05 Magnus School at Home Odyssey: April 2013

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Supernova Cosmology

Timelines this week: Magnus's homework.

yeah, they did not prepare me to teach him this stuff in college. I stay up until 1 am learning about Supernova Cosmology so I sound like I have a clue in the morning after my second cup of coffee.

Timeline of the Universe
A representation of the evolution of the universe over 13.77 billion years. The far left depicts the earliest moment we can now probe, when a period of "inflation" produced a burst of exponential growth in the universe. (Size is depicted by the vertical extent of the grid in this graphic.) For the next several billion years, the expansion of the universe gradually slowed down as the matter in the universe pulled on itself via gravity. More recently, the expansion has begun to speed up again as the repulsive effects of dark energy have come to dominate the expansion of the universe. The afterglow light seen by WMAP was emitted about 375,000 years after inflation and has traversed the universe largely unimpeded since then. The conditions of earlier times are imprinted on this light; it also forms a back-light for later developments of the universe.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Innovators and Revolution

As as entry point, inquiry involves learners:
✦tackling real-world questions, issues and controversies
✦developing questioning, research and communication skills
✦solving problems or creating solutions
✦collaborating within and beyond the classroom
✦developing deep understanding of content knowledge
✦participating in the public creation and improvement of ideas and knowledge http://www.teachinquiry.com/index/Introduction.html

Inquiry is a dynamic process of being open to wonder and puzzlement and coming to know and understand the world. As such, it is a stance that pervades all aspects of life and is essential to the way in which knowledge is created. Inquiry is based on the belief that understanding is constructed in the process of people working and conversing together as they pose and solve the problems, make discoveries and rigorously testing the discoveries that arise in the course of shared activity.
http://galileo.org/

•Creating learning tasks around topics of relevance, value and authenticity
•Fostering collaboration and community with students
•Increasing mastery-oriented feedback loops
•Carefully structuring learning to minimize threats and distractions
http://teachinquiry.com/index/Success.html

What is the purpose of this lesson? Why is this important to learn? In what ways am I challenged to think in this lesson? How will I apply, assess, or communicate what I’ve learned? How will I know how good my work is and how I can improve it? Do I feel respected by other students in this class? Do I feel respected by the teacher in this class?
http://www.tonywagner.com/resources/rigor-on-trial