Newark Academy Science Department Course Reflection 2013-2014

1. Select from the following:

Teacher

Mr. Bitler

Ms. Celente

Mr. Erlandson

Dr. Hobson

Ms. Hone

Select Course

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Interactive Investigation

Interactive Discovery

Interactive Systems

Biology

Chemistry

Chemistry Honors

Physics

Physics Honors

Select Slot

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100.0% (14)

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2. Please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the following statements below based on your personal experiences in this course thus far.
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Not Applicable Rating Count

I have found that my teacher explains course material and expectations clearly. I have received helpful feedback from my teacher on my work and performance. I have received timely feedback. I have been given opportunities to demonstrate my learning on a variety of assessments. I have been given opportunities to engage in independent thinking. I have found the learning environment appropriate and positive. The teacher has been sensitive to my needs. 35.7% (5) 57.1% (8) 7.1% (1) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 14 57.1% (8) 35.7% (5) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 7.1% (1) 14 35.7% (5) 64.3% (9) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 14 42.9% (6) 42.9% (6) 14.3% (2) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 14 57.1% (8) 21.4% (3) 21.4% (3) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 14

42.9% (6)

42.9% (6)

14.3% (2)

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35.7% (5)

57.1% (8)

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3. Describe your experience in this course.

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4. How effectively do the assignments, in-class activities and labs help you understand the material and develop your skills? Please be specific.
Response Count 14 answered question skipped question 14 0

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5. What has been most effective for you about this instructor's teaching? What has been least effective for you about this instructor's teaching?
Response Count 14 answered question skipped question 14 0

6. Which labs were most helpful? least helpful?

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7. Was the average workload for this course reasonable?

Response Count 14 answered question skipped question 14 0

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Page 2, Q3. Describe your experience in this course.

In this course the teacher has given assessments that help you understand the material, but the material is not explained very clearly before the assessments. This creates an environment where you have to meet with the teacher too often, although she is almost always available. The teacher does make it somewhat easier while taking notes, because she often gives some of the most important notes so that we have more time to write the other notes. At first, I was very quit and I didn't make many contributions to the class. Because of this, my grade wasn't the best. After the feedback from Ms. Palmer, I realized this, and was quick to change. Because of this, my grade average raised, and I constantly make contributions to the class. I had a lot of fun in this course. The course was very challenging with difficult tests and quizzes; they were a lot harder than I expected. I learned a lot during the fall term and look forward to the spring. The course was fun and we learned a lot. We had many projects that we got to do in our groups to demonstrate what we learned in class. For example, we built roller coasters but had to reduce the friction as much as possible by making our tracks smooth. In the end, all of the things we learned in class showed up in our assignments. Projects are a more fun way of learning in class. I enjoyed Interactive Discovery very much this year. I think it's a very fun yet challenging class, with lots of labs and projects. At first I struggled in Interactive Discovery, but now I really enjoy being in this class. I had an excellent time in Interactive Discovery. Ms. Palmer taught us so much but made the class a very interesting. Ms. Palmer helped me strive to be a better student. I have not only learned about general science but many other skills that can help me throughout my years at Newark Academy and the years to follow Overall I have found this course to be up and down. It has been a great class and a good level for this course and at other times I have found it to be difficult and possibly aggravating. It has has been enjoyable but some projects such as the roller coaster I found to be aggravating as we were given little guidance and the time was limited. I have found this course to be very fun! I am also very interested in the topics we are studying so it makes things easier for me to understand. In this course I feel as if I understand the topics, but my grades do not reflect. The subjects are explained well, but during tests and quizzes I am marked off on tiny irrelevant topics. I have found this course to be very fun! I am also very interested in the topics we are studying so it makes things easier for me to understand. I have enjoyed the way this teacher teaches because she offers plenty of extra help when needed and gets everything

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Page 2, Q3. Describe your experience in this course.

graded and back to us very quickly. The assignments are varied and offer an opportunity to practice several different skills. Overall, I have enjoyed my experience. 12 13 14 This course has been a learning experience to me. This class provides new opportunities for me to learn from. My start of this class was a little rough, but I am improving from every assignment. The class has been great. We do fun experiments and labs that make me understand the topic. In the beginning of the year the information was not clear but later I understood. I have had an okay experience in this class. Ms. Palmer is an okay teacher but doesn't really give the information well. All she does is talk from the book. She doesn't use more than the book really. Jan 7, 2014 6:14 AM Jan 7, 2014 6:12 AM Jan 7, 2014 6:10 AM

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Page 2, Q4. How effectively do the assignments, in-class activities and labs help you understand the material and develop your skills? Please be specific.

