Summary of External Teacher and Student Evaluations Cape Town Area, May, 2003 (summary prepared March 8, 2004) We started at the COSAT school on Saturday, May 3, then moved to the Overberg region (Celeste Issel) on Sunday, May 4. Returned to Cape Town Friday night, May 9. another COSAT visit Saturday morning. Spent the next week mostly in the West Coast/Winelands area (Trevor Daniel). Final week was spent in the Metropole East (Ramesh Maharaj). Celeste Issell provided a brief (and positive) evaluation of our work in the Overberg region. The raw material for a comprehensive evaluation was taken in the form of questionnaires in the West Coast/Winelands and Metropole East regions. Copies of the questionnaires were brought back with the team and a summary is provided below. A more complete evaluation is underway by Peter Oxenham and Jonathan Clark of COSAT, but has not yet been received. The questionnaires were of three types: one for student evaluation of PHysMoVan overall and specifically the hands on activities; one for student evaluation of the Exploratorium; and one for teacher evaluation. I. Teacher questionnaires: Typical teacher reactions were: 1) What do you think was the purpose of the Exploratorium? A: To expose learners to physics done at school as well as conceptual physics. To make them inquisitive and interested in science generally. 2) Did your learners enjoy the Exploratorium [and hands on activities]? If yes, what did they enjoy the most? If they had difficulties or did not enjoy activities, in what areas and why? A: Yes, they enjoyed it. enjoyed working as a team, fiddling with science apparatus and drawing graphs. I could see some students, in this one afternoon, changing their mind and thinking of going to college and continuing study of physics. 3) What exploratorium activities did the students enjoy the most? A: here answers ranged from electricity, levers, the pendulum (and the little inquisitive horse), the (virtual) pig, the angular momentum spinning activities, the rocks exposed to UV, and others. nearly every activity had its boosters. 3a) What science do you think they learned? Again the answers varied, from data handling, graphs, to momentum, to scattering, etc. 4) What exploratorium (or hands on) activities did the students struggle with? The light scattering was hard for many students, also (if they had not had trig) the force table. In most cases language seemed not to be a large problem, and problems were overcome by repetition, demonstration, and help from other students. In some cases we were in a "blab school" situation, and students had trouble hearing. Generally both teachers and students wished we had more time, and fewer students in a group. Teachers were glad that their subject advisor would be having the equiment to borrow. Teacher self-reflection: 1) Did you enjoy the exploratorium? Which activities? All the teachers responded with an enthusiastic yes to enjoyment of the exploratorium. (Yes, very much, etc). They enjoyed different activities, just as the students did. II. Learners Response to Exploratorium. 1. Purpose of the exploratorium: Responses here were generally clear: to see that things around you are important in physics it is good, i enjoy it well to know more about science, to have more knowledge about science and how exciting it is.... ... and so on. 2. Did you enjoy it? If yes, why? Nearly all answered with enthusiasm. typical responses were: Yes! because i know things i didn't know and what is happening in order to do things. Yes, becaues I learn a lot today from it about electricitiy, digitals, I learn about the new things. Yes! electricity ws boring for me but now it turned to the most interesting because it was fun seeing it practically Yes, i did enjoy it becaues i have never seen something like the things that i have Yes, because I almost understand every experiment. Yes, because it was interesting and fun. Oh, Yes!! Because the vibration of sound amazed me to much 3. What Exploratorium activities did you enjoy the most? electricity (to see how it can be made) light bulb lit by generator scattering (it is around us everywhere) all of them, all were new policeman can tell if you were at a crime scene [by uv, etc. spectral analysis of dirt, on clothes] magnetic field angular momentum (because i can play with it) colors of the stone (uv light on special rocks) force table (because i learn about calculation the one that you beat with the stick and you can hear the sound (resonant tuning forks) (because it was strange and interesting) momentum that you can use solar energy for electricity waves the pig (virtual image) particle physics I can say that I enjoy all of them. note: these questionnaires were taken after the spinning platform was disabled. before that, it was a big hit with students. 4) What did you have trouble understanding? again, the answers covered a broad range: light scattering light (virtual image) light (images by a parabolic mirror) particle physics electricitty none forces in equilibrium forces and momentum magnetic field when you connect the series and parallel force from the trigonometry formulas horse and pendulum. i understand all of them because the explanation was clear III. PhysMoVan Evaluation (hands on activities) most students did all 4 labs. note that the particular school for which i had these questionnaires available did not do scattering. the scattering experiment was typically the hardest for students, though they enjoyed it. example of distribution on enjoyable (5) or not (1): 1:0 2:0 3:2 4:5 5:47 example of distribution on math hard (1) or not (5) 1:12 2:0 3:11 4:11 5:17 What was learned? Electricity connecting wires to plot a graph to calibrate equipment momentum collisions when i push my friend we have the same force force depnds on two things, mass and acceleration newton's third law, forces and momentum. mass collisions between two objects with different masses What was hard? scattering connecting wires reading voltmeter to plot a graph to calibrate equipment to observe what is happening with the marbles when i am doing the expt. momentum is the same before and after the collision.