Nope. You will not find what you are looking for. In my experience, people either just get physics or they get through it with plug and chug. There are very few people who got through it, who then want to actually build up to a higher level of understanding. In fact, I have never met any who struggled as much as me who were then still willing to try try try again.

I've been working on my physics for 3 years now, trying to do exactly what you are talking about doing. I have found that *doing* problems like Regentrude mentioned is key, but then you have to do them in a way that is different than when you were younger. You need to *think* about the relationships between the variables. You need to know these relationships so well, that you don't have to look up the formula because it is obvious. You have NOT memorized the formulas, rather you deeply understand the relationships so the formula is no longer even a formula, it just becomes knowledge. Then after doing lots of text book problems, you then need to get problems that are everyday life problems. Pick a topic and delve deep. I spent a full month trying to understand why the Indian Ocean Tsunami reflected, refracted, etc based on where the land was, the depth of the shelf, the length of the shelf, etc. And this got me into fluid dynamics which was fascinating. I then studied what caused the failure in the Mecando well in the Gulf of Mexico. After that I went after how a quantum computer works. Next project for me is going to be what caused the Northeast grid failure in 2003. These projects take me a long time to research and then integrate my basic physics knowledge into. This is how I am building intuition. By going after bigger topics, I am forced to integrate bitsy textbook knowledge into a whole. Basically, I needed to move beyond plug and chug, and choose to *learn* the relationships and how to apply them to both textbook problems and everyday life. It has been a very rewarding project.

Haha. Well, not at MIT. There is a huge requirement to demonstrate writing competence to get in. And then once you are in, you have to take a writing class each year - so 4 writing classes to graduate, and they must be spaced out one per year. You cannot place out of these. The year my son got in, MIT got the entire USA IMO team who were seniors.

Oh, the under qualified ones will not get in. It is more the problem with the huge increase in work load. The alumni association has had to pull out all the stops to give 62% more interviews. I'm not sure how the admissions office can process them all.

My ds needed to show competence in English, which he could do through the SAT. His math contests would not have been enough.

The lack of SAT requirements are causing a lot of student to apply to schools where they would have never made the SAT cutoff in previous years and so would never have paid the money to apply. Now they think "I'll just give it a chance." MIT's applications are up 62% this year.

I completely agree. My son got an 800 on physics. This proved his A was really an A. We were happy to have some verification.

I completely agree with you, on both your points. Right now I spend 3 hours per day and more on weekends to work on learning all the content I will be teaching/facilitating/co-learning. Hours upon hours of work to be an effective teacher. I have taught basically every subject every grade. That is a big ask, and takes commitment. More online content would not help me or my son. We just need the time and the energy to do the work. There are no shortcuts to an effective education.

I am gluten and dairy intolerant. I cook and store wild rice and masa tortillas in the freezer. I cook and refrigerate both roasted potatoes and masa cakes in the refrigerator. I simply remove the sauce before it it mixed with wheat and cheeses. So for lasagna, I remove a scoop of the meat sauce and eat it over wild rice. For tortilla rollups, I simply use my frozen masa tortillas rather than the family's wheat ones. Basically, I have 4 different forms of starch prepared and just substitute it in. We also do a lot of meals with potatoes, rice, and rice noodles so I can join in without adjustment. For dairy, I have almond-coconut milk in my tea, and avacado rather than cheese for the greasy topping. I also use a drizzle of olive oil. I don't do fake dairy or lactaid dairy. I just don't like it.

I have no idea. The disability office at the local uni said 10 minutes extra per hour, and he said it was the same at Canterbury. But sounds like I need to call them directly, since Kiwimum is finding that 1.5 time is possible. Their solution just seems to be to give the kids a writer. But maybe the people making the decisions have never tried to use a non-mathy writer on an advance math exam. 🙂

Thanks for this. He is not taking maths at Vic this year, he is doing an Earth Science class. So we have time to sort this out. I have contacted Canterbury about a different issue, and have found it somewhat difficult to talk to people because 1) I'm the mum, and 2) my son is not enrolled. What he and I would like to do this year is figure out what his accommodations will be, and drill under those requirements. Get practice tests for some classes where he knows the content, give him the limited time, and work to see what he can skip to finish the test. We have tried the 'write faster' method, and it is just a no go. The connection from his brain to his hand is just slow. I agree that a writer for STEM is impossible. They are suggesting one for ds for Earth Science, which might be OK because there is very little maths, but it will be by Zoom, so that will be weird and difficult. DS does NOT want a writer, he wants to be able to do it himself.

