Chris Meyer, Past President, Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

When I was first asked how I design my units and lessons, I didn't know how to explain it: I just think about the unit and put it together?! This is the challenge of teaching in a nutshell: figuring out how to unpack our thinking and explaining it to others. Three years ago, starting in the spring of 2022, I began designing a new chemistry unit for grade 10 science. At the same time, to track my work process and explain what I'm doing, I started writing this article! And now here we are in the fall of 2025, after I have taught the chemistry unit a few times and refined it. This process was especially challenging for me because the topic of chemistry is outside my comfort zone - I didn’t have longstanding practices to fall back on and had to figure out pretty much everything from the ground up. So, welcome to my pedagogical workshop, prepare yourself for an odyssey of an article! Read More...

Tags: Energy, Pedagogy

John Caranci, CTL Lecturer Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
john.caranci@utoronto.ca

As physics teachers, we want to engage each and every one of our students. Physics teachers are trained to make objective and evidentiary observations of students as well as physical phenomena. Even if we run a flipped classroom, how do we know if all of the students are focused on their work? Practicing problem solving can be done using two very simple pedagogies that engage every student.

When students practice solving multistep algorithmic problems, a teacher cannot stand over every student to see where they make their mistakes, Foldables or a Graffiti Walk can make this possible. Even using these pedagogies, teacher observation skills are still required. The following are easy steps to perform these pedagogies. Read More...

Tags: Pedagogy

John Caranci, CTL Lecturer Ontario Institute of Education
john.caranci@utoronto.ca

As physics teachers, few of us consider the psychological effects of assessment on students during assessments. Content, content, content is the mantra of teachers when assessing (as, of, and for student learning). “We are assessing what individuals know” seems to be our Newtonian view. The phenomenon (learning) happens the same way if we assess or not, we believe.

I've spent 50 years in the physics classroom at the high school or university level. We have the basic cause-and-effect rules for assessment. If students study hard and/or you teach them well, they will succeed; but we work with humans. Humans are complex creatures, they do not always follow cause and effect.

Consider this scenario: You have taught Newton’s second law (F = ma) doing four examples on the board which included some manipulation of the formula before and after substitution. You reiterated “without an unbalanced force on a mass it will not accelerate”. You remember to emphasize the term unbalanced. Then you gave the students five homework questions which were equivalent to F = ma in various states of manipulation. You may even have done a few lab activities about the unbalanced force. The students did the homework questions relatively successfully even though a couple of students had to get assistance because they found that some of the questions were not grammatically clear to them. Then, nine days later you give a test on forces of which you give one multiple-choice question and one problem that involves Newton’s second law in terms of F = ma or its definition. As a teacher, you chose the questions, you chose how they were to be assessed, and you chose how many questions to ask. Do students truly know Newton’s Second Law if they answer those questions correctly? Read More...

Tags: Assessment, Pedagogy

Chris Meyer, Past President, OAPT
christopher.meyer@tdsb.on.ca

In the fall semester of 2024, I taught grade 11 physics for the first time in many years. I was surprised by my students - surprised by their weak math skills and the disconnect between their learning habits and mark expectations. These students were noticeably different from my students of the past. Was this a lingering pandemic hangover or part of a gradual change that I only noticed because of my absence from physics teaching? Whatever the reason, I was caught off guard and not able to adjust. So this semester, I decided to make some changes to meet this challenge and help my students better develop their learning habits and physics skills. Read More...

Tags: Forces, Motion, Pedagogy

John Donohue, IQC Senior Manager, Scientific Outreach
jdonohue@uwaterloo.ca

We’re excited to announce the 11th Quantum for Educators (QEd) workshop, which will be held July 16-18 on-campus at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo. This workshop, formerly known as Schrödinger’s Class, focuses on accessible, affordable, and appropriate ways to introduce quantum mechanics and quantum technology to high-school students.



QEd Participants will leave with ready-to-use activities and concrete curriculum connections to celebrate the 2025 UNESCO International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. QEd explores fundamental concepts like superposition, wave-particle duality, and entanglement as well as applications in existing technology like atomic clocks and emerging technologies like quantum computing. Read More...

Tags: Modern Physics, Professional Development, Quantum