The in class activities and labs do not help you understand the material as much as they make it more enjoyable. The assessments are very helpful for understanding the material and developing test taking skills. Reviewing the tests and quizzes helped me on the exam a lot more than reviewing the labs and activities. The assignments, in-class activities and labs all help me understand the material at a whole new level of understanding. The labs don't help me understand material and develop my skills, but the in-class activities and assignments help me. For example, the carnival of forces lab did not help me understand forces and motion because we quickly went over the sheet. If we had spent more time on the sheet, I would have understood it better. The Science Log helps me because there are many demonstrations and examples that i can use for examples in tests and quizzes. The assignments are exactly what Mrs. Palmer teaches us and always have been about what we learned. Sometimes, the assignments are a lot harder than what we learn, or maybe we have not learned much about this subject, but Mrs. Palmer shows us how to format it to make everything we do easier. All labs, assignments, and in-class activities help me understand anything that I didn't really catch during Ms. Palmer's lesson. For example, the roller coaster lab, which helped me further understand the laws of physics, especially because this was a hands on lab. The assignments, in-class activities and labs gave me a way of better understanding the material. Ms. Palmer always gives us an assignment which we know how to do but also learn something new from it. The labs help me understand the material better but also they help me learn how to format a lab, which will be a useful skill to have for my years to come. All these assignments are challenging so Ms. Palmer is always there to help you for things you may not understand. I feel that many of the in class small labs and experiments are very helpful in demonstrating the material and would like to see more of them. The science logs are also typically useful and helpful and i think that is diffidently a strong point of this class. I feel that the assignments also reflect the same way and are generally useful and help prepare for class and make the time in class much more productive. They are usually helpful to the topic we would have been studying at that time. I understand the topics that we are learning and we have enough time in class to cover them. They are usually helpful to the topic we would have been studying at that time. The assignments are very different from each other, and they all help develop different skills. For example, once we had a planet/space object project that helped develop public speaking when we had to deliver oral reports, and once we had

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Page 2, Q4. How effectively do the assignments, in-class activities and labs help you understand the material and develop your skills? Please be specific.

to design an experiment and write up a lab report, which developed our writing skills. 12 13 14 Each assignment teaches me something new. The roller coaster project helped me with my teamwork skills and engineering skills. I had to work with my team to build to success. The make me understand the concepts being taught and how thy apply to real life. They help a bit to understand the material. They are good for me To learn the material. Jan 7, 2014 6:14 AM Jan 7, 2014 6:12 AM Jan 7, 2014 6:10 AM

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Page 2, Q5. What has been most effective for you about this instructor's teaching? What has been least effective for you about this instructor's teaching?

The most effective part of the teaching is that she reflects the material to the text book and the note packets. This is very helpful because then you know where and how to review. The least helpful part is that while explaining the material she goes in an order that is hard to understand. We learn one thing but can't understand it until we learn another. I CANNOT THINK OF ANYTHING. Visual representations has been most effective because they help me understand (I am a visual learner) faster than memorizing notes. Note-taking has been least effective about my instructor's teaching because I found it hard to understand what I was talking about. The most effective part of the teachings was what she handed out for us to study and learn at home. This were full of information but mostly the important parts so we would not have to go in our books looking for them. The least effective part was that she sometimes gave us to much work that would sometimes be unrelated to the subject. I think Ms. Palmer's lessons are very thorough and detailed. They help me understand almost everything in the chapter. However, I do wish that Ms. Palmer was a bit more clear and detailed when grading my assignments to let me know where to improve. She has helped me to understand general science and skills that will help for the rest of my life. What has been most effective for me has been Ms.palmers lectures and presentations. She does a good job at involving the class and often uses models and contraptions to help explain things. She almost always has graphics to display information which is also very helpful. What has been least effective for me is sometimes she confuses us slightly be teaching us something then presenting us newer information on the topic that contradicts the last information. I understand that this is inevitable is science as new things are always being discovered. My least favorite thing about my teacher is how sometimes I feel that she is moving too fast and I have too work really hard to catch my self up rather than just learning at a slower and more thorough speed. An effective quality is how my teacher makes learning fun by doing fun excersizes and activities. This keeps me intrigued and helps me better understand the material. The most effective teaching style was when we had to learn something and it was explained after we explored the topic. My least favorite thing about my teacher is how sometimes I feel that she is moving too fast and I have too work really hard to catch my self up rather than just learning at a slower and more thorough speed. An effective quality is how my teacher makes learning fun by doing fun excersizes and activities. This keeps me intrigued and helps me better understand the material.

