Day 1: Slow Helicopters

One class had a grade-level meeting, but the other three classes worked on slowing down index card helicopters.

Things that went well:

• Frank Noschese's "Subversive Grouping", done with units. While it was disappointing to realize that some of my students don't recognize mile/hour as a unit of speed, better to know now than later.
• I gave the Honors class some time for free exploration of the helicopters, pulled them back to 'whiteboard' their discoveries, gave them the assignment to make a model that fell more slowly, and then pulled them together to discuss their results.
• The Honors class did some nice, independent experimentation to figure out ways to slow down the helicopters. Most groups showed clear beginnings of a testable air resistance model. The other two classes needed a little more prompting, but that's expected.

Things that could have gone better:

• I didn't give the Basic class clear enough boundaries, which gave two Chatty Cathys room to avoid the learning.