Changing perspective, how physics teachers are dealing with online learning

   “This year is a completely different animal” claims Michael Knoll, physics teacher, when asked about the engagement of his students. “I thoroughly understand what my students are going through, I have a son who is in college doing his classes virtually right now and another son who is a sophomore in high school doing his classes virtually” “I see from their point of view and from the parents point of view what some of the frustrations are with this [virtual learning].”.

     Mr. Knoll also claimed “With the subject that I teach as well, It’s frustrating not to be able to do some of the hands-on activities that we normally would do in a science class” ,in reference to the lack of in person labs due to the pandemic.

      The 28-year veteran teacher claims “It’s not the same” when comparing a virtual physics lab to a public school physics lab, “It’s a lot more engaging when you’re doing it in a classroom with a group of students working together as opposed to trying to talk about it over a computer screen.”

     “As far as the variety of lab activities we would be doing, most of them weren’t conducive at all to doing at home because we have equipment at school that most people aren’t going to have in their home to perform the labs” Mr. Knoll claimed when asked about the difficulty of incorporating labs into his online teaching.

     Mr. Knoll is one of two Physics teachers at North Harford and he is not the only one finding difficulty in teaching virtually. Douglas Heeter, the other physics teacher at North Harford, claims “Probably the biggest issue i’ve experienced personally is that engagement aspect” “I like the hands on, being able to roam around and interact – you can kind of do that a little bit on the computer, you can have some conversations [but] it’s not quite the same”

     Heeter stated “You learn by doing in science and [we’re] without that opportunity throughout this year up to this point, it’s been rough.” when talking about the difficulty with the engagement process.

     The 25-year veteran teacher looks towards the bright side claiming “we are kind of fortunate with the science classes that we have all kinds of online simulations and things that we can do, we can still do the mathematics kind of stuff, which that’s a seamless transition.”

     “Being able to see and do is kind of that part that’s missing” claimed the astronomy teacher, “Pretty much every single concept, every single lesson that I teach within physics, there is some sort of a hands-on part of it” Mr. Heeter claimed when asked about a favorite hands-on lesson.