Elizabeth Burns

Elizabeth Burns has been teaching Advanced Placement Chemistry as well as Syracuse University Project Advance (SUPA) Forensic Science at Fairport High School in western New York State for over 20 years. She is also an adjunct professor of General Chemistry at Nazareth University. She has a BS in Chemistry and an MS in Education. She took her first modeling workshop in 2019 and has been using the Modeling Instruction pedagogy ever since. X | BlueSky

Highlights

[5:02] Beth Burns "Why do we know what we know and do we just trust or do we do some investigations and kind of create that knowledge as we're learning?" [16:03] Beth Burns "I always tell my students, I'm like, when you go off to college and you go on and get a PhD and you discover a better picture of what the atom looks like, you're gonna come back and tell me what it is, and then I'll teach it to my students."

Resources

Download Transcript Ep 68 Transcript Links [5:22] Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedhal

Episode 67 - Ray Howanski - "AMTA Past, Present and Future"

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 03:00:00 -0700

Guest

Ray Howanski

Highlights

Resources

Download Transcript Ep 67 Transcript Links Get Involved! amtaexec@modelinginstruction.org

Episode 66 – Geoff Nunes – “In learning, especially for physics, a key component is soak time”

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 03:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Mark and Geoff talk about how Geoff learned about modeling methods and the various mini-labs he has developed to help illustrate student thinking about new phenomena. They talk about the challenges presented by increasing the number of topics covered in a course without increasing the number of instructional days, necessitating the instructor to determine what can be cut to save time while remaining true to the ideals of modeling. Finally, Geoff describes some of the tools he has published on his website and they ways they can be use.

Guest

Geoff Nunes

Geoff is in his ninth year teaching at St. Joseph's Prep, an all-boys Jesuit high school in Philadelphia. He came to high school teaching after 15 years in research and development at Dupont, and before that, eight years on the faculty at Dartmouth College. He learned about Modeling Instruction while he was still at Dartmouth, but had to wait until the summer of 2017 to take his first workshop. As a hobby, he maintains a website full of modeling-friendly software for student use, including a graphing program, an electric field simulator, and a video analysis tool. Website

Highlights

[5:22] Geoff Nunes "It's so important that the lab be accessible to the students and actually correctly show them the physics you're trying to teach them." [7:50] Geoff Nunes: "I'm trying to build as many aha moments into the class as I can." [13:34] Geoff Nunes "nobody can teach anybody anything. People have to teach themselves. And so what you as a teacher have to do is provide the environment in which the students can teach themselves. And that's what modeling does."

Resources

In this recast episode from July 2021, Mark talks with Marta Stoeckle, who teaches physics and other science courses outside St. Paul, Minnesota. They talk about the improvements Marta experienced in her teaching after attending a modeling workshop. This led to their discussion of Marta's research in STEM education. Finally, they talk about the new way for modelers to connect -- the AMTA Discord server.

Guest Bio

Marta Stoeckle Marta Stoeckle has been teaching science at Tartan High School just outside of St. Paul, Minnesota since 2009. She teaches mostly Physics and AP Physics 1, with occasional sections of other courses including basic chemistry and 9th grade physical & earth science. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Minnesota’s STEM education program where she is studying how classroom experiences influence science identity, especially for underrepresented students. Marta has served on the communications committee for AMTA's board and helped get the Discord server started. Website | Twitter

Highlights

[10:16] Marta "Labs came up with almost every single student as something really important. What was really interesting to me is I had a lot of students who talked about the guided inquiry labs and the paradigm labs that are an important part of modeling as something that really helped them feel like a science person. And when they were able to see how the data they took led to that physics knowledge, they felt a really strong sense of ownership over their learning and really started to feel good at physics" [21:21] Marta: "I was introduced to this idea of activity before concept and then concept before vocabulary...No matter what phrasing they use to describe it, but my experience has been, especially with ELL kids and especially with kids who have learning differences, especially around reading, that's been really beneficial because by the time that we get to that technical word, they have something in their head to attach it to, instead of trying to cram in all of these complicated words before they really have any meaning."

Resources

Resources

Transcript Jeremy Transcript Links The Talk Science Primer (22:43) STEP UP (31:39)

Episode 25 - Andrea Williams - Modeling Middle School in Michigan

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 03:00:00 -0700

Episode 24 - Melanie, Muhsin & Kevin - "Our Workshop Experience"

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 03:00:00 -0700

Episode 23 – Jane Jackson – 27 years developing Modeling Instruction

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 03:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Mark talks with Jane Jackson, who has worked on modeling instruction for the last 27 years. She gives us insight into the history of modeling instruction as well as the challenges we face funding workshops. She also talks about the importance of science education, and specifically physics education.

Guest Bio

Jane Jackson

I grew up in rural Connecticut, married an Arizonan at age 19, and began study at Arizona State University as a sophomore. I earned a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in physics at ASU, and loved the work. David Hestenes taught me two courses; he was one of my favorite professors. My husband and I taught at South Dakota State University until 1984, while raising our two children. Then we returned to Arizona, and I taught at Scottsdale Community College for 10 years. David Hestenes asked me in 1994 to be project director for his NSF grant for Modeling Instruction. "It'll only be part-time", he said. I still work nearly full-time on Modeling Instruction, 27 years later -- although mostly as a volunteer, because ASU requires our program to be self-supporting. Modeling Instruction is important in this portentous time of global climate change, for it helps people think with evidence while they connect with nature.

