Reviews

Since high school I have always hated physics, mostly because I felt it was too difficult for me to learn. Consequently I had little interest in learning. Since I'm now in a position where I teach physical science, I decided it was time to get some background in that area, which was my weakest. After just two weeks, I found that I could learn concepts that I once thought were too difficult. Now I won't shy away from these topics (such as properties of matter and electricity) and plan to add them to my curriculum next year.

I very much enjoyed this course. Physics by Inquiry not only cleared up misconceived ideas, helped to refresh my mind of physical science concepts from long ago, but it also did an excellent job of demonstrating how to successfully teach inquiry-based lessons.

I was very impressed by the Physics by Inquiry course. I really felt that it gave me a good feel for how to begin an inquiry-based method of instruction for my own classroom. Teachers tend to stay away from physics because they don't have an understanding of it. Making this more of a Acontent@ course instead of a method course gave us more of an understanding of what it feels to be a student and help to ease the Afear of Physical Science@ that keeps some teachers from teaching it.

I will implement inquiry-based lessons in my plans more often. I will help other teachers make better use of science lab and hopefully encourage them to use or take a course on inquiry. Specifically, I plan to reorganize my plans for next year and would like to start the year with a lesson on mass and variables.

I already use cooperative learning in my classroom, but this course definitely gave me enthusiasm for teaching physical science. I've found that I need to give my students more time and discuss what is happening with their experiments rather than rushing a conclusion that is often teacher-led.

This course will definitely influence my teaching. I am much more open to the inquiry approach to teaching because I understand it so much better. I intend to implement inquiry by having more student-driven lessons with checkpoints where I am more of a facilitator instead of a lecturer.

I want to thank you for making this course possible. Never in my life have I experienced such engaged learning. The joy and pride that I get from experiencing this knowledge is something that I am planning on passing on to my students. It is like I have ownership of my understanding and knowledge. Its not just something that I have memorized.

I am quite impressed with the Physics by Inquiry course. In the past, I have been somewhat hesitant to use cooperative learning groups. I felt some students contributed most of the work while others contributed and learned very little. From my experience this summer doing inquiry in groups, I found that even the least knowledgeable student can learn and add to the learning process. By participating in the class, we gain first hand experience of how the process works and how students may relate to each other. I think this course was an excellent way to prepare teachers to use inquiry instruction.

The introduction to computers was excellent!!! More and more teachers have access to computers through the School net funding and I know many teachers in my district are intimidated by them. The more training that can be offered, the more teachers will realize that the computer can be a valuable learning tool in the classroom.

It wasn't until the middle of the second week that I began to understand the course outline and objectives for presenting the material. Looking back, this course did an outstanding job increasing my knowledge of physical concepts as a foundation for teaching physical science, resolving common scientific misconceptions, and modeling the use of inquiry instruction in science.

I have enjoyed this class very much. I think this course has widened my views of physics and how it can be brought into an elementary classroom. Many of the experiments are able to be modified a little to fit almost any grade level.

This course has been a wonderful learning experience! The use of inquiry-based instruction has been extremely helpful. I do use inquiry methods in my classroom, but this has reinforced what I have been taught previously. The cooperative learning groups have worked out well. The use of roles for each team member is useful. Each student has a sense of importance on his/her team. I have learned many new ways of alternative assessment by seeing them put in practice. This course has assisted me to understand basic physical concepts. It has also increased my skills in scientific reasoning. I feel prepared to be able to handle any misconceptions that may arise in my classroom. I feel confident in assisting other teachers to use the inquiry methods and cooperative learning groups in their classrooms.

I have been very impressed with the Physics by Inquiry course. This course has given me the knowledge needed to gain confidence in my ability to teach circuits this next school year. With no prior experience as a student or teacher in the field of electricity, the learning that I was able to grasp in the past few days will stay with me for the next twenty years.

My overall evaluation of the Physics by Inquiry course is better than I anticipated. The class was fun and full of energy with hands-on learning which made learning for me easier and with more understanding. I have a great deal of understanding of the topics we covered because I actually had to find the answer myself and discover the understanding.

I have taken many workshops and classes (20+ credits) in the past 5 years and none have been better than this. I feel this is the only class that really helped a teacher to teach how to make science meaningful and fun for students. Inquiry is the BEST!!!!

I have come away from this class knowing more about physics than after a solid year of undergraduate physics. Inquiry learning is an excellent way to present material to students who have trouble thinking abstractly (which almost all do). This is truly the hands-on learning that you hear so much about, but hardly ever see really done like it should be.

I can honestly say that I learned more in this 4-week course than I did in any of the courses that I had in college. Going into this course, I did not know much about any of the topics that we studied. I can now say that I have a good grasp of the topics to the point that I feel confident in teaching them to my students. Even though I had studied some of these topics before, the information never really stuck with me. I now feel that it will. This course has helped me to really understand the topics studied, instead of just having a surface knowledge about them. I feel that I will be a better science teacher as a result of this class. Instead of just telling my students how things happen or giving them recipe book experiments, I will be able to lead them to discover things and become critically thinking people.

Overall, I felt this was one of the finest courses I have ever taken. I felt that the use of inquiry-based instruction and cooperative learning groups was very professionally and expertly done. In addition I believe that this course met all of its goals (basic concepts, misunderstandings, scientific reasoning, etc.). More than anything this course was presented in a manner that all teacher preparation courses should be presented, as a well thought out and tested model for teachers to implement according to their own professional needs.

This course was a great experience for me. It cleared up many of my misconceptions. Being a Biology major, I had difficulties understanding some of the basic physical science concepts and this course made me really understand the concepts in depth.

Overall, I feel that this experience has been excellent. It has been most valuable for me to experience science by inquiry as a student. I feel I have greater insight in regard to my students by actually becoming a student myself for four weeks. I may change groups more often now. In addition, I may be a little more attentive to student concerns about how their group is working (or not!). This course has definitely fulfilled the goals of assisting teachers in understanding science concepts, developing reasoning skills, and acting as a model for inquiry instruction.

I believe that the Physics by Inquiry course was the most useful course I have taken during my preparation to become a teacher. In other courses, I heard the term "inquiry-based instruction", but was never really showed how to look at a subject and teach it in an inquiry manner. I now feel confident that I could take a text and over time, make all of my lessons inquiry-based.

I would absolutely, positively recommend this program to other science teachers. Our students need this program to be offered. I will be recommending this course to every science teacher that I know. Our school district expects their science teachers to be using inquiry-based teaching the majority of time in their classrooms and will be increasing pressure to do so.