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Kinematics has not been a popular subject in the Intro Physics classes. The combination of word problems, algebra, and selecting the correct equations occasionally elicits despair. While there are plenty of opportunities for practical applications and labs, I have had limited success in designing a lab that captures everyone's active interest. To pursue how else and why, I have asked the students to imagine and design a lab with no limits to test the equations and theories of the topic.

The exercise was engaging and interesting to most of the students. We now have ideas for labs ranging from crash-testing busses, to racing fighter jets, to skydiving with eggs. Translating these to practical labs might be a trick, but most of the students spent the class-time engaged in kinematics and other types of physics.

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We've been sketching angles, finding coterminal angles, and converting between degrees and radians. Each student was given their own angle and asked to write the angle in degrees. Students were then asked to find three other ways in which the angle could be written and explain why each one correctly describes the angle.

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Hi! I implemented the “How Else and Why?” micro-practice as part of a peer review activity. To conclude our Russian Revolution unit, students wrote screenplays about one of three parts of the revolution that they found most interesting. After completing their first drafts, they exchanged their work with a partner. Each student read their partner's writing and filled out a worksheet identifying any sentences they found confusing. Then, they answered the questions: “How else can this be said? And why does this make more sense?” Once both partners had completed this task, students had the opportunity to revise their work based on their peer’s suggestions.

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Topic: The Carbon Cycle

Objective: To understand the processes involved in the carbon cycle and how it affects the environment.

Introduction: I start by discussing the basic carbon cycle stages: Photosynthesis, Cellular Respiration, Decomposition, and Combustion. I ask the students to describe what they know about each of these processes. As we walk through the different stages of the carbon cycle I ask them…

"Photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide and water to make glucose and water using the energy from the sun.”

How Else Question: "How else can carbon dioxide be removed from the air besides photosynthesis?"

Why Question: "Why does photosynthesis only occur during the day time?"

"Cellular Respiration makes carbon dioxide, water and ATP from food.”

How Else Question: "How else can carbon dioxide enter the atmosphere besides being produced by animals?"

Why Question: "Why does the carbon dioxide rise up into the air instead of staying on the ground?"

"Decomposition occurs when dead organisms are broken down by bacteria, fungi, insects and worms.”

How Else Question: "How else could the process of decomposition be described in terms of obtaining energy?"

Why Question: "Why is decomposition important in ecosystems other than producing carbon dioxide?"

"Combustion occurs when fossil fuels are burned in order to run machines like cars and factories.”

How Else Question: "How else can human activities affect the carbon cycle?"

Why Question: "Why is the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere a bad thing?"

Final Why Question: "Why do you think the carbon cycle is essential for life on Earth?"

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How Else and Why- 6th grade Social Skills Group

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How Else and Why- 6th grade Social Skills Group

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Hey everyone! I decided to introduce "How Else and Why" to my 6th grade social skills group. To kick things off, I shared some examples of statements I’ve heard around the school, and we brainstormed ways to rephrase them in a kinder way. The most challenging one for them was "You're so annoying!" because they wanted to express their feelings, but weren’t sure how to do it in a more positive way. Afterward, we had a group discussion on the importance of thinking before speaking. The impact of words is significant, and negative words/statements often resonate far more than people realize.

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In U.S. History I students were given a collaborative activity titled "Plans for Reconstruction." The activity asked that students develop plans for reuniting the nation following the end of the Civil War. Students were asked questions that encouraged them to think about social, economic, and political reconstruction.

N: What investigating/research do we need to do before we can develop a plan for reconstruction? How should we go about gathering information related to what problems the nation was facing at the time?

E: What do we want the U.S. states to look like post reconstruction? How can we work to create a society free of the problems that existed pre-reconstruction?

S: What organization/institutions need creating in order for your plans to go into place?

W: What challenges with your plan for reconstruction do you anticipate moving forward?