Facebook

Highlights

[22:18] Jane Jackson, on becoming an expert: "research done by K. Anders Ericsson show that in any endeavor, it takes many years to become an expert. And you can't become an expert just by doing the job like teaching ...you have to do deliberate practice."

[27:51] Jane Jackson: "they need modeling instruction type physics because modeling instruction teaches you how to think with evidence. And that's absolutely crucial for humanity to tackle these huge problems that we face like global warming, sea level rise, these huge storms that we're getting now, these days, you know, these destructive wildfires and all these other problems..."

Resources

Transcript

Jane Transcript

Links

Modeling Instruction Program

Talk Jane gave about funding for workshops

PhysTEC Physics Teacher Education Coalition

Episode 22 - Marta Stoeckle - Thoughts on “instructional shifts” and “Educational Equity”

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 03:00:00 -0700

Episode 21 - Dr. Mina Bhagdev - "Words Matter" Promoting Equity in the Classroom

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 03:00:00 -0700

Episode 20 – Kathy Harper – “Ohio State University, Modeling and Engineering”

Sat, 01 May 2021 03:00:00 -0700

Guest Bios

Kathy Harper

Kathy Harper is a senior lecturer in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University, teaching in the Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors program. Her involvement with Modeling Instruction began in 1995. She has directed dozens of workshops for Ohio science teachers in Modeling Instruction, piloting the first workshops to incorporate engineering content into the Modeling framework. Her research includes an array of educational topics, but most recently centers on assessing classroom-level innovations. She has made conference and workshop presentations on topics such as problem solving, cooperative learning, reflective journaling, first-year engineering courses, and, of course, Modeling.

Facebook

Highlights

[40:01] Kathy Harper, talking about funding for modeling workshops and state funding for professional development "we need to do something to get those mechanisms back in place so that we can support these state-level, or at least, you know, portion of state-level workshops, where again, like-minded teachers can get together, talk about the content and the pedagogy. Where we can teach these workshops for the people who teach these workshops are real K-12 classroom teachers. Not university people like me; people that teach in very similar circumstances to the people attending the workshops. Those are key."

Resources

Transcript

Kathy Transcript

Episode 19 - Mike Gallagher - "Systemic Reform in Education for Michigan"

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 05:00:00 -0700

Episode 18 - Karle Delo - "Middle School M.I. and AMTA's New Marketing Director"

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Mark talks with Karle Delo, who came to modeling as a middle school science teacher, and is now working as an instructional coach and technology integrationist in Michigan. She talks about the most important things that modeling has brought to her teaching practice and she talks about plans in her other new role in marketing for AMTA.

Guest Bios

Karle Delo

Karle Delo taught middle school science for 10 years, and has been a Modeler since 2016. Currently, she is an Instructional Coach and Technology Integrationist in Mid-Michigan, and leads Middle School Modeling distance learning courses. Karle noticed the transformation in quality discussions, depth of knowledge, and student ownership of learning through the adoption of Modeling Instruction. As the new Director of Marketing for AMTA, she aims to expand AMTA's audience, and introduce more educators to the transformative nature of Modeling.

Instagram | Twitter

Highlights

[5:24] Karle Delo "I feel like especially now, the skill of mine that has improved the most would be questioning. So questioning students, in a way that gets them to think about the data in a different way, or to kind of help them like facilitate that discussion to help the class come to a consensus."

[27:15] Karle Delo "You can tell when you walk into a classroom that has clear norms. I think that sometimes teachers underestimate the power of what they say, but words really do matter."

Resources

Transcript

Karle Transcript

Links

AMTA Summer Course

Episode 17 - Chance Hoellwarth - "A University Supporting M.I."

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0700

Episode 16 – Erica Posthuma & Molly Bickle – The next Generation

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 03:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Mark talks with Erica Posthuma and her student Molly Bickle. This conversation explores passing the torch to a next generation science instructor.

Guest Bio

Molly Bickle

Molly Bickle is a senior at University High School of Indiana. She is a varsity golfer in the fall and is heavily involved in her school’s musical in the spring. After taking three years of Chemistry, Molly is very excited to combine her love for the subject with her passion for and interest in education. Additionally, she spent January of 2020 student teaching for a Spanish 1 classroom. Although unsure of where she is going to study, she plans on pursuing an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Spanish.

Erica Posthuma

Erica Posthuma has been a science educator since 2001, teaching in both public and private school settings. She attended her first modeling instruction workshop after ten years of teaching, and it completely changed her way of teaching. Erica serves on the board of AMTA and is very active on social media, supporting and sharing ideas with others from all over. Erica is also an associate editor for the Journal of Chemical Education's ChemEdXchange.

Resources

Transcript

Erica and Molly Transcript

Episode 15 – Dan Peluso – Astronomy and Grades Don’t Matter?

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 03:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Mark talks with Dan Peluso, an astrophysics PhD candidate working on getting students and teachers to do citizen science in the classroom. He talks about how he became a teacher and became a part of the modeling community, and using modeling and astronomy in his physics classes. He shares his plans as he moves into working on his PhD full time this year as well as working with SETI to get telescopes into classrooms all over the world, enabling students to become part of the scientific community even at a young age.