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Page 2, Q5. What has been most effective for you about this instructor's teaching? What has been least effective for you about this instructor's teaching?

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I think the teacher's pace has been most effective so far. She is willing to offer people who don't understand extra help, but she continues the lesson together without explaining the same thing too much. i can't think of anything ineffective about her methods. The most effective thing about my instructor's teaching is that she explains what everything means. The least effective thing about my instructor's teaching is that she goes over everything too quick. The most effective way of teaching for me was through labs, collecting data and making charts. The leaf effective for me was when mrs palmer just wrote notes on the board and sometimes I couldn't read the rioting because it was really squished. Most effective has been the labs she has given us and the projects. Least effective has been her just going from the book in class.

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Page 2, Q6. Which labs were most helpful? least helpful?

The most helpful lab was the carnival forces lab. The carnival forces allows us to understand clearly what the different forces are.The least helpful was the roller coaster because it was not involving most of what we were learning about but it took up a lot of time. The Carnival of Forces was the most helpful, and the Rollercoaster Lab was the least helpful for me. The most helpful lab was the motion lab report because it was fun and informational to chose our own experiments (choosing our topic). The least helpful was the carnival of forces. The most helpful lab was the carnival of forces lab because it demonstrated all the forces at work right in front of our eyes. This gave me a better idea of how strong each force could work. The least effective lab was the first motion lab because I was a little unsure how to do it since we worked on it all at home. The Roller Coaster lab and Balloon Galaxy Lab were both extremely helpful. All labs were helpful. The motion lab was the most helpful because it was the first lab and it told me what to expect from Ms. Palmer. I don't have a least helpful. I feel that almost all of the labs were helpful. Although maybe some like the roller coaster could have been more simple to minimize on wasted time. Most helpful- The rollercoaster lab was most helpful because it was fun and using/MAKING the visual ourselves helped me understand the unit. Least Helpful- Speed and motion lab. I was not very fond of this lab because it was very time consuming and we weren't really taught how to do this. The most useful labs were the small ones, such as the egg and Newtons Laws. The big eloborate labs didn't really add to my understanding of the topic. Most helpful- The rollercoaster lab was most helpful because it was fun and using/MAKING the visual ourselves helped me understand the unit. Least Helpful- Speed and motion lab. I was not very fond of this lab because it was very time consuming and we weren't really taught how to do this. The most helpful lab was the carnival of forces and motion lab because we got to experience several different forces and see their impacts. The least helpful was the balloon rockets because there were so many variables that caused it to fail. The most helpful lab was the Roller Coaster project because it required teamwork and building skills. The most helpful lab was the inertia egg lab. After that lab I completely understood inertia. The least helpful lab was the

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Page 2, Q6. Which labs were most helpful? least helpful?

balloon lab and I didn't really understand the point of it. 14 The lab that was most helpful was the motion lab report. Least helpful was the balloon rocket lab. Jan 7, 2014 6:10 AM

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Page 2, Q7. Was the average workload for this course reasonable?

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The workload was very reasonable. The large homework assignments were spread out and not particularly large. Yes The average workload was very reasonable, homework does not take a lot of time for me to complete. The workload was a fair amount for this course. Some things I felt we had not learned as well as others, but for the most part I felt like our workload covered what we were learning in class. I think the workload for this course is very reasonable; I never felt uncomfortable with the work given. It was very reasonable I felt that it was it was very reasonable and was also helpful. I think that it is perfect for this class and does not need to be refined. Most of the time it was reasonable but I believe that we were given "long-term" projects with very short notice. And I was not able to work ahead on this because sometimes the project topic you have would need to be assigned to you so you couldn't start until assigned to you. It was reasonable. Most of the time it was reasonable but I believe that we were given "long-term" projects with very short notice. And I was not able to work ahead on this because sometimes the project topic you have would need to be assigned to you so you couldn't start until assigned to you. The average workload was very small and easy to complete in a short amount of time. We were given plenty of time to complete larger assignments, and daily homework took a very short amount of time. It was very reasonable. The many projects makes up for the shortage of homework. Yes we got just the right amount of work. Yes it was fine. She shouldn't increase it otherwise it would be a lot.

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