Whole Class with PhET for STEM Education

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/whole-class-with-phet-for-stem-education

Introduction

Whole Class Inquiry: Strategies for open-ended discussion.

Interactive Lecture Demonstration: Strategies for making predictions.

Concept Questions: Strategies for classroom voting and Peer Instruction.

Syllabus

Module 1: PhET in Whole Class Strategies

In this course, we will review strategies for how to use PhET in circumstances where you are presenting a simulation in front of the whole class using a projector, television, interactive whiteboard, or while sharing your screen online.

This module will introduce you to general strategies for getting students to respond to open-ended questions as a whole class: Whole Class Inquiry. These strategies can help you as a teacher to be more creative in the types of questions you ask, and can help to reveal students’ prior knowledge especially at the introduction of a new topic.

In this module, you will learn about how to ask pointed prediction questions, and help scaffold students’ responses through the use of a structured worksheet and discussions in pairs and as a whole class: Interactive Lecture Demonstrations. This strategy is especially effective for focusing students’ thinking on specific concepts and helping them to think about their own thinking.

This module will introduce you to how to effectively write multiple choice questions to promote critical thinking: Concept Questions. These questions may include open-ended predictions, contrasting cases, ordering and ranking cases, and interpreting representations, among others. However, in all cases, these questions are written in such a way that they allow students to vote and engage in peer instruction.

In this module, you will design two activities for a whole class setup using two of the three strategies reviewed in this course: Whole Class Inquiry, Interactive Lecture Demonstrations, and Concept Questions.

In this final module, we will ask you to reflect on your achievements and identify room for improvement, provide feedback on this course, and share information about how to download your certificate once you have completed all requirements