Guest Bio

Dan Peluso

Dan Peluso is an astrophysics PhD candidate with the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) studying/researching remotely from Vallejo, California. Dan’s PhD project is multi-disciplinary focusing on NASA TESS exoplanet follow-ups and astronomy education to develop a global exoplanet citizen science network at education centers. In addition to his PhD work, Dan has taught high school science and as the new SETI Institute Unistellar Education Associate is exploring creating an exoplanet citizen science curriculum for educators with the Modeling Instruction pedagogy combined with student/teacher gathered observations with Unistellar eVscopes. Dan also enjoys photography, music, film, and is an active singer-songwriter and musician.

Website | Instagram | Twitter

Highlights

[13:20] Mark Royce reads a quote from Dan Peluso's blog: "If we replace the education system into one that encourages and develops collaborative processes, creativity, problem-solving, curiosity, and other reasoning skills for all students, regardless of color or gender from the earliest age, through high school and beyond, I claim we would transform our society into a conveyor belt of movers and shakers, innovators, free thinkers, and happy driven citizens."

[37:34] Dan Peluso: "The project that I'm really excited about is we have these telescopes they're called unistellar eVscopes. And this is a new consumer telescope. It's completely autonomous. It's controlled with your phone, takes all the guesswork out of like how to use a telescope... users of this eVscope can get an alert on their phone. And that alert will say, there's an interesting scientific target that you can go out and observe with your telescope in your backyard, in your garden such as an occulting asteroid or an asteroid flying by, or an exploding supernova star, or a transiting exoplanet, a planet that orbits around another star. And we've actually had success and this telescope can observe exoplanets, planets around other stars in our galaxy. "

Notes

[29:50] Science conference in Texas was the 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Dan presented and had a published abstract with them (linked below). While there he found out he didn't get into UC Davis for a PhD program This and the gentleman he met there who inspired him like an old wise Yoda led to Dan becoming a teacher.

Resources

Transcript

Dan Transcript

Links

Global Hands-On Universe

Hands-On Universe, USA

Blog Post - How I plan to help save science education with the Unistellar eVscope!

Abstract #1789 - Abstract Dan published for the 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Yong Zhao on a podcast discussing creativity in education

Article - Yong Zhao: PBL Develops Students' Creative Confidence - [07:53] Dan reads a quote from this article

Video - The genius of science: GZA & Science Genius at TEDxTeen 2014

Video - Reality Pedagogy: Christopher Emdin at TEDxTeachersCollege

Book - For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education (Race, Education, and Democracy)

Podcast - The Science of Hip Hop with GZA (Part 1)

Podcast - The Science of Hip Hop with GZA (Part 2)

Notes for Notes - getting students in schools and Boys & Girls Clubs to write and professionally record their own music at pro studios for FREE

Video - Unistellar Overview

Unistellar

SETI Institute

University of Southern Queensland Centre for Astrophysics - Where Dan is doing his PhD

Episode 14 – Fran Poodry and Matt Greenwolfe – “Tools of the Trade”

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 02:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Mark talks with Fran Poodry and Matt Greenwolfe. They talk about how each one came to find modeling instruction and how their first modeling workshop changed their teaching. They also talk about tools and resources for the modeling classroom while we are unable to share lab equipment. These tools provide both lab data students can analyze and the opportunity to upload student-created videos and analyze the data. This is a very timely discussion, as many teachers are rethinking their plans for classes this year.

Guest Bios

Fran Poodry

Fran Poodry taught HS physics for 20 years in the Philadelphia region starting in 1993. In 1997 and 1998, she attended Modeling Instruction workshops at UW-River Falls with workshop leaders Rex Rice and David Braunshweig. She served on the AMTA board from 2010 to 2014, and as President of AMTA from 2012 to 2013. In her current position at Vernier Software & Technology, Fran interacts with instructors daily, supporting them in their use of Vernier technology.

Instagram | Twitter

Matt Greenwolfe

I have a bachelors degree in physics from Washington University in St. Louis, a PhD from The University of Michigan, and taught briefly as a college professor before taking a job teaching high school I thought as a transitional career move. My exposure to Modeling Instruction transformed my view of physics teaching and generated an interest and enthusiasm that has made high school physics teaching my career. I have been teaching at my current school, Cary Academy in Cary, North Carolina since 2000. In addition to the ongoing process of mastering modeling instruction in my own classroom, still a work in progress after 20 years, I have contributed numerous resources to the body of modeling instruction materials and knowledge, including the development of a robotic kinematics apparatus and other experiments, ideas for improving classroom dialogue, and adapting open-ended problems from the college level to high school modeling instruction. I have also taught modeling workshops in North Carolina and Ohio as well as serving on the founding board of directions and lates as the President of the American Modeling Teachers Association. Since Covid 19 forced us all into virtual or partially-virtual instruction, I have dedicated myself to attempting to match the high quality video labs available at Pivot Interactives and am helping to lead a group of modeling instructors creating modeling-friendly labs for the virtual classroom. This year, my physics team won the US International Young Physicists Tournament in our fifth attempt by presenting our solution to for difficult college-level problems after a year's worth of experimental and theoretical investigation.