That is why I was considering it, but as Kiwimum said, it may not be allowed. So this year he had 3 untimed precalc tests, and took one timed calculus exam, and earned an A in each (only given to 10-15% of students as there is no grade inflation here), so he can clearly do the work. These are national exams -- all students take the same exam, so earning an A in calc is a very good mark given that only the best maths students take calc. At least half of students don't take maths in 12th grade, and half of those that do, take Statistics. So only maybe 15-25% of students take calc. Basically, the tests/exams are very hard. And he can do the work. I think this is what we will have to argue to get him 1.5 time which even that won't be enough. In NZ the calculus exam has 3 subpieces - complex numbers, differentiation, and integration. You have 3 hours to do all 3, but some students will void one to get 1.5 hours per exam. Basically, no one knows that you can just take 1 exam if you want. So my ds just took differentiation and had 3 hours to handwrite it. He earned an A, which is only given to about 12% of students, and his A was very high (it would have been a perfect score except one small error). So basically with somewhere between double and triple time, he can do the work and do it well. If he had only an hour, he could have earned a C (I think), and if he had 1.5 hours he could have earned a B (I think). But the questions required to earn an A are very long (as in a full page of workings) and there are 3 of them. If he gets only 10 extra minutes per hour, he would need to skip through the test and only do the easiest questions with the least writing required. He would never be able to show what he can do. He would like to take a math class next year, so we are trying to sort out a plan this year so he can practice and be ready.

Right now they are saying the best option for tests is a writer, but my ds really wants to be independent. He earned 72 level 2 and 3 excellence credits last year because he was given the time he needed to do the work. Put him under time pressure, and there is no way he can succeed. I also can't see how a writer for math would be very fast, especially if you make a mistake and need someone to cross out something and then put in something, etc. He has to be able to write the math on his own, and using an equation editor I doubt would be faster than handwriting. He is very good with keyboard shortcuts, but using a mouse to click on special math characters on a ribbon would be incredibly frustrating to him.

DS is taking a single class at Vic this term and next term, with full time enrollment planned for Canterbury next year. We are working with the Disability office (yes, still Disability at Vic) and have gotten so much help. However, the guy we are working with has said 10% extra is all you can get which he told us was true at all the universities, so I'm very glad to hear that he might be able to get 50% extra. It would be very sad to say no more math ever because he just writes/types too slowly. The Disability office at Vic did give us a sheet that listed Latex as an option to work with, but I didn't ask it if was available for tests. I'm guessing it will be word, so I'll have him look at it. I would like to get his speed up this year, so that he is ready next year to work at speed.

If my boy with dysgraphia ever wants to take a math course at university, he will need to be able to type up his answers at speed on a timed one hour test. He could hand write it in about 2.5 hours, but they only give him 10 extra minutes for an hour long test. So basically, if he can't type at speed, he won't be able to do another math class, ever. So, he would have to be able to type in Latex as fast as you would write a timed test. So very very fast. He cannot code, because he has dysgraphia, and those two things don't go together. However, he is very good at keyboard shortcuts, so I figured that it was really the same. How many hours would he have to commit to be able type as fast as fast writing? 20? 100?

How long does it take learn LaTex that you could be fast enough that you could use it on a timed test. My younger boy has dysgraphia and we are considering this option, but I'm concerned it will take too long to learn to be crazy fast.

