Have You Tried a Concept Builder Lately?

The newest and most exciting section of our website is the Concept Builders section. If you have never tried a Concept Builder, you might be asking “What is a Concept Builder?” A Concept Builder is an interactive learning activity that targets student understanding of a discrete concept. Each Concept Builder presents learners with carefully crafted questions that target various aspects of the concept. There are typically multiple levels of difficulty or multiple activities. And there is an effort to track learner progress at each level or in each activity. Questions are presented in a random order from a bank of several questions. In most cases, when a student misses a question, they will have to answer the same or similar question twice before considered to have exhibited proficiency with that question. Question-specific help is provided for the struggling learner; such help consists of short explanations of how to approach the situation and a statement of the fundamental concept that the question addresses. The essence of a Concept Builder is the blending of carefully-crafted questions pertaining to a discrete learning goal with immediate feedback, question-specific help that seeks to remediate naive and ill-adopted student conceptions, and an emphasis on mastering a concept at multiple levels. That's what we think of when we think of a Concept Builder. But we encourage you to try a few yourselves and tell us what you think.

Version 2 - Coming Very Soon

And coming very soon, there will be a Version 2 update to all our Concept Builders. This update will provide teachers the ability to create accounts, add classes, and easily add students to those classes. Once classes and students are set up, teachers will have the ability to create assignments with due dates, point values, bonus options, and due date extension penalties. Students will be able to view the assignments and the due dates and complete work within class or out of class and have their results saved on our Physics Classroom servers. Teachers will be able to view reports and export grades for entry into their gradebooks. Version 2 will be tested this month. If all looks good, we will post directions on our website about how teachers can upgrade to Version 2 and participate in the trial. Participation will be free of charge until July 31. This affords teachers an opportunity to preview Version 2 during the Spring term and evaluate whether or not they wish to purchase an account for following school year at a cost of $50 for up to 50 students and $1/student for any students above 50. If you are a teacher, be on the lookout for Version 2 later this month.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Concept-Builders