S-tier: interaction diagrams/system schemas, energy bar charts A-tier: free body diagrams, velocity-time graphs, vector addition diagrams B-tier: motion maps, position-time graphs, momentum bar charts C-tier: acceleration-time graphs What should be added? Where do you disagree? 🎢🍎 #ModPhys - ThreadSky

secaurphysics.bsky.social • 84 days ago

S-tier: interaction diagrams/system schemas, energy bar charts
A-tier: free body diagrams, velocity-time graphs, vector addition diagrams
B-tier: motion maps, position-time graphs, momentum bar charts
C-tier: acceleration-time graphs

What should be added? Where do you disagree?
🎢🍎 #ModPhys

Comments

helenrey.bsky.social•83 days ago

Can I ask the rationale? Aren't they 3 different strands?
A;Interaction=forces in pairs - FBD - N2/1
B: Graphs/diagrams as representations x-t -> v-t -> a-t
C: energy

A as the explicatory mechanism(s) for B? And energy as an accounting system.

What's the thinking behind combining?

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

I'm just playing around with the kind of format gamers use to describe how powerful different characters/abilities are in a game. So the S-tier are like gamebreakingly powerful, A-tier are always great, B-tier situationally great, etc

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tier_list

helenrey.bsky.social•83 days ago

Ah... interesting. Will look through that lens.

Forces in pairs/FBDs are game-changing IMO (which is why they're doing them 5th grade onwards in my school)

Learning early on that energy is about accounting not explaining helps enormously.

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

So, for example, I put system schemas and energy bar charts both in S tier because they both completely change how we/students think about physics and are always great choice when we want to think about physics of a specific scenario

helenrey.bsky.social•83 days ago

...and is this HS physics? Age related at all?

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

If you look at Emma Mitchell's reply, she (and many other 9th grade teachers) find motion maps to deserve a higher rating. Which is also why I say it's situationally great, B tier. So I was aiming for something fairly generic re: age, but of course my biases will leak through

helenrey.bsky.social•83 days ago

Yes... it's super interesting because of the nature of physics ed in middle school... a HS teacher can't rely on them having any clear understanding of the reason forces arise... or the particle model...

secaurphysics.bsky.social•84 days ago

I am sure some of my friends will argue that motion maps should be way higher, but I would say it all comes down to how they're used...B-tier in the right conditions can be S, and that's motion maps. It all comes down to how they are framed in class/use cases

clyminghawk.bsky.social•82 days ago

📌

cuitlahuac.bsky.social•83 days ago

The overall list feels Mech. heavy. Makes me think about what kind of modeling tools we may or not be using for E&M?

helenrey.bsky.social•83 days ago

Or waves? atomic/nuclear? matter?

It's interesting where matter sits in the US curricula.

(and E&M - rope = current, p.d. = penguins, resistance = Drude are my go-tos; that's how I'm starting circuits in physics on Monday).

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

Color coding circuits is S tier.

And yeah, I was in a mechanics state of mind when I wrote it because I was thinking about my 11th graders

cuitlahuac.bsky.social•83 days ago

Virp charts B (+) tier

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

VIRP charts are a C for me. They're useful as a scaffolding for some but not all of my students for a while and then most of my students abandon them on their own after their comfort level grows

cuitlahuac.bsky.social•83 days ago

B- then cause yeah they’re not helpful past simple circuits

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

I can get behind that. Extremely useful in a specific set of circumstances, less useful beyond that scope

twotheta.bsky.social•84 days ago

Extended FBDs - C tier

secaurphysics.bsky.social•84 days ago

Ooh, spicy. Definitely not A tier, but why C rather than B? They feel indispensable to me when I'm thinking about torques or whatever the hell the proper term is for angular impulse

twotheta.bsky.social•83 days ago

Also, behold.

twotheta.bsky.social•83 days ago

They're just so fiddly.

Students always draw their angles wrong. You actually have to DRAW the object with some fidelity. If you have lots of forces then they get pretty messy real quick.

Yes, useful but I'd say C-tier.

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

All fair

pckeller.bsky.social•82 days ago

What is an extended FBD?

pckeller.bsky.social•83 days ago

For me, free body diagrams are S tier. And not vector addition but the idea of vector components also S. And I know this is not popular but I admit I am not a giant fan of bar charts in general. And funny but true that v vs t is A but x vs t is B.

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

v-t graphs are so information-dense. I put them and FBDs in A because they are powerful, reliable tools that I can always count on to get the job done. S tier I chose tools that alter my thought processes

msmagaryphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

Momentum bar graphs are a C tier for me. They don’t add anything that can’t be shown with vectors. These though? Are F-tier in practice. I understand why they should work as a tool.

msmagaryphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

This is something that feels modphys-adjacent even though it’s from the CB. Sorry, didn’t see the original tag.

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

I use those bar charts like in your image, not the F-tier ones in the Modeling Mechanics materials. They are useful and I like the width of bars as a visual aid. But they're not a game changer

msmagaryphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

I understand how the area is supposed to visually work, I just can’t get them to be more trouble than they’re worth with students. Especially adding areas is very non-intuitive and doesn’t work visually.

msmagaryphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

For an algebra-based physics class, I always fall back on, does this representation help students who struggle with something. If it’s no better than, or actively more confusing than a standard diagram/algebraic method, what’s the point?

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

Yeah, and my students have found them to be really useful but I don't think they're a universally useful tool for everyone. That's what led me to choosing B. Not gonna be great in every context. Not like energy bar charts

msmagaryphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

LOL charts are S-tier because energy problem-solving is completely pointless if you don’t recognize the flow of energy first. You will just introduce a ton of variables that aren’t needed, negating the purpose of using energy to begin with. Not to mention wide applications outside physics.

emmaphys.bsky.social•83 days ago

Motion maps for me are higher, but that’s specifically for my 9th-grade physics classes and not my higher-level classes. In 9th grade, that’s our foundational diagram for our model of motion. We use motion maps (not P-t graphs … yet) to represent our constant-velocity buggy data. (1/3)

willyb.bsky.social•83 days ago

📌
pinning this so I remember to come back to this later 😁

emmaphys.bsky.social•83 days ago

Later, we make motion maps out of Play Doh dots and a whiteboarded position axis, and then shift them over onto a perpendicular time axis to make our first P-t graphs. Yesterday, we did our paradigm lab on acceleration, and the very first thing they suggested we do is collect a motion map (2/3)

emmaphys.bsky.social•83 days ago

of the ball’s motion on the ramp. From those motion maps, they made a P-t graph. And then they placed a mini-photogate at each motion map dot, in turn, to collect data for a V-t graph. So motion maps are our touchpoint. For my higher-level classes (>9th), they can use graphs right away. (3/3)

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

Yeah, motion maps are a fantastic tool in the right hands, in the right situation. And it seems like younger students can really use those to make meaning when their graphing skills aren't yet developed

https://bsky.app/profile/secaurphysics.bsky.social/post/3lconoimn2s2a

emmaphys.bsky.social•83 days ago

100%. And motion maps really help them to understand graphs better, the way we use them to physically build a graph for the first time. Saw that for the first time in the #ModPhys CMPF-B workshop with the great @mrsgphysics.bsky.social! Works so well for 9th graders.

secaurphysics.bsky.social•83 days ago

I did a workshop with Bryan Battaglia (not on here?) last summer and he made the same fuss about motion maps. And that makes sense because he's always copying Melissa's homework

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