Highlights

[7:13] Fran Poodry, talking about lessons from her first modeling workshop: "So I had been a physics major in college and kind of had it in my mind that I was going to be a teacher, but I wasn't, you know... I did my practice teaching with someone who is just a regular traditional physics teacher. I didn't really know how to innovate. I had not had much practice with literally having students collect data and create mathematical models. It was always like, okay, this is Newton's second law. Okay, let's do this experiment in which you will find out that this stuff matches up to Newton's second law. So my first surprise when taking the modeling workshop was that I still had physics to learn, which was embarrassing, and vital. And then the second thing I learned was this whole magic of graphing data and creating mathematical models, which I don't know how I ever did physics before that. It was, it was a revolution in my mind and it was amazing. And it just made me fall in love with teaching even more."

[11:16] Matt Greenwolfe, on the change in his teaching practice when he started modeling: "And the main thing it did is it put the students at the center and got me to step off the stage. And I spend way more time listening to students now in deep, interesting ways, because I'm asking them open-ended questions and listening to them think their way through stuff and listening to their presentations. As they try to explain their own reasoning without an example from me to follow. And so I have a much better idea of what they're actually thinking, and then it's tremendously fun to create activities, to help them overcome their misconceptions and revise the way they're thinking in a creative way that allows them to do it rather than me telling them. "

[19:55] Matt Greenwolfe, talking about pivot interactives: "They're videotaping each individual data point, not just a sufficient set that you could take, but each individual data point that a student might think to take and they're organizing them. So it's easy to select and pick. And when the students say, choose their independent variables for a lab, they choose them. And they get a video of exactly how that particular data point ran. And they can take measurements from the screen and start recording their data. And so aside from actually going over and grabbing the equipment and setting it up on the table, it got as close as one could imagine to them actually doing the lab."

[31:40] Fran Poodry, talking about using Vernier video analysis "Vernier video analysis can work on any device with a browser. It's got a whole bunch of cool features, including a vector display feature and auto tracking. And we've got some replay in there. You can see that the dots appear on the video as the data appear on the graph. We've had a lot of people asking about that recently, and Vernier also is making available a sample data library where instructors can give the data from an experiment to the students, and then the students can do the analysis on the experiment. We're working on expanding that and also providing videos of experiments to go along with it,"

[45:47] Matt Greenwolfe, thinking about this year: "I think one thing is that we have to be really flexible. We have no idea what's going to happen next. It's kind of thrown out the door. The idea of having a plan for the year and detailed lesson plans. You want to make sure that what you're doing is productive and learning and that you and the students are not getting too stressed out in an already stressful time."

Resources

Transcript

Fran and Matt Transcript

Links

Pivot Interactives

Nearpod

Episode 13 - Mark Schober - "The Richness of Learning From One Another"

Sun, 02 Aug 2020 09:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Mark talks with Mark Schober about his career as a physics teacher, how modeling changed his teaching, how that led him to using Standards Based Grading with Modeling Physics, and later how Mark was part of the group of experts developing the modeling materials for waves and light. Mark talks about how he loves making and sharing ideas for low-cost lab equipment. They end with talking about the importance of community for teachers.

Episode 12 – Teresa Marx – “AMTA’s New President”

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 09:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Mark talks with incoming AMTA president, Teresa Marx. They talk about the way Teresa's teaching looks different as a result of modeling instruction, starting the organization STEMTeachersMassBay, the recent virtual AMTA conference, and Teresa's ideas for the next year with AMTA.

Guest Bio

Teresa Marx

Teresa is a public school parent and a public school teacher. She has been teaching chemistry for 19 years in the Boston area. Although she has taught a variety of high school sciences, including physics, biology, biotechnology, engineering, organic and biochemistry, she is a chemistry teacher at heart.

Teresa co-founded STEMteachersMassBay in 2017. She is the President-Elect of the AMTA Executive Board, and has been accepted into the Perrone-Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership's 2020-2021 cohort.

Twitter

Highlights

[18:35] Teresa Marx: "So I think we're going to try to get some workgroups together as a result of what we heard in the conference, just to get teachers in Zoom rooms, at least, with people in their discipline to kind of work through... Next school year feels like a lot of question marks. So I think to the extent that AMTA as an organization can be positioned to support teachers, to provide them with the tools, the resources, and just the person-to-person support that you need sometimes to get through that. I think that's a really big one."

[33:06] Teresa Marx "[modeling] made me a better teacher in a lot of small ways, and it's made a big difference in terms of the overarching way that my classes operate. Students use our class time for thinking hard."

Resources

Transcript

Teresa Transcript

Links

STEM Teachers MassBay

Culturally Responsive Teachers and the Brain book

Episode 11 – Rebecca Vieyra & Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz – “Building Content Knowledge, AMTA Projects and a New App”

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 02:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Mark talks with Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz, AMTA's first executive officer and now senior fellow, and Rebecca Vieyra, who works through many channels to improve our systems of education. They talk about the value of teacher training in a workshop setting, where the instructor and participants all participate in building content knowledge. Rebecca tells us about some of the projects they have been working on, including the development of the computational modeling in physics first material and a new app that allows users to see magnetic field lines using augmented reality on a smartphone.

Guest Bios

Rebecca Vieyra

Rebecca is a coordinator of a multilateral effort to network ministries of education and education leaders to improve the quality of STEM teaching in the Americas. Until late 2018 Rebecca was the K through 12 program manager at the American Association of Physics Teachers. She managed collaborative grants from NASA and NSF and private foundations. She also served as an Albert Einstein distinguished educator, fellow placed at NASA aeronautics research mission directorate. She was awarded the presidential award for excellence in math and science teaching. Rebecca is currently pursuing her doctorate in science education at the University of Maryland College Park.

