I will start out by saying that this site originally was (and still is...) designed for my wonderful honors physics students where I did my student teaching internship at. It slowly evolved into encompassing not only the courses I taught at my Student Teaching Internship, but also the courses I will subsequently teach at the University I am currently attending - Rutgers University-Graduate Student Education Program (if you're wondering what courses they are just look at the Main Page!). I noticed I needed a Site that would be more Universal in nature, more encompassing. So here it is. I will outline my thoughts for the original design of this site and additionally include information about me, the Webmaster (see the next heading).
Students (plural) will write a detailed and graphics-oriented paper on a particular concept that we are learning (I.e. Statics).
Students (plural) will search the Web for any related Web Sites, both Static and Animated (with applets, etc...), for the particular concept we are learning.
I pass around a "sign-up" sheet with five columns labeled: (1) Website Design, (2) Concept Write-Up, (3) Concept Application, (4) Relevant Websites, and (5) Concept Critique. Students then sign up for the column that they want to participate in. It is okay and WANTED that there be more than one student partaking in each column. This is "research". They need to work TOGETHER to complete this!
Approximately 3/4 through the teaching of the concepts, I announce that the individuals that signed up for the Project can start working. They have ONE WEEK to finish their part of the project and hand it in to me.
I will, after the ONE week passes collect papers and organize them. Upon organizing them, I then distribute them to the students that signed up for the "Concept Critique" section. They will then have ONE WEEK to analyze and critique their peers work. They will write comments and suggestions on the papers to help make them better.
After the week is over, I will collect them and hand them to the individuals who signed up for the "Website Design". They will take the documents and assemble them on a website for all to See, Study from, and share with other students.
It takes approximately ONE month to complete a concept. It turns out that only TWO concepts were completed with my students. It is quite time consuming but very rewarding.
This was counted as an EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENT. Upon announcing that the class was going to participate in this project, I stated this and said that I did NOT want anyone joining this project that was not going to put their WHOLE-HEARTED effort in making this project work. It turns out that nearly every student joined (approximately 50 students...from three classes).