AP Course Info Jigsaw

Each year I talk to my AP Physics C students about information in the Course & Exam Description that they should know. They get a handout of the objectives from each unit and at the start of the year they also get an extra packet of information about the course. I redid this packet after the 2024 revision and realized there was a lot more information all at once then students had gotten in the past.  The packet consists of this select CED information for students and a Science Practices handout. So last year I broken them up into groups, they each read one section then discussed what they read with the rest of their group that had not read the same section. This is commonly called a Jigsaw activity because the "big picture" comes together as each student contributes a piece of information. 

This year I scaffolded the activity a bit more using this slide deck. The four walls of my classroom are labeled with directions North, East, West and South. I assigned each seat at the table with a section of reading like I had before but I also included screen shots of the pages with the matching color. This cut down a lot on the confusion and the accidental repeats of sections. 


After students had a few minutes to read their assigned sections I asked them to take turns sharing a bit about what they learned with the rest of their group. After a few minutes of that we all came together and I asked some additional questions about the sections from someone who read that section. It was a way to make the same emphasis that I had made in previous years but less teacher talk and more student voices. It surprises me how many students say they want more lecture and less labs. And there will still be students in April that don't remember how "sketch" and "plot" questions look different. I think it is worth the time at the start of the year to set these expectations. I think it's also important for them to see "behind the curtain" about some of the pedagogical choices we make in our classrooms. 

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