Mathematical Poetry and Inquiry (Exit 7)

I'm so glad we had another session in the garden! It's such a lovely space and I especially like when we work at the picnic tables. Playing around with the PH4 style of poetry was a lot of fun. One thing I was thinking about is using 6 words and switching more pairs each time. So the first few lines would be:

A B C D E F

B A D C F E

B D A F C E...

Which follows the same kind of weaving pattern. Would definitely be interesting to play with! The inquiry discussion was more fruitful for me personally. I expanded my topic to include the effects of outdoor education on the outcomes for physics students. I think there is a lot to explore here. I'm excited to find out if there is any evidence that outdoor education improves (understanding or grade) outcomes in physics specifically. I'm fairly sure that there is evidence that it has a positive outcome on education in general, but I need to dig up the papers.

Intro to Inquiry Project (Entrance 6)

The challenge of coming up with a really solid inquiry question seems daunting at the moment. I'm glad to know that we'll have time and support during the process. On the theme of being in the garden, I'm very interested in outdoor education and trying to tie all curriculum to our local environments. There is some aspect of Indigenizing the curriculum woven into this as well. I have always loved the outdoors and feel a strong connection to my living environment. I feel that some of my best creativity, peace, and contentment comes when I am in nature (often when I am alone, but I think that is beside the point here). I think that the relative blankness of mind and perhaps "boredom" also primes one to learn! I usually have a book with me while camping and feel that I remember the content better in these surroundings. On top of this, RWK introducing me to the idea of plants and animals as teachers is really making me interested in how I can incorporate these ideas in my pedagogy. With my teachable being physics, my idea for an inquiry topic is "How can a physics teacher best achieve a sense of environmental connection and stewardship while keeping the content rigorous?". I immediately wonder if this is too specific, but as a first step I think it is solid.

Now to sort this down into two/three concepts. My topic splits (somewhat by design) nicely into two main sections: "connection to the living world" and "stewardship for the land". Both of which must contain some level of "keeping the content rigorous". In this vein, I think two obvious concepts are "physics as a tool to foster connection to the living world" and "encouraging stewardship for the land in a physics classroom". Hopefully this is what is expected of us! Not exactly sure how the topic should be broken down or if this is specific enough.

Makin' Cider and Poems (Exit 6)

Today's final(?) visit to the garden was an immensely gratifying one. Getting to enjoy the product of our collective effort was oh so sweet. Certainly made more enjoyable by the fact that we did it together. Any one of us could have completed all the necessary steps, but I believe most humans truly want to help others and this kind of group effort just feels so good! On top of that, the fact that the apples were gifted to us directly by the Earth (and her stewards at the Orchard Garden). This was a vision of the self reliant production we talked about two weeks ago. A small community coming together to use our collective labour power to produce something we can all enjoy while completely circumventing capitalism! Really beautiful. I wonder how many other people appreciated it in this way. I imagine with a slightly more efficient setup and a larger press, a group like us could produce hundreds of litres in a day, supplying the group with an entire winter season of deliciousness. 🥰

On the individual side of the day, we all wrote some lovely poems in the Hemachandra/Fibonacci style. This summer I spent a lot of time sitting around in the bush with no cell service (for a while with no working phone to boot) and I started to write a little bit of poetry. I found the structure of Haiku lowered the barrier to entry. I was not aware of the standard of a seasonal reference and a "cutting word", so I suppose they weren't exactly Haikus. Nevertheless, it was a nice creative outlet. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist with writing, so I have trouble writing something that is not "perfect" on the first go. This caused me to be a bit delayed in my poetry and I didn't even end up finishing the second part of my two-part poem. Writing takes time! I also thought I was relatively clever with the first two lines:

Drips

Drops

However it turns out both Meg and Else started their poems this way as well!

