Skills Validations:

So how do you know if you have some initial mastery of the concepts and tools in this course? Historically if you can pass a "test" then you are deemed to have the requisite skills. The difficulties with timed classroom tests as a measure of your abilities are many and well documented. Skills Validations are my approach to helping you understand for yourself whether you are learning the skills embedded in this class.

For the time being these skills validations are being used in two ways in my classes. The first of these follows your exploration of the homework sets. The homework provides an opportunity for your to explore, with as much group involvement as you desire, the tools and calculations associated with a particular set of concepts. I have been creating HW Skills Validations that offer you the chance to work individually on a robust problem that is similar to the homework problems. You will be given the opportunity for limited collaboration with your fellow students before turning in your solution. The specific questions for these HW validations will usually be quite clear.

Finally, to complete each unit in the course a final Skills Validation will be posed that is (hopefully) contextually rich and authentic. For this validation you will only know the setting and not what the questions are. It is often said that knowing the question is is half the battle. Figuring out the questions is where critical thinking and conceptual analysis are most important which is why I am fond of this approach. We will be exploring how to execute these validations in class this year as an experiment in more personal accountability.

Skills Validations

Other Resources

  • Math
  • Kinematics 1D
  • Newton 1D
  • Kinematics 2D