Personal Site | Vieyra Software

Facebook | Twitter

Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz

Colleen was a long-time high school physics and mathematics teacher and Modeler in Sacramento CA. She moved to AZ in 2001 to do graduate studies in physics education research focusing on Modeling classroom discourse. In 2007 she completed her PhD under the direction of David Hestenes. In 2011 she became AMTA’s first Executive Officer. In 2014 she retired from ASU to devote her full attention to AMTA. In 2017 she “retired” from the XO position and became AMTA’s first Senior Fellow. Colleen continues to write grants, conduct research, teach occasional courses in modeling and cognition, train workshop leaders, and publish on Modeling Instruction.

Highlights

[15:40] Rebecca Vieyra: "One thing that our teachers regularly talk about is the importance of representations within modeling instruction and we've got algebraic representations, graphical representations, we've got verbal representations vector and sometimes even physical three-dimensional representations. And this particular project now brings the computer program as one additional computational representation."

[23:36] Colleen, talking about the app: "I think that's the big aha for people when they use the app, that if they want to know what the magnetic field is here, they can turn on their app and they can place a dot on the phone here and they can see exactly what that magnetic field is. And if they want to know how it changes as you move through space, they can do that. And if they want to take their phone and move somewhere else and look at the magnetic field, they just put over there, they can do it, they can see what it looks like from the other side or from underneath or from above because they can move their phone around and still look at that field... And the visualization for a three-dimensional thing like a field is a very big deal."

Resources

Transcript

Rebecca and Colleen Transcript

Links

AAPT K12 Teachers Portal

AAPT - Computational Modeling in Physics First with Bootstrap

Magna AR

100k in 10 - Rebecca mentioned this organization when talking about grants

Physics Toolbox Twitter

Episode 10 – Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz & Wendy Hehemann – “AMTA Workshops & Leaders”

Fri, 01 May 2020 04:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Mark talks with Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz, AMTA's first executive officer and now senior fellow, and Wendy Hehemann, AMTA's national workshop coordinator. They talk about the beginnings of AMTA as an organization and about workshops, both in-person and virtual. They talk about the benefits of attending each kind of workshop as well as how workshop leaders are chosen.

Guest Bios

Wendy Hehemann

Wendy's background was in elementary education and she worked with English Language Learners. Wendy joined the second cohort of students in the Master's of Natural Sciences program at the modeling Institute at ASU. After starting training in modeling instruction, Wendy began to work for AMTA coordinating workshops. Now, Wendy promotes workshops and also coordinates AMTA's virtual events, including virtual happy hours, webinars, and courses.

Facebook

Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz

Highlights

[28:16] Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz in response to how a virtual workshop will differ from an in-person workshop: "you don't have the lab equipment at home, so we have to figure out how to do those labs in a different way. We can coach you through doing some kitchen table chemistry or physics, but more likely we are going to have to show you a video of that lab and let you use video capture software to collect your data or send you to a PhET simulation."

[31:49] Colleen Megowan-Romanowicz: "the distance learning courses that we have been doing were during the academic year, up to now. Now that it's pandemic time, we have decided to do distance learning courses this summer for the very first time. We will do introduction to modeling instruction in physics, chemistry, biology, middle school science. This is the first time we will be offering content courses for people who have never taken a modeling workshop before. So, an exciting new initiative that is brought to you by Covid-19 and AMTA's desire to meet teacher's needs in whatever situation those needs arise. "

[34:59] Wendy Hehemann: "if you want to get excited about teaching again, take a modeling workshop. If you want to be around likeminded people, other teachers, take modeling workshop. If you want to address your own misconceptions and or your students' take a modeling workshop."

Resources

Transcript

Wendy and Colleen Transcript

Links

AMTA virtual courses Summer 2020

PhET simulations

Episode 09 - Dr. Bill Thornburgh - "Stay calm, stay healthy, engage students"

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 09:00:00 -0700

In this conversation, Mark Royce talks with AMTA executive officer Bill Thornburgh about the challenges and ways to make the most of our time while working with students remotely. They talk in particular about how some aspects of modeling instruction are challenging in this environment, but how we can continue to do many of the things we find so valuable for our students and their learning. They also talk about connecting with others, finding resources for distance learning, summer workshops, and supporting AMTA

Bill Thornburgh taught high school environmental science, biology, and chemistry over the course of 10 years. In his 7th year of teaching, he was introduced to the Modeling pedagogy by a colleague who had attended a workshop. The following year, he attended a modeling workshop... what an experience! The transition from traditional instruction to Modeling invigorated him and he found that his students were much happier! Since leaving the classroom, he received his Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Louisville and he has been the Executive Officer of AMTA for the past two years. Bill says, "I miss teaching, but I'm happy that I get to continue working with such passionate and dedicated teachers!"

Episode 08 – Christi Mendoza & George Nelson – "Modeling in the Middle Schools"

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 06:00:00 -0700

In this conversation, Christi Medoza and George Nelson talk about modeling at the middle school level. They talk about the challenges some teachers see in the variety of topics covered in middle school science, but the wonderful way that modeling instruction lets us adjust the way things are done in class, and let the students lead the way in discovering the way various phenomena work. They each share the biggest changes to their thinking or practice that came as a result of discovering modeling instruction.