Marking, Grading, and Ranking (Entrance 5)

This idea of motivation to learn in relation to intrinsic and extrinsic motivators reminds me of concepts we've discussed in EPSE 308. We have discussed how students will choose easier tasks if they believe that they are valued on the basis of outcome rather than effort. Whereas students who believe the teacher primarily values their effort will choose more difficult challenges even with the risk of failure. In this context we have been encouraged to give praise to student's effort, not only their results. For example, thanking students for putting hands up to answer questions, even if they are wrong. If the student's answers are correct, we can still try to praise the effort without focusing on the fact that they got the correct answer. This perfectly relates to the idea of grading. If we motivate students solely with the outcome, they will be less motivated to take on bigger challenges, and will be more worried about failure. Interestingly, this is in complete contrast with Cameron, Banko, and Pierce! The article does specify that "Performance contingent rewards, when given to an individual meeting a set of standards, were found to produce a positive effect on motivation". I think the important part is the "given to an individual meeting a set of standards". I was thinking that maybe my above argument would change for a student who has always obtained good grades and perhaps not tied as much meaning to them. It is unclear what the "set of standards" is though.

I can't help but think this is an ideal version of a school that they are studying. Students saying things like "Personally, I don't care what my marks are as long as I am learning" signals to me that these are a specific group of students. Special care would need to be taken in applying these results to a class of underprivileged students who have historically been disconnected from their schooling. One nice takeaway is introducing the choice of what topics to study. I think this is a great idea, giving the students some autonomy. I will think more about how to implement this. One way is to explicitly tell the students that learning is not the same thing as achieving high grades. You can have one, the other, both, or neither. 

Language and Loci (Exit 5)

Last week's indoor session was my first time in the math classroom, wow is there ever a lot to see in there! So many cool projects on display. It was interesting to wrap up our discussion of language and trying to create a more verb centered pedagogy. It's a very interesting practice to think of and refer to other living things as persons. Giving them personhood requires and imposes upon you a certain level of empathy. I found the language exercise and discussion somewhat difficult, because I think I have a fundamental misunderstanding of verbing for things like mathematical concepts. I find it easy to do for living things, and I'm starting to understand it for not quite living things like mountains and bays. But extending this to concepts or, for example, circles does not feel as natural to me.

With that said, the locus of points is an absolutely amazing concept! So interesting to see how you can construct a parabola geometrically. I haven't yet but I'd love to look into how some other shapes and functions can be defined this way.

Language and Beauty and Respect (Entrance 4)

Robin Wall Kimmerer is an incredible writer. I've been a few chapters away from finishing Braiding Sweetgrass for an embarrassingly long time (apparently I've been busy since the beginning of September). I think this is a book I will return to over and over again. I tear up at almost every section due in part to the beautiful connection and togetherness which she shows a path towards. However, it is also heart breaking to acknowledge how things could have been if these cultures weren't nearly destroyed. Anyway, let's make this a bit more relevant.

In physics, I have never felt this kind of disconnect between the language spoken by science and that of the natural world. Perhaps because physics tends to deal with physical phenomena rather than things (living or otherwise). I completely relate to Kimmerer's description of biological science being "a language of distance... a language of objects" (p. 49), but I don't exactly share this view about scientific language in general, and I think even less so for mathematics.

I do imagine that some learners of science and math jargon feel similar to Kimmerer in her quest to learn her own language. Of course the challenge is entirely different, but it can feel like an entirely new language. There is a certain amount of vocabulary one must acquire in order to easily discuss ideas in any topic.

"The grammar of animacy" is such a beautiful concept, but I don't see a way to bring it into the classroom without somehow appropriating culture. I could have the kids use a verb form of "normal force" for example but this is obviously flawed on several levels, and even then perhaps a Potawatomi speaker would consider this force inanimate. In contrast, I do find my language has shifted somewhat to the "someone is in my hat" (p.56) idea since reading this chapter this summer, but I don't see how I could bring this into the classroom.

Perhaps the way to do it is through identifying and learning from more-than-human teachers. Thrown objects can teach us about projectile motion, but what teacher is best equipped to teach this? Conservation of energy can be learned on a roller coaster, but is a roller coaster a teacher?