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Create Your Own Plans For Reconstruction

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Learning compass directions is a component of Orientation and Mobility's instructional sequence, so the compass points teaching strategy is a natural work-in to my lessons. This week, I plan to implement compass points as a strategy, using orientation drills to activate students' prior knowledge. I expect to be working on newly-introduced travel routes with two students, and a familiar route with a student who is in elementary school. Then I'll ask them the following questions:

N = What do you want to know about the route you are about to travel?

E= What excites you about this route? Or what is most interesting to you?

W = What worries you? Do you have questions, or can you foresee challenges with the route?

S = Stance - I'll tweak this a bit to ask about how students feel about their confidence in completing the route on a scale of 1-10. Then I'll ask again after they complete the route.

For a younger student who needs modified directions and has a unique learning style, we will work on a familiar route, and I will focus the compass directions on externalizing my own thought process about the route so the student can learn as we go.

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Students participate in an egg drop contest at the end of the year to learn about motion and forces. The project also offers an opportunity for students to solve an engineering problem to learn about the engineering and design process. An important part of the design process is brainstorming different designs and evaluating which solution best meets criteria of the contest.

Typically, students use a decision matrix to evaluate their ideas. This year students will also provide feedback on other's selected designs using the compass points routine. The routine will serve as a scaffold to help make the peer feedback relevant and productive.

I plan on modifying the compass into a checklist and changing the wording of the questions to make it more relevant to my specific purpose.

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This was another practice for me that is very situational. For example, if I noticed or heard a student getting frustrated with their performance or their teammate, instead of them yelling at them, I would ask them:

"Is there a better way to talk to yourself/your teammate?"

"What are some other ways you can encourage your teammates instead of bringing them down?"

This was also a great thing to talk about at the end of class, as a reminder to everyone that how we talk to ourselves and each other really matters!

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This is something that worked much better for exploratory than my regular PE classes.

We were finishing up a team-building activity, and for our recap of it we went over a few talking points

1. What are benefits of team building? Not just in the gym, but in other aspects of life too?

2. What are some concerns about team building activities? Why do you struggle to fully participate in them? What are some downfalls of little participation?

3. What are your opinions on it, and why do you think it's important, or not important?

Although it does not 100% line up with the compass points completely, it still lead to some good conversations and a better class understanding as to why team building is so important and why it is something that needs to be practiced.

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In 11th grade English class, after introducing a project, compass points was used to take the temperature of the class.

In 9th grade English, after reading a chapter that has a clear character dilemma, students reflected from the character's perspective using the compass points.

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In 8th grade ELA, we are working on argumentative writing. We discussed how some questions have more than one possible answer, and we used the Compass Points routine to discuss the different "directions" you can go when writing a claim in an argumentative essay. Students needed to answer the question: In the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, should the fairies use the flower's magic?

This routine worked well to help students explore all perspectives first, rather than just "go with their gut" when answering a question. For example, the routine asks them to come up with the two possible answers to the question first ("East" & "West") and then brainstorm evidence to support each possible answer ("North" or "need to know facts"). Once they had all the possible answers and evidence, they could evaluate their evidence to determine which answer is the strongest claim or stance ("South"). I found the routine helpful, although I didn't find the compass visual to be super helpful because it doesn't list the order in which to follow the steps, so I ended up just making my own handout to put the four steps in a more logical order.

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We discussed our upcoming 5K race and connected the compass points in a meaningful way. The group identified questions-issues-benefits-concerns and their opinions about the race. This activity allowed the students and staff to plan for the event and make necessary changes as well as energize the students.

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A real world problem was posed to the EEC students by Ellen. She asked us to come up with ways to keep the preschool children safe during arrival time in the morning, as they are arriving early and wandering too far away from parents while waiting for the teachers to pick them up. I used the compass points to have the students think of solutions to the problem, the questions needed to find solutions and the upside and downside of the problem and working on the solution.

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This is a summative activity. Students have be introduced to Darwin and the steps to natural selections. They have also simulated the process of natural selection in a laboratory exercise. I might do this as a jigsaw activity or have each group fill one out.