Episode 07 – Tanea Hibler & Ariel Serkin – “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 05:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Mark talks with Ariel Serkin and Tanea Hibler, modelers who are passionate about building equity and dismantling racism in the classroom. They share reasons that they are passionate about the work and talk about big things and little things they do in their classrooms to increase representation for all of their students, create safe spaces, and open dialogue about race within the science classroom and in their school communities.

Guest Bios

Tanea Hibler

After having taught at international schools since 2009, Mrs. Hibler returned to teach in Phoenix in 2015. She previously taught in Bangkok, Thailand, and Shanghai, China. She earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from California State University – East Bay, a Master of Education from ASU, and a Master of Science in Teaching Earth Science from Wright State University. She advises the Brophy Culture Project, the Asian Culture Club, and the Zoology Club. Mrs. Hibler also serves as a member-at-large on the board of the American Modeling Teachers Association.

Website: https://thibseducation.wordpress.com/

Facebook: thibler

Twitter: @tanea_hibler

Instagram: @darlingtomasa

Ariel Serkin

Ariel Serkin has been a high school teacher since 2001 teaching history and then science in a variety of school settings. She attended her first modeling workshop in 2015 and has been a modeler ever since. You can find Ariel teaching distance learning and in-person workshops for AMTA, writing for ChemEdXChange, presenting at conferences, helping out as a regional representative for AACT, and an executive board member for NEACT (New England Association of Chemistry Teachers). She is a 2019 Massachusetts finalist for the Presidential Award on Excellence in Mathematics Teaching. Ariel has a slight obsession with chemistry t-shirts and other articles of clothing.

Facebook: ariel.serkin

Twitter: @aserkin

Instagram: ariel.serkin

Highlights

[38:26] Ariel, talking about having a scientist of the week, "I would highlight people of color and women and people from other countries as well. So it's not just Europeans. You have people from all over and their accomplishments and their achievements need to be addressed. And so sometimes as simple as that because that representation in the classroom matters."

[50:53] Tanea: "The kids ask me great questions and the best part is I tell them, I'm not telling you what to think. I'm asking you to think about why you think, what you think. And so they're forced to kind of wrestle with their thought process. And ultimately the goal is, that I'm not producing students that are going to hold on to racist ideas and concepts and then be a part of a racist system that is going to hold groups of people back. And so, I think if all teachers were working towards that end, we could push against racism a lot better than what we're doing now."

[57:31] Ariel: "We have to be intentional about creating a safe, inclusive, and equitable place for all of our students and all of our learners and all of our teachers."

[58:01] Tanea: "I would say you have to be willing to let go of the preconceived ideas that you have in your head about what it means to be a teacher and if you give yourself the freedom to let go and you're willing to try something new in your classroom, you probably are going to fall in love with modeling instruction and your students, if they haven't fallen in love with you already, they're probably gonna fall in love with you too."

Resources

Transcript

Tanea and Ariel Transcription

Mentions

[26:45] Robin DiAngelo's book, White Fragility

[46:27] The Underrepresentation Curriculum Project

[46:39] Step Up

[51:37] Tanea mentions the book Everyday Antiracism

[51:47] Tanea mentioned the book How to be Antiracist

[52:21] Ariel mentions the book Grading for Equity

Links

National Equity Project

Leading Equity Center

Clear The Air Education

New York Time: 1619 Project

1619 Project Curriculum

Articles

Why Inclusivity Matters To Us by Tanea and Ariel

Avoiding Racial Equity Detours (PDF)

Want to Reach All of Your Students? Here’s How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive

Genetics Lessons Can Spark Racism in Students. This Change Can Prevent It

Can Biology Class Reduce Racism?

Academic Science Rethinks All-Too-White 'Dude Walls' Of Honor

Podcasts/Audio

NPR One: Your Brain On Storytelling

Trials by Fire: Stories about difficult paths to science

Harvard EdCast: Unconscious Bias in Schools

Posters

Women in STEM

Maya Angeluo: I'll Rise

Mae Jemison

Books

Interrogating Whiteness and Relinquishing Power: White Faculty’s Commitment to Racial Consciousness in STEM Classrooms

Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity In A World Made for Whiteness

Excellence Through Equity: Five Principles of Courageous Leadership to Guide Achievement for Every Student

Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

Stony The Road: Reconstruction, White supremacy, and the rise of Jim Crow

The Lost Education of Horace Tate: Uncovering the Hidden Heroes Who Fought for Justice in School

Episode 06 - Raymond Howanski - "The importance of developing community"

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 09:00:00 -0700

In this episode, we hear from Raymond Howanski from outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He talks about the reasons his district changed the order of their science classes to begin with physics before progressing to chemistry and finally biology. He talks about the additional topics they can cover in a biology course when students already understand the chemistry involved in processes. Ray also talks a lot about building community in the classroom and connecting with a community of like-minded educators.

Guest Bio

Raymond Howanski has been an educator for 32 years, all of them in the Ridley school district outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He worked with a team of educators to transition his school to a physics, chemistry, biology sequence. He has been working for a number of years refining the capstone biology course to leverage students' knowledge of chemistry, and using modeling pedagogy.

