Apologia and WA Physical Science: Blog Project for Forces and Motion

This week all of my Physical Science students began a blog project.  I am a believer in authentic, alternative assessment, such as a juried science fair competition.  I subscribe to the theory that the kid should be able to demonstrate his or her understanding in greater depth than just passing a multiple choice test.  The blog project is an assessment of Modules 9-13 in Apologia's Physical Science text.  Here is the challenge: the kids have to decide which are the key concepts in Modules 9-13, select representative problem sets, demonstrate how to solve these problems, select activities and labs, and document all of these components in a blog.  The kids set up their blogs and wrote introductions.  (I have six students in this Co-op class and two kids drew names for partners.)  Each student must write,  instruct, and video problem solutions correctly with units.  I recommend practice and for them to upload their videos to my YouTube channel.  YouTube videos are a cinch to upload to Blogger. (Note  the clapper icon on the tool bar.)  It is especially easy to embed your videos from YouTube to Blogger using an iPad or a laptop.  The kids will need a gmail account to access Blogger.  I recommend that they use a parent's gmail account; the parent can access and delete at will.  The trickiest aspect to setting up a blog is the unique address; Blogger will indicate whether or not the address selected is available. The kids will want time to customize their backgrounds.  Be sure to have them show you their results.  Stay tuned!