Taught by Heather Beem on 2011-08-15.
Taught in TTI Fab Lab Ghana (proto-club), class of 3 teenagers
Evaluation written by Heather Beem.

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Tell us about the lesson! What happened? Do you have any funny stories?
The lesson went well overall. It is something that is quick to build. This gave the students satisfaction from making something simple that produces voltage.

What aspect of the lesson do you think worked best?
Since most of the students have been exposed at least to the concept of a dynamo, if not already have built one of their own, I decided to challenge them a bit. I first worked one-on-one with a single student, asked them to observe the system and determine how it works. Then they went across the room to explain it to another student, who had not yet heard our discussion. We repeated this cycle one more time.

What worked the least?
I didn't know how much information was a good amount to present. It's easy to confuse the students or lose their interest if you go off on a large tangent. The vital things to say about electromagnetism should be convey-able in 2-3 sentences.

As far as you know, when you taught the lesson, had it been changed/updated since the last time it was taught? Did you make any changes (e.g. too many people, so did design work in groups instead of pairs) for your particular class, and if so what were they?
No

Do you think that there is anything in the lesson, as it is written now, that should be changed before it is taught again?
It should be clearly stated that the teachers' job here is not to come out and say what is happening, but instead to navigate the students to the answer based off of what they put forth as explanations. Nonetheless, there should be a 2-3 sentence “correct answer” that the teacher has to reference (ie, “this is a field line….this is what happens when a wire enters the field…..”)

Put analogies in (ie, current going through wire is like water flowing through a pipe)

Put example questions in that the teacher can use to guide the students when they don't know what to guess. (ie What does a wire do? Ok, so what do you think it is doing here?)

What advice do you have for the next person to teach this lesson?
Don't give in to the easy method, which is to come out and explain up front what is happening. Nudge the students to vocalize what they are envisioning.

Were there any aspects of the material the students struggled with? If so, tell us why you think this was the case. (e.g. were demos ineffective? Did the students lack the background knowledge required for the lesson? Was there a language barrier?)
It is rare that these students would be asked to explain an underlying physical process, so that was most challenging for them. But that is the case for most high school-ers anywhere.

Tell us how you overcame this lack of understanding, either by how you helped the students understand the concepts or how you worked the lesson around it:
The teacher should be able to ask the right questions to guide the student to the correct explanation. I didn't actually do a very good job of this. But ideally, the teacher's guide will have specific examples of what to say, and the students will therefore become more comfortable because they are working their way towards the explanation in small, manageable chunks.

At the end of the lesson, were the students able to recall many of the basic concepts taught in the lesson?
Yes, because they then had to explain it to the someone else!

Do you think the students were excited/interested in the lesson content?
Mildly. It wasn't as exciting for them as learning something new.

Were students comfortable with design work? Were they confident in putting forward their own designs and ideas?
Designing a little box to put the magnets and coils in was just fine for them. They are used to designing quick, simple things like that using the laser cutter.

Were students comfortable with practical work, such as experiments or building work? Were they able to work independently after being given a demonstration, or did they need teacher/assistant help?
Yes, designing/building this was fine.

How well did the students work in groups/pairs together? Did every student have a chance to contribute to the work?
This was taught individually.

Do you think the right amount of time was given to each of the activities?
30-60 mins for designing/building

10 mins discussing physics with each student worked fine

Do you think the right amount of materials and equipment was available? (specify both not enough and too much!)
Yes

Do you think there were enough/too many teachers and teaching assistants?
1:1 as was done here is ideal, so if possible, I recommend doing it as I did here- a lesson to do while most of the students are working on other projects, but you can take away one at a time for a little bit.

If group work was involved, do you think the groups were of the right size?
There weren't any groups in this case, but having one student explain to a group of others would be alright.

At the beginning of the lesson, how well were students able to recall principles taught in previous lessons?

If applicable, do you think students are more comfortable with design work now than they were at the beginning of the curriculum?

Do you think students have been getting better at working in teams/pairs over the course of the curriculum?

Have students been getting more comfortable working with tools or building things?

Anything else you’d like to say?