🚀 go-pugleaf

Many of you recalled that last May I posted a call for help to
survey what level of math is taught in physics classes(calculus
or no calculus). I appreciated all the responses.  This year
our school pilot a new physcis/calculus back to back class.  i
am team teaching with the AB calculus teacher. We had two
sections of such classes.  So far, we have not been doing a
whole lot team teaching. Ity still is in the trial error
stage.  First quarter, we team
taughtvelocity/acceleration(integration, differentiation) and
vector.  Each time we pulled the ytwo sections together. the
first two or three days the calculus teacher did the teaching,
I sat and take notes (I applied some of her teachings in my
other physics sections), after that, we went separate way, and
I do my regular physics teaching on the topic.  I test them on
the materials i covered. the homework problems I assigned
include some that require calculus, and told the students to
seek help in their calculus calss if needed; they
areresponsible to hand in the work done correctly.
Next week wec will do simple harmonic motion.  The calculus
teacher asks for four days of teaching time. She said their
book cover alot, including lessons on electricity. i will let
her to what ever she plans, which includes letting her
introduce the introductiry part of harmonic motion.  After
that, I plan to fill in the missing parts, let students do
three non computer lab and two computer lab using ULI, plusat
least two days of simulation work on the Wings Explorer simple
harmonic module.  Later on, we will team teach center orf mass.

So far this calculus/physics class is okay.  I am not excited
about it. The reason is simple. Having a class like this does
not solve the fundamental problem, as expressed in the trig woe
discussion. there still are eight other sections of physics
classes in our building that is having the basic problem like
the one in the trig woe discussion.  as a matter of fact, I
even will back few steps. Not only trig is a problem, some
students (including about 1/4 of the AB calculus class) can't
even do conversion and ratio and proportion after three years
of math and two quarters of physics and math.  I really wanted
work with the algebra lead teacher, hoping to convey the
message as to what we are looking for them to equipped the
students with as they come to physics.  But, I got no where.
the calculus teacher had a strong pull on the administration.I
have to admit that this back to back class have given me two
advantages. First, the two sections are small in class size,
also, with these two classes, I can do more meaningful lab,
because I can plan a a long lab, all I have to do is to make
arrangement with the calculus teacher to swap periods.
Any coment?

judy ng