Highlights

[4:14] Mark Royce, quoting Raymond Howanski: "Effective teaching is as much about knowing your students as knowing your content"

[18:18] Raymond Howanski on what drives them in developing these modeling biology curricular materials: "it's really about that vision of saying, okay, what experience can we give these, these students to challenge their thinking and to give, give them opportunities to really practice and problem-solving and some effective communication skills and collaboration. How do we really challenge them to do that at a high level, uh, and kind of leading them into a path of success somewhere, somewhere down the road. "

[29:16] Raymond Howanski: "thinking about modeling at the philosophical level, ...what can you do when you really work with open-minded, caring people, towards the goal of helping students learn science better.

So that, kind of makes it all worthwhile."

[31:56] Raymond Howanski: "It's a lot more than just modeling."

[37:52] Raymond Howanski: "so then when you start connecting with other folks that have really innovative and thoughtful ideas about how we can rethink providing those learning environments for students and kind of breaking those barriers that are sometimes, somewhat confining, given students an opportunity to really explore and, and express their thinking about what they're looking at and setting a solid foundation so students don't have, so they have a clear path to a deeper understanding... so to remove some of the obstacles that we've sometimes placed in their way in terms of getting to deeper investigations of the physical world. And, a lot of that is trust. It's trusting that students will, in fact, fill in the gaps and they will figure things out that it's not about us giving them all the answers."

Resources

Raymond Howanski - Transcript

Episode 05 – Erica Posthuma – “Students learn better from teachers who care”

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 00:00:00 -0700

In this conversation with Erica Posthuma, we hear about her experience of going through her first modeling workshop and the "aha" moments that she experienced. Erica talks about how modeling instruction makes chemistry accessible to even students who do not perceive themselves as strong math students. She talks about how modeling instruction units align well with the big goals of NGSS. Finally, Erica also talks about the importance of community and support when teaching using modeling instruction.

Guest Bio

Highlights

[5:03] Erica Posthuma: it was through that discussion that I started to realize I actually had agency over my own understanding and my learning and I didn't need to turn to someone who I felt was more of an expert or more knowledgeable. I didn't need that because if I could reason through my answer and I could provide evidence and I could discuss it with other teachers or with other colleagues, peers, students, and they could question me on it and I could defend it... I didn't need a book anymore.

[23:53] Erica Posthuma: at my school, we have started to look at taking the standards outlined through NGSS and seeing how we already align with them and looking for opportunities to incorporate better alignment. ...Like students can formulate, refine, evaluate, testable questions. Students can synthesize and develop models. Students can analyze and interpret data. Students can construct explanations based on evidence. Like these are things that are tenants of modeling. They are ingrained in the curriculum in every unit throughout the entire year.

[40:36] Erica Posthuma: Being a member of AMTA, the biggest benefit that I have received is the community that I have become a part of is that collaboration. It's the way they challenged me to think about things. They pushed me to be a better teacher and we also have a lot of fun together.

Resources

Twitter Accounts

AMTA: @AMTATeachers

Erica Posthuma: @eposthuma

Hashtag: #chemmod

Links

AMTA website

ChemEdXchange

ACS Hach Grants (Listed under "Education Grants" at the bottom of the page) - Mentioned at 32:38

Downloads

Erica Posthuma - Transcription

Episode 04 – Brenda Royce – “The goal is to promote understanding”

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 00:58:00 -0700

In this conversation with Brenda Royce, we hear about the things she learned while going through two summer workshops in modeling instruction and then teaching physics and later chemistry using modeling methods. Brenda talks about becoming aware of student misconceptions as well as learning to help students think through the observations they are making. Finally, she shares feedback she has received from students about how their own thinking and approach to school is changed after taking her class.

Guest Bio

Brenda Royce has her B.A. in Chemistry from California State University, Fresno and M.A. in Education from Fresno Pacific University. She has taught high school physical sciences for 25 years after a 14-year career as an environmental analytical chemist and research assistant. She has been using Modeling Instruction in her classes since 1998. Brenda has conducted numerous training workshops in the practices of Modeling Instruction for pre-service and in-service teachers since 2000 in California, Arizona, Texas, and Pennsylvania as well as made presentations about Modeling Instruction at NSTA, WRNC, ChemEd, and BCCE conferences. She has been one of the lead contributors to the curriculum materials used in Modeling Instruction in chemistry since the project began in 2004.

Highlights

[3:15]: Brenda Royce, describing a workshop experience, “In the workshop we got a chance to see the method in action with the way that our workshop leaders interacted with us experience what the students who would be experiencing here, what the big ideas are that are being emphasized.”
[6:07] Brenda Royce: “one of the things that modeling did for me was give me ideas about what students might not understand, the way they would misunderstand it, competing ideas they may have. And then tools for finding those and helping me hear them and helping the students recognize that there is a better way to think about it than what they were thinking.”
[8:11] Brenda Royce: “And there it was — all of a sudden I was being fulfilled as a teacher. It’s like there’s no turning back from that once you know what that’s like.”
[13:26] Brenda Royce: “I want a method of teaching and helping them that actually produces deep enduring understanding. And I found the tools to move that direction with modeling instruction.”

Resources

Brenda Royce transcription

Episode 03 – David Hestenes – “The Modeling Theory of Cognition”

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 16:25:00 -0700

Guest Bio

Highlights

[18:21] David Hestenes quoting Malcolm Wells:

“It’s not enough to know that the students have alternative conceptions or if you will, misconceptions about how the world works because they interpret everything in terms of those. The question is how do you get the students to have the scientific view of what’s going on in the world rather than the common sense everyday world.”