No thermostats here in NZ. People heat a room when they are in it and turn off the heat when they leave. When my older boy got to college, he kept telling us stories about having to study under his covers, and then as fall turned to winter, told us about his room being quite literally freezing as in about 35 degrees. I kept saying 'there must be something wrong with your heat! *Please* talk to maintenance!" But he wouldn't because he didn't want to make a fuss. Finally, a friend came in his room in JANUARY in BOSTON, and said 'OMG, your room is freezing, do you mind if I turn your heat on.' That is when my son learned about thermostats. 🙂

Yup. So here is what they found last night. It is the UK strain. The genome testing does not link it to the Quarantine facilities, so it has not escaped. The sewage testing of Auckland has found no evidence of Covid, so it is not in the community. The options: It has come from a transit passenger (I assume using NZ to get to the islands and not staying in quarantine here.) or it could be from AirNZ crew, and they are now comparing the genomes for that group. The are assuming person to person contact, but won't rule out it being carried on laundry. They are giving themselves 3 days to sort it out with the city locked down (all people who can work from home, must). They are testing huge swaths of Auckland, especially the workplaces and high school of the family. They will decide on Wednesday next steps depending on what they find. We are not really affected here in Wellington, but we did all get a verbal alert on our phones last night. We were all sitting on the sofa and all our phones went off. It was pretty funny because they were out of sync and the message was about a minute long giving instructions.

Our turn. Auckland is moving into level 3 lockdown for 3 days (schools closed, all people who can work from home should, and road closures so no one can leave). Rest of country at 100 person gathering limit. All due to 1 family with 3 cases. Because we only have imported cases (about 20 per week), all cases are genome tested. So we will know by tomorrow, where this family got it.

This was going to be my advice. I used to get chilblains my feet were so cold. Now I wear socks and fluffy slippers all the time, even in summer. I never let my feet get even slightly cold because it is so hard to warm them up.

NZ seems to be doing better in this regard. I wonder how our quarantine is different from yours to be more effective. My understanding is that both countries have about the same number of returning travelers every week, so it is not that Australia has more people so more opportunity for escape. So far we have only had one extra lockdown (August, Auckland) since Covid was eradicated here 11 May.

I've just started with a new calculus student who is very far behind with lots and lots of gaps. We were working on factoring and quadratic equations. And I asked him why he switch the sign at the end. He had no idea. "No one ever told me why, they just said to do it." This appears to be true with every question I ask him. 😞 Lucky for me, he is an incredibly fast learning and has just been very very badly taught over many years.

I so remember the frustration of trying to fit homeschooling into all those little boxes that never seem to fit. For recommendations my son was required to have a STEM, humanities, and counselor rec. Counselor: Me. My goal was to demonstrate that my ds had taken advantage of every opportunity available to him. I focused on why he did each activity he did and what I thought he had gained from it. I also discussed that he had used homeschooling as a way to direct his own learning, showing him as focused and proactive. STEM teacher: His chemistry teacher was in the hospital with chemo, so she was out. And with that exception, my son is completely self taught in math and physics. We ended up using the 23 year old kid who traveled with the team to Hong Kong for the IMO. This kid had never taught my son, and had never written a letter or recommendation so asked what he should write! We suggested writing about ds's maturity and being able to handle himself under pressure. So this rec that was supposed to talk about his academic capability in STEM, didn't. Humanities: We were very lucky that ds had a writing coach who was willing to write one. But here in NZ, there is what is known as tall poppy syndrome, so people don't brag. She point blank asked me if she needed to give him the top mark (part of the application was a tick list). Gulp. I said yes. Extra: The teacher that knew the most about my ds was his violin teacher who had been teaching him for 6 years. So we got an extra rec from him that focused on maturity, commitment, persistence, etc. DS did get a top scholarship to CM with these recs.

When I get questions like this, I say "Great question! Let's investigate." Then we play around with how something might work. We go completely off the script of any curriculum. We get rulers, blocks, protractors, measuring cups, or just old fashioned pencil and paper. By using the word 'investigate' at least once a week over many years, my students and my kids have come to understand that mathematics can be 1) fun, 2) more than memorizing what the book says, 3) an opportunity to explore a question and find an answer through many methods. For my students who are in school, this has been a shocking revelation.

I know, right! I guess I'm not shocked that I had no idea. How would I unless he told me, and how would he know that what he was experiencing was unusual and worth mentioning? But wow, does it explain why the typing was so hard to get going.