beyond the large projects only. Perhaps smaller experiments that will ask students to answer the "why" without me discussing with them first what that might be and then doing the experiments to "show" it in action? I will keep posting on how this goes and what I implement.

Personal

I have recently finished working on publishing the findings from my thesis in an online journal. I am hoping to get the OK on it soon and will post the link to that here. As well, I am planning to keep up on my reading and learning in some way, working on continuing to do some reading on topics, and perhaps even continue to do some research in some way (if at all possible), under the supervision of someone if I need to.