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In ELA, we are trying out the compass point activity as a warm-up. Students were introduced to elements of satire/new unit yesterday. Today, we are using it as a follow-up/activator.

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Skylar has done an excellent job with her carving project. I guided her deliberations as she came up up with options to embellish the border of her plaque. She set the criteria and we discussed her ideas. I then presented more options and demonstrated the use of two tools she was not yet familiar with that could be used to accomplish her desired outcome. We reviewed her decision making process and she completed her project nicely, learning new skills along the way.

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How else can we think about Rounding Numbers?

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How else can we think about Rounding Numbers?

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Students were struggling with how to round whole numbers and decimals, so I had the students think about the poem or pneumonic that they use to round numbers. Most of the students weren't making sense of it, so I asked what's another way we can think about rounding numbers. They were able to understand rounding better once they investigated place value and thought about the size and scale of the numbers.

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How Else and Why- Using Positive statements

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How Else and Why- Using Positive statements

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After a lesson on age appropriate language and "Winning Ways to Talk with Young Children", the students were asked to change negative statements into positive statements.

We use positive statements to build self-esteem and also to give children a different option. For example, if we say "Don't drag your coat" the child may not know how else to carry their coat, so we could say "Hold up your coat so it stays off the ground."

We also talked about "You statements." This is used to validate the child's feelings and lets them know that you hear and understand what is bothering them.

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How Else & Why -- 8th Grade Science

Students are currently learning about the different forms of thermal energy transfer. The unit focuses on conduction, convection, and radiation which students learn about through their own experiments and demonstrations performed for them.

How I implemented the How Else & Why routine is through a "ELI5" assignment. ELI5 is internet slang for "Explain It Like I'm Five". Students were asked to think about how they would explain the different forms of energy transfer to a five year old who wouldn't have the same vocabulary or background knowledge they possessed.

I the assignment worked well as a formative assessment because it allowed me to gauge how well each student could apply what they had learned in a new way rather than repeating back what I taught them. Furthermore, students had creative freedom as they could choose to provide a written explanation or create an annotated model.

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Learning about the scientific method was challenging for my students. This was a perfect opportunity to implement "How else can I say this and why". We dug deeper into parts of the method, decided on other ways to present the core ideas to align with the students knowledge of the concepts.

OBSERVATION-look at/watch/be curious

QUESTION-how/why/learn more about

HYPOTHESIS-try it out/what will happen if

EXPERIMENT-test/try/collect info/write it

CONCLUSION-what happened/first/last

We also talked about the WHY this was important. The students came up with, we needed an easier way to help us remember and I didn't know what these were before. This concept helped the students to come full circle with their learning.

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Students finished reading the novel All Quiet on the Western Front and reflected on the ending of the novel. We had a whole class discussion about what ways the ending was appropriate/satisfying and in what ways it was frustrating or inadequate, and students then analyzed the importance of the situational irony in the ending.

Then, we used the "How else?" and "Why?" protocol with a writing assignment where students had to rewrite the ending. They had to keep the narrative style and tone the same, but were able to think about "how else" the novel could reach an appropriate ending. They also needed to think of "how else" to include situational irony in their own versions, and explained "why" their ending was an appropriate alternative.

We watched the movie ending (1930s version) as an activator and exemplar of "how else" you could imagine the ending and "why" it still worked, even though it was different from the novel's ending. Students did a great job with this (in the interest of not spoiling the end of the book, I won't include student samples 😉)

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I used the "How Else & Why" method to help facilitate a discussion in class. I gave students some options for questions, and included the "How Else & Why" protocol. Some students opted for this discussion method as a way to ask questions about their peer's current events presentations where students analyze the rhetorical choices made in a current event news article.  -Taylor Simpson

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I used the "How Else & Why" method to help facilitate a discussion in class. I gave students some options for questions, and included the "How Else & Why" protocol. Some students opted for this discussion method as a way to ask questions about their peer's current events presentations where students analyze the rhetorical choices made in a current event news article.  -Taylor Simpson

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I've incorporated "How Else? & Why?" as the final project in our 7th Grade Art unit on Color Relationships. Students have already researched and completed several projects focusing on 4 key color relationships. For the final project in the unit, students will create a free-choice project that demonstrates their knowledge of 2 or more of these color relationships.

"How else can you visually demonstrate your understanding of these color relationships? Why did you choose this method?"

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The class has been studying social reform movements of the Progressive Era. After analyzing a set of primary and secondary sources, students responded to the following in writing:

How has the fight over birth control impacted the women’s rights movement beyond the 19th Amendment?

Initial Statement

What I want to say is…..

Reflective Iterations

Ask yourself:  How else can I say this?  And why?

Explore different ways to communicate your ideas.  Think about how your message might be received by different audiences, including those with different historical or cultural backgrounds.

Repeat question:  How else can I say this? And why?

The issue of birth control definitely creates differences of opinion. I included one student response posted above. While most considered gender when communicating views, students generally avoided communicating across religious differences--probably because it can be uncomfortable and controversial. Sanger went to jail for opening a clinic and disseminating information on contraception. "No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body." Sanger's sentiments shocked leaders in the moral purity movement who feared the corruption and degradation of America. Surprisingly, most students supported Sanger's assertions and civil disobedience. I thought there would have been a greater diversity of positions on the topic given the ongoing "culture wars." Much of American history is a struggle between continuity and change.

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How Else and Why - Connecting Math Concepts with Unified English Braille

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How Else and Why - Connecting Math Concepts with Unified English Braille

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During grade 7 vision support, I introduced "How Else and Why" as a part of an activity to build a student's skills in writing mathematics expressions using Unified English Braille (UEB) as part of the transition from writing math in large print to writing it using braille due to assessed student need. The student was given math problems intended to reinforce specific items identified on the IEP for braille writing practice. Then, the student was asked "How else could you say that?" Modeling was given to help move the student into deeper and extended thinking, such as with the problem "48 oz. = ? lbs" being restated as "How many pounds equals 48 ounces?" The picture shows the student's braille output on the left, and her dictated and scribed responses to "How else and why" on the right. This helped to identify where the student's conceptual understanding of the math concepts was as well, informing me as to appropriate next steps for math support.

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Students are learning the song "Sing," from My Chemical Romance's record Danger Days. We read through the lyrics, pausing to ask "how else could you say what the songwriter is trying to say?" (i.e. what is the songwriter saying, in your own words.)

We unpacked the lyrics through class dialogue. The skill of asking "how else could I say this" was also present in the sense that when students gave input to the discussion, there were times calling for clarification (e.g. asking "what do you mean by that?") that prompted students to have to rephrase an explanation or a question (with even I, the teacher, at one point modeling this for students when they didn't understand a comment I made, stating, "Hm... how else could I say that?").

Following discussion, students jotted down a summary of the song in response to the question, "How else could you say what the songwriter is trying to say?"

Ideas for further learning / deeper connection: harkening back to the "3 Whys" for why the message is meaningful to students, community and world; "how else" could we perform the music to better reflect the meaning / tone of the text; "what other" (a variant of "how else") pieces of music could we program to create a cohesive artistic message in the program?

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Kinematics has not been a popular subject in the Intro Physics classes. The combination of word problems, algebra, and selecting the correct equations occasionally elicits despair. While there are plenty of opportunities for practical applications and labs, I have had limited success in designing a lab that captures everyone's active interest. To pursue how else and why, I have asked the students to imagine and design a lab with no limits to test the equations and theories of the topic.

The exercise was engaging and interesting to most of the students. We now have ideas for labs ranging from crash-testing busses, to racing fighter jets, to skydiving with eggs. Translating these to practical labs might be a trick, but most of the students spent the class-time engaged in kinematics and other types of physics.