Going in Circles

Today in physics, Mr. Ambrose had them doing a simple lab. Each group had a piepan with a section cut out of it, and they had to roll a golf ball around the edge. The important task was to predict what would happen when the ball came to the empty section, and then to see what really happened - would it continue on a curved path in the absence of anything to force it to do so, or would it go straight? Anyone who's had physics can tell what it did - it went straight. Some of the students predicted that, but others thought it would keep going in a curved path. I told them not to kick themselves over being wrong - Galileo had the idea that there was some form of "circular inertia", that the planets would naturally move in circular paths without any applied force. It wasn't until Newton that someone realized the truth, and formulated it as a law of nature - which is why this one is Newton's first law. It's instructive for some students to realize that this stuff which is so obvious once you learn it was once a new, shocking idea.

In Ms. Colwell's algebra class, they were working a practice test - they have the real thing on Wednesday. Many of the students are doing quite well, but there are some who still struggle. One of the challenges for me is to figure out who needs help, and who needs to be left alone for a few minutes to think. Some people catch on quickly; others catch on, but they need to be given a chance to do so. If someone jumps in to help too quickly, it short-circuits the process. One student in particular needed to be given a few minutes. He knew what he was doing, but needed a chance to think about it. The key, I think, is to know when someone is getting frustrated because they're stuck, and when they just need space to work through the idea at their own pace. I wish I knew the answer to that - I try to read it from their expression and the way they're acting. One thing that does seem to work sometimes is to look at how they're holding the pencil. Someone who's frustrated tends to clench it, whereas a person who's thinking holds it a little more loosely. I don't know if it always holds true, but it seems to be a good enough guide to start with. The truth is, everyone's different, so there won't be an answer that's true 100% of the time about 100% of the students. It's not like a problem in math or science that always has the same answer - people are far more complex than that. Of course, that's part of what makes them interesting.