How do two teachers who are teaching at the same school while in two different locations get students to collaborate on a lab? Teachers William Karis (TWS | Brooklyn) and Patrick Englehardt (TWS | MA) explored the possibilities.
Using the question (what is the size of the Earth), the students worked together by measuring the length of a shadow at the same time of day, only one group of students were in the City and one class was in Massachusetts. Students recorded the length of the shadow and the object creating the shadow (6 whiteboard markers) and set forth calculating the size of the Earth geometry.
In reflecting on the experience, Mr. Englehardt said, “It is a wonderful opportunity for our students to make connections and study science at the same time. What did we find, was our measurements came out to ~19000 km, while our percent error was high (~54%) students learned how to collaborate and the importance of precision in measurement.”
What’s the next collaboration? Stay tuned!