[19:15] David Hestenes: “my theoretical view is that science is fundamentally about making and using models of the real world.”

[36:55] Dr. Hestenes: “Well, okay, so what is it that is going to make an effective teacher? The trouble with especially physics teachers is that they’re not connected to anybody. Usually the physics teacher is the only physics teacher in the school…” building up local communities

[41:02] Mark Royce: “What in your mind is the reason that modeling is successful?”

[46:00] Dr. Hestenes: “Without private funding, I don’t think that there can be any substantial STEM education reform.”

Resources

51:15 http://geocalc.clas.asu.edu

David Hestenes – transcription

Episode 02 – Colleen Megowan – “Collaborative Sense Making”

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 16:15:00 -0700

Colleen Megowan has extensive experience teaching in the classroom in California. She did her graduate work and eventually went on to teach at Arizona State University. Colleen was at ASU during the very beginning of the formation of AMTA and served as its first Executive Officer in 2011. Mark talks to Colleen about her early days in teaching using modeling instruction and what drives her to continue spreading the word about modeling and why she is still enthusiastic about it to this day.

Guest Bio

Colleen was a high school physics and mathematics teacher and Modeler in Sacramento CA. She moved to AZ in 2001 to do graduate studies in physics education research focusing on Modeling classroom discourse. In 2007 she

completed her Ph.D. under the direction of David Hestenes. She was an assistant professor of science education at Arizona State University until 2011 when she transitioned to a half-time research scientist position to become AMTA’s first Executive Officer. In 2014 she retired from ASU to devote her full attention to AMTA. In 2017 she “retired” from the XO position and became AMTA’s first Senior Fellow. Colleen continues to write grants, conduct research, teach occasional courses in modeling and cognition, train workshop leaders, and publish on Modeling Instruction. Her current research interests are computational modeling, teacher leadership,

out-of-field science teaching, and cognition in Modeling Instruction.

Highlights

([1:56]) “The thing I valued the most by the time I was done with that workshop was the whiteboards and the conversations that we had in constructing those whiteboard representations.”

([8:30]) “In order for something to happen in the classroom, it has to come from students… students realize that they don’t have to wait for the teacher to tell them the answer. They can figure out the answer themselves.”

([10:04]) “There was a huge jump in enrollment in science courses following the switch to physics first and the introduction of modeling instruction… we went from two thirds of the student body taking a science course in any given year to 120% of the student body taking a science course in any given year.”

([18:46]) “I think actually the very best way to deal with administrators is to get them to come and be in your classroom because when they can spend some time there and just watch the kids, and listen to the kids, and just soak up the energy in the room, and see the affect of those students, they will be completely sold.”

([21:52]) “Modeling instruction is an extremely effective method of helping students learn science, or any other subject, by building, testing, refining, and applying the fundamental conceptual models of that discipline.”

([35:18]) “Modeling instruction is a way of teaching that will help you be the very best teacher you can be.”

Resources

Physics First: https://www.aapt.org

Colleen Megowan – transcription

Episode 01 – Larry Dukerich – “Change the trajectory of your career”

Wed, 01 May 2019 16:06:00 -0700

Guest Bio

Larry Dukerich received his B.S. in Chemistry from Michigan State University and his Masters of Natural Science from Arizona State University. He taught high school chemistry and physics, including regular, honors and AP courses, in Michigan and Arizona for 34 years. He was a Woodrow Wilson Dreyfus Fellow in Chemistry in 1986 and a Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Science Teaching in 2000. Since 1995, he has conducted numerous summer workshops for physics and chemistry teachers as part of the Modeling Instruction Program at ASU, and later in Pennsylvania, N Carolina, Tennessee, New York City, Missouri, California and Colorado. He has also made presentations about and conducted workshops on Modeling Instruction at NSTA, ChemEd and BCCE conferences. He is one of the lead contributors to the curricular materials used in Modeling Instruction in chemistry.

Highlights

[11:00]

If you go to a workshop, you’re going to be exposed to a reform pedagogy, which is going to require you to change the way you manage your classroom. If you are looking for a way to improve your instruction then this is going to be something for you.

[16:10]

When you go to a workshop, teachers play the role of student as they run through the experiments, collecting data, analyzing it, having to interpret it, and explain what’s going on. And same thing with worksheets, tests and quizzes, that sort of thing. And they get the feeling for how modeling instruction differs from their traditional classroom practice.

[32:33]

It’s a culture, not a cult. I have just found, once I started teaching with modeling that I found the experience in the classroom much more satisfying. My students found the course enjoyable and wanted to take more science. Places that have been implementing modeling have seen science enrollment grow, an increase in the number of advanced courses that students take. It’s something that I think people can be excited about.

Resources

[24:59] -Assessment of Basic Chemistry Concepts or “ABCC”

AMTA members can download it (as well as the Excel item-analysis workbook) at the AMTA website, modelinginstruction.org , in the members-only section.

Non-members can email Larry Dukerich: ldukerich@mac.com

[26:33] – paper that Larry wrote for J. Chem Ed in 2015:

https://doi.org/10.1021/ed500909w

(Users must log in to read the whole paper. The abstract is available without logging in)

Larry Dukerich – transcription

Welcome to Science Modeling Talks!

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 09:00:00 -0700

Learn about Science Modeling Talks in